Lieberman Gets Ex-Party to Shift on Health Plan  —  WASHINGTON — Just the thought of Joseph I. Lieberman makes some Democrats want to spit nails these days.  But Mr. Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, is not the least troubled by his status as Capitol Hill's master infuriator …

Liberals Target Rahm Emanuel in New TV Ad  —  ABC News' David Chalian Reports:  —  In addition to targeting key moderate and liberal Democrats, liberal activists now have White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in their sights.  —  The new anti-Emanuel campaign comes on the heels …

Inconvenient truth for Al Gore as his North Pole sums don't add up  —  Hannah Devlin, Ben Webster, Philippe Naughton in Copenhagen  —  There are many kinds of truth.  Al Gore was poleaxed by an inconvenient one yesterday.  —  The former US Vice-President, who became an unlikely figurehead …

Herseth Sandlin's Standing  —  The Democratic brand in South Dakota is not very strong right now, and that has Stephanie Herseth Sandlin looking at her toughest fight for reelection since 2004 next year despite the fact that she herself is pretty popular.  —  52% of voters in the state disapprove …

Putting Obama on Hold, in a Hint of Who's Boss  —  President Obama didn't exactly look thrilled as he stared at the Polycom speakerphone in front of him.  “Well, I appreciate you guys calling in,” he began the meeting at the White House with Wall Street's top brass on Monday.

Taunton second-grader suspended over drawing of Jesus  —  A Taunton father is outraged after his 8-year-old son was sent home from school and required to undergo a psychological evaluation after drawing a stick-figure picture of Jesus Christ on the cross.  —  The father said he got …

Obama's Christian Realism  —  If you were graduating from Princeton in the first part of the 20th century, you probably heard the university president, John Hibben, deliver one of his commencement addresses.  Hibben's running theme, which was common at that time, was that each person is part angel, part devil.

Eugene Robinson on Sarah Palin's flip-flop on climate change  —  Sarah Palin is such a cold-eyed skeptic about the Copenhagen summit on climate change that it's no surprise she would call on President Obama not to attend.  After all, Obama might join other leaders in acknowledging that warming is a “global challenge.”

Why Progressives Are Bats**t Crazy to Oppose the Senate Bill  —  Pick your subheadline:  —  a) It's time to stop being polite and start getting real.  —  b) Here's hoping a picture is worth 1,000 words.  —  Any questions?  —  OK, I imagine that there will be a few.  Here's how I came up with these numbers.

House Democrats lose fourth member to retirement  —  Caucus privately expresses concern about implications  —  House Democrats got a jolt Monday when a fourth lawmaker in a matter of weeks announced his retirement, leaving party officials and strategists fearful that they represent …

DOE sends a “litigation hold notice” regarding CRU to employees - asking to “preserve documents”  —  It appears bigger things are brewing related to CRU's Climategate.  —  WUWT commenter J.C. writes in comments:  —  I work at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina.

Bill O'reilly Admits Obama is Smarter than George W. Bush  —  I got Bill O'reilly to admit that President Obama is smarter than George W. Bush on the O'reilly Factor last night.  He also said that the folks at Fox like people who are smart.  —  Here's the segment:  —  More on Late Night Shows

Trusting Nature as the Climate Referee  —  Imagine there's no Copenhagen.  —  Imagine a planet in which global warming was averted without the periodic need for thousands of people to fly around the world to promise to stop burning fossil fuels.  Imagine no international conferences wrangling over the details of climate policy.

Paterson Approval Up, But Dems Back Cuomo Almost 3-1, Quinnipiac University New York State Poll Finds; Thompson Tops Gillibrand In Dem Senate Primary  —  New York Gov. David Paterson continues his climb out of the basement, as voters disapprove 49 - 40 percent of the job he is doing …

Poll: Obama approval rating positive, but just barely  —  There's a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll out today and Washington bureau chief Susan Page has the latest on President Obama's numbers:  —  When he was inaugurated in January, Obama scored a job rating of 64% approve-25% disapprove …

Don't Blame the Billionaires  —  Who cares about the excesses of the rich?  It's the fate of the poor that matters.  —  When I was growing up, my mother used to sing me the old adage, “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” before hastening to add, “And it's all Ronald Reagan's fault.”

Conservatives grab for tea party cash  —  “It's time for the tea party movement to start flexing its muscle in the electoral process,” Odom said in announcing the launch of Liberty First, which he said collected $11,500 in its first week of fundraising, and has accepted pledges for another $98,000.

U.S. Said to Pick Illinois Prison to House Detainees  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is expected to announce on Tuesday that it has selected a prison in northwestern Illinois to house terrorism suspects now being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in a major step toward shutting down that military detention facility.

Poll Reveals Trauma of Joblessness in U.S.  —  More than half of the nation's unemployed workers have borrowed money from friends or relatives since losing their jobs.  An equal number have cut back on doctor visits or medical treatments because they are out of work.  —  Almost half have suffered from depression or anxiety.

Bill of Rights Day  —  Since today is Bill of Rights Day, it seems like an appropriate time to pause and consider the condition of the safeguards set forth in our fundamental legal charter.  —  Let's consider each amendment in turn.  —  The First Amendment says that Congress “shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech.”

Obama's ‘sexy’ insulation talk: New jobs  —  President Barack Obama went to Home Depot today.  —  “Seeing how Christmas is right around the corner, and we're at Home Depot, I figured I might knock out some of my shopping,” the president said at the icon of the big-box stores in Northern Virginia.