The Editorialist

• Today's Hot Topic: The Larry Craig Saga
  The Larry Craig Saga: In the NYT, the editors claim that "the rush to cast [Craig] out betrays the [Republican] party's intolerance, which is on display for the public in all of its ugliness." The WSJ, meanwhile, declines to go that far, merely observing that the party "needs to get its house in order." Elsewhere in the Journal, Naomi Schaefer Riley explains why sex scandals still get so much attention in "a culture awash in sex." USA Today says "pity and compassion seem a more fitting response than outrage" for the Idaho senator. And in the WaPo, Ruth Marcus remembers the Walter Jenkins scandal and writes that "the story of Craig's encounter with a police officer in an airport bathroom underscores the continuing grip of homophobia on American society."
• Today's Columns: Poverty vs. Celebrity
  WaPo: E.J. Dionne wonders: "Why is it that the poor -- and, for that matter, the struggling middle class, too -- disappear in the media, barricaded behind our fixation on celebrity, our titillation with personal sin and public shame, our fascination with every detail of every divorce and affair of every movie star, rock idol and sports phenom?".... Des Browne and David Miliband say British forces have not failed in Basra.... Michael Gerson hears "rumors of hope" about Iraq.... Charles Krauthammer continues his campaign for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's removal. USA Today: Raul Reyes says Alberto Gonzales's story is "a genuine Latino tragedy.""The last time I checked," he writes, "the American dream did not include leaving national office in disgrace." LAT: Rosa Brooks writes that "we long ago squandered any capacity to guarantee a happy ending for the Iraqis" and that we should withdraw.... Ian Buruma reminds President
• Today's Editorials: Public Safety and Privacy Rights
  WaPo: Responds to the Virginia Tech Review Panel's findings: "In the aftermath of such a devastating tragedy, it's easy to say, but nonetheless true, that public safety must trump privacy rights".... Asks who hired the people who killed Anna Politkovskaya -- and offers a guess. NYT : Says that the new GAO report on Iraq proves that the administration "went to great lengths to pretend that victory was at hand when nothing could be farther from the truth".... Cautions that "as homeowner woes mount, Wall Street may have a harder time justifying its pleas for special treatment." LAT: Wonders if "South Park" can make money online under its creators' new deal with Viacom.... Says that coal should "not be cheap" because "the only way to encourage cleaner alternatives is to make coal producers and the consumers of coal-fired power pay the true cost of their pollution."
• Today's Hot Topics: Early Primaries and Public Restrooms
  Early Primaries: In the LAT, the editors say voting for president tomorrow "would be the logical extension of the states' battle to get to, or at least near, the presidential primary starting line," and argue that the Democratic National Committee's harsh response to Florida's decision to move its primary to Jan. 15 was an example of "welcome party rigor." USA Today is relieved that "finally some adult supervision is coming to the process of picking presidential nominees" and praises the national political parties for punishing states that are moving their primaries before Feb. 5. But Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) insists that the situation is "a case of fundamental rights vs. party rules" and calls for a long-term fix, "perhaps a system of rotating regional primaries." Larry Craig: In the WaPo, an editorial calls the Republican senator from Idaho "yet another willing accomplice in the machinery of intolerance that has stunted
• Today's Columns: Do You Care Enough to Read This?
  WSJ: Daniel Henninger ponders the declining influence of the "established media" -- which presumably includes the Journal -- and wonders whether "too many people now simply don't care about major media anymore." WaPo: David Ignatius reports on the fate and fallout of secret American plans to manipulate Iraqi democracy.... Robert Novak explores the challenges facing France's top deregulator .... Tova Andrea Wang says that her work on a bipartisan Election Assistance Commission report was compromised by partisanship and its findings suppressed.... Kyle Teamey is concerned that "Party politics matters more than the results" in the war in Iraq.... Robert Novak says "the high caliber of possible selections" to replace Alberto Gonzales "means President Bush is not content with a placeholder sure to get Senate confirmation." USA Today: Education Secretary Margaret Spellings defends No Child Left Behind in a question-and-answer session. LAT: Benazir Bhutto says she knows that "Time, justice and
• Today's Editorials: In the Air, on the Ground
  WSJ: Warns that high property taxes could pose a big obstacle to rebuilding New Orleans. USA Today: Says the Census Bureau's report of the "disturbing rise in the number of people without health insurance ... helps explain why health care is again becoming a defining domestic issue." WaPo: Praises the courage of pro-democracy protestors in Burma and calls for an international response. NYT : Is disappointed by the verdict in the "court-martial of the only officer to be tried for the abuse, sexual assault and torture of prisoners that occurred" at Abu Ghraib in 2003, calling it "a remix of the denial of reality and avoidance of accountability that the government has used all along to avoid the bitter truth behind Abu Ghraib: The abuses grew out of President Bush's decision to ignore the Geneva Conventions and American law in handling prisoners after Sept. 11, 2001.".... Criticizes Republican Sen. Tom
• Today's Hot Topic: What's Next for the Big Easy?
  The Future of New Orleans USA Today warns against broadening the National Flood Insurance Program to cover wind damage, warning that doing so is akin to "inviting reckless development" and "will only ensure a new catastrophe with the arrival of the next great storm." Gene Taylor disagrees, writing that the plan would "would benefit every taxpayer in America by ensuring that more disaster costs are covered by insurance premiums instead of by costly and inefficient disaster assistance programs." In the WSJ, Nicole Gelinas argues that two years after Katrina, what New Orleans needs most is law and order. The LAT argues that "It would compound the tragedy of Katrina to leave the [rebuilding] job half-finished or to bury the region's will to rebuild under a mountain of red tape." Also in the LAT, Michael Tisserand reports that some children in New Orleans are developing post-traumatic stress disorder. Tisserand warns that
• Today's Columns: Bush's Crisis -- and Mother Teresa's
  WSJ: Andrew Stark wonders how Kyle MacDonald pulled off trading a paper clip for (eventually) a house. LAT: Ronald Brownstein says President Bush can learn some lessons from Ronald Reagan that might help him salvage the last months of his presidency.... Nick Gillespie hopes that Sen. Larry Craig "will eventually draw on traditional Republican principles and stand up for his right to engage in consensual sex in toilet stalls with men." WaPo: Harold Meyerson advises against dumping Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and writes: "It's Bush, not Maliki, whose term must come to an end before we can close out our misadventure in Iraq".... Robert Samuelson says we're in the "'blame phase' of the economic cycle".... Janusz Reiter says tough visa rules are hurting American relations with Central Europe. NYT: Jack Miles worries that the American occupation of Iraq may soon lose its justification under international law.... Thomas Friedman says
• Today's Editorials: The Economic Punch Bowl
  WaPo: Says it's time for Pakistan's "autocratic leader" Gen. Pervez Musharraf to "make a deal" with Pakistan's secular political parties. "A compromise between Mr. Musharraf and former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif may offer the best chance to check extremism and mounting instability in that nuclear-armed country," the editors advise. NYT : Analyzes the latest Census Bureau report and complains that "the economic party is winding down and most working Americans never even got near the punch bowl." In a separate editorial, says the report's findings on the U.S. health-insurance industry were "as disturbing as its statistics on poverty and income." WSJ: Says that Nicolas Sarkozy has "signaled that France means to be something more on the international scene than an anti-American nuisance player." LAT: Insists that Hillary Clinton should "help the National Archives comply" with a conservative group's request for papers from her time as first lady.