S.C. poll: Huckabee bolts to top of GOP; Obama cuts into Clinton lead  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee surged to the top among Republican presidential candidates in South Carolina, while Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead over Sen. Barack Obama among Democrats narrowed since July in that state, according to a new poll.

Huckacide  —  Editor's note: This column is available exclusively through King Features Syndicate.  For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact: kfsreprint@hearstsc.com, or phone 800-708-7311, ext 246).  —  The ghost of Howard Dean haunts the pundit class.

Will the Senate Gut the Constitution and FISA Again?  —  The Senate is expected Friday to begin consideration of bills to restore FISA, after a panicked Congress gutted FISA's Constitutional protections last August.  Final votes may not occur until Monday or Wednesday, but procedural votes today …

Class Warfare  —  Here's a chart based on Paul Krugman's writeup of data from the CBO's new "Historical Effective Federal Tax Rates" report.  Naturally, the only solution is tax cuts.

Why Isn't Gore Running?  —  The White House is the place to battle global warming.  —  There he was again on the world stage—in Oslo this time—celebrating his Nobel Peace Prize with singer Melissa Etheridge and actress Uma Thurman, the Hollywood hottie who called him "adorable" …

600:  —  Percent the cost of government paper-shredding has increased since President Bush took office.  USASpending tracked how the government spent $452,807 on contracts for paper-shredding services in 2000, only to see that number rise astronomically to over $2.9 million in 2006.

Veteran GOP strategist signs on with Huckabee  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — A veteran Republican strategist considered by many the architect of Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide election victory is set to take the helm of Mike Huckabee's surging presidential bid, CNN has learned.

Rove, Bolten Found in Contempt of Congress  —  Senate Committee Cites Top Bush Advisers in Probe of U.S. Attorney Firings  —  A Senate panel found former presidential adviser Karl Rove and current White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten in contempt of Congress yesterday for refusing …

ENHANCED BULLS***T TECHNIQUES.  —  As we go around and around on waterboarding yet again, I couldn't help noticing that I cannot recall a single instance in which I've seen a journalist simply refer to waterboarding and similar methods of interrogation as "torture."

Revenge of the 'Citizen Journalist'  —  "You're beginning to get a lot more news ... from you," warns David Hazinski, an NBC News correspondent-turned-journalism- professor, in an Atlanta Journal-Consitution op-ed article: … Well, those who have bemoaned the loss of bipartisanship …

Omar the Actor  —  In conservative circles, I take a lot of ribbing for the fact that I used to work for The New York Times.  But during the years I was at the paper, my editors held us to a very high standard.  Apparently, things have changed.  —  The most recent example is the Times quoting …

Iraqi oil exceeds pre-war output  —  Iraqi oil production is above the levels seen before the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).  —  The IEA said Iraqi crude production is now running at 2.3 million barrels per day, compared with 1.9 million barrels at the start of this year.

Instead of Plum Appointments, Maybe a Lump of Coal  —  Christmas is usually a time when controversial nominees for top federal jobs wait for Santa, in the form of the president of the United States, to come down the chimney with their recess appointments.  —  Maybe not this year.