Ground Zero Illnesses Clouding Giuliani's Legacy  —  Anyone who watched Rudolph W. Giuliani preside over ground zero in the days after 9/11 glimpsed elements of his strength: decisiveness, determination, self-confidence.  —  Those qualities were also on display over the months he directed …

Endgame at the World Bank  —  If the World Bank were a company, its share price would have fallen 25 percent amid the current leadership scandal.  The board of directors wouldn't care about the scandal's details; it would have replaced the beleaguered CEO with someone who could lead effectively.

Defense Skirts State in Reviving Iraqi Industry  —  Paul Brinkley, a deputy undersecretary of defense, has been called a Stalinist by U.S. diplomats in Iraq.  One has accused him of helping insurgents build better bombs.  The State Department has even taken the unusual step of enlisting …

Pentagon limits troops' Web access  —  WASHINGTON - Lt. Daniel Zimmerman, an infantry platoon leader in Iraq, puts a blog on the Internet every now and then "to basically keep my friends and family up to date" back home.  —  It just got tougher to do that for Zimmerman and a lot of other U.S. soldiers.

Gingrich Says There Is a 'Great Possibility' He Will Run for President  —  The Former Speaker of the House Warns GOP Hillary Clinton Has a Good Chance of Becoming President  —  Newt Gingrich for president?  It could happen.  —  In an interview with Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America …

Sunshine for the Virtual Town Hall  —  These days we want "transparency" in all institutions, even private ones.  There's one massive exception — the Internet.  It is, we are told, a giant town hall.  Indeed, it has millions of people speaking out in millions of online forums.

Lieberman Helps Collect Cash for Collins  —  Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) is never going to win any popularity contests among his party's liberal base — a fact he seems decidedly unconcerned about despite his 2006 Democratic primary loss to Ned Lamont.  —  Not only has Lieberman endorsed Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine.)

Long loans put dent in auto sales  —  Extended payments force more would-be buyers to delay trading up to new vehicles  —  VEHICLE; FINANCE; CONSUMER; ECONOMY; VEHICLE; SALE — John Guido, dealer principal of Arlington Heights Ford, thinks his sales have suffered from a combination …

Reid To Allow Vote On Feingold Measure To End Iraq War  —  Good news for war foes: Harry Reid just spoke on the Senate floor, revealing that he'll allow a vote this week on the Feingold-Reid amendment, which would cut off funding for the war by March 31, 2008.

The Stasi on Our Minds  —  a film directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck  —  by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck  —  Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 216 pp., Ä8.50 (paper)  —  One of Germany's most singular achievements is to have associated itself so intimately in the world's imagination …

Iraq Report: The search, Kurds attacked, SCIRI, Sunni moves  —  The search is on for the 3 missing soldiers who are believed to have been captured after a complex assualt on a U.S. Army patrol on the outskirts of Mahmudiyah Saturday morning.  Over 4,000 troops, along with aerial and satellite surveillance …

Norm Coleman Live Blog  —  Just preparing for the live blog of Norm Coleman's speech at the University of Minnesota.  Stay tuned!  —  10:05 CT - Larry Jacobs introduces the series of speakers, talking about the U's open-government projects.  This is one of a series of events, and I'm going to try to make a few of these.

Teachers fake gunman attack on sixth graders … MURFREESBORO, Tennessee (AP) — Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.

CNN RELIABLE SOURCES  —  Media, Giuliani and Abortion; Sharpton's Standards  —  THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.  THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.  —  HOWARD KURTZ, HOST (voice over): The abortion obsession.  The media target Rudy Giuliani as the only pro-choice Republican in the race.

The Matt Drudge primary  —  How professional political operatives secretly control the news you read about the 2008 campaign.  Hint: It involves the Drudge Report.  —  Photo composite of Matt Drudge.  —  WASHINGTON — John McCain's "Bomb Iran" scandal almost never happened.

Is It the Woman Thing, or Is It Katie Couric?  —  The numbers are stark.  Eight months into Katie Couric's job as the first woman to anchor a network newscast on her own, her "CBS Evening News" has not only settled back into its long-held position of last among the evening news broadcasts …

Blog's campaign against Calvert to intensify  —  A popular conservative blog will step up its efforts this week to force Republican leaders to pull Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) from the powerful Appropriations Committee.  In addition, the website will begin a coordinated effort to target members …

Cutting the Grass  —  Congressional Democrats prepare another assault on the First Amendment.  —  A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows 6 in 10 Americans think the Democratic Congress "hasn't brought much change."  Eager to change this impression, the Democrats are frantically trying …

Follow-up from Last Week and A Few Related Tidbits  —  Good morning, all.  It's a gorgeous day in the nation's capital, I'm already hyper-caffeinated, so let's talk economics!  —  Specifically, there were a number of interesting pieces out today amplifying and challenging our discussion about where the economy might be headed.

Gas Prices Set New Record at the Pump  —  Gas Prices at the Pump Exceed Post-Katrina Record, While Futures Prices Slide  —  NEW YORK (AP) — Gasoline prices hit a new record at the pump on Monday, but gas futures prices fell on concerns that $3 gas will crimp demand.

Voter-Fraud Complaints by GOP Drove Dismissals  —  Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions …