Whitehouse Reveals Smoking Gun of White House Claiming Not to Be Bound by Any Law  —  Damn, I love me some Sheldon Whitehouse.  He, like, actually knows the law.  And he, like, is willing to actually read the stuff he is exercising oversight over.  —  Which is why this speech he gave today …

Huckabee Surges, Obama Gains in Iowa  —  The new NEWSWEEK poll shows the former Arkansas governor now has a two-to-one lead over Romney, while Barack improves against Hillary.  —  Yana Paskova / Getty Images  —  Looking Up: Huckabee now seems unstoppable in the Iowa caucuses

Democrats Call for Inquiry in Destruction of Tapes by C.I.A.  —  Angry Democratic lawmakers called for investigations today into the Central Intelligence Agency's destruction in 2005 of at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency's custody.

Peggy Noonan Admits GOP Is Controlled By Fundies, "Idiots"  —  Nooner, who's apparently been in a coma for the past 30 years, is shocked, shocked! to find that the GOP's base is a bunch of [flat-earther homophobic] religious bigots. … And why would that be? … You don't say!  Goodness, who let them in?

Romney Spokesman Won't Say If Atheists Have Place In America  —  A spokesman for the Mitt Romney campaign is thus far refusing to say whether Romney sees any positive role in America for atheists and other non-believers, after Election Central inquired about the topic yesterday

Pelosi calls Cheney swipe undignified  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says a swipe that Vice President Cheney took at Democratic House leaders is "beneath the dignity of his office."  —  Capitol Hill was abuzz Thursday with discussion of the vice president's assertion in an interview …

Iran NIE and a prediction  —  From Stephen Peter Rosen  —  For the most part, the arguments about the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran have been and will be a debate, not about intelligence, but about Bush foreign policy.  But the NIE also provides an opportunity to assess …

O'Reilly: Progressive blog readers = 'devil worshippers.'  —  On Fox News yesterday, Bill O'Reilly let loose on "far-left websites" like DailyKos, stating, "If you read these far-left websites, you're a devil worshipper.  You are."  O'Reilly's ombudsman responded, "As a journalist, you know better than that."

Site of Barack-Oprah event isn't unionized  —  MANCHESTER - Barack Obama's presidential campaign deeply concerned organized labor by booking its big rally Sunday with superstar Oprah Winfrey at the Verizon Wireless Arena.  —  A union representing organized stage hands have been trying unsuccessfully …

Obama v. Krugman  —  Something's really gone off the rails when the Obama campaign decides to release an oppo document on Paul Krugman.  It's not only the actual attacks that are weak (most of them rely on misinterpreting one comment, then misinterpreting the next, then pretending there's a contradiction) …

Ron Paul blimp ready to rock America back to the gold standard  —  I was going to say "rock the fiat money right out yo' pockets" but I figure the number of Paul donors among the HA readership is blessedly small.  —  Anyway, they did it. … To get it airborne cost them $200 grand …

Boehner not campaigning with home-state candidate before key special election  —  House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has no plans to campaign in his home state for GOP state Rep. Bob Latta, who is facing a competitive fight to hold a solidly-Republican seat in a special election next Tuesday.