First, stop doing harm  —  “I can't see it,” Olympia Snowe said after considering the Medicare buy-in proposal for a day or two.  “I am talking to a lot of my providers this afternoon and I know they are mighty unhappy.”  —  “My providers.”  Think about that for a second.

Harry Reid Slips Lifetime Limit into Senate Bill  —  When President Obama gave his speech on health care on September 10, he promised that there would be no limit on lifetime benefits under the health care bill: … Harry Reid didn't agree evidently.  Reid, who is solely responsible …

UN Security Stops Journalist's Questions About ClimateGate  —  A Stanford Professor has used United Nation security officers to silence a journalist asking him “inconvenient questions” during a press briefing at the climate change conference in Copenhagen.  —  Professor Stephen Schneider's …

Sign a Letter to Susan B. Komen Foundation: Donations Shouldn't Go To Hadassah Lieberman  —  The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation Headquarters  —  The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and Susan G. Komen for the Cure are driving forces in funding breast cancer research.

Al Qaeda Operations Planner Saleh Al-Somali Believed Dead in Drone Strike  —  Believed Killed Tuesday Along Lawless Tribal Areas of Western Pakistan  —  The senior al Qaeda operative killed in a drone strike in Pakistan earlier this week was Saleh al-Somali, a major operations planner for the terrorist group, ABC News has learned.

For feds, more get 6-figure salaries  —  The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.  —  Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during …

Jenny Sanford: ‘I am now filing for divorce’  —  S.C. First Lady Jenny Sanford issued a statement this morning saying that she is filing for divorce from embattled Gov. Mark Sanford, who disclosed this summer that he had had an extramarital affair with a woman from Argentina.  —  Jenny Sanford's statement says:

The new socialism  —  In the 1970s and early '80s, having seized control of the U.N. apparatus (by power of numbers), Third World countries decided to cash in.  OPEC was pulling off the greatest wealth transfer from rich to poor in history.  Why not them?  So in grand U.N. declarations …

Baucus gave girlfriend $14K raise  —  Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, gave a nearly $14,000 pay raise to a female staffer in 2008, at the time he was becoming romantically involved with her, and later that year took her on a taxpayer-funded trip …

Kathleen Parker on Obama's triumph at Oslo  —  After Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize speech, anyone still questioning whether he is really a Christian, rather than a Muslim aligned with fanaticism, needs to seek therapy forthwith.  —  Anyone still unconvinced that Obama is really an American committed …

House Votes to Tighten Regulation of Wall Street  —  WASHINGTON — The House on Friday approved a Democratic plan to significantly tighten federal regulation of Wall Street and the financial sector, advancing a far-reaching Congressional response to the financial crisis still reverberating through the economy.

The Errors of Matt Taibbi.  —  Matt Taibbi has done it again — written a nightmare of a story for Rolling Stone on Obama's economic sell-out of his campaign.  The piece is a factual mess, a conspiracy theorist's dream, doesn't even indict Obama for his real failures (which I'll discuss …

Tea partyers petition Dem lawmaker to move office to make protests easier  —  A Christian civil liberties organization on Thursday asked centrist Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) to move his district office to a location more favorable to protesters.  —  The Rutherford Institute …

One problem with Republicans: They've got the wrong Mitch  —  INDIANAPOLIS Earlier this week, I found myself in the majestic office of Indiana's diminutive governor, Mitch Daniels, talking about health care.  —  Daniels is a rarity these days, an incredibly popular Republican politician …

Sarah Palin's Copenhagen-Bashing Op-Ed One Of Most Read WaPo Opinion Pieces Of The Year  —  Here's a dispiriting postscript to the massive flap over The Washington Post's decision to publish an Op ed by Sarah Palin on climate change, a piece that has been widely criticized as riddled with falsehoods.

Are Democrats Sunk?  —  A friend of mine from Virgina forwarded an email to me today from the NRCC.  It started like this: … I laughed it off, but he wasn't having any: … Comments?  Is lefty obsession with the public option going to torpedo Dems in 2010?

Bernie Madoff, the $19 Billion Con, Makes New Friends Behind Bars  —  A Year After His Arrest, Inmate No. 61727-054 Settles In — Only 1,795 Months to Go  —  BUTNER, N.C. — Bernard L. Madoff's life of country clubs and luxury homes ended when federal agents arrested him at his Manhattan penthouse apartment exactly one year ago.

Spanking and the 2008 election … More here.The most interesting part of the study is that this is apparently a new divide in American politics.

Sen. Durbin says he's ‘in the dark’ on possible healthcare reform compromise  —  The 10 Democratic senators who crafted a healthcare compromise are keeping its details a secret, says Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Friday.  —  Responding to a complaint by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) …

Abercrombie to resign from Congress to run for governor  —  U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie announced today that he is resigning from Congress to run for governor full time.  —  In an announcement on his campaign Web site, the Hawaii Democrat said that after much thought and consideration, he decided to leave office.

DOJ rejects Jack Johnson pardon  —  The Department of Justice has rejected Congressional attempts to pardon turn-of-the-last-century boxer Jack Johnson, a black heavyweight champion who was jailed for violation of the notorious “white slavery” Mann Act.  —  The department's pardons attorney wrote …

A gun case or Pandora's box?  —  Ruling could trigger the unhinging of American culture  —  Many have heard about the historic gun rights case going to the Supreme Court.  Fewer have heard that this is also a major case for businesses and family values.  It could lead to anything from court-ordered Obamacare to same-sex marriage.

Washington Fuss Over White House Hanukkah Party  —  WASHINGTON — At the first Hanukkah party in the Obama White House, a Jewish student choir will sing in sweet harmony, the two young children of a soldier deployed in Iraq will light a 19th-century silver menorah from Prague and President Obama and his wife …

Clinton whips Iran on sites … No comments yet.  Be the first!

John McCain, critic-in-chief  —  Barack Obama began his presidency with an open hand toward the man he had just defeated in a race that was at times bitter.  —  “There are few Americans who understand this need for common purpose and common effort better than John McCain,” …

Did Clinton have it easy?  —  Noam Scheiber compares the task facing deficit hawks in 2009 to the task facing deficit hawks in 1993: … One point that doesn't get very well explained in these arguments is that it's easier to cut the deficit when the economy is growing.