Top Items:
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Cheney: Obama ‘trying to pretend’ — Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of “trying to pretend we are not at war” with terrorists, pointing to the White House response to the attempted sky bombing as reflecting a pattern that includes banishing the term …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, ABCNEWS, The Moderate Voice, Washington Wire, JustOneMinute, The Atlantic Politics Channel, JOSHUAPUNDIT, The Daily Dish, At-Largely, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Another Black Conservative, Pajamas Media, Boston Globe, Don Surber, Jules Crittenden, The Washington Independent, democracyarsenal.org, Power Line, Daily Kos, Connecting.the.Dots, Cold Fury, GayPatriot, Riehl World View, Flopping Aces, Wizbang, Wall Street Journal, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Hot Air, The Page, TPMDC, NPR Blogs, HotAirPundit and Weasel Zippers
RELATED:
Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
As the Nation's Pulse Races, Obama Can't Seem to Find His — I was walking through a deserted downtown on Christmas Eve with a friend, past the lonely, gray Treasury Building, past the snowy White House with no president inside. — “I hope the terrorists don't think this is a good time to attack …
Josh Gerstein / The Politico:
Obama takes the heat Bush did not — Eight years ago, a terrorist bomber's attempt to blow up a transatlantic airliner was thwarted by a group of passengers, an incident that revealed some gaping holes in airline security just a few months after the attacks of Sept. 11.
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Unfair attack from the Right on Obama's lack of response? — Gary Gross notes this completely unfair attack on Barack Obama's response to the Eunuch Bomber on Christmas Day: … Man, that Bill Kristol can get nasty when Obama makes a mistake, can't he? Oh, wait — that wasn't Kristol?
Discussion:
YID With LID
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
DICK THE COWARD.... It was only a matter of time before Dick Cheney decided to trash the president again. … Let's review a few pesky details. First, it was Cheney's administration that released some of the alleged terrorists who plotted the attack into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” …
Susan Crabtree / The Hill:Feinstein: Halt transfers to Yemen
Discussion:
The Hill, Congress Blog, Hot Air, Betsy's Page, The Page, RedState, Weekly Standard, CNN and YID With LID
William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Obama Can Still Designate Abdulmutallab An Enemy Combatant — Unable to defend themselves on the merits, the administration and Democratic leaders are trying to change the topic to blaming Bush and Republicans. This is pathetic. — First of all, Obama is president. He has been for almost a year.
Discussion:
Political Byline
RELATED:
Susan Page / USA Today:
Poll: Americans most admire Obama, Clinton, Palin — WASHINGTON — President Obama is the man Americans admired most in 2009, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, while Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin are virtually tied as the most-admired woman.
Discussion:
Top of the Ticket, Don Surber, The Washington Independent, alicublog, Conservatives4Palin.com, The Page and Weasel Zippers
RELATED:
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Clinton Edges Out Palin as Most Admired Woman — Obama easily wins Most Admired Man title — PRINCETON, NJ — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues her reign as the Most Admired Woman in the eyes of Americans, but barely edges out former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin this year, 16% to 15%.
Don Walton / Lincoln Journal Star:
Beleaguered Nelson to air TV ad tonight — As a fresh poll measured the political cost of Sen. Ben Nelson's health reform vote, he prepared Tuesday to take his case directly to Nebraskans during Wednesday night's Holiday Bowl game. — Nelson will air a new TV ad in which he attempts …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Michelle Malkin, The Caucus, Scorecard's Blog, TPMDC, Shot in the Dark, Scared Monkeys and Rasmussen Reports
John Schwartz / New York Times:
Debate Over Full-Body Scans vs. Invasion of Privacy Flares Anew After Incident — The technology exists to reveal objects hidden under clothes at airport checkpoints, and many experts say it would have detected the explosive packet carried aboard the Detroit-bound flight last week.
RELATED:
Associated Press:
Somali held last month with chemicals, syringe — ‘We caught him red-handed,’ official says after arrest in Mogadishu airport — MOGADISHU, Somalia - A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that could have caused …
RELATED:
CNN:
8 U.S. deaths at military base in Afghanistan — Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — Eight Americans were killed in a suicide bombing Wednesday at a military base in eastern Afghanistan, according to a U.S. military official and a U.S. Embassy official. — A suicide bomber wearing …
Discussion:
The Page
RELATED:
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS GOOD NEWS FOR REPUBLICANS.... If facts, history, evidence, and reality have no meaning whatsoever — and they may not — then this makes sense. … By all appearances, it doesn't matter if the Republican attacks are baseless and ridiculous. It doesn't matter if Republican national security policies failed.
RELATED:
Laura Saunders / Wall Street Journal:
Rich Cling to Life to Beat Tax Man — Nothing's certain except death and taxes — but a temporary lapse in the estate tax is causing a few wealthy Americans to try to bend those rules. — Starting Jan. 1, the estate tax — which can erase nearly half of a wealthy person's estate — goes away for a year.
Discussion:
Newsweek Blogs, Family Inequality, Ezra Klein, Hullabaloo, MLive.com, Marginal Revolution, Gawker, Greg Mankiw's Blog and NPR Blogs
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Exclusive: Details from Obama's probe — Information that would have kept a bomb off Northwest's Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit was “vague but available” to intelligence agencies, according to officials involved in reviews ordered by President Barack Obama.
Reid Wilson / Hotline On Call:
Dems Blame Bush Admin For Terror Attempt — As GOPers begin increasingly using the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner to score political points, 2 Dems are blaming the Bush admin for events that led directly to the failed attack. — While many Dems stay silent and let the WH lead the way …
Discussion:
The Washington Independent
CNN:
DeMint: Senate could've voted on TSA chief ‘months ago’ — Washington (CNN) - Sen. Jim DeMint, the Republican lawmaker holding up the nomination for the Transportation Security Administration chief, blamed Senate Majority Harry Reid Tuesday for the delay, saying the Senate could have voted on his nomination “months ago.”
Discussion:
Weekly Standard
Joe Klein / Time:
Bloggers Left and Right Agree to Hate Health Care Reform — In the snarkier precincts of the left-wing blogosphere, mainstream journalists like me are often called villagers. The reference, so far as I can tell, has to do with isolation: we live in this little village on the Potomac …
Discussion:
TalkLeft
Senior Data Journalist, NY — 
Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — 
Oil Reporter, Singapore — 
Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — 
Business Reporter, SC — 
State Government Reporter, WA — 
Climate Crisis Columnist — 
Multimedia Journalist, CA — 
Community Engagement Mgr., DC — 
Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — 
Staff Writer - Business, NY — 
Team Editor - Opinion, ON — 
Assistant Correspondent, DC — 
Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — 
Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — 
Lead Business Reporter, TN — 
Managing Editor, WA — 
Private Credit Reporter, NY — 
Trending News Reporter, TX — 
City Correspondent, London — 
Legislative Reporter, CA — 
Reporter, PA — 
Visual Editor, Remote — 
Staff Writer, MI — 
Senior Political Reporter, DC — 
California Playbook Writer, CA — 
National Investigative Reporter, NY — 
Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — 
Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — 
Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — 
Coordinating Editor, OR — 
Editor, Remote US — 
Business Reporter, WA — 
Editor-in-Chief, AZ — 
