Thompson: Doesn't like campaign process, ‘will not be devastated’ if he loses  —  Bill Theobald of Gannett News Service has been following Republican Fred Thompson around Iowa.  In a dispatch today from Burlington, Bill quotes the former Tennessee senator as saying he doesn't like modern campaigning …

Paul: Fox News is ‘scared of me’  —  PLAISTOW, N.H. — Ron Paul said the decision to exclude him from a debate on Fox News Sunday the weekend before the New Hampshire Primary is proof that the network “is scared” of him.  —  “They are scared of me and don't want my message to get out …

Kristol: The New York Times ‘Should Be Prosecuted,’ 'It Isn't A First-Rate Newspaper'  —  For years, Bill Kristol has been at the forefront of a vitriolic right-wing crusade against the New York Times.  Sadly, the Times has chosen to reward him for it.  —  After the New York Times …

Monitor endorsements: McCain, Clinton  —  This morning's Monitor editorial endorsed John McCain in New Hampshire's Republican primary.  It concludes: … Tomorrow's editorial will endorse Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire's Democratic primary.  Here is an excerpt: … UPDATE: The full Clinton endorsement is here.

Bill Clinton Won't Attend NSC Meetings in a Hillary White House  —  ABC News' Jonathan Greenberger reports: If she makes it to the White House, Sen. Hillary Clinton said today her husband will take on the same responsibilities as traditional presidential spouses, with no access to National Security Council meetings.

Bipartisan Group Eyes Independent Bid  —  First, Main Candidates Urged To Plan ‘Unity’ Government  —  New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a potential independent candidate for president, has scheduled a meeting next week with a dozen leading Democrats and Republicans …

“You may have seen that some Hillary Clinton ‘sock puppets’ were recently outed on a New Hampshire blog, to the campaign's great embarrassment."  —  Thanks, Matt Bai, NYT Magazine writer who is now also blogging on the NYT website.  I'm extremely interested in that story, which I missed.

Vatican denies exorcist expansion  —  The Vatican is denying reports it plans to install more exorcists around the world so possessed people can get help quickly.  —  “Pope Benedict XVI has no intention of ordering local bishops to bring in garrisons of exorcists to fight demonic possession …

Tapes by C.I.A. Lived and Died to Save Image  —  WASHINGTON — If Abu Zubaydah, a senior operative of Al Qaeda, died in American hands, Central Intelligence Agency officers pursuing the terrorist group knew that much of the world would believe they had killed him.

Shake, Rattle and Roil the Grand Ol' Coalition  —  AS a Republican presidential primary candidate, Mike Huckabee is a puzzle.  —  A Southern Baptist pastor and thoroughgoing social conservative, Mr. Huckabee has struck a distinctly populist chord when it comes to economics.

Bhutto Killing Puts EuroLeaders On Notice: Time to Choose  —  The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has put on notice the leaders of every European nation.  —  Your secularism, your democracy will not stand.  The growing Muslim populations in your own lands that you have done so much to tolerate …

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S DUMBEST LEGAL ARGUMENTS OF THE YEAR.  —  This time last year, I offered up a top 10 list of the most appalling civil-liberties violations by the Bush administration in 2006.  The grim truth is, not much has changed.  The Bush administration continues to limit our basic freedoms …

Immigration Is Defying Easy Answers  —  New immigration and the political reaction against it are nearly as old as the United States itself.  Yet the immigration surge of the last decade has awakened tensions of unexpected intensity that have pervaded the presidential campaigns of both parties …

Remarks on Pakistan Are Tailing Huckabee  —  In discussing the volatile situation in Pakistan, Mike Huckabee has made several erroneous or misleading statements at a time when he has been under increasing scrutiny from fellow presidential candidates for a lack of fluency in foreign policy issues.

IDF: Chemicals were disguised as EU aid  —  The IDF and Shin Bet uncovered 6.5 tons of potassium nitrate hidden in sacks that were disguised as aid from the European Union, the army announced on Saturday.  —  Security forces discovered the stash in the cargo of a Palestinian truck at a West Bank checkpoint earlier in December.

Texas Prosecutor Apologizes for Messages to His Secretary  —  HOUSTON — A day after a federal court slip-up exposed intimate office e-mail exchanges with his executive secretary, Texas' most powerful prosecutor, the district attorney of Harris County, issued a public apology Friday to his family and others.