Christian Conservatives Consider Third-Party Effort  —  Alarmed at the chance that the Republican party might pick Rudolph Giuliani as its presidential nominee despite his support for abortion rights, a coalition of influential Christian conservatives is threatening to back a third-party candidate in an attempt to stop him.

SHIFTING TARGETS  —  The Administration's plan for Iran. … In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran.

GOP Is Ready to Roll Out the Klieg Lights for Craig  —  Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho is a tough guy to run out of town.  —  Not that his Republican colleagues aren't trying.  Worried that the disgraced lawmaker intends to remain in the Senate indefinitely, they are threatening to notch …

The Group Behind Smear Campaigns Against Limbaugh and O'Reilly  —  Last week, two of the leading conservatives in the media, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, were dishonestly and unprofessionally attacked by press outlets that cherry-picked out of context remarks from lengthy radio broadcasts …

Supreme Court Faces an Array of Divisive Cases  —  The Supreme Court has so many polarizing cases on the docket for its new term that the deep ideological divisions that characterized the last term are all but certain to remain on display after the justices reconvene on Monday.

'Meet the Press' transcript for Sept. 30, 2007  —  Former President Bill Clinton, Dan Balz, Patrick Buchanan, David Gregory, Tavis Smiley  —  MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: In his third annual Global Initiative conference, former President Bill Clinton convenes leaders …

Bolton calls for bombing of Iran  —  John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, told Tory delegates today that efforts by the UK and the EU to negotiate with Iran had failed and that he saw no alternative to a pre-emptive strike on suspected nuclear facilities in the country.

Whose broad stripes and bright stars?  —  Republican front-runners weren't the only things missing from the presidential debate stage.  The American flag was AWOL, too.  —  The backdrop to the "All-American Presidential Forum," brought to you by Tavis Smiley and PBS, was a map of the United States …

Hillary, War with Iran is No Laughing Matter  —  Hillary, I'm glad to see you got a good laugh when I confronted you during last week's debate over your vote calling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG) a terrorist organization.  The American public finally got to see your cavalier attitude toward our march to war.

Questions for Obama  —  Is it audacious to hope for more clarity from Barack Obama than he has so far supplied?  Herewith 17 questions for him:  —  You advocate leaving in Iraq "some" U.S. forces for three missions — fighting al Qaeda, training Iraqi security forces and protecting U.S. forces conducting those two missions.

Is Hillary Clinton the New Old Al Gore?  —  THE Democrats can't lose the White House in 2008, can they?  —  Some 13 months before Election Day, the race's dynamic seems immutable.  Americans can't wait to evict the unpopular president and end his disastrous war.

Obama climbs in Iowa poll  —  Barack Obama's presidential campaign has been telling people not to pay too much attention to the polls lately, but now they're emailing all their supporters with news of the latest survey.  —  In Iowa, Obama is actually leading Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton …

Nation of Stupid  —  Tom Friedman: "9/11 has made us stupid."  —  Sure has made some people stupid, no question.  Friedman is writing against Giuliani as the "9/11″ candidate, saying we need a 9/12 candidate.  Which, as an attempt to be clever, is pretty stupid, too. 9/12, you'll recall, was the day after 9/11.