Militant Group Is Out of Baghdad, U.S. Says  —  American forces have routed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi militant network, from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said today, allowing American troops involved in the "surge" to depart as planned.

Cheney's Impeachment Literally Fell 'Off the Table'  —  Maybe now we know what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) meant when she said impeachment was "off the table."  —  Lawmakers' voting cards on the issue were literally just that — off the table — during Tuesday's brouhaha …

Exclusive: FBI: Al Qaeda May Strike U.S. Shopping Malls in LA, Chicago  —  Richard Esposito and Vic Walter Report:  —  The FBI is warning that al Qaeda may be preparing a series of holiday attacks on U.S. shopping malls in Los Angeles and Chicago, according to an intelligence report distributed …

Veteran Interrogator: You Don't Need to Torture Even in 'Ticking Bomb' Case  —  During today's hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), fresh off an intellectually stimulating comparison of torture to abortion (he questioned why the committee isn't concerned about abortion …

In First Bush Veto Override, Senate Enacts Water Bill  —  The Senate voted overwhelmingly today for a popular $23 billion water projects measure affecting locales across the country, thereby handing President Bush his first defeat in a veto showdown with Congress.

Poll: Clinton lags in quest for male voters  —  WASHINGTON — More than eight in 10 Republicans and more than half the married men in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll say they definitely wouldn't vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton for president.  —  The poll provides an early snapshot of who's ruling out Clinton …

Musharraf Pledges Elections by Feb. 15  —  Gen. Pervez Musharraf told his national security council today that parliamentary elections would be held before Feb. 15 and that he would give up his military uniform before taking the oath of office for his new term as president of Pakistan.

AND SOLVES THE MYSTERIES OF DATING.  —  When economists began broadly applying their theories of rational choice-making, love and marriage were among the first areas they colonized.  Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker laid the foundations back in 1973 with his two-part article "A Theory of Marriage."

House Approves Peru Free Trade Pact  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Thursday approved a free trade agreement with Peru, the first under a Democratic majority in Congress that has declared that labor rights and the environment must be central parts of all such pacts.

British Muslim woman convicted of penning poems about beheadings  —  An airport worker who wrote poems about beheadings is the first woman to be found guilty under new terror laws.  —  Samina Malik, who liked to call herself a "lyrical terrorist", called for attacks on the West and described …

The Comeback of a War President  —  He may be America's most unpopular politician, but George W. Bush is no lame duck.  As a wartime president, Bush dominates the political agenda.  He is discreetly influencing his party's choice of presidential candidate while committing his country …

Generational test for Republicans  —  Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), once a skeptic of global warming, got a hint that the political winds might be shifting when a longtime supporter warned that he might vote against Inglis if he "didn't clean up his act on the environment."

Lieberman Delivers Major Address on "The Politics of National Security"  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. -Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) today addressed a Center for Politics and Foreign Relations/Financial Times breakfast at The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

AT&T Whistleblower: Telecom Immunity Is A Cover-Up  —  Earlier today we flagged that Mark Klein, who uncovered a secret surveillance room run by the NSA while employed as a San Francisco-based technician for AT&T, is in Washington to lobby against granting retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies.

Rare welcome to a red-blooded conservative  —  And get ready for some unpredictable ideas.  —  'Odd.  " It is, indeed, odd to write a column every other Thursday for a paper that used that very word to describe me.  Actually, odd was one of the nicer terms used in The Inquirer to describe me.