Sen. Bob Kerrey: Partisan torture report fails America  —  Intelligence agencies need guidance to do better, Senate Democrats failed to provide it.  —  I regret having to write a piece that is critical of the Democratic members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

What will Cruz do?  —  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) faces a tough decision on whether to follow through on his pledge to block any legislation he deemed nonessential in the lame-duck session.  —  With his colleagues scrambling to finish a $1 trillion government-funding measure and get out of town, Cruz is a wild card.

Harvard Business School Professor Goes to War Over $4 Worth of Chinese Food  —  Ben Edelman (left) and Ran Duan (right)  —  Ben Edelman is an associate professor at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets unit.

How much did Gruber make?  —  ObamaCare consultant Jonathan Gruber refused to say Tuesday how much money he received in federal and state contracts related to healthcare reform.  —  In a series of tense exchanges with lawmakers, Gruber declined to estimate how much he was paid and repeatedly referred questions to his lawyer.

Lena Dunham: Why I Chose To Speak Out  —  The ways I've been attacked for sharing my story show how far we have to go when discussing sexual assault.  —  Mike Marsland / WireImage / BuzzFeed  —  It has been almost a decade since I was sexually assaulted.

Social Injustice Ate My Homework  —  Harvard law students have been taught to think like spoiled children.  —  If there were a First Rule of our present penchant for victimhood, it would presumably be that everything unpleasant that happens in the world must, in some way, eventually be about you.

The Jonathan Gruber hearing was a zany coda to Darrell Issa's tumultuous tenure  —  A gaffe, under the oft-cited Michael Kinsley rule, is when somebody in Washington accidentally speaks the truth.  But what happens when frankness leads you to say something so monumentally stupid …

Dems push to revive failed gun control legislation  —  Gun control advocates in Congress are looking to revive failed legislation strengthening background check regulations.  —  A handful of Democratic lawmakers said Tuesday they plan to push once again for universal background checks …

Congressional budget poised to partially block pot legalization in D.C.  —  An emerging deal to keep the federal government funded into next year would block the D.C. government from allowing legal sales of marijuana in the nation's capital, according to multiple congressional aides with knowledge of the negotiations.

Democrats lost the South through culture war and elitism  —  Fritz Hollings, John Edwards, Zell Miller, Blanche Lincoln, John Breaux, Kay Hagan, Mark Pryor and Mary Landrieu.  These eight Democrats have been senators from the South in the past decade.  —  If not for Southern Democrats …