Chelsea Clinton Guards Her Words  —  VINTON, Iowa (AP) - It's one thing for Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign to turn down interview requests for the candidate's daughter, Chelsea.  But can't a 9-year-old reporter catch a break?  —  Sydney Rieckhoff, a Cedar Rapids fourth grader and …

Michael Bloomberg: Trans-partisan savior  —  Following along in David Broder's excited footsteps, Sam Roberts in The New York Times reports that Michael Bloomberg “is growing increasingly enchanted with the idea of an independent presidential bid, and his aides are aggressively laying the groundwork for him to run.”

My heart bleeds for Pakistan.  It deserves better than this grotesque feudal charade  —  Six hours before she was executed, Mary, Queen of Scots wrote to her brother-in-law, Henry III of France: “...As for my son, I commend him to you in so far as he deserves, for I cannot answer for him.”

The Great Divide  —  Yesterday The Times published a highly informative chart laying out the positions of the presidential candidates on major issues.  It was, I'd argue, a useful reality check for those who believe that the next president can somehow usher in a new era of bipartisan cooperation.

Looking at America  —  There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country.  Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators …

In Iowa, Will Edwards Divide and Conquer?  —  While the Democratic race has often, and quite accurately, been described as a choice between change (Barack Obama and John Edwards) and experience (Hillary Rodham Clinton), it has, in the final days before Iowa, become another kind of choice as well.

If You've Got Nothing Nice to Say  —  I just hope The New York Times Book Review is as kind to my book when the time comes as they were to Jonah Goldberg (of course, realistically we're all just desperately hoping to be reviewed at all): “Yet the title of his book aside …

What's the Matter With Iowa?  —  The caucuses are anything but a Norman Rockwell exercise in small-town democracy.  —  The trouble with the Iowa caucuses isn't that there's anything wrong with Iowans.  It's the bizarre rules of the process.  Caucuses are touted as authentic neighborhood meetings …

New Questions Arise in Killing of Ex-Premier  —  LAHORE, Pakistan — New details of Benazir Bhutto's final moments, including indications that her doctors felt pressured to conform to government accounts of her death, fueled the arguments over her assassination on Sunday and added to the pressure …

ANTI-MILITARY LAWYER DAMAGES MARINE'S CAR ON EVE OF DEPLOYMENT  —  This ought to make your blood boil.  And this Marine should receive a commendation for not kicking the living crap out of the guy...seriously.  —  Marine Sgt Mike McNulty is on activation orders to Iraq (second tour).

HOIST BY THEIR OWN PETARD  —  For the past 20 years, the Media Research Center has been compiling its list of notable quotables.  The quotes, from prominent members of the mainstream news media, provide a clear window into the leftist mindset that pervades most of America's large news organizations.

Huckabee's Morning Run  —  From CBS News Correspondent Nancy Cordes, who's covering the Huckabee campaign:  —  DES MOINES, IOWA — Mike Huckabee has won the photo op battle of the day, and it's only 8am.  He went for a jog around Gray's Lake in Des Moines flanked by some local doctors …

Top economist says America could plunge into recession  —  Losses arising from America's housing recession could triple over the next few years and they represent the greatest threat to growth in the United States, one of the world's leading economists has told The Times.

“Perfect storm” of cliches make bad English list  —  CHICAGO (Reuters) - A “surge” of overused words and phrases formed a “perfect storm” of “post-9/11” cliches in 2007, according to a U.S. university's annual list of words and phrases that deserve to be banned.

Obama's Jakarta Friends Recall a Would-Be Leader, Tattle-Tale  —  Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) — Barack Obama's teachers and fellow students during his four years of grade school in Indonesia aren't all that surprised that he is now a top U.S. presidential candidate.