To the Rescue: Bush to Give Low-Interest Loans to Carmakers  —  Obama Team Agrees to Bush's Strategy  —  The White House has decided to come to the rescue of General Motors and Chrysler by providing them with $17.4 billion in low-interest loans to keep them afloat, ABC News has learned.

Obama's Inaugural Mistake  —  It is difficult to comprehend how our president-elect, who has been so spot on in nearly every political move and gesture, could fail to grasp the symbolism of inviting an anti-gay theologian to deliver his inaugural invocation.  And the Obama campaign's response to the anger about this decision?

W. Mark Felt, Watergate Deep Throat, Dies at 95  —  W. Mark Felt, who was the No. 2 official at the F.B.I. when he helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon by resisting the Watergate cover-up and becoming Deep Throat, the most famous anonymous source in American history, died Thursday.

The Madoff Economy  —  The revelation that Bernard Madoff — brilliant investor (or so almost everyone thought), philanthropist, pillar of the community — was a phony has shocked the world, and understandably so.  The scale of his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme is hard to comprehend.

CNN Meteorologist: Manmade Global Warming Theory ‘Arrogant’  —  Network's second meteorologist to challenge notion man can alter climate.  —  Business & Media Institute  —  Unprecedented snow in Las Vegas has some scratching their heads - how can there be global warming with this unusual cold and snowy weather?

Labor ties drive Solis pick  —  Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.) will take over the Labor Department in an imploding job market, while Big Labor is licking its chops for payback in Washington.  —  So why is she giving up a potential leadership track in the House for one of the more daunting cabinet jobs?

The Employee Free Choice Act Is Unconstitutional  —  Free speech and the takings clause are at stake.  —  A top priority of the incoming Democratic Congress and Obama administration is the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act.  The EFCA, as is well known, introduces a card-check procedure …

Advocates for Action on Global Warming Chosen as Obama's Top Science Advisers  —  President-elect Barack Obama has selected two of the nation's most prominent scientific advocates for a vigorous response to climate change to serve in his administration's top ranks, according to sources …

Caroline Kennedy Is No Sarah Palin  —  WASHINGTON — It is a legitimate question: Why is the resume-thin Caroline Kennedy being treated seriously as a prospective appointee to the U.S. Senate when the comparatively more-qualified Gov. Sarah Palin received such a harsh review?

Democrats Are the New Ethics Story  —  Blagojevich is just the tip of the iceberg.  —  A note to all those visitors who will soon flood Washington for the inauguration: Be careful of the “swamp.”  —  That would be the swamp Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to drain when she led her party to victory in 2006.

Police Get The Wrong House In Galveston, Allegedly Assault 12-Year-Old Girl  —  It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn's home in Galveston.  She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on.

Last Secrets of the Bush Administration  —  How to find out what we still don't know.  —  In March 2001, U.S. Archivist John W. Carlin received a letter from Alberto Gonzales, then counsel to the newly inaugurated president George W. Bush.  It concerned an important deadline that was looming—one that Bush owed to Richard Nixon.

Coleman leads Franken by just 2 votes  —  Two votes is all that stands between Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, according to the Associated Press tally in the state's still-unresolved Senate race.  —  Coleman's shrinking lead, combined with a state Supreme Court decision handed …