White House as helpless victim on health care  —  Of all the posts I wrote this year, the one that produced the most vociferious email backlash — easily — was this one from August, which examined substantial evidence showing that, contrary to Obama's occasional public statements in support …

COBURN SLAMS HIS FOOT ON THE BRAKE.... There was a point, about a month ago, in which Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) threatened to ignore institutional norms and force the reading of the entire health care bill, just to delay the process.  Fortunately, he backed off.

SHENANIGANS: SCHUMER HAS A FLIGHT TO FORGET  —  Schumer has a flight to forget  —  Sen. Chuck Schumer loves the sound of his own voice, but it carried a bit farther than he might have liked on the US Airways shuttle from New York to Washington on Sunday.  —  According to a House Republican aide …

Person of the Year 2009  —  The story of the year was a weak economy that could have been much, much weaker.  Thank the man who runs the Federal Reserve, our mild-mannered economic overlord  —  Ben Bernanke  —  A bald man with a gray beard and tired eyes is sitting in his oversize Washington office, talking about the economy.

www.jihad.com  —  Let's not fool ourselves.  Whatever threat the real Afghanistan poses to U.S. national security, the “Virtual Afghanistan” now poses just as big a threat.  The Virtual Afghanistan is the network of hundreds of jihadist Web sites that inspire, train, educate and recruit young Muslims …

President Obama writes a new health reform prescription  —  On the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to take on the drug industry by allowing Americans to import cheaper prescription medicine.  “We'll tell the pharmaceutical companies ‘thanks, but no, thanks’ for the overpriced drugs …

Five Health Reform Whoppers  —  This article appeared on Sphere.com (AOL) on December 14, 2009. … When it comes to health care reform, the White House and its allies on Capitol Hill seem to live in an alternate universe.  —  The White House Council of Economic Advisers just released …

Chaos at climate conference  —  COPENHAGEN — The Copenhagen climate change conference appeared to be imploding from within and exploding from without on Wednesday.  —  Police fired tear gas, brandished batons and detained more than 200 protesters who tried to push through the security cordon around …

NBC POLL: PUBLIC SOURS ON HEALTH REFORM  —  From NBC's Mark Murray  —  As the Senate sprints to pass a health-care bill by Christmas, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that those believing President Obama's health-reform plan is a good idea has sunk to its lowest level.

Mystery as Lockerbie bomber goes missing from home and hospital  —  Mystery surrounded the Lockerbie bomber last night after he could not be reached at his home or in hospital.  —  Libyan officials could say nothing about the whereabouts of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, and his Scottish monitors could not contact him by telephone.

Would cutting the minimum wage raise employment?  —  It seems that more and more Serious People (and Fox News) are rallying around the idea that if Obama really wants to create jobs, he should cut the minimum wage.  —  So let me repeat a point I made a number of times back when the usual suspects …

U.S. gave up billions in tax money in deal for Citigroup's bailout repayment  —  Deal made to recover bailout Firms exempted from rule when U.S. sells its stake  —  The federal government quietly agreed to forgo billions of dollars in potential tax payments from Citigroup as part …

Dean group attacks mandate  —  Democracy for America, the successor to the Dean campaign, which is now run by his brother, is out today with an email attacking health care legislation on a vulnerable point: The individual mandate.  That's the feature candidate Obama used against Hillary Clinton …

Speaker Pelosi to shield vulnerable members from controversial votes  —  Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has privately told her politically vulnerable Democratic members that they will not vote on controversial bills in 2010 unless the Senate acts first.  —  After a year of bruising legislative …

Exclusive: Former Edwards Aide Speaks Out on Scandal, Affair  —  Exclusive: Bob Woodruff to Interview Andrew Young for ‘20/20’; Live Interview With George Stephanopoulos for ‘GMA’  —  Sen. John Edwards' former longtime aide and one of his most trusted friends, Andrew Young will speak exclusively …

Rubio Touts His Polling: Rasmussen Puts Him Even With Crist  —  Conservative Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio is touting a new poll today, conducted by the often conservative-friendly Rasmussen, that shows him in a tie with Gov. Charlie Crist in the state's Republican Senate primary.

Michael Moore calls for boycott of Connecticut  —  Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore on Thursday called for a boycott of the state of Connecticut in reaction to Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-Conn.) opposition to key provisions of healthcare reform legislation.  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid …

A Fish Oil Story  —  “WHAT'S the deal with fish oil?”  —  If you are someone who catches and eats a lot of fish, as I am, you get adept at answering questions about which fish are safe, which are sustainable and which should be avoided altogether.  But when this fish oil question arrived in my inbox recently, I was stumped.

Impeachment dropped in S.C.  —  South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has escaped impeachment threats.  —  The Judiciary Committee of the South Carolina state House dropped impeachment charges against the scandal plagued governor on Wednesday, choosing instead to approve a measure censuring the governor.

THE SOURCE OF THE DEFICIT MESS.... Republican lawmakers and far-right activists have suddenly discovered, after eight years of dramatic fiscal irresponsibility, that they care deeply about deficit reduction again.  Worse, they're absolutely convinced that President Obama and those free-spending Democrats …