Dodd's Filibuster Threat Stalls Wiretap Bill  —  Senator Chris Dodd won a temporary victory today after his threats of a filibuster forced Democratic leadership to push back consideration of a measure that would grant immunity to telecom companies that were complicit in warrantless surveillance.

ON DEADLINE: Clinton '92 Vs. Obama '08  —  SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Bill Clinton says Sen. Barack Obama is a callow, highly ambitious political prodigy who is asking voters to "roll the dice" and elect him president.  —  He should know — that's a fair description of Clinton when he sought the presidency in 1992.

Bill Clinton: George H.W. Bush will help President Hillary  —  ORANGEBURG, South Carolina (CNN) - Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that the first thing his wife Hillary will do when she reaches the White House is dispatch him and his predecessor, President George H.W. Bush …

Castro hints he will not hold on to power  —  HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public for 16 months, suggested on Monday he might give up his formal leadership posts — the first time he has spoken of his possible retirement.

Turkish army sends soldiers into Iraq  —  KIRKUK, Iraq - The Turkish army sent soldiers about 1.5 miles into northern Iraq in an overnight operation on Tuesday, Kurdish officials said.  A Turkish official said the troops were still in Iraq by midmorning.  —  To the south in Kirkuk …

Did Billy Shaheen resign or was he fired?  —  Hillary Clinton contradicted her campaign's line about what how the campaign's relationship with Bill Shaheen ended last week.  —  Shaheen, of course, is the husband of former Governor Jeanne Shaheen, who was Clinton's New Hamphire campaign co-chair.

Does Our Looks-Obsessed Culture Want to Stare at an Aging Woman?  —  BEGIN TRANSCRIPT  —  RUSH: Now, this theory of mine based on this Drudge picture of Mrs. Clinton, with the headline: "The Toll of a Campaign."  Now, it could well be that that's a sympathy photo, too, to make people feel sorry for how tough the campaign trail is.

Clarity  —  "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing."  Battered pilot Bob Robertson waits in shock for rescuers to cut him free from his plane after it disintegrated around him.  —  In The Right Stuff, the story of the Mercury 7 astronauts, Tom Wolfe related some stories about jet fighter flight testing in the 1950s.

Border Patrol fights back  —  After hundreds of attacks in a year, agency responds with tear gas  —  SAN DIEGO - The Border Patrol says its agents were attacked nearly 1,000 times during a one-year period along the Mexican border, typically by assailants hurling rocks, bottles and bricks.

The Scribe Who Gets The Candidates' Vote  —  DES MOINES — Back in May, when speculation burbled up that Hillary Clinton might bypass Iowa, David Yepsen dashed off a blog entry comparing the New York senator's campaign to previous clunkers, including the early days of Reagan 1980, Gore 2000 and Kerry 2004.

Slow going for Rove memoir auction  —  Early reports had predicted a $3 million sale, but an auction for the Republican strategist's memoir has dragged on for a month.  —  December 17.  —  The auction for Karl Rove's memoir drags on a month after the Republican strategist made the rounds …

FBI, CIA Debate Significance of Terror Suspect  —  Agencies Also Disagree On Interrogation Methods  —  Al-Qaeda captive Abu Zubaida, whose interrogation videotapes were destroyed by the CIA, remains the subject of a dispute between FBI and CIA officials over his significance as a terrorism suspect …

Fatwa against the dollar?  —  To all intents and purposes, the Wahabi religious establishment of Saudi Arabia has just issued a fatwa against the US dollar.  This bears watching.  —  Anti-dollar clerics have lobbied Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister  —  A message issued …