The Adults take Charge  —  The Reality Based Community Strikes Back in Iraq  —  The professionals take charge.  Bush is bringing in Ryan Crocker, a distinguished career foreign service officer, as the new US ambassador to Iraq.  And Gen. David Petraeus will replace Gen. Casey as top ground commander in Iraq.

Negroponte shift is ruffling feathers  —  Some say that his assignment to the State Department will leave the national intelligence office in a lurch.  —  WASHINGTON — The abrupt departure of John D. Negroponte as the nation's spy chief prompted angry responses from Capitol Hill and triggered …

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 …

White House Postponing Loss of Iraq, Biden Says  —  Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday that he believes top officials in the Bush administration have privately concluded they have lost Iraq and are simply trying to postpone disaster …

Saddam should have been studied, not executed  —  Sparing Hussein and studying his makeup could have provided valuable research.  —  THE OBVIOUS objections to the execution of Saddam Hussein are valid and well aired.  His death will provoke violent strife between Sunni and Shiite Muslims …

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 …

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 …

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."

ADMIRAL WILLIAM J. FALLON, USN  —  Commander, U.S. Pacific Command  —  Admiral William J. Fallon was raised in Merchantville, N.J. A 1967 graduate of Villanova University, he received his commission through the Navy ROTC Program and was designated a naval flight officer upon completion of flight training in December 1967.

In New Senate, The 'Candy Desk' Gets a Kiss-Off  —  New Occupant Hails From  —  State With a Sweet Deficit;  —  'Moose Doodles,' Anyone?  —  WASHINGTON — With Democrats back in control of Congress for the first time in years, much is changing in the nation's capital …

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.

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 …