WHO IS RAHM EMANUEL?

By all accounts, Rahm Emmanuel is a savvy political operator. But if his voting record is anything to go by, a penchant for centrist accommodation is not among the talents he will bring to his new role as White House chief of staff.

THE HUMAN SIDE OF LEADERSHIP

One of the best films about the Vietnam war came out in 2002, "We Were Soldiers", starring Mel Gibson. The technical director who counseled the portrayal of leadership was spot on.

MITT ROMNEY: LET DETROIT GO BANKRUPT

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

INSANE SAME-SEX-MARRIAGE RAGE

Corporate honchos, church leaders, and small donors alike are in the same-sex marriage mob’s crosshairs, all unfairly demonized as hate-filled bigots by bona fide hate-filled bigots who have abandoned decency in pursuit of “equal rights.” One wonders where Barack Obama — himself an opponent of Proposition 8 — is as this insane rage rages on. Soul-Fixer, Nation-Healer, where art thou?

OF FAITH AND FILM

It had all the trappings of a made-for-TV movie: a former sitcom star in the leading role, a Hallmarkian sentimentality, and a direct-to-DVD budget. It's the kind of project studio execs pass on. They did, yet Fireproof raked in the money.

DEEP-SIX PIRACY

Energy: Piracy has always been a shipping hazard, but Somalia's buccaneers have taken it up a notch. Their hijacking of a supertanker Monday shows how vulnerable oil supplies are and how critical it is to stop them.

OBAMA HEARS A GIANT SUCKING SOUND

His friends advise Barack Obama to launch a "New" New Deal. Maybe that's because the old New Deal is sinking fast.

Mr. Obama's one deeply false note during the campaign was his harping on "deregulation" as if that were the source of current troubles. His real problem is the crack-up of the world FDR built.

ND DEMOCRATS MUST DECIDE ON RECOUNTS

After the state canvassing board approved this year's general election results Tuesday, Democrats now have until Friday to demand any recounts.

AUTO BAILOUT IGNORES EXCESSIVE LABOR COSTS

Without government intervention, one or more of the Big Three automobile manufacturers--General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler--faces restructuring in bankruptcy. Bankruptcy would not be the end of the Big Three but a new beginning. Coming out of bankruptcy, the automakers would start fresh, free of the contractual obligations that have kept them uncompetitive.

N.D. ATTORNEY GENERAL WILL NOT OPINE ON BLUNT SEVERANCE

Question of law not finding of fact is job of the ND Attorney General.

The AG will not supply an opinion to the ND State Auditor's Office on the question of Sandy Blunt's severance pay when he left the employ of WSI.

BRUCE WALKER: TRULY FAIR TAXES

Redistribution of wealth presumes knowledge that no one in a market can ever posses. Just as the action of observing events at the subatomic level itself induces a result, so the act of acquiring information from a market itself changes the dynamics of the market. Yearning for such impossible fairness is simply greed, lust, and envy dressing up in more respectable clothes.

LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST

DEER SEASON, CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?, FAT CHANCE, OVERPROMISES, SEN. CONRAD told WDAY, IMAGINE THAT!, THE MYERS BROTHERS OF MINOT, THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

FATE OF COAL PLANTS IN LIMBO

The fate of scores of new coal-burning power plants is now in limbo over whether to regulate heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

The uncertainty resulted when an Environmental Protection Agency appeals panel on Thursday rejected a federal permit for a Utah plant, leaving the issue for the Obama administration to resolve.

GOVERNMENT SPENDING DOES NOT STIMULATE

Government spending has an abysmal track record of stimulating the economy. However, these repeated failures have not stopped lawmak-ers from proposing and enacting a seemingly end-less string of "stimulus" bills. Rather than redistributing money, lawmakers should focus on improving long-term productivity.

SANCTIMONIOUS STONE THROWERS

God bless Sarah Palin, and shame on elitists from both sides of the aisle who have denigrated, demonized and dissed her. I don't care how many "smartest people in the room" types offer pseudo-sophisticated analyses to prove she was a drag on the GOP presidential ticket. They are all manifestly and embarrassingly wrong -- and woefully out of touch -- which is par for the course for elitists.

PALIN, THE GOVERNORS, AND THE NEW POWER IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

The theme of this meeting of the Republican Governors Association is that, after the GOP’s loss of the White House, the House, and the Senate, power in the party has now settled firmly among the nation’s 23 Republican governors. If you’re a Republican member of Congress, how much can you really get done? If you’re the Republican president, how many days do you have left? But if you’re a Republican governor — well, you're where the action is.

HANK PAULSON, NAKED EMPEROR

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson finally confirmed what lonely bailout opponents tried to tell the American public all along: The man doesn't know what the hell he's doing.

TELLING IT LIKE IT IS AT A TIPPING POINT

Milestones: European leaders gathered in Washington for the G-20 summit are pushing for an end to American-style capitalism. But on Thursday, President Bush made it clear that ain't gonna happen on his watch.

STABLE MONEY IS THE KEY TO RECOVERY

Ironically, it was French President Charles de Gaulle who best made the case in the 1960s. Worried that the U.S. would be tempted to abuse its role as key currency issuer by exporting domestic inflation, he called for the return to a classical international gold standard. "Gold," he observed, "has no nationality."

GLOBAL WARNING: HEADING TOWARDS A NEW ICE AGE?

It has plagued scientists and politicians for decades, but scientists now say global warming is not the problem.

We are actually heading for the next Ice Age, they claim.