GOP Senator: ‘I Care More About My Country Than I Do About A 20-Year-Old Tax Pledge’  —  Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) said that fixing the nation's debt problem may require breaking Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge, telling a Georgia television station Wednesday that “I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge.”

The GOP's bizarre attack on Susan Rice  —  SINCE THE Senate is solely responsible for the confirmation of Cabinet officers, it's not often that members of the House of Representatives jump into a debate about the nomination of a secretary of state — particularly before there has been a nomination.

President Morsi in Egypt Seizes New Powers  —  CAIRO — With a constitutional assembly on the brink of collapse and protesters battling the police in the streets over the slow pace of change, President Mohamed Morsi issued a decree on Thursday granting himself broad powers above any court …

Who's Really to Blame for the Wal-Mart Strikes?  The American Consumer  —  The Wal-Mart workers threatening to walk off the job on Black Friday aren't just fighting their employer.  They're fighting a whole system.  —  Forget the stampeding shoppers, the half-priced waffle irons …

Letter: Employers using loopholes in ACA  —  When my better half told me that her boss was thinking about cutting all full-time employees to part time in order to avoid the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act insurance requirements (for full-time employees), my initial response was …

Jeb Bush in 2016?  Not Too Early for Chatter  —  CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Now that the Obama and Romney campaigns have closed their headquarters in Chicago and Boston, the attention of the political world is shifting to an office suite tucked behind the colonnades of the Biltmore Hotel complex here.

One-Party Control Opens States to Partisan Rush  —  CHICAGO — Come January, more than two-thirds of the states will be under single-party control, raising the prospect that bold partisan agendas — on both ends of the political spectrum — will flourish over the next couple of years.

GOP Plan B on taxes: Protect business owners  —  It may be time to add another phrase to the fiscal cliff lexicon: carve-out.  —  Republicans in the Senate are brainstorming ways to shield small businesses from tax hikes should they be unable to persuade President Barack Obama to extend the Bush tax rate cuts for everyone.

The GOP Turnout Myth  —  To win future elections, Republicans will need more than better get-out-the-vote software.  —  To win the next presidential race, the GOP will have to understand what went wrong in 2012.  To do that, they've got to come to grips with what did, and did not, happen with turnout.

Seeking Ways to Raise Taxes but Leave Tax Rate As Is  —  WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators, trying to avert a fiscal crisis in January, are examining ideas that would allow effective tax rates to rise for the wealthy without technically raising the top tax rate of 35 percent.

Black Friday Live Blog: 400 picket, leaflet, mic check, and sing in Maryland (Updated 12:30 PM)  —  Check this space for updates throughout the day, and please send tips to jeidelson at gmail dot com.  —  12:30 PM: HANOVER and SEVERN, MD - 400-some activists, union members …

Gaza violence leads lawmakers to call for shuttering terror groups on Twitter  —  The past week's violence in Gaza has rekindled calls for Twitter to shutter the accounts of U.S.-labeled terror groups such as Hamas.  —  Seven House Republicans asked the FBI in September to demand that Twitter …