White House asks NYT to remove sub-headline from CIA tape story  —  The White House on Wednesday took the rare step of publicly asking The New York Times to change the sub-headline of a story on the destruction of CIA tapes showing the interrogations of suspected terrorists.

UPDATE: NATIONAL ENQUIRER WORLD EXCLUSIVE: JOHN EDWARDS LOVE CHILD SCANDAL!  —  Presidential candidate John Edwards is caught up in a love child scandal, a blockbuster ENQUIRER investigation has discovered.  —  The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that Rielle Hunter, a woman linked to Edwards …

Fire in Cheney's Office Causes Leftists to Rant Uncontrollably  —  There was a fire in Dick Cheney's office this morning, and as usual the leftist blogosphere is brimming over with lunatic ranting.  —  At Think Progress, the Morlocks who inhabit their comments are sure this is a ploy to cover up the destroying of documents.

Hard-liners for Jesus  —  As Christians across the world prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, it's a fitting moment to contemplate the mountain of moral, and mortal, hypocrisy that is our Christianized Republican Party.  —  There's nothing new, of course, about the Christianization of the GOP.

A Real Edwards Surge  —  Is John Edwards's surge a media-created phenomenon, a collective reaction formation to the media's desire to see a three-person race, or guilt for building up Barack Obama?  Does the media really have that power?  —  Or are we seeing something more organic?

Fred Thompson: Lazy as charged  —  WAVERLY, Iowa — When is retail politics not retail politics?  When candidates refuse to get off their big buses and go do it.  —  Fred Thompson rolled into this small town on the Cedar River in north-central Iowa on a giant brown bus Tuesday.

Tancredo to get out?  —  Tom Tancredo has scheduled a press conference in Des Moines tomorrow afternoon to make a “major announcement regarding the campaign,” according to a media advisory his campaign sent out today.  —  Asked whether Tancredo intended to drop out of the race …

Reid's Relationship With Bush Enters Deep Freeze  —  WASHINGTON — Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, has called President Bush a loser and a liar and has referred to him derisively as King George.  Mr. Reid has also apologized — but only, he likes to point out, for the “loser” line.

Paul To Keep Supremacist Donation  —  Usually when a candidate receives a campaign donation from a disreputable donor, the money either gets returned or donated to a charity.  Ron Paul wants to be a maverick, however, so he will keep the $500 from Stormfront founder Don Black.

Strategy that is making Iraq safer was snubbed for years  —  When Army Capt. Jeremy Gwinn's company patrolled Baghdad in 2005, the approach toward roadside bombs was simple: avoid them or die.  —  By early 2006, that strategy had begun to shift: Instead of hunting for the bombs, the soldiers hunted for bombmakers.

Incandescent stupidity: Washington outlaws 100-watt lightbulbs  —  You know the energy bill that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law today?  Tucked into the legislation is a provision that mandates the phase-out of the 125-year-old incandescent bulb in the next four to 12 years …

All Iraqi Groups Blame U.S. Invasion for Discord, Study Shows  —  Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of “occupying forces” as the key to national reconciliation …

Torture Tapes are the Watergate of Our Times  —  As I write these words on the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 19, high- and low-level officials of the Bush administration involved in torture, and the destruction of the torture tapes, are consulting their criminal lawyers as The New York Times reports …

Person of the Year: Vladimir Putin  —  A Tsar Is Born  —  No one is born with a stare like Vladimir Putin's.  The Russian President's pale blue eyes are so cool, so devoid of emotion that the stare must have begun as an affect, the gesture of someone who understood that power might be achieved …

Dennis Kucinich's 52-year-old brother found dead  —  Perry Kucinich, 52, was found dead in his home in the 4100 block of East 71st Street.  —  His brother Larry found him about 9 a.m. There were no signs of violence, officials said.  The Cuyahoga County Coroner is performing an autopsy this hour.

“Mitt Romney...Helped Save My Daughter”  —  At first blush, this seems like a genuinely great campaign ad — the story of how Mitt Romney basically closed down his business, Bain Capital, in 1996 when the daughter of one of his partners went missing in New York City and Romney sent dozens …