For Bush's staff, upbeat talking points on his tenure  —  Administration officials get a memo from the White House suggesting what to say about the last eight years: President Bush upheld ‘the honor and the dignity of his office,’ for one.  —  Reporting from Washington …

Breitbart's big, red Hollywood  —  After playing supporting roles to big names in media and politics, Andrew Breitbart is poised to become the protagonist in his own story.  —  The publisher of the online news aggregator Breitbart.com helped launch and run two of today's most influential media …

Washington Takes Risks With Its Auto Bailout Plans  —  WASHINGTON — When President-elect Barack Obama talked on Sunday about realigning the American automobile industry he was quick to offer a caution, lest he sound more like the incoming leader of France, or perhaps Japan.

The Bill Clinton loopholes  —  Bill Clinton pledged to dial back his international charity work and personal earning power so Hillary Clinton can go to State.  But in reality, a set of Obama-backed restrictions leaves a lot more that the ex-president can do than cannot.

Illinois Governor Supports Workers Occupying Closed Chicago Factory  —  Workers occupying a Chicago factory that closed abruptly last week gained a significant political ally Monday in their fight to receive back benefits, when Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) ordered state agencies …

Poll: 79% approve of way Obama is handling transition  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — With six weeks before taking office, President-elect Barack Obama is having one heck of a honeymoon, a new national poll suggests.  —  Nearly eight in 10 Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey …

Did Democrats peak too early?  —  Did the Democrats' exile end too soon?  —  That may be a question that nags at more than a few party activists once all the partying is done.  —  Democrats have clearly come a long way in rebuilding their party infrastructure since falling from power in the late 1990s.

Oil giants could soon face lawsuits over climate, says Oxford University scientist  —  People affected by worsening storms, heatwaves and floods could soon be able to sue the oil and power companies they blame for global warming, a leading climate expert has said.

The media's disingenuous failure to state the obvious.  —  The obvious is sometimes the most difficult thing to discern, and few things are more amusing than the efforts of our journals of record to keep “open” minds about the self-evident, and thus to create mysteries when the real task of reportage is to dispel them.

Invasion of privacy  —  Am I the only person who is really irritated by these unctuous reports from the Politico that President-Elect Barack Obama is not attending church on Sunday?  Here is an excerpt from reporter Ben Smith's dumb story:  —  As my colleagues Jonathan Martin and Carol Lee noted last week …

F.D.R. Knew How to Spend Carefully  —  THE plan by Barack Obama to attack unemployment by putting people to work on roads, bridges, schools and new energy projects sounds like a version of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration.  If Franklin D. Roosevelt is Mr. Obama's model …

Tribune Company Seeks Bankruptcy Protection  —  The Tribune Company, the newspaper and television chain that publishes The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday.  —  The move came less than a year after Samuel Zell, a Chicago real estate tycoon …

Kennedy Is Said to Be Politicking for His Niece  —  While Caroline Kennedy is maintaining her public silence about whether she wishes to succeed Senator Hillary Clinton, her uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, has been working behind the scenes on her behalf, according to Democratic aides.

The Card McCain Didn't Play  —  By Patrick Appel  —  The unaired Wright ad:

Obama: Don't stock up on guns  —  As gun sales shoot up around the country, President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday that gun-owning Americans do not need to rush out and stock up before he is sworn in next month.  —  “I believe in common-sense gun safety laws, and I believe in the second amendment,” Obama said at a news conference.

Zucker says NBC may scale down programming hours … NEW YORK (AP) - A terrible fall season at NBC is forcing the network to consider scaling back the number of hours it airs programming, Chief Executive Jeff Zucker told an investor conference Monday.  —  While NBC will continue to fund …