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 …

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 …

Obama Derides Outside Spending  —  For much of the last week, Barack Obama has alleged that the series of independent organizations spending money on behalf of his main Democratic rivals in Iowa raise real questions about those candidates' commitment to serious reform of the political process.

Kristol Mess?  It's Official —'NYT' Explains Hiring New ‘Op-Ed’ Wag  —  NEW YORK A day after the Huffington Post first reported it, The New York Times has announced that it has indeed hired conservative pundit, and Fox News analyst, Bill Kristol, as a new regular op-ed columnist.

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

Bin Laden issues warning on Iraq, Israel  —  CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden warned Iraq's Sunni Arabs against fighting al-Qaida and vowed to expand the terror group's holy war to Israel in a new audiotape Saturday, threatening “blood for blood, destruction for destruction.”

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.