'I don't work for Obama'  —  Democrats must be “very, very careful” to avoid overreaching and will not rubber-stamp President-elect Obama's policies, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday.  —  In an interview with The Hill, Reid said it is essential for Obama …

Obama Warns Trillion-Dollar Deficit Potential  —  WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday braced Americans for the unparalleled prospect of “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come,” a stark assessment of the budgetary outlook that he said would force his administration …

Many Cubans Expect Obama to End Bilateral Hostilities  —  Many Islanders Expect Better Relationship With U.S. Under New President  —  HAVANA — Vicente González says that although Barack Obama is no Karl Marx — “he is a capitalist and likely an imperialist” — he has high hopes …

Specter Attacks Choice for Attorney General  —  WASHINGTON — A leading Republican senator issued a broad attack on Tuesday on President-elect Barack Obama's pick as attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., questioning his political independence.  —  The senator, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania …

CIA Man: Spies' Reaction to Panetta ‘Overwhelmingly Negative’  —  A retired senior CIA operations officer who quit last summer after 20 years tracking terrorists says the rank-and-file reaction to President-elect Obama's choice of Leon E.Panetta to run the spy agency has been “overwhelmingly negative.”

The Mideast's Ground Zero  —  The fighting, death and destruction in Gaza is painful to watch.  But it's all too familiar.  It's the latest version of the longest-running play in the modern Middle East, which, if I were to give it a title, would be called: “Who owns this hotel?  Can the Jews have a room?

Boost Private Investment to Boost the Economy  —  Excessive spending is what got us into this mess in the first place.  —  These days it seems like it is our patriotic duty to consume more.  And if we don't choose to spend more money ourselves, the government will do it for us.  —  But wait a minute.

How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe  —  The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context.  Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians.

Blair House Mystery Solved: It's John Howard  —  The veil is lifted.  We now know who is booked at Blair House, kicking President-elect Barack Obama and his family to the waiting list and across Lafayette Park to the Hay-Adams Hotel.  —  The only overnight visitor at the presidential guest manse …

Job weakness continues, reports show  —  ADP says the private sector shed 693,000 jobs in December, while Challenger shows employers unveiled 166,348 job cuts.  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Separate employment reports released Wednesday showed the labor market continued to get battered in December.

Synagogue set ablaze and anti-Semitic assaults soar in UK following Israel's invasion of Gaza … The number of anti-Semitic attacks in London has risen sharply following Israel's land assault on Gaza, Jewish community groups said today.  —  Their leaders have compiled a dossier of attacks …

Cuomo Aide Is Said to Try to Slow Kennedy Bid  —  Even as Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo insisted he was staying out of the competition for New York's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat, a top Cuomo aide urged labor leaders and upstate officials to refrain from embracing Caroline Kennedy for the job …

An economic game plan emerges  —  A closed door-meeting of the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday will be an early test of President-elect Barack Obama's economic plan, with Chairman Max Baucus hoping to use the executive session to judge support for the tax cuts and major health provisions at the heart of the $775 billion package.

City of Cold Shoulders  —  THE scene of Roland W. Burris being escorted from the Senate by the Capitol police on Tuesday could be only the first act of an unpleasant and distracting drama.  But in the days since Mr. Burris's appointment to Illinois's junior Senate seat was announced …

OVERTIME IN THE MINNESOTA SENATE ELECTION  —  The media coverage of the events related to Minnesota's Senate election and subsequent recount has been so poor that it is difficult to determine what happened.  The erosion of Senator Coleman's approximately 700 vote lead over Al Franken …

11 gay bars get letters threatening ricin attacks  —  Eleven gay bars in Seattle were sent letters Tuesday threatening ricin attacks — in what some are describing as a hate crime.  The Seattle Police Department said it takes the threat seriously.  The department has seized the letters …

Kmiec v. Kmiec regarding Heller: Douglas Kmiec has sharply criticized the majority opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller.  E.g., Slate, July 8, 2008 (majority opinion amounts to unjust rule by judicial fiat); Tidings, July 11, 2008 (Heller majority misconstrued the Second Amendment …

Charter 08 worries China  —  Police have detained activists behind the democracy petition, which has drawn diverse support.  —  BEIJING -  —  On Dec. 8, the police took Zhang Zuhua into a room in Beijing and sat him in a chair.  —  For 12 hours, they questioned him.  They brought him water, but no food.

Report: Al-Qaida No. 2 blames Obama for Gaza fight  —  CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader lashed out at President-elect Barack Obama in a new audio message Tuesday, accusing him of not doing anything to stop Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to an intelligence monitoring center.

Obama's Choice for Solicitor General Has Left a Breach in a Long Paper Trail  —  WASHINGTON — The New Republic called Elena Kagan a “wonderwonk” for her work on tobacco legislation in the Clinton administration.  She was, the magazine said, “a nerd who can talk tough.”