Obama's impressive new OLC chief  —  (updated below)  —  The Office of Legal Counsel, inside the Justice Department, is probably the most consequential federal government office that remains relatively obscure.  The legal opinions which it issues become, more or less automatically, the official legal position of the Executive Branch.

TRANSITION TO JUSTICE.  —  The latest news from the Transition Office: We have sub-cabinet Justice Department nominees — bios after the jump: … Initial impressions: Kagan is the real story and has been on the short-list for this post since the very beginning of the transition process …

Kagan nominated for solicitor general  —  Elena Kagan, Harvard law school's dean, will be the new solicitor general, President-elect Barack Obama's transition office announced.  —  She will be Obama's voice at the US Supreme Court, and she has been considered a potential Democratic appointee to the Court itself.

Minnesota canvassing board expected to say that Democrat Al Franken is winner in Senate race  —  MINNEAPOLIS - The state Canvassing Board was posed to certify the results of the recount in Minnesota's grueling Senate election in Al Franken's favor — but that doesn't mean the race is definitely over.

Is Obama relying too much on tax cuts?  —  I don't know yet.  But news reports this morning certainly raise questions.  —  Let's lay out the basics here.  Other things equal, public investment is a much better way to provide economic stimulus than tax cuts, for two reasons.

The Three-State Option  —  War in the Gaza Strip demonstrates yet again that the current governance paradigm for the Palestinian people has failed.  Terrorists financed and supplied by Iran control Gaza; the Palestinian Authority is broken, probably irretrievably; and economic development is stalled in Gaza and the West Bank.