Police Clear Zuccotti Park of Protesters  —  Hundreds of New York City police officers cleared Zuccotti Park of the Occupy Wall Street protesters early Tuesday, arresting dozens of people there after warning them that the nearly two-month-old camp would be “cleared and restored” …

Republican Candidates in Four-Way Dead Heat  —  Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are in a dead heat as the top choices for Iowans likely to attend the Jan. 3 Republican presidential caucuses.  —  A Bloomberg News poll shows Cain at 20 percent, Paul at 19 percent …

Scalia and Thomas dine with healthcare law challengers as court takes case  —  Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speaks to a policy forum in Washington last month.  (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)  —  The day the Supreme Court gathered behind closed doors to consider the politically divisive question …

Solyndra: Energy Dept. pushed firm to keep layoffs quiet until after midterms  —  The Obama administration urged officers of the struggling solar company Solyndra to postpone announcing planned layoffs until after the November 2010 midterm elections, newly released e-mails show.

Words, Mere Words: Newt Gingrich Speaks Well.  But Is He Smart?  —  If Newt Gingrich's career in public service proves anything, it is that he will never be caught saying “Oops.”  Gingrich is currently rising to frontrunner status in the Republican presidential primary largely because he's willing …

Herman Cain offered Henry Kissinger secretary of state post  —  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has posted a new set of Herman Cain videos online, including one in which the Republican presidential candidate says he offered Henry Kissinger a place in his administration, but was politely rebuffed by the former secretary of state.

Gingrich Said Paid by Freddie Mac to Win Allies  —  Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said during a Nov. 9 debate that he earned a $300,000 fee to advise Freddie Mac as a “historian” who warned that the mortgage company's business model was “insane.”

Let's All Feel Superior  —  First came the atrocity, then came the vanity.  The atrocity is what Jerry Sandusky has been accused of doing at Penn State.  The vanity is the outraged reaction of a zillion commentators over the past week, whose indignation is based on the assumption …

Allies Accuse James O'Keefe of ‘Hit Job’ in Undercover NPR Sting  —  The two men who pulled off James O'Keefe's NPR sting are now criticizing the conservative activist for what one calls a ‘hit job.’ They tell Howard Kurtz exclusively why they feel exploited.  —  The fake Muslim donor had played his role perfectly.

Krugman vs Summers: The debate  —  I'm glad I found myself in Toronto this evening, because tonight's Munk Debate was illuminating and enjoyable.  The motion was that “North America faces a Japan-style era of high unemployment and slow growth”; Paul Krugman was arguing for it, while Larry Summers was arguing against.

Republicans Lose Way by Misreading Bush History: Ramesh Ponnuru  —  In 2006 and 2008, voters inflicted on Republicans the worst back-to-back electoral drubbing any party has received since the Great Depression, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt all but destroyed the Party of Hoover.