Tension in Hillaryland Grows as Plan Goes Awry: Albert R. Hunt  —  Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — To appreciate Hillary Clinton's fundamental political problem, consider the 11 Democrats from Philadelphia who gathered last week to discuss the U.S. presidential race, almost all of whom would vote for her in a general election.

Libby to drop appeal in CIA leak case  —  WASHINGTON - Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is no longer appealing his conviction in the CIA leak case, a tacit recognition that continuing his legal fight might only make things worse.  —  Libby, the former chief of staff …

Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR  —  KBR Told Victim She Could Lose Her Job If She Sought Help After Being Raped, She Says  —  A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

The threat has not diminished  —  The intelligence is misguided - the danger that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons is real.  What's missing is the policy to address it  —  The recent United States national intelligence estimate (NIE), which reports that Iran once had a "nuclear weapons programme" …

Winfrey wows crowd  —  29,000 attend Columbia rally for Obama  —  In what Sen. Barack Obama described as the best-attended rally of the political season for any candidate, more than 29,000 attendees jammed Williams-Brice Stadium Sunday.  —  Media mogul Oprah Winfrey rallied the crowd of supporters …

The Paygo Farce  —  Democrats admit it was all a big confidence game. … Well, as Emily Littela, the half-witted Gilder Radner character on Saturday Night Live, would have put it: "Never mind."  Last week Congressional Democrats formally renounced their ballyhooed budget pledge to offset …

Mike McConnell Is Flat Wrong  —  Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, has written a misleading op-ed in today's New York Times.  Mr. McConnell's piece is a plea for Congress to renew the Protect America Act.  I and other Democrats in Congress have been working to correct problems …

Rudy Self-Destructs on Russert  —  I have been watching Meet The Press since, I don't know, Estes Kefauver days and, I'm sad to say, Rudy Giuliani provided the worst performance I've ever seen by a major Presidential candidate.  —  Okay, I am not sad to say.  I am delighted.

New NYTimes/CBS Poll: Explain, Don't Attack  —  The latest New York Times/CBS News poll finds voters give the presidential candidates positive marks on at least one score at this stage in their campaigns: They credit them with spending more time explaining what they would do as president rather than attacking their opponents.

Court eases cocaine sentencing  —  The Supreme Court on Monday gave federal judges new authority to set sentences for crack cocaine crimes below the range of punishment set by federal guidelines — a major restoration of flexibility for trial judges in drug cases.

After the Battle of Al-Fajr  —  FALLUJAH, IRAQ - Fallujah is known as the City of Mosques.  It is also a city of walls, and of war.  —  It was a quieter city than most after the initial invasion in 2003.  There was less looting than in Baghdad, and the mayor was pro-American.

Cynthia McKinney '08  —  "The time for confrontation has come for me," Cynthia McKinney told about 60 supporters on December 4.  Launching her quest for the Green Party Presidential nomination, McKinney compared her "revolution" to Haiti, Venezuela, and war-torn Cote d'Ivoire.

Bush Knows Well the Hazards of the Trail  —  P resident Bush has forsworn any more commentary on the election to succeed him, at least until the nominations are settled.  But he seems more than a little wistful as all these senators and governors travel the campaign trail without him.

Students stone police in Iran riot  —  Students defied a clampdown on protests in Iran yesterday by tearing down the gates of Tehran university.  —  They chanted slogans against President Ahmadinejad and carried placards saying "Live free or die", "No war, no fascism" and "Women must decide their fate, not the state."

GOP launches first attack invoking Hillary  —  The Republican Party has launched its first use of unflattering images of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to motivate voters in two congressional special elections this week, marking the beginning of what could be a year-long barrage of ads …

Did Iceland Teen Call Secret White House Phone?  —  Icelandic Boy, 16, 'Wanted to ... Have a Chat, Invite Him to Iceland and See What He'd Say'  —  When Vífill Atlason, a 16-year-old high school student from Iceland, decided to call the White House, he could not imagine the kind of publicity it would bring.