For Giuliani, Ground Zero as Linchpin and Thorn  —  As Rudolph W. Giuliani campaigns around the country highlighting his stewardship of New York City after the Sept. 11 attacks, he is widely hailed for bringing order to a traumatized city.  But he has also raised the hackles of rescue …

Race for '08: Clinton widens her lead in California  —  New survey shows Clinton dominating the Democratic field in California - Obama said to be losing his luster  —  Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A4  —  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is expanding …

Credit Democrats Who Visit Iraq, They're Calling It As They See It  —  Day by day, I am more surprised at the turn in the Iraq debate.  I know this is going to sound like pie-in-the-sky optimism, but I wonder if by the time General Petraeus makes his report, there will be something of a consensus …

Edwards, Foreclosure Critic, Has Investing Tie to Subprime Lenders  —  As a presidential candidate, Democrat John Edwards has regularly attacked subprime lenders, particularly those that have filed foreclosure suits against victims of Hurricane Katrina.  But as an investor …

Short of Purple Hearts, Navy tells vet to buy own  —  PEARLAND — Korean War veteran Nyles Reed, 75, opened an envelope last week to learn a Purple Heart had been approved for injuries he sustained as a Marine on June 22, 1952.  —  But there was no medal.  Just a certificate and a form stating that the medal was "out of stock."

[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: The Ascent of a Common Man  —  John Edwards is a culturally conservative anti-Washington liberal.

Democrats and Cannibals  —  The Kos kids try but fail to devour party moderates.  —  Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar is today fond of quoting a famous Lyndon Johnson line: "You know the difference between cannibals and liberals?  Cannibals only eat their enemies."

CAIR Cites Counterterrorism Blog in HLF Legal Filing  —  In the case of United States versus Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), et al, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) clearly doesn't like it when the Counterterrorism Blog and the Investigative Project on Terrorism …

A Billion Dollars Later, New Orleans Still at Risk  —  NEW ORLEANS — Six inches.  —  After two years and more than a billion dollars spent by the Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild New Orleans's hurricane protection system, that is how much the water level is likely to be reduced …

Yet Again: AFP's Photo Woes Continue  —  Fresh off of being caught trying to pass off unfired civilian ammunition as evidence of soldiers shooting into the home of an elderly Iraqi woman, the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has been caught once again in a photography scandal involving …

For immediate release  —  Financial market conditions have deteriorated, and tighter credit conditions and increased uncertainty have the potential to restrain economic growth going forward.  In these circumstances, although recent data suggest that the economy has continued to expand at a moderate pace …

Hatred Begins at Home  —  The NYPD looks at what turns young Westerners into jihadis.  —  Whenever I think of war, I think of this: It was 1982 or '83, I was in Northern Ireland, and a local reporter was showing me around Derry, then a center of the Protestant-Catholic conflict.

MICHIGAN TO MOVE UP ITS PRIMARY  —  From NBC News' Chuck Todd  —  According to sources inside both parties, the two state parties in Michigan have agreed to move the state's primary — legislatively — to Jan. 15.  This is a compromise date out of respect for Democratic Sen. Carl Levin …

On Iraq Regime Change, 2007 Cheney Contradicts 2000 Cheney While Dismissing 1994 Cheney  —  Earlier this week, a video from 1994 of Dick Cheney discussing why the first Bush administration didn't move "into Baghdad" during the Gulf War surfaced on the internet and spread like wildfire.

Army Reports Brass, Not Bloggers, Breach Security  —  For years, the military has been warning that soldiers' blogs could pose a security threat by leaking sensitive wartime information.  But a series of online audits, conducted by the Army, suggests that official Defense Department websites …