The Dickishness Of The GOP  —  What we've observed these past two years is a political party that knows nothing but scorched earth tactics, cannot begin to see any merits in the other party's arguments, refuses to compromise one inch on anything, and has sought from the very beginning to do nothing but destroy the Obama presidency.

The Ambitions of Julian Assange  —  Will Wilkinson makes the case for Julian Assange: … If it's the best we can hope for, then we're in even more trouble than I thought.  The problem of the permanent state is a real one, but occasional mass data dumps like the one WikiLeaks just provided …

Ted Strickland: Democrats Suffering From ‘Intellectual Elitism’  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … WASHINGTON — Fresh off a narrow loss in his gubernatorial re-election campaign, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland on Wednesday offered some somber and sober-minded criticism for his own party and president.

Palin, I knew Reagan.  You're no Reagan.  —  Editor's note: Ed Rollins, a senior political contributor for CNN, is senior presidential fellow at the Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency at Hofstra University.  He is a principal with the Dilenschneider Group, a global public relations firm.

Pentagon: We could have shut down Wikileaks but chose not to  —  I hope he's telling the truth.  Because if our cyberwar unit is so weak that they can't hit a few servers in Sweden, then I, for one, welcome our new Chinese overlords.  The key question: Was this decision driven chiefly by military or political concerns?

Boehner to create women's restroom adjacent to House floor  —  Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-Ohio) intends to commandeer a swanky office space adjacent to the House floor and build a women's restroom for female lawmakers.  —  For years, men have had the luxury of using facilities located adjacent …

Co-host spittin' mad over Spitzer  —  Tweet  —  Eliot Spitzer's TV sidekick is so fed up with playing second fiddle to the hooker-loving ex-gov that she's threatening to walk, sources told The Post yesterday.  —  Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker actually stormed off the set of the …

Bowles-Simpson vs Current Law  —  Surely the strangest thing about the Bowles-Simpson debt reduction plan is that, relative to current law, it . . . increases the public debt load over the next ten years:  —  Obviously starting around 2020 or so Bowles-Simpson starts doing better than current law …

Obama administration reimposes offshore oil drilling ban  —  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Wednesday afternoon that the Obama administration will not allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as part of the next five-year drilling plan …

RNC official admits to a “cashflow challenge”  —  In a memo sent to vendors Tuesday, the Republican National Committee's chief administrative officer acknowledged that the committee is facing a “cashflow challenge” and that many of those who provided political services to it during the 2010 election …

Matt Stoller: End This Fed  —  By Matt Stoller, the former Senior Policy Advisor for Rep. Alan Grayson.  His Twitter feed is @matthewstoller … Something new is happening around the contours of monetary policy.  It's becoming part of our popular political landscape.

In Memoriam: House climate committee  —  The House Democrats' prized global warming committee died quietly on Wednesday.  —  It was four years old.  —  Created in 2007 by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to draw attention to the causes and effects of climate change …

County Recorder in Massachusetts Goes After MERS  —  This is one of those mind-blowing days, one I don't feel like I have much of a grip on.  But with all the despair with the federal government, the power structure that protects the banks at all costs, etc., it's worth looking at some potential good news for a change.

Fiscal Commission Final Report  —  Get your fresh catfood!  —  FDL has obtained a copy of the Catfood Commission final report in advance of its official 9:30 release.  —  It can be downloaded here: PDF  —  Their reigning spirit of self-importance comes through on the very first page: “The Moment of Truth.”

You Are No Longer Free To Move About the Country  —  Janet Napolitano said last month that we should expect to soon see tighter restrictions at bus, train, and marine transportation centers, too.  Here's a report about TSA, Border Patrol, and local police setting up a checkpoint at a Greyhound station in Tampa.

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann Hillary Is Up to Her Old Tricks  —  The Wikileaks documents show that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has, as Voltaire said about the Bourbon kings of France, learned nothing and forgotten nothing.  —  Her request that American diplomats at foreign postings …

The Right Under Bush vs The Left Under Obama  —  Ross sharpens his point: … On the last point, I don't believe drone attacks are morally more troubling than torture (if Ross reads his catechism, he'll come to the same conclusion) - and dismayed that Ross would use the Orwellian term …

Pentagon Spokesman: We Could Have Shut Down WikiLeaks, But We Decided Not To  —  Throughout all the fallout of WikiLeaks' latest release, many have been asking why the government didn't stop the organization before the cables were released (For instance, Glenn Beck compared it to the ease with which they shut down other illegal sites).

Diplomats Noted Canadian Mistrust Toward U.S.  —  WASHINGTON — In early 2008, American diplomats stationed in Ottawa turned on their television sets and were aghast: there was an “onslaught” of Canadian shows depicting “nefarious American officials carrying out equally nefarious deeds in Canada …

Big Web  —  Amazon has terminated the account of Wikileaks and apparently the site has been down most of the day.  Joe Lieberman has issued a statement on Amazon's decision.  Amazon has not commented directly on what happened to Wikileaks account.  But they appear to have told Lieberman …