Dems agree to drop gov't-run insurance option  —  WASHINGTON — Democratic senators say they have a tentative deal to drop a government-run insurance option from health care legislation.  No further details were immediately available.  —  But liberals and moderates have been discussing an alternative …

Copenhagen's political science  —  With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face a tipping point.  The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public …

Exclusive: George gets ‘GMA’  —  ABC News will announce George Stephanopoulos as an anchor of “Good Morning America,” to start as soon as Monday, industry sources tell POLITICO.  The announcement is planned for Thursday.  —  Stephanopoulos, 48, joins Robin Roberts at the anchor desk of the lucrative morning show.

EPA chief: Timing is a coincidence  —  COPENHAGEN— Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson insisted Wednesday that her agency did not time the release of its global-warming endangerment finding to jump-start climate talks here.  —  “The endangerment finding and the work …

Dick Cheney: Obama Does Not Share That Belief in American Exceptionalism (Video)  —  Former VP Dick Cheney was on with Sean Hannity tonight.  During the interview Cheney said that, “Barack Obama does not share that belief of American exceptionalism that most of us believe in.”

TSA accidentally reveals airport security secrets  —  The Transportation Security Administration inadvertently revealed closely guarded secrets related to airport passenger screening practices when it posted online this spring a document as part of a contract solicitation, the agency confirmed Tuesday.

Sarah in the Springs  —  We had frigid weather and several inches of Goreflakes on the ground here in Colorado Springs, but Sarah Palin lit up the town for a Borders signing earlier this evening that drew yet another massive crowd on her nationwide “Going Rogue” book tour.

What My Amendment Won't Do  —  OVER the past month there has been a great deal of discussion about the Stupak-Ellsworth-Pitts amendment in the House health care reform bill.  Unfortunately, much of this discussion has been driven by misinformation about what our amendment does and does not do.

A Transaction Tax Would Hurt All Investors  —  The unintended consequences of the ‘Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act.’  —  'Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree.  " Those famous words were spoken more than 30 years ago by the late Louisiana …

Climate Deal Likely to Bear Big Price Tag  —  WASHINGTON — If negotiators reach an accord at the climate talks in Copenhagen it will entail profound shifts in energy production, dislocations in how and where people live, sweeping changes in agriculture and forestry and the creation of complex …

Kathleen Parker on Rick Santorum's return to the national political stage  —  Is Rick Santorum running for president of the United States, or isn't he?  —  I caught him by phone on a people mover at Dulles Airport and posed the question: He's not running, then again, he's not NOT running.

Going Cheney on Climate  —  In 2006, Ron Suskind published “The One Percent Doctrine,” a book about the U.S. war on terrorists after 9/11.  The title was drawn from an assessment by then-Vice President Dick Cheney, who, in the face of concerns that a Pakistani scientist was offering nuclear-weapons expertise …

White House wants suit against Yoo dismissed  —  (12-07) 11:33 PST SAN FRANCISCO — The Obama administration has asked an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing former Bush administration attorney John Yoo of authorizing the torture of a terrorism suspect, saying federal law does …

Civil Liberties Group Loses $20 Million Donor  —  A longtime anonymous donor to the American Civil Liberties Union has withdrawn his annual gift of more than $20 million, punching a 25 percent hole in its annual operating budget and forcing cutbacks in operations.