JOCKEYING FOR POSITION in Tennessee’s gubernatorial race.

KEEPING STUDENTS from becoming “little Marxists.”

ROBERT KAGAN ON DEALING WITH TERRORISM: What Pakistan Won’t Do, the World Should. Some related thoughts here.

IN THE MAIL: Terry Anderson & Laura Higgins’ Greener Than Thou: Are You Really an Environmentalist? About the difference between doing, and preaching.

HMM: More groundwork-laying for an Obama approach to terror that looks a lot like Bush’s?

Mr. Obama will soon face the same awful choices that confronted George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and he could well be forced to accept a central feature of their anti-terrorist methods: extraordinary rendition. If the choice is between non-deniable aggressive questioning conducted by Americans and deniable torturous interrogations by foreigners acting on behalf of the United States, it is almost certain that as president Mr. Obama will choose the latter.

I wouldn’t be surprised. Plus, tacking back to the Fascist center.

RANGEL, DODD, AND now Richardson, too? Well, it’s early yet; let’s wait and see what develops.

UPDATE: “Oh, brother.”

NOW THEY TELL US (CONT’D): Historians Say Obama Is No Lincoln.

THE PITFALLS OF diagnosis by scan: “Scans — more sensitive and easily available than ever — are increasingly finding abnormalities that may not be the cause of the problem for which they are blamed. It’s an issue particularly for the millions of people who go to doctors’ offices in pain.”

JAMES JOYNER says the TV networks need a new plan.

ON THE HUNT IN BAGHDAD: A new report from Iraq by Michael Totten.

THE NEW-GENERATION TOYOTA PRIUS, and the companion Lexus HS250h, will debut on January 12.

CHARLES RANGEL UPDATE: The gift that keeps on giving:

House Republicans were heading toward a down-in-the-dumps holiday. Then the House ethics committee handed them a gift.

The committee’s investigation of U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel’s tax problems is expanding, turning what had been a minor headache for Democratic leaders into a New Year’s migraine.

And then there’s Chris Dodd.

IRAQ IS safer than Mexico. Good news for Iraq, but bad news for Mexico, and any countries that happen to share a border with Mexico . . .

JOHN KASS: Will ‘Feditis’ Spread to Obama and Daley? (Via NewsAlert).

DELTA AIRLINES will offer wi-fi on its shuttle flights.

RICH GALEN: “If I were advising Mr. Emanuel, I would tell him to announce – today – that he will not be taking the oath of office and his seat will be vacant thus removing himself from being under the direct jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee.”

DEALING WITH BLAGOJEVICH: A prediction of “chaos” in the Illinois legislature.

ATLAS IS SHRUGGING: Disappearing Doctors. Make the practice of medicine — especially primary-care medicine — less rewarding both emotionally and financially and, shockingly, the supply of doctors diminishes. Who’d have thought it?

MY PENSION: Underfunded? Maybe. Over-Generous? Not so much! In response to all my public-pension posts, a reader emails: “Tell us about U of T pensions.”

No overhang here. I’ve got a 403(b) plan, which is defined contribution, with the state putting in something like $11,000 a year and me contributing on top of that — there’s no defined-benefit component. Some of the older people are in the state retirement system, which is (sort of) defined-benefit, but not me.