Spitzer choked her during sex, says call girl  —  His political rivals used to accuse Eliot Spitzer of going for the jugular.  Now a new call girl is claiming the former governor literally went for hers — claiming he wrapped his fingers around her neck during some kinky role-playing.

Terror-War Fallout Lingers Over Bush Lawyers  —  WASHINGTON — When John C. Yoo, a former Justice Department lawyer, was selected by President George W. Bush in May 2004 to join a government board charged with releasing historical Nazi and Japanese war crimes records, trouble quickly followed.

President's Political Protector Is Ever Close at Hand  —  WASHINGTON — The pepperoni and cheese pizzas had been delivered, and a meeting about how to sell President Obama's economic plan was set to begin — not at the White House, but a few blocks away in the seventh-floor apartment of David Axelrod.

Open Letter to the Republican Traitors (From a Former Republican)  —  Dear Republican Leaders: The Republican Party has become the party dedicated to sabotaging the American future.  Check out the sermon I just delivered about the Republican Party on CNN when being interviewed by D.L. Hughley — and/or read on.

G.O.P. Senators Say Some Big Banks Can Be Allowed to Fail  —  John McCain and Richard C. Shelby, two high-profile Republican senators, said on Sunday that the government should allow a number of the biggest American banks to fail.  —  “Close them down, get them out of business,” Mr. Shelby …

DAVID BROOKS GETS SHRILL.... Just yesterday I argued that respectable figures of the political establishment are reluctant to call obvious stupidity “stupid,” especially when it comes to truly painful ideas like a spending freeze in the midst of the economic crisis.

Diversions (III)  —  Remember the Iraq drawdown you heard about last month?  The one where a Brigade originally scheduled for Iraq was going to Afghanistan instead?  Well, a funny thing about that...  Last weekend we noted this obscure bit of news from ABC:

A Rising Dollar Lifts the U.S. but Adds to the Crisis Abroad  —  As the world is seized with anxiety in the face of a spreading financial crisis, the one place having a considerably easier time attracting money is, perversely enough, the same place that started much of the trouble: the United States.

Democrats Have No Right To Be Snooty About Rush Not Wanting the President to Succeed  —  Let's put aside arguments about Rush Limbaugh for the time being and recognize that he's undeniably right about this: … I think we all know the answer to that — but here's some hard proof.

Congressman: Stem cell reversal is distraction  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — A top congressional Republican on Sunday criticized President Barack Obama's expected decision to reverse the Bush administration's limits on embryonic stem-cell research, calling it a distraction from the country's economic slump.

N. Korea warns intercepting ‘satellite’ will prompt counterstrike+ … North Korea warned Monday that any move to intercept what it calls a satellite launch and what other countries suspect may be a missile test-firing would result in a counterstrike against the countries trying to stop it.

Attorney general chided for language on race  —  WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama has chided his attorney general, Eric Holder Jr., for describing America as a “nation of cowards” when discussing race, wading into a tumult that flared over Holder's indictment of the way this country talks about ethnicity.

Defending Chas Freeman  —  The Chas Freeman saga continues with the publication of the following letter in The Wall Street Journal: … The authors are Thomas Pickering (ambassador to Jordan, then Nigeria, then El Salvador, then Israel, then the United Nations, then India …

“Cool to be bisexual”  —  Horrible story in today's Dallas Morning News about an East Texas man who survived the home invasion and slaughter of his wife and children, carried out by his and his wife's teenage daughter, Erin, and three of her friends (all of whom pled guilty in the matter).  Excerpt:

US to step up attacks on Pakistan as it forces Taliban to talk  —  The United States is planning to escalate aerial bombing raids on Pakistan's tribal areas in tandem with efforts to force moderate elements of the Taliban to the negotiating table, the Telegraph has learned.

Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court liberal?  —  In a decision last week against the drug company Wyeth, it was the court's most conservative justice who most harshly criticized a Bush administration legal policy.  —  Reporting from Washington — The Supreme Court opinion that drew the most praise …