Senators ‘troubled’ after Rice talk  —  Sen. John McCain and two other GOP senators said they were “significantly troubled” after a private meeting with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice about her erroneous explanation of the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

North Korea's top leader named The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive for 2012  —  é‡'.... .æ°"  —  Edited and translated by Zhang Qian, People's Daily Online  —  U.S. website The Onion has named North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un as the “Sexiest Man Alive for the year 2012”.

Is Grover Finally Over?  —  I once took a long train ride with Grover Norquist.  This wasn't intentional.  We found ourselves next to each other on the line to board an Acela from Washington, D.C., to New York, and we fell into a conversation, by which I mean that he did a great deal of talking …

Tom Ricks: Fox News ‘is making it up’  —  Author Tom Ricks on Tuesday said Fox News is “making it up” that he apologized after slamming the network during an on-air interview as “operating as a wing of the Republican Party” and hyping Benghazi for political reasons.

The other fiscal fight  —  President Barack Obama made a demand of House Speaker John Boehner near the end of their first White House meeting on the fiscal cliff: Raise the debt limit before year's end.  —  Boehner responded: “There is a price for everything.”

The Next Mitt Romney  —  Jeb was neutral.  —  Say again, neutral.  —  As Ronald Reagan might say, there he went again.  —  What was Jeb Bush neutral about?  —  The choice between liberal Charlie Crist and conservative Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination for United States Senator from Florida.

CNN Poll: Americans rate W.H. response to Benghazi attack and Petraeus resignation  —  Washington (CNN) - Americans are giving the White House low marks for how it's handled the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the resignation of former CIA Director David Petraeus, according to a new national survey.

Cox and Archer: Why $16 Trillion Only Hints at the True U.S. Debt  —  Hiding the government's liabilities from the public makes it seem that we can tax our way out of mounting deficits.  We can't.  —  A decade and a half ago, both of us served on President Clinton's Bipartisan Commission …

Idaho lawmaker shares ‘last chance’ idea to elect Romney  —  A state senator from north-central Idaho is touting a scheme that's been circulating on tea party blogs, calling for states that supported Mitt Romney to refuse to participate in the Electoral College in a move backers believe would change the election result.

City Is Amassing Trove of Cellphone Logs  —  When a cellphone is reported stolen in New York, the Police Department routinely subpoenas the phone's call records, from the day of the theft onward.  The logic is simple: If a thief uses the phone, a list of incoming and outgoing calls could lead to the suspect.

Virginia Attorney General Suggests Obama Stole The Election … Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) told a radio host he completely agreed with her assertion that investigations are needed to determine why President Obama lost “every one” of the states with photo identification requirements for voting, yet won re-election.

Most-Racial America  —  Antiwhite bigotry goes mainstream.  —  “Everytime [sic] I think the Democratic race card players could not get more vile, more deranged, more patronizingly demeaning to blacks, someone manages to defy even my vivid imagination,” thunders blogger William Jacobson.

Martha Coakley's got it made on road to Corner Office  —  She is the woman who couldn't beat Scott Brown, but now she's the Democrats' best hope to keep the governor's office in 2014.  —  Don't laugh, but that woman is Attorney General Martha Coakley.  —  Lt. Gov. Tim Murray?  Treasurer Steve Grossman?

The Internet's Best Terrible Person Goes to Jail: Can a Reviled Master Troll Become a Geek Hero?  —  On a gray Wednesday morning in October, the car headed west on the Lincoln Highway Bridge hit 100 miles per hour and I started to worry it might hurtle off into the tangle of rusted …

Dems Defend Filibuster Reform Effort: ‘McConnell Has Broken The Social Contract’  —  On the Senate floor Monday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell railed against his counterpart, Harry Reid, and a “cohort of short-sighted Senate sophomores,” for proposing to modify …

Republican senators introduce alternate DREAM Act legislation  —  Sens. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) on Tuesday introduced an alternative bill to the DREAM Act that would allow undocumented immigrants brought here as children to stay in the U.S. without an expedited pathway to citizenship.

Gazans Crossing Fence ‘into IDF Positions’  —  IDF soldiers describe dangerous anarchy on border fence as result of Pillar of Defense agreements.  —  IDF soldiers stationed along the border fence with Gaza say they have received new orders on opening fire, which allow Arabs in Gaza …

Germany to ban sex with animals: report  —  THE German government is about to reintroduce a ban on bestiality, after pressure from animal welfare groups.  —  Newspaper die Tageszeitung reports that the governing coalition are soon to amend the country's Animal Welfare Act to make sex …