Cheat Sheet

A personal friend of Barack Obama’s who helped deliver Old Dominion to the Democrats for the first time in nearly half a century, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine will chair the Democratic National Committee, sources told The Washington Post. As DNC leader, Kaine will be the Obama administration’s top political messenger. A “gregarious chief executive who is known to relish political combat,” he’s a true party loyalist who worked methodically in Virginia to get Democrats elected at the state level. During the campaign, he was reportedly on Obama’s shortlist of potential running mates until he effectively took himself off it by saying he intended to finish his term as governor. That assertion will surely come back to haunt him in the form of criticism from Republicans, now that he’s accepted a job at the national level. Kaine will work for the DNC part-time from Richmond until his term ends in 2010, when he will become the full-time chairman.

Yannis Behrakis / Reuters

What are Israel’s aims in waging a ground war in Gaza? To seize the psychological advantage over Hamas and force the terrorists to halt firing rockets at Israeli citizens, explains The Washington Post. General Eitan Ben Eliyahu, former chief of the Israeli air force, gave three reasons for switching to a ground campaign: "To suppress the sites where they launch the rockets into our home front; to fight them and kill more and more terrorists; and third, to tighten the ring of pressure around the Hamas leadership, which helps you conduct your negotiations in the diplomatic field." "By punching into Gaza in several places, you can cut it into parcels, make it impossible for Hamas to govern," said Tel Aviv University senior fellow Hirsh Goodman. But the strategy is riven with risk. "There will be burning tanks and human sacrifices, and it's not going to be pretty," he said. Former Palestinian negotiator Ziad Abu Zayyad agrees that the Israelis are taking an enormous gamble. "Israel may know how to enter Gaza, but I'm not sure they know how to get out," he said.

Sarah Palin’s ambitions did not end in November, reports The Sunday Times of London. The Alaska governor ended last year with a striking run of personal successes in popularity polls. Gallup said she was the second most admired woman of the year, after Hillary Clinton. Time magazine placed her as the world’s fourth most influential person after Obama, Treasury Secretary Paulson, and French President Sarkozy. “Palin continues to excite Republican voters enthralled by what they see as a unique political style that could one day put paid to Obama,” reports the paper, adding, “She has not returned to the Alaska governor’s office to lick her wounds.” An internet campaign is promoting Palin as the Republicans’ best chance of beating Obama in 2012. More than 60,000 have joined TeamSarah.org that unites Catholics for Sarah, Texans for Palin, and Small Business-Owners for Sarah. “However bizarrely her family behaves and however brutally she is mocked by smug Obama supporters,” reports Tony Allen-Mills, “Palin remains an unsinkable star whom many Republicans are now gleefully comparing with Caroline Kennedy.”

When Caroline Kennedy was employed by New York’s Education Department from 2002 to 2004, as chief executive of the Office of Strategic Partnerships, she was not required to file financial and other personal disclosure forms, even though every other of the city’s 7,000 employees were obliged to. Even Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a billionaire who, like Caroline, took just $1 a year from the city, was required to file disclosure forms. The New York Times reports that Caroline’s finances “have been a source of curiosity since she entered the contest to be named New York’s next senator. She has property in New York and on Martha’s Vineyard, and estimates of their worth have varied greatly.” Caroline has promised that, should she be chosen for the Senate job, she is “going to comply with every kind of disclosure that’s available.”

Coincidence? Or what? Around the same time in November 2004 that Hillary Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for Robert J. Congel’s mall development in Syracuse in upstate New York, he gave $100,000 to husband Bill Clinton’s foundation. “There was no connection with Bill Clinton and the ‘green bonds’ and the contribution,” Congel insists in an interview. “None at all.” Still, The New York Times is asking whether there was a more sinister link. “Mr. Congel’s…contribution is the only known situation so far in which an American donor gave a large sum to Mr. Clinton’s foundation while benefiting from his wife’s official actions,” reports Charlie Savage, who notes, “There is no law requiring former presidents to disclose money they collect for their foundations.” It is a coincidence that may be raised during Hillary’s Senate hearings on her suitability to become secretary of state.

Low oil prices and the credit crunch are threatening to stall the green revolution, reports The Guardian. The price of crude has slumped from a summer high of $150 a barrel to below $40, taking the wind out of the sails of turbine manufacturers and others trying to build low-carbon alternatives. Wind developers have been cutting back in the face of tough new conditions. FPL Group, America’s largest wind-power operator, is cutting spending this year by nearly a quarter to $5.3 billion. Even T. Boone Pickens, the veteran oil man who intervened in the presidential race and promised to build the world's largest wind farm in Texas, has slammed on the brakes because of lower oil prices. Where this leaves Obama’s pro-green energy policy is anyone’s guess. He appointed Nobel physics laureate Steven Chu as energy secretary, which has convinced environmentalists he is serious about his stated aim of hastening progress toward a low-carbon economy and the end of America’s dependence on imported oil. But with the economy in the tank, Obama’s green promises may amount to little.

Jim Mone / AP

Victory in Minnesota's interminable Senate race moved within Democrat Al Franken's reach yesterday when the former Saturday Night Live comedian increased his lead over Republican Norm Coleman as the recount drew to a close, the Associated Press reports. Franken increased his lead to from a 49- to a 225-vote advantage after gaining 176 more than Coleman in Saturday's appraisal of absentee ballots. Unless Coleman wins a court petition seeking to add hundreds more ballots to the recount, the state canvassing board will sign off on Monday or Tuesday. ''This is so accurate and has been done so carefully that the person with the least votes is going to say, 'I'm disappointed, I'm sad, but I came in short this time,''' said Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. But then he is a Democrat. The Republicans may have other ideas.

When Ernest Hemingway committed suicide in Sun Valley in 1961, his widow left his home Finca Vigia in Cuba to the communist government to meet the wishes laid down in his will. On Monday, 3,000 letters and other lost texts will be posted online, including unpublished work written in code about the hunt for German U-boats off the Cuban coast during World War II. The collection includes an epilogue of For Whom the Bell Tolls and a screenplay for The Old Man and the Sea. “This is an exquisite selection,” reports Inaurys Portuondo of the Hemingway Museum. “There are no unedited literary [works], at least as far as we know, but we know that specialists might be able to come up with new theories after consulting the archive.” Next month, the lost documents will be transferred to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. “Hemingway was one of the major writers of the 20th century, so almost anything is of interest,” said American literature expert James Campbell.

After weeks of halfhearted denials, Terry McAuliffe, 51, the former DNC chairman and Hillary’s most persistent booster during the long primary campaign, will on Wednesday officially enter the race to succeed Democrat Tim Kaine as Virginia governor. Meanwhile he has posted his intentions on his website. McAuliffe will face two other Democrats, state Senator Creigh Deeds and former House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran. A native of upstate New York, McAuliffe has lived in Virginia for 17 years. He raised tens of millions of dollars for Hillary and can expect the Clintons to campaign aggressively on his behalf when the Virginia race begins in earnest.

“For those who love the theater, this month will be a bonanza of emotional farewells and festive goodbyes in front of adoring audiences,” reports The New York Times. More than a dozen Broadway plays and musicals—almost half of the current lineup—will close by the end of January, among them Hairspray, Young Frankenstein, and Boeing-Boeing. The poor economy and the strong dollar, which is deterring foreign tourists, are taking their toll on the Great White Way. “The sad superabundance of farewells to choose from obviously places limits on the number of last goodbyes theater lovers will be able to squeeze in this month,” writes Charles Isherwood. “On Sunday alone you’ve got nine choices. It is haunting to think that that there could be more shows closing on that day alone than there will be running on Broadway by the time the Tonys roll around in June.”