Ron Johnson: Hillary Clinton Planned To Get Emotional To Evade Questions  —  “I think she just decided before she was going to describe emotionally the four dead Americans, the heroes, and use that as her trump card,” the senator tells BuzzFeed.  —  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pounds …

Pentagon Is Set to Lift Combat Ban for Women  —  WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is lifting the military's official ban on women in combat, which will open up hundreds of thousands of additional front-line jobs to them, senior defense officials said Wednesday.

Boehner: Obama out to ‘annihilate’ GOP  —  Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he believes the primary goal of President Obama's second term is to “annihilate the Republican Party.”  —  “Given what we heard yesterday about the president's vision for his second term, it's pretty clear …

Virginia State Senate Moves Ahead on Electoral College-Rigging Bill  —  Congressional clerks open certificate envelopes from different states during a joint session of the 113th Congress to count the Electoral College votes January 4, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Everything You Think You Know About Health Care Spending Is Wrong  —  This is the chart that I think ought to dominate the conversation about public-sector health care spending in the United States, and yet it is curiously ignored.  The data show government health care spending per capita in the United States and Canada.

Bipartisan Filibuster Deal Is Taking Shape in the Senate  —  WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic and Republican leaders are nearing an agreement on new limits to the filibuster, an effort to speed action in the often-clogged chamber by prohibiting senators from using a common tactic to slow the legislative process.

So what if abortion ends life?  —  I believe that life starts at conception.  And it's never stopped me from being pro-choice  —  Of all the diabolically clever moves the anti-choice lobby has ever pulled, surely one of the greatest has been its consistent co-opting of the word “life.”  Life!

TARP Czar to Take Shot in Politics  —  Neel Kashkari, who oversaw the U.S. Treasury's much-maligned Troubled Asset Relief Program during the financial crisis, said he is leaving Pacific Investment Management Co. to consider running for public office in Democrat-heavy California as a Republican.

Lanny Breuer, Justice Department criminal division chief, is stepping down  —  Sean Gardner/GETTY IMAGES - The Justice Department's Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer addresses the media while announcing new criminal charges against oil company BP on Nov. 15.

Report: Ohio Secretary Of State's Restrictive Voting Hours Hurt Urban Voters  —  Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) became one of the most notorious election officials in the country after his many attempts to restrict voting and discard ballots.  Husted banned evening and weekend voting hours …

EXCLUSIVE: CHRISTIAN GROUP TO LOBBY EVERY SENATOR TO VOTE NO ON HAGEL FOR DEFENSE  —  Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which describes itself as “the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States and one of the leading Christian grassroots movements in the world,” …