Bill Shaheen Resigns from Clinton Campaign  —  New Hampshire pol, husband of former Gov. Jeanne, quits NH co-chair position over Wednesday's drug comment about Obama.  —  "I made a mistake and in light of what happened, I have made the personal decision that I will step down ...." Read his full statement.

Democratic Debate: First Take  —  Everyone had a good debate.  —  (Campaign pull-quote compilers, take note.)  —  But who did best?  The audience is undecided Democratic caucus goers.  Who stood out?  Who was different?  Who seemed most presidential?  Who parlayed their strengths?

Mitchell report: Baseball slow to react to players' steroids use  —  NEW YORK — George Mitchell's 20-month report into steroid use in professional baseball blamed both players and management for the problem.  —  Mitchell addressed the media and released his report Thursday.

Judiciary approves contempt resolutions  —  The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved contempt resolutions against Karl Rove, the former top aide to President Bush, and Joshua Bolten, the current White House chief of staff.  The vote was 12-8.  —  The criminal contempt resolutions now move …

Dumond goes viral UPDATE  —  Mike Huckabee's advocacy of rapist/killer Wayne Dumond's release has hit YouTube in a piece Talking Points Memo terms brutal in the course of looking into its provenance.  The mother of Dumond's Missouri murder victim is featured.  —  An Arkansas Republican, Keith Emis, takes responsibility.

Pelosi: Republicans `like' Iraq War  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out at Republicans on Thursday, saying they want the Iraq war to drag on and are ignoring the public's priorities.  —  "They like this war.  They want this war to continue," Pelosi, D- Calif., told reporters.

Fred Thompson Campaign Apologies  —  From Karen Hanretty, Deputy Communications Director:  —  In light of Mike Huckabee's heartfelt apology to Mitt Romney for making reference to Romney's religion in the New York Times Magazine, we at the Thompson Campaign would like to offer Huckabee …

Mitt Romney: I'm the Underdog  —  MUSCATINE, Iowa—Mitt Romney declared for the first time publicly that he is the underdog to his rival, Mike Huckabee, at this point in Iowa's fast-approaching Republican caucuses on Jan. 3.  —  Yet, notably, he did not criticize Mr. Huckabee directly during …

C.I.A. Agents Sense Shifting Support for Methods  —  WASHINGTON — For six years, Central Intelligence Agency officers have worried that someday the tide of post-Sept. 11 opinion would turn, and their harsh treatment of prisoners from Al Qaeda would be subjected to hostile scrutiny and possible criminal prosecution.

Hillary's Parking Lot Obstacle  —  Adam Nagourney notes the Obama camp's vastly superior Iowa expertise.  And in my experience, those guys do have a stunningly deep knowledge of the minutae of the state that dates back decades.  —  But Hillary has a much bigger problem on her hands.

Boy, Have We Got an Inequality Problem  —  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just updated their invaluable data series on income inequality and the results are startling.  Income inequality among households, both before and after Federal taxes, grew more quickly over the last two years of the series …

Live-Blogging The Democrats  —  What's this?  Heading Right covering a Democratic debate?  Sure!  It's the last major debate before the Iowa caucus, and we'll take a conservative perspective on what's happening on the Left.  I'll blog this in reverse-chronological order …

A dream comes true: USASpending.gov goes live today  —  Nearly eight years ago, Bill Beach, director of The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis, and I invited Gary Bass of OMB Watch over for a chat about the possibility of our two organizations collaborating in an effort to put all federal spending on the Internet.