Congressional Leaders Call on President to Reject Flawed Iraq Troop Surge  —  Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi today sent the following letter to President Bush urging him to reject his reported plan to escalate the war in Iraq by increasing troop levels …

In which I annoy you once again with the asssertion that I'm a moderate.  —  I took this test — recommended by Andrew Sullivan — and scored a 21 on a political scale that ran from 0 (100% liberal) to 40 (100% conservative).  Sullivan scored 26, by the way.

KING DAVID RETURNS  —  GEN. PETRAEUS' NEW IRAQ TEST  —  IT'S official: Dave Petraeus, one of the U.S. Army's most- impressive leaders, is headed back to Baghdad to take charge.  The assignment means a fourth star and the chance to save a desperate situation - or preside over a grim strategic failure.

Reid Takes Center Stage, but He's Hardly the Star of the Show  —  Harry Reid is often called the man from Searchlight, Nevada.  Nobody has ever called him the man from Spotlight.  —  The soft-spoken Democrat became the most powerful figure in the United States Senate yesterday.

Barney Frank accuses Bush of genocide "ethnic cleansing" Major Update  —  There's no other way around it: When you accuse someone of perpetrating "ethnic cleansing" in any way, shape or form, you are accusing them of genocide.  —  Genocide.  Let that word work its way around your mind for an moment.

Jihadist Website: Al-Zawahiri Urges Somalis, Muslims To Fight Ethiopian Forces  —  A jihadist website is observed on 5 January to post several links to 5-minute and 30-second audio message by Al-Qa'ida's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri entitled "Rise up and Support Your Brothers in Somalia."

Lott: Administration "Pushed" Intel on Iraq  —  Here's Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS) on Hardball last night.  Does anybody else find this to be a stunning admission from the Republicans' #2 in the Senate?  —  The transcript:

CBS: Military Tells Bush It Has Only 9,000 Troops Available For 'Surge'  —  A State Department official leaked word this week that President Bush is considering sending "no more than 15,000 to 20,000 U.S. troops" to Iraq.  "Instead of a surge, it is a bump," the official said.

The Lonely Senator, Update  —  Via InstaPundit, the intrepid reporter whose site insinuated that the photo of John Kerry sitting alone in a chow hall in Iraq was itself bogus, has now verified that the photo is real, but the absence of troops in it is misleading: … And he backs it up by talking to the reporters involved.

American Passports Found on Bodies of Al Qaeda Fighters in Somalia  —  Alexis Debat Reports:  —  A senior official in the Somali government's new Ministry of the Interior told ABC News government forces had recovered "dozens of foreign passports," including several American passports …

Nominee played big role in outsourcing intelligence  —  WASHINGTON — J. Michael "Mike" McConnell, in line to become the nation's top intelligence official, has been a leading figure in outsourcing U.S intelligence operations to private industry, records and interviews show.

More Troops = More Targets  —  For months, advisers to President George W. Bush have been trying to convince the commander in chief that more U.S. troops in Iraq will improve prospects for victory.  Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), both recently returned from Iraq …

The Hanging: Beyond Travesty  —  Of the 6 billion people on this Earth, not one killed more people than Saddam Hussein.  And not just killed but tortured and mutilated — doing so often with his own hands and for pleasure.  It is quite a distinction to be the preeminent monster on the planet.

White House visitor records closed  —  WASHINGTON - The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public.