Poll: Top Democrats Deadlocked In Iowa  —  Huckabee Catching Up To Romney Among Hawkeye State Republicans  —  (CBS) Democrats and Republicans are both headed toward heated showdowns in Iowa, where, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll, Hillary Clinton holds a statistically insignificant lead …

Spitzer Dropping His License Plan  —  Gov. Eliot Spitzer is abandoning his plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, saying that opposition is just too overwhelming to move forward with such a policy.  —  The governor, who is to announce the move formally on Wednesday …

F.B.I. Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause  —  Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect …

Ex-Publisher's Suit Plays a Giuliani-Kerik Angle  —  Judith Regan, the former book publisher, says in a lawsuit filed today protesting her dismissal by the News Corporation, the media conglomerate, that a senior executive there encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair …

Senate Dem leaders float plan for forced filibuster  —  Senate Democrats might force Republicans to wage a filibuster if the GOP wants to block the latest Iraq withdrawal bill, aides and senators said Tuesday.  —  That could set the stage for a dramatic end-of-the-year partisan showdown …

Newsweek  —  Remember that big announcement I promised earlier?  Well, it's now official. … Yeah, there's a lot of heads exploding in wingnutlandia today over this bit of news.  But Newsweek is "balancing" me out with someone that should make heads on our side explode.

GOP Primary Story Stars a Democratic Antagonist  —  They mock her proposals, utter her name with a sneer and win standing ovations by ridiculing her ideas as un-American, even socialistic.  She has become the one thing the Republican candidates for president can agree on.  —  Hillary Clinton.

Anti-Bush Sign Has Bridge World in an Uproar  —  In the genteel world of bridge, disputes are usually handled quietly and rarely involve issues of national policy.  But in a fight reminiscent of the brouhaha over an anti-Bush statement by Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks in 2003 …

Dissension hits Romney campaign  —  Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has television ads and mailings on standby to attack Rudy Giuliani but so far has not used them because of an internal dispute about the risks of a backlash in going negative on the Republican front-runner …

Should Hillary Pretend to Be a Flight Attendant?  —  In 2005, a year after Ellie Grossman, a doctor, met Ray Fisman, a professor, on a blind date, she was talking to her grandmother about her guy.  —  "Never let a man think you're smarter," her grandmother advised.  "Men don't like that."

Britain Takes Tougher Stance on Sanctions Against Iran  —  Britain will push for a worldwide ban on foreign investment in Iran's oil and gas industry and other financial sanctions unless two reports due this month show that the Tehran government is ready to abandon efforts to acquire nuclear weapons …

Spitzer's Christmas Tax Surprise  —  Aims To Collect Levies on Sales Over Internet  —  New Yorkers going Christmas shopping online at Amazon.com will find an 8.375% surprise at the virtual cash register, courtesy of Governor Spitzer, who is moving aggressively to collect Internet sales taxes that have gone widely unenforced.

UPDATE: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Huckabee—Whatever Tax You Pass, "You Will Have Nothing But My Profound Thanks" … Jump forward to the present day, Mike Huckabee running for the Republican presidential nomination has signed a no-tax pledge and jumped on the Fair Tax bandwagon.

CIA admits to recording interrogations of top al Qaida captives  —  WASHINGTON — The CIA has three video and audio recordings of interrogations of senior al Qaida captives but misled federal judges about the evidence during the case against terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui …

Are we winning the war?  —  No one is declaring victory, but cautious optimists on the U.S.-led war in Iraq suddenly find themselves armed with a growing number of indicators that the fighting has taken a new, more hopeful turn.  —  U.S. military fatalities are down sharply, from 101 in June to 39 in October.