Chuck Schumer vs. President Obama  —  It wasn't on the White House's official schedule, but on Nov. 22 Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) quietly slipped into the Oval Office on a self-appointed mission to steel Barack Obama for the tax cut fight.  —  Schumer, the newly anointed message guru …

Bernie Sanders filibuster stalls Senate  —  Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders launched a lonely but passionate seven-hour filibuster on the Senate floor Friday afternoon to protest a tax deal that liberals hate yet seems headed toward passage in the Senate.  —  An outspoken opponent …

Swindle of the year  —  Barack Obama won the great tax-cut showdown of 2010 - and House Democrats don't have a clue that he did.  In the deal struck this week, the president negotiated the biggest stimulus in American history, larger than his $814 billion 2009 stimulus package.

Assange Lawyers Prepare for U.S. Spying Indictment  —  Attorney Says American Indictment Related to Espionage Act Imminent for Wikileaks Founder  —  Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the man behind the publication of more than a 250,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables …

BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL  —  Obama honors Nobel winner with statement about himself  —  There was an extraordinary scene at the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo Friday morning.  The prize went to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was barred by the Chinese government from attending the ceremony.

Levi's Story  —  A study on “When Marriage Disappears: The Retreat from Marriage in Middle America” was published Monday by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values.

Richard Wolffe mocks Palin and C.S. Lewis as just “a children's author”  —  I don't know if I should expect any better from ignoramuses from MSNBC, but this is supposedly a “respectable news organization” with shallow and arrogant individuals who only live to ridicule and belittle without thinking.

A bill to provide for the repeal of the Department of Defense policy concerning homosexuality in...  Overview … The text of this legislation is not yet available on GovTrack.  It may not have been made available by the Government Printing Office yet.  —  Introduced  —  Referred to Committee

Wow I am disgusted by Peter Orszag's move to Citigroup  —  This morning's New York Times includes a nice column by Peter Orszag about disability.  It begins with the words “I will begin a new job for Citigroup in January, so this is my last article.”  Page 6 of the business section provides …

Man In the Middle?  —  I think President Obama will benefit politically from the tax compromise, both because the economy will improve—somewhat, anyway—and because some voters will perceive him as more of a centrist.  But I agree with Peggy Noonan that Obama didn't help himself with those who actually watched his press conference:

Introducing “The Cannabis Closet”  —  Longtime Dishheads will remember that rather extraordinary reader email thread that had to do with secret middle-class, mainstream marijuana use - for medical and non-medical reasons.  The thread “The Cannabis Closet” began with one reader email in March 2009 …

The Strategic Mistake of a Decade.  —  Now that the Senate has killed DADT repeal, I wonder if anyone remembers this? … Democrats and moderate Republicans responded with a “Gang of 12” that would preserve the judicial filibuster while allowing some of Bush's nominees to go through.

IKE'S SPEECH  —  Afew months ago, Grant Moos was closing his boathouse, near Hackensack, Minnesota, as he does every summer, tying up loose ends, sweeping up debris.  This year, though, his sister Kathy insisted that it was finally time to do something about six cardboard boxes that for decades …

The Great College-Degree Scam  —  With the help of a small army of researchers and associates (most importantly, Chris Matgouranis, Jonathan Robe, and Chris Denhart) and starting with help from Douglas Himes of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Center for College Affordability and Productivity …

QUOTE OF THE DAY.... I'm trying to decide which congressional observation is the dumbest thing I've read today.  It's a tough call.  —  Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), for example, are arguing that the tax policy agreement reached by the White House …

House and Senate budget chiefs: Prepare for cuts  —  Americans should prepare themselves for spending cuts by Congress next year, the chairmen of the House and Senate's budget committees said Friday.  —  Both Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee …

Americans in Poll Want Deficit Cut With Entitlements Secured  —  Americans want Congress to bring down a federal budget deficit that many believe is “dangerously out of control,” only under two conditions: minimize the pain and make the rich pay.  —  The public wants Congress to keep …

DADT Repeal: Heads They Win; Tails We Lose  —  If it fails in the Senate - despite solid public support, endorsement from the Joint Chiefs, backing from the Defense Secretary, a big majority in the House and a 57 - 40 vote in the Senate - what does this say about gays having a fair chance in the legislative process?

Obama's Very Good Week  —  Over the past week we've seen the big differences between cluster liberals and network liberals.  Cluster liberals (like cluster conservatives) view politics as a battle between implacable opponents.  As a result, they believe victory is achieved through maximum unity.

MAKING THE RANK-AND-FILE LOOK REASONABLE BY COMPARISON.... Jay Bookman notes a couple of interesting poll results this week, measuring Republican voters' attitudes on some key issues.  —  Gallup, for example, found that almost half of the country's GOP voters support repealing the existing “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy.