Bush to Name a New General to Oversee Iraq  —  President Bush has decided to name Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus as the top American military commander in Iraq, part of a broad revamping of the military team that will carry out the administration's new Iraq strategy, administration officials said Thursday.

Iraq threatens arrest of police officer  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Interior Ministry acknowledged Thursday that an Iraqi police officer whose existence had been denied by the Iraqis and the U.S. military is in fact an active member of the force, and said he now faces arrest for speaking to the media.

Jubilant Democrats Assume Control on Capitol Hill  —  In a day of transition and pageantry, exultant Democrats on Thursday took control of both houses of Congress for the first time in a dozen years and elected the first woman to be speaker of the House.  —  Representative Nancy Pelosi …

Guardsmen overrun at the Border  —  National Guard unit stormed while patroling the border  —  Border attack raises security concerns  —  A U.S. Border Patrol entry Identification Team site was overrun Wednesday night along Arizona's border with Mexico.  —  According to the Border Patrol …

Nuclear agency head dismissed for lapses  —  WASHINGTON - Tens of millions of dollars and repeated security reviews haven't stopped embarrassing security breakdowns in the government's nuclear weapons program — and now the man in charge has been sent packing.

Grit and guts for Navy corpsmen in a Fallujah police station  —  WASHINGTON - Editor's note: Blogger Bill Ardolino is embedded with a U.S. Marine unit in Iraq.  He's there to find out the truth about the U.S. war effort on the ground in Iraq.  Unlike the vast majority of mainstream media journalists …

Miers Resigns As White House Counsel  —  White House legal counsel and failed Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, a longtime friend and adviser of President Bush, resigned from her White House position today, Press Secretary Tony Snow announced.  —  Miers, 61, will leave her job at the end …

N.H. bigs see Rudy Prez run  —  Ex-mayor played host on New Year's  —  Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has held a New Year's Eve bash in his Times Square offices for years, but this year he had some special guests: a bevy of New Hampshire political activists.  —  The contingent from the Granite State …

FEELINGS ABOUT NEW CONGRESS  —  Optimistic  —  Pessimistic  —  But when asked if Democrats and President Bush can cooperate — in general and on Iraq, which is overwhelmingly Americans' top priority — half those polled were doubtful.  —  Fifty-one percent said the White House and Congress …

FINAL CAT BLOGGING....I have some sad news.  About an hour ago Jasmine was sitting on my desk (keeping an eye on me, as usual) when she went into a violent spasm and fell to the ground.  She died within a minute.  —  I don't know what happened, but it was probably a heart attack.

Ex-Dem.  Party boss blasts Kerry in book  —  WASHINGTON - Former Democratic Party boss and Clinton friend Terry McAuliffe is lambasting John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign, calling his effort to unseat President Bush "one of the biggest acts of political malpractice in the history of American politics."

Shoulder to Shoulder  —  Bush heaped German Chancellor Angela Merkel with praise for her leadership in Europe, perhaps making amends for his YouTube moment last summer, in which he squeezed her shoulders from behind at a summit of world leaders, causing her to recoil visibly in surprise.

Moonbatta Non Grata  —  Remember Cindy Sheehan?  Neither do we, but the surprise is who else doesn't.  Fox News reports she showed up on Capitol Hill yesterday: … The Sheehanoids managed to cow Rep. Rahm Emanuel into shutting down his press conference.  And from the Angry Left bloggers who once cheered her on: silence.