Security Guard: 'God Guided Me And Protected Me'  —  Jeanne Assam Stopped Gunman At New Life Church  —  COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Jeanne Assam appeared before the news media for the first time Monday and said she "did not think for a minute to run away" when a gunman entered the New Life Church …

Analysis: How McCain Could Still Win  —  Political Watchers Say John McCain May Be Down, but a Comeback Is Possible  —  A year ago, he was the odds-on favorite to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2008.  Today, he's considered a long shot.  —  His campaign has rebounded …

Coming in From the Cold: CIA Spy Calls Waterboarding Necessary But Torture  —  Former Agent Says the Enhanced Technique Was Used on Al Qaeda Chief Abu Zubaydah  —  A leader of the CIA team that captured and interrogated the first major al Qaeda figure, Abu Zubaydah, says subjecting him to waterboarding was torture but necessary.

Lawyers Cleared Destroying Tapes  —  Lawyers within the clandestine branch of the Central Intelligence Agency gave written approval in advance to the destruction in 2005 of hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting interrogations of two lieutenants from Al Qaeda, according …

Obama, Under the Clinton Microscope  —  DES MOINES - Presidential campaigns have unlimited appetites for information about their rivals.  They track their whereabouts, they study their records and they obsessively follow nearly every movement.  By this point in the race, though …

NRCC props up its pummeled Ohio candidate  —  Republicans are facing a surprisingly fierce fight in a Tuesday special election to hold on to a conservative northwestern Ohio seat that has been under the party's control for the past 70 years.  —  The GOP expects to win another special election set …

A Very Claremont Christmas  —  There's nothing quite like a good book for ensuring the merriest yule cheer and a happy new year.  Here are a few picks from friends and colleagues of the Claremont Institute...  Edward Ney Professor of Jurisprudence, Amherst College

G.O.P. Voters Are Uninspired by Candidates  —  Three weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Republicans voters across the country appear uninspired by their field of presidential candidates, with a vast majority saying they have not made a final decision about who to support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

MORTGAGE MELTDOWN  —  Interest rate 'freeze' - the real story is fraud  —  Bankers pay lip service to families while scurrying to avert suits, prison  —  New proposals to ease our great mortgage meltdown keep rolling in.  First the Treasury Department urged the creation of a new fund …

New Jersey moves closer to ending death penalty  —  PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - New Jersey moved closer to eliminating the death penalty on Monday when its Senate and an Assembly committee voted in favor of making life in prison without parole the state's top criminal penalty.

Huckabee Hides His Full Gospel?  —  WASHINGTON DISPATCH: Is Mike Huckabee the presidential candidate shunning Mike Huckabee the preacher?  Before entering politics, he was a pastor at two Baptist churches.  Now his campaign tells Mother Jones it won't make his sermons available to the media and the public.