Clinton insiders question top aide's approach  —  Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton speaks at a "town hall meeting" in San Francisco December 11.  (McClatchy-Tribune / December 11, 2007)  —  DES MOINES - On the eve of the final Iowa debate before the Jan. 3 caucuses …

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.

Subpoenas for Al Sharpton's aides  —  Teams of federal agents swooped down on up to 10 close associates of the Rev. Al Sharpton Wednesday, demanding the flamboyant clergyman's financial records since 2001.  —  Sharpton's former chief of staff said he was roused at his Harlem home about 6:30 …

Clemens, Pettitte named in baseball steroid report  —  NEW YORK (CNN) — Illegal steroids have been in widespread use in Major League Baseball for more than a decade and used by some of the game's top stars, former Sen. George Mitchell said in releasing a report Thursday.

Secular Europe's Merits  —  The cathedral here, on which work began in the 12th century, was once the largest in Scotland, until a mob of reformers bent on eradicating lavish manifestations of "Popery" ransacked the place in 1559, leaving gulls to swoop through the surviving facade.

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.

Rudy: All Business  —  Not long after he stepped down as mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani received an intriguing offer.  A group of officials from a Florida company called Seisint Inc. asked him to promote a powerful new database technology capable of tracking potential terrorists and other criminals.

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.

Misreading the Iran Report  —  The extraordinary spectacle of the president's national security adviser obliged to defend the president's Iran policy against a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) raises two core issues: How are we now to judge the nuclear threat posed by Iran?

Liveblogging the Iowa Democratic debate  —  Hillary, in answer to a fiscal question, promises to "restore" the tax rates of the 90s when, she reminds the audience, Iowans incomes rose.  —  I was about to draw some contrast involving her harking back, rather than forward …

Romney's (almost) Dean Scream speech  —  From NBC/NJ's Erin McPike  —  If anything is certain about the GOP presidential primary, it's that Romney really, really wants to win Iowa.  Desperately.  —  After hitting a post-debate party around Des Moines on Wednesday, he flew to Cedar Rapids …

When waterboarding works  —  About a year ago, I had dinner with a man who played a key role in the U.S. war on terror.  —  The talk turned to allegations of torture.  He said that our policy should be that we do not torture.  And we should adhere to that policy.