The Identity Trap  —  When Hillary Clinton is good on the Sunday talk shows, she is really, really good.  But when she is bad, she's atrocious.  When she talks about policy, she will dazzle you.  When her own ambitions are on the line, it's time to reach for the sick bag.

The Kucinich court decision and “judicial activism”  —  (updated below)  —  MSNBC is televising a debate tonight between the Democratic presidential candidates in Nevada.  It originally invited Dennis Kucinich to participate because Kucinich met the objective criteria the network created for inclusion.

Minister Sees Need for U.S. Help in Iraq Until 2018  —  FORT MONROE, Va. — The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq's borders from external threat until at least 2018.

Mike Huckabee Really Is a Piece of Work  —  From Michigan: … Governor, I didn't have silver spoons or boarding schools or a verb summer, but I know enough to thank God for the job creators, the natural economic stimulators, capitalism.  Is this the Republican primary of a John Edwards rally?

LINDA GREENHOUSE BLOWS SMOKE AT HER PAPER'S OMBUDSMAN  —  Earlier today, Scott linked to comments from Clark Hoyt, “public editor” of the New York Times, about his paper's addition of Bill Kristol as a columnist.  Hoyt concluded that, because Kristol said the Attorney General had an obligation …

Militants Escape Control of Pakistan, Officials Say  —  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan's premier military intelligence agency has lost control of some of the networks of Pakistani militants it has nurtured since the 1980s, and is now suffering the violent blowback of that policy …

Romney photo-op was with staffer's mom  —  A well-publicized weekend photo-op for Mitt Romney turns out to have been missing a piece of information that might have undermined its credibility: the unemployed single mom at the center of the event was the mother of a Romney staffer.

A VISIT TO THE INFIRMARY  —  Feeling poorly for some time.  Saw a doctor a few weeks ago, who sent me to a specialist, who booked me into hospital for tests.  —  It's cancer.  —  Major abdominal surgery next week.  If all goes well, the remaining non-cancerous section of me will be home by early-mid February.

Red-state Dems sour on Clinton  —  Barack Obama in recent days has sprinted ahead in the endorsement derby against Hillary Rodham Clinton when it comes to a certain breed of Democrat—politicians who have won statewide in places where Republicans dominate presidential politics.

Romney to go back on TV today in SC, FL likely soon  —  Mitt Romney will go back on the television airwaves today in South Carolina after a week's absence, a top campaign official confirms.  —  And two other Romney sources say that a return to Florida TV is also imminent.

Obama's Farrakhan Test  —  Barack Obama is a member of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.  Its minister, and Obama's spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor.

TODAY'S GO-TO VILLAINS.  —  Via Steve Clemons, a good short doc on Hollywood's vilification of Arabs.  —  Among the many offensive images and representations in the program, the clip from Back to the Future is particularly ridiculous.  The year was 1985, Muammar Khaddafi was being sold …

POLL: A New Low in Approval Starts Bush's Final Year  —  Just two in 10 say they are getting ahead financially  —  Beset by growing economic concerns on top of the long unpopular war in Iraq, President Bush starts the last year of his presidency with the worst approval rating of his career.