CNN N.H. Poll: Obama, Clinton tied; Romney remains strong  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Barack Obama has chipped away at Hillary Clinton's lead in New Hampshire, and the two Democratic presidential hopefuls are now locked in a statistical tie less than one month before the first-in-the-nation primary, a CNN/WMUR Poll released Wednesday shows.

The Huckabee Factor  —  Mike Huckabee walked into the lobby of the Des Moines Marriott at 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 3, deposited an armful of dirty laundry at the desk and checked to make sure he was being credited with Marriott Rewards points toward his next stay.  Then, accompanied by his wife …

FIRST THOUGHTS: LAST IA DEBATE  —  From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro  —  DES MOINES, IA — The last GOP debate until IA: The seemingly endless debate parade of 2007 began — on the Republican side — at the Reagan Library in California, underneath Reagan's own Air Force One.

Paper Trail  —  Who authorized the CIA to destroy interrogation videos?  —  NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE  —  The CIA repeatedly asked White House lawyer Harriet Miers over a two-year period for instructions regarding what to do with "very clinical" videotapes depicting the use of "enhanced" …

Dems and GOP deadlocked as adjournment draws near  —  Congress has been brought to a grinding halt by hardening Democratic and Republican stances on taxes and spending just days before lawmakers begin leaving Washington for Christmas and New Year's.  —  The two sides are, in some cases …

The Dream Is Dead  —  The man crowned by Tommy Franks as "the dumbest [expletive] guy on the planet" just made the dumbest [expletive] speech on the planet.  —  Doug Feith, the former Rummy gofer who drove the neocon plan to get us into Iraq, and then dawdled without a plan as Iraq crashed into chaos …

The Immigration Obsession  —  Kevin Drum quotes the LA Times' analysis: "More than any other question, Republican presidential candidates are asking voters to consider a single issue in the weeks before primary voting begins: Who detests illegal immigration the most?"

WHAT HAPPENED TO JAMIE LEIGH JONES IN BAGHDAD?  —  Bob Owens takes a close look at the allegations of a gang rape in Iraq's Green Zone in 2005 by employees of KBR, and finds some omissions and inconsistencies in the ABC News scoop.  —  Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers

Worst Headline of the Day Award  —  The thinly veiled sexism oozing out of today's Examiner column by veteran local politics observer Harry Jaffe is hard enough to take, but to whomever thought up this gem of a headline, be they copy editor or author, DCist salutes your willingness to go boldly …

JEWS' SUBWAY HERO A MUSLIM  —  SAVES 'HANUKKAH' RIDERS FROM THUGS  —  A Brooklyn man whose "Happy Hanukkah" greeting landed him in the hospital said he was saved from a gang of Jew-bashing goons aboard a packed Q train by a total stranger - a modest Muslim from Bangladesh.

The Roots of the Mortgage Crisis  —  Bubbles cannot be safely defused by monetary policy before the speculative fever breaks on its own.  —  On Aug. 9, 2007, and the days immediately following, financial markets in much of the world seized up.  Virtually overnight the seemingly insatiable desire …