Reasons to be encouraged about fiscal cliff's endgame  —  Now this is encouraging.  I'm told that representatives of major unions and progressive groups met privately this morning with senior Obama administration officials at the White House — and were pleased with what they heard.

Nude Protesters Arrested After Storming Speaker Boehner's Office  —  Seven naked protesters swarmed the office of Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Tuesday for some 20 minutes of loud chanting against cuts to AIDS funding.  —  Among their chants: “Boehner, Boehner, don't be a dick, budget cuts will make us sick.”

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.

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.

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”.

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.

Harry Reid puts his finger on the ‘nuclear option’ button  —  So here's today's update in the slow, inexorable march towards filibuster reform: Democrats took yet another step in the direction of changing the rules by a simple majority vote — i.e., exercising the dreaded “nuclear option.”

RADIO'S LAURA INGRAHAM OFF THE AIR … NEW YORK (AP) — Radio talk show host Laura Ingraham is off the air - at least temporarily.  —  She said Tuesday that she's leaving her distributor, Talk Radio Network, after more than nine years because her contract is up.

The Millennial Generation: Our Liberal Future  —  How doomed are conservatives?  Pretty doomed, if you look carefully at the Pew Research Survey's close analysis of the youth vote in the 2012 elections.  The Republicans' long-term dilemma has generally been framed in racial terms, but it's mainly a generational one.

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.

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 …

Bob Dole, 89, hospitalized at Walter Reed  —  Updated 5:23 p.m. Eastern Time  —  Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee and longtime leader of Senate Republicans, has been hospitalized at Walter Reed Hospital, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Tuesday.

Retirement watch: Will they stay or will they go?  —  The money game can also provide clues into senators' thinking — Cochran, Enzi, Idaho Sen. Jim Risch and Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns each had less than $350,000 in their war chests through the end of the third quarter.

The colorful evolution of newswomen's attire  —  Dresses dangled on the racks at Neiman's and Saks and all Norah O'Donnell needed was a suit.  —  Earlier this year, when the veteran news anchor was scouring stores for a suit jacket to wear for her “CBS This Morning” publicity photo …

Paul warns GOP ‘in danger of becoming a dinosaur’  —  Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) urged the Republican party to adopt a more libertarian approach to policy in order to avoid becoming “a dinosaur.”  —  Paul, the libertarian-leaning senator, was speaking in an interview with CNN on Tuesday.

Ron Fournier to step down at National Journal  —  Ron Fournier will step down as editor-in-chief of National Journal, POLITICO has learned.  —  “Ron is going to move over to a role as editorial director of National Journal, where he will continue to oversee decisions and strategy …