Snip, snip: the Fed cuts 25 basis points, but signals that's it for now.

Hillary's new video, 'The Politics of Pile On:'

Clinton also received the endorsement of the labor group AFSCME with its 1.4 million membership nation wide.

No treat: Bush says SCHIP is a "trick" on the American public.

Durbin will oppose Mukasey for AG.

Time served: sentences were dished out in the Madrid bombing case. 21 were convicted, 7 acquitted. Two of those convicted received jail sentences of 43,000 years each, but Spanish law sets the maximum time served in prison at 40 years.

A bus bomb kills 50 in Russia.

Nothing to see here, comrade: also in Russia, the Putin government is curbing the number of poll watchers for the upcoming December 2 elections. Wonder why.

New McCain ad: "Guts"

Uh oh: new study shows bacon and beer causes cancer.

Amidst the talk last night of driver's licenses and UFOs in Roswell, Senator Clinton managed to frame what may be the biggest foreign policy question facing the 2008 nominees - Iran:

"I am not in favor of this rush for war, but I'm also not in favor of doing nothing. Iran is seeking nuclear weapons," Clinton said in defending her stance. "And the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is in the forefront of that, as they are in the sponsorship of terrorism."

Directly confronting her critics, the senator said, "So some may want a false choice between rushing to war, which is the way the Republicans sound -- it's not even a question of whether, it's a question of when and what weapons to use -- and doing nothing.

"I prefer vigorous diplomacy. And I happen to think economic sanctions are part of vigorous diplomacy."

Edwards and Obama have made the Kyl-Lieberman amendment their rally cry on this issue, and it gives them the cover they need in order to avoid formulating concrete positions on Iran. They hide behind wishy-washy concepts like saber rattling, and never neglect to throw out the 'neocon' talking point.

But Hillary's answer, albeit irresolute, is the honest one. Maintaining multiple options for dealing with a foreign threat is not only practical, but it greatly resembles this thing called diplomacy that Clinton's critics seem fond of citing. Her opponents are engaging in a phony debate, where the only options we have to leverage are annihilation or nothing. Either we attack Iran, or we turn a blind eye. This is disingenuous.

Clinton's team has hit back following last night, positioning the senator as the boldest candidate on the issues that matter. She should take this a step further and make her primary opponents choose - if they truly possess such clarity on the matter.

Governor Richardson proposed unconditional negotiations with Iran. Clinton should challenge Obama and Edwards on this, much like Mark Hemingway of The Corner proposed.

If labeling a terrorist organization as a terrorist organization is bad diplomacy, then what does good diplomacy look like? If we must talk directly to the Iranians, then what should we offer them?

Via Marc Ambinder, here's Mark Penn trying to spin Hillary's answer on the driver's licenses for illegal immigrants question:

A valiant attempt, and it's no wonder Republicans couldn't wait for the lights to dim on stage before piling on. Mitt Romney's team quickly released a fact sheet, Rudy issued a statement and even the RNC got in on it.

The fascinating thing about this is that Edwards and Obama were, to varying degrees, trying to catch Clinton all night. It finally came in the last 10 minutes, but from Tim Russert. As Tom noted, it's a good bet Tim is off Hillary's Christmas list.

Frank Luntz had 29 "angry" Democrats on the dials last night, and from what he heard and saw Obama came away the winner of the debate:

Couple of quick items from upcoming House races in Illinois:

Dave Parro reports the fur is already flying between Chris Lauzen and Jim Oberweis in the GOP primary in IL-14. Lauzen put the Kane County GOP Chairman on his campaign payroll at $5k per month and Oberweis is crying 'payola politics as usual.' But apparently Oberweis inquired how much it would take to bring the same person on his staff, and instead of offering a higher bid he decided to try and use the episode to score political points. Meanwhile, Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns, the other Republican in the primary, stands by watching the mud fly back and forth.

And up north in IL-8, Republican Steve Greenberg is calling on incumbent Melissa Bean to give back the $23,000 she's gotten in contributions from "radical liberal" Congressman Charlie Rangel.

"By keeping Rangel's donations, Melissa Bean is demonstrating solidarity with Rangel's desire to raise taxes and take more money out of the pockets of the individuals, families, and small business owners of her district," Greenberg said in a statement released today. "Melissa Bean has chosen her liberal big government, tax and spend friends, Nancy Pelosi, Charles Rangel, Moveon.org, etc., over the best interests of the individuals and families she is supposed to represent."

Before Greenberg gets to take on Bean, however, he faces a primary challenge from Ken Arnold and Kirk Morris.

Had enough debate talk? Ready for something a bit different? I give you Ron Paul on "The Tonight Show":

The revolution continues over in the Vlog, where you can watch highlights from last night's Democratic debate.

Karen Hughes is leaving the State Department.

This isn't really news, since Edwards is a favorite of the netroots, but the unscientific online poll at Daily Kos shows Edwards the clear winner last night:

Via Drudge, we see Hillary's camp is trying to pin the blame for Clinton's poor performance last night on Tim Russert:

CLINTON INNER-CIRCLE BLAME 'UNFAIR' MODERATOR TIM RUSSERT. 'HE BORDERED ON THE UNPROFESSIONAL,' TOP HILLARY ADVISER CHARGES. 'HE BROKE DEBATE RULES AND WAS BELLIGERENT'...

Please. Blaming Russert is not only ridiculous, it makes Hillary and her campaign look like a bunch of spoiled children. Why not say, "so we had one bad night out of a hundred" and leave it at that? Better yet, why say anything at all?

Up until now, the Clinton camp has been basking in near constant media praise for having run a "flawless campaign." But they hit one bit of turbulence and this is how they respond? Maybe they're not the smooth operators everyone thinks they are. Or maybe Clinton's performance last night polled so badly it spooked them into a panicked overreaction.

Not only is the honeymoon over for Eliot Spitzer, but nine months into his first term Mike Goodwin of the New York Daily News says it's already time to start looking ahead, and he has a suggestion about where to look:

Eliot Spitzer has fallen and he can't get up. With each passing day bringing fresh proof the job is over his head, we must start looking for our next governor.

Fortunately, we don't have to look far. The end of Michael Bloomberg's tenure at City Hall is Jan. 1, 2010, which begins the gubernatorial election year. Here's my point: Mayor Mike ought to get over his White House fantasy and set his sights on Albany for the next stop on his excellent adventure tour.