As Campaign Season Begins, Only One Presidential Candidate is Viewed Favorably by Majority of Voters  —  One impact of the long run-up to Election 2008 can be seen in public perceptions of the leading Presidential candidates.  After a year of campaigning with no votes actually being cast …

Criminal probe opened over CIA tapes  —  WASHINGTON - The Justice Department opened a full criminal investigation Wednesday into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, putting the politically charged probe in the hands of a mob-busting public corruption prosecutor with a reputation for being independent.

Clinton Camp Pre-Spinning Possible Bad News in Iowa  —  Campaign Insists Even a Third-Place Finish Would Not Be Disappointing  —  As the presidential candidates engage in furious pre-caucus spin, one of Sen. Hillary Clinton's most prominent Iowa supporters said Wednesday that she's already accomplished …

Late-Breaking Surge for Thompson  —  The latest news from Iowa?  According to Zogby's latest—and I quote: “Sen. Fred Thompson...has seen a late-breaking surge."  (Rich notes the same poll below.)  —  What's going on here?  My guess is that there are whole lot of Iowa Republicans …

Kristol in Iowa: “Snarky and Contemptuous”  —  Cardinal Richelieu asks, if Romney wins in Iowa, “will the snarky and contemptuous tone of most Romney coverage continue?"  —  I don't know if that was intended to be a rhetorical question (do Cardinals ask rhetorical questions? and how do you say “rhetorical question” in French?).

A Vast Right-Wing Hypocrisy  —  Richard Mellon Scaife, billionaire bankroller of conservative crusades, spent heavily to expose Bill Clinton's “Troopergate” misbehavior.  Now Scaife's divorce from his second wife, Ritchie, is providing another unsavory saga—adultery! addiction! assault! dognapping!?!—as both parties let loose to V.F.

Readership of major liberal blogs declined in 2007 while conservative blog readership increased  —  It has long been understood that the largest liberal blogs have generally produced more web traffic than the largest conservative blogs.  But I have noticed a general trend over the past few months …

Clinton to appear on Letterman  —  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) made a last-minute decision to appear on “Late Night with David Letterman” on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, campaign sources said.  —  Wednesday is Letterman's first night back since the writer's strike began.

Jim Talent: Romney will stop ‘the militant gays.’  —  Today on MSNBC's Hardball, former senator Jim Talent, now an adviser to Mitt Romney, discussed Romney's record on gays.  Talent maintained that Romney has never been inconsistent on gay rights and has “always” wanted to stop the influence of “the militant gays":

High-ranking DNC officials subpoenaed in discrimination lawsuit  —  According to documents obtained by PageOneQ, a series of senior Democratic National Committee officials has been subpoenaed in an ongoing discrimination lawsuit by former LGBT outreach director Donald Hitchcock.