In Ex-Aide's Testimony, A Spin Through VP's PR  —  Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you.  —  This delicious morsel about the "Meet the Press" host and the vice president was part of the extensive dish Cathie Martin served up yesterday when the former Cheney communications director took …

Troops Authorized to Kill Iranian Operatives in Iraq  —  Administration Strategy Stirs Concern Among Some Officials  —  The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across …

Memo To The Hill: Take Off The Beltway Earmuffs  —  It's not "nearly 10,000" signatures.  It's 16,000+ signatures.  —  And while your reporter couldn't get a comment from the NRSC, the NRSC's Chairman John Ensign was interviewed at length, by me, on yesterday's program and the transcript posted on the web.

Secrecy Is at Issue in Suits Opposing Spy Program  —  The Bush administration has employed extraordinary secrecy in defending the National Security Agency's highly classified domestic surveillance program from civil lawsuits.  Plaintiffs and judges' clerks cannot see its secret filings.

DAVOS-U.S. invasion was "idiot decision"-Iraq vice president  —  Source: Reuters  —  The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was an "idiot decision" and Iraqi troops now need to secure Baghdad to ensure the country's future, Vice-President Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Thursday.

Hagel Ponders White House Run As War Criticism Raises His Profile  —  His Republican colleagues regard him warily.  The White House barely speaks to him.  He is reviled by his party's conservative base.  —  Looks as though Sen. Chuck Hagel is on a roll.  —  Both parties have their Iraq war contrarians.

Jimmy Carter: Too many Jews on Holocaust council  —  Former president also rejected Christian historian because name sounded 'too Jewish'  —  TEL AVIV - Former President Jimmy Carter once complained there were "too many Jews" on the government's Holocaust Memorial Council, Monroe Freedman …

The vaulting ambition of America's Lady Macbeth  —  Hillary Clinton's shameless political reconstructive surgery  —  You can measure the scale of an American president's troubles by the number of skutniks he deploys during his State of the Union address.  —  Every year during …

Is Hollywood too timid for the war on terror?  —  Thanks to political correctness, you don't see much about the greatest conflict of our time on the big screen.  —  I RECENTLY attended "FBI 101," a G-man seminar for Hollywood writers.  I do this kind of thing a lot: law enforcement seminars …

Iraq Leader and Sunni Officials in Clash on Security  —  Iraq's Shiite prime minister and Sunni lawmakers hurled insults at one another during a raucous session of Parliament on Thursday, with the prime minister threatening a Sunni lawmaker with arrest and the Sunni speaker of Parliament threatening to quit.

Random Pictures, Two  —  Loud, Bumpy, Fun: the view from the belly of a C-130.  —  More past the jump:  —  A mural depicting the massacre at Halabja in Kuwait's "Not to Forget" museum.  —  Everybody on the Horn: Fallujah Police Transition Team (PiTT) Marines key mics after a mortar attack begins.

Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select The Most & Least Desired 2008 Republican Nominee (First Half Of 2007 Edition)  —  Right Wing News emailed more than 230 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to send us a ranked list 1-5 of the candidates that they would most like to take the Republican nomination …

The Right & the Wrong  —  Conservative Talker Glenn Beck Puts His Own Failings Up Front  —  The set of Glenn Beck's talk show on CNN Headline News looks like the rooftop patio of a posh apartment, complete with simulated bricks and a huge photo-realist mural of a SoHo block.