Exchanges in Latest Debate Highlight a New Dynamic in the Republican Field  —  Fred D. Thompson tried to salvage his faltering presidential campaign at a debate Thursday night with a barrage of sharp attacks on the “liberal” policies of Mike Huckabee, the fellow Southerner whom he clearly sees as a rival in the South Carolina primary.

Civil Rights Tone Prompts Talk of an Endorsement  —  WASHINGTON — Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, said he was rethinking his neutral stance in his state's presidential primary out of disappointment at comments by Bill …

Debate Highlights: Fred takes Huck to the woodshed; Update: Fred on “virgins"; Update: Stalking horse?  —  Who wants some piping hot Fred?  Here he is taking Mike Huckabee to task for his campaign manager suggesting that the Reagan coalition is dead.  Fred then goes on to hammer Huckabee's liberal tendencies.

Ron Paul literature ranted against blacks, gays  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — A series of newsletters in the name of GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul contain several racist remarks — including one that says order was restored to Los Angeles after the 1992 riots when blacks went “to pick up their welfare checks.”

Edmund Hillary, first atop Everest, dies  —  WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Sir Edmund Hillary, the unassuming beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest to win renown as one of the 20th century's greatest adventurers, has died, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced Friday.  He was 88.

Andrew Cuomo on Obama: 'You Can't Shuck And Jive' at a press conf  —  Oh no he didn't.  (TPM): … You see folks, this is what I'm talking about.  This whole “post-racial” nonsense is a simple fantasy or delusion uttered by people who think race isn't a problem anymore.

Kucinich Asks for New Hampshire Recount in the Interest of Election Integrity  —  DETROIT—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, the most outspoken advocate in the Presidential field and in Congress for election integrity, paper-ballot elections …

U.S.: Voices on Recording May Not Have Been From Iranian Speedboats  —  Chilling Threat Could Have Come From the Shore or Another Ship, Navy Says  —  Just two days after the U.S. Navy released the eerie video of Iranian speedboats swarming around American warships, which featured a chilling threat …

Ned Lamont Endorses Obama  —  On the same day that Barack Obama scored the endorsement of John Kerry, he's set to get the support of a decidedly non-establishment Democrat: Ned Lamont.  —  Lamont has revealed on his Web site that he'll be backing the Illiniois Senator.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO  —  The dream is dead!  Well, dormant anyway.  Unity08

Fred Thompson, Riled  —  Just got off the line with someone close to the Thompson campaign—and, more to the point, to Thompson himself.  His reading of what took place tonight?  Fred Thompson was riled.  —  “Nothing ever upset Fred Thompson more than the story [on the day of the Iowa caucuses] …

Strict immigration law rattles Okla. businesses  —  PARK HILL, Okla. — Autumn had arrived in eastern Oklahoma, and workers at the sprawling Greenleaf Nursery were prepping for deadly frosts.  They needed to ship plants, erect greenhouses and bunch trees together to protect them against the cold.

General: Anbar Ready for Handover  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - Iraq's western province of Anbar, hotbed of the Sunni Arab insurgency for the first four years of the war, will be returned to Iraqi control in March, a senior U.S. general said Thursday.  —  In a telephone interview from Iraq …

Pelosi for Obama?  —  An interesting endorsement for Obama today.  Pelosi's BFF George Miller, a fellow Californian who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee, announced today he's endorsing Obama .  —  Pelosi has so far stayed out of the race.  But when her top advisor who also happens …