President Bush threw a $17.4 billion lifeline to GM and Chrysler yesterday, and the papers are trying to figure out who came out a winner. One early nominee: Ford. Since Ford is in a less precarious state than its rivals, it won’t have to submit itself to government interference. But according to The Wall Street Journal, Ford will share in the concessions GM and Chrysler “exact from the suppliers, unions, dealers, and debt holders.” Another big winner: President-elect Obama. He got a bailout, but one in which the Bush administration offered only short-term solutions and left the real work to him. This gives Obama maximum flexibility to maneuver, while providing him with political cover during the lame-duck period.

The Wall Street Journal’s feature on Bernard Madoff, whose alleged Ponzi scheme cost investors billions, paints him as ultra-secretive, almost aloof—“like a pop star,” according to one banker. One of Madoff’s Florida agents reportedly had only “8 or 10 brief meetings” with Madoff over a period of 15 years. Madoff would take the occasional meeting on the golf course but mostly refused to talk business in public. He likewise snubbed charity balls in Palm Beach. He was the ultimate outsider, once saying aloud he wished he’d gone to Wharton or Stanford. “[H]e’s actually fairly quiet and almost uncomfortable around other people,” said one of Madoff’s agents.

Caroline Kennedy’s low-speed coronation for New York’s vacant U.S. Senate seat has left one contender feeling at his wit’s end: Andrew Cuomo. “It’s driving him crazy,” a Cuomo friend tells The New York Times. “He’s boxed in. He can’t do anything except fume, and he is fuming.” Before Kennedy emerged onto the scene, contenders for the seat were advised not to campaign for it. Yet Kennedy is quite actively campaigning, and the other candidates, like Cuomo, are still stuck neutral. “The frustration is that he could have leveraged the Cuomo name and pushed his way into the process … [Y]ou have someone who has not done the trench work that Andrew has in New York leverage her name to get the appointment,” the Cuomo friend said. A possible consolation prize for Cuomo: remain as AG and help the feds prosecute Bernie Madoff.

The L.A. Times reports that Barack Obama will select Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair as his intelligence chief. In that role, Blair would oversee the operations of CIA prisons overseas, and be in charge of hot-button policies like wiretapping of phone lines and emails. The most visible blemish on his record is a forced resignation from a military think tank position because of conflict of interest complaints. By nominating the former head of the U.S. Pacific Command, Obama would continue the recent tradition of tapping military men to fill the country's top intelligence jobs. He's still undecided on a CIA chief, according to sources.

A college newspaper has obtained and published emails sent by Seung-Hui Cho to his professors in the months before his April 2007 shooting rampage that left 32 people dead. The emails were shown to the victims' families last year, but were not authorized for release to the general public; Collegiate Times Editor-in-Chief David Grant would not say how he acquired them. The emails show that many of Cho's professors were deeply concerned about him and offered to try to help. Cho wrote often of his terror about reading in front of the class, and showed an obsessive interest in his grades. "It feels like hell when I [read]," Cho wrote to one professor. "I know all the mess that I've made with the class is my fault. I don't know what to say."

Vice President-elect Joe Biden granted his first post-election interview to ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos, and the network is releasing hype-driving fragments. Biden addressed several issues in the interview, including why he hasn't yet given up his Delaware senate seat. But one of his most intriguing admissions was the fact that his wife, Jill, a community college professor, will continue teaching after the inauguration, making her one of the rare second ladies in modern history to hold down a job while living in the White House, according to Politico. "She very much likes the community college student body, the people coming back in their late 20s, early 30s," said Biden. "And so I don't know where she's going to do it. And this probably will not be full-time. It will probably be part-time." 

For the first time in Minnesota's messy Senate recount, Al Franken has slipped ahead of Norm Coleman. The Democrat opened up a small lead of 262 votes at the end of the Friday as the state Canvassing Board came close to finishing the count of hundreds of disputed ballots. But don't expect this latest swing to last long. There are still 5,000 withdrawn challenges to be counted and an estimated 1,600 ballots that were improperly rejected. The Coleman camp thinks those are his for the taking. Coleman attorney Tony Trimble said, "We'll see our ship come in and we're quite pleased with that anticipation." He continued, "We've purchased our cruise tickets"--which is perhaps extending the metaphor a bit too far.

The Times has a good profile of Gen. Laurent Nkunda, Congo’s rebel leader who has come close to toppling the country's government. Nkunda’s military advances this fall were met with little resistance from Congo’s military or international bodies until he agreed to a ceasefire. The Times paints him as grandiose: Nkunda speaks of himself in the third person; wears a pin that reads “Rebels for Christ”; and “prefers to be photographed holding a scepter capped by a silver-plated eagle’s head.” Stories from inside the territory controlled by Nkunda show him not to be averse to mass killings and levying crippling taxes on farmers. Congo’s president, Joseph Kabila, is the nation's first democratically elected leader in 40 years.

The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at President Bush is being hailed as a folk hero by an Iranian cleric, who is urging the people of Iran not to overlook the historical significance of what he calls "the shoe intifada." Leading Friday prayers in Tehran, Cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati pronounced the flying foot apparel "more valuable than crowns, medals and signs," and urged that they be preserved for future generations to view in an Iraqi museum.

Is the recession sapping people's tastes for reading about the extravagant lifestyles of the rich and overexposed? Celebrity memoir sales are suddenly down five percent, just as the season that usually sparks an uptick is upon us. Bookstores are slashing prices on autobiographies from British TV darling Jade Goody, Stephen Fry and Nigella Lawson; Amazon is offering similar deals. "People just don't seem to be buying at the moment," shrugs a representatives from Nielsen BookScan to the Telegraph.  

As the Obamas prepare to touch down in Honolulu today, locals went about making the place as presidential as possible. According to the Honolulu Advertiser, workers cut grass, trimmed palm trees, planted poinsettias, and cleaned the beach near the house where the Obamas will spend their Christmas. How does the place look? Well, the Obamas are staying in a "multimillion dollar" compound that, thanks to heavy rains, is next to a brown and murky stretch of beach. "It's very down to earth," said one vacationer staying nearby. Those who have heard those words from a travel agent will understand that the Obamas are going to have an interesting Christmas.

The trio of John McCain, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham--last seen sitting side-by-side on the Straight Talk Express--have taken to the Washington Post op-ed page to provide Barack Obama some advice on their favorite subject: Iraq. Lamenting that "the debate over the war has often been disfigured by politics and partisanship," the Senators call on Obama and the "talented, principled and pragmatic leaders [in] his national security cabinet" to "forge an Iraq policy that will garner the support of Democrats and Republicans alike." It's important to bring the two parties together, they say, so Congress can end it's "partisan trench warfare" and "work together to support a responsible redeployment from Iraq." Easier said than done. Of course, the musketeers have some advice on how to achieve the ever-elusive consensus, echoing a refrain from McCain's presidential campaign: listen to Gen. Ray Odierno and the other commanders and diplomats on the ground. And for what it's worth, they're optimistic Obama will do just that.

So much for upholding state law. California Attorney General Jerry Brown has asked the state Supreme Court to overturn Prop 8. After initially saying he would "defend the proposition as enacted by the people of California," the same-sex marriage proponent has devised a novel legal theory arguing against the state's ban on same-sex marriage. It goes like this: the California Constitution protects certain "inalienable" rights (marriage included) and while voters are allowed to amend the Constitution by majority vote, allowing them to take away an "inalienable" right would establish a tyranny of the majority, exactly the kind of thing the Constitution was designed to protect against. "This analysis was not evident on the morning after the election," Brown said. And there's a reason—it's wacky. Brown's argument "turns constitutional law on its head," said Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, who expects the Supreme Court to reject the argument. "I think it is much too radical for this court," he said. Of course, if the fight fails, Brown has always got his 2010 gubernatorial campaign to carry it on.

Next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, but at least one group of evolutionists won't be celebrating. They're the backers of Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwin's less renowned co-discoverer of the theory of evolution, who some say has gotten a short end of the fame stick. With worldwide celebrations planned to celebrate Darwin in 2009, Wallace's backers are fighting for the man they says was the real brains behind the theory of evolution. "Once you change the focus from Darwin to Wallace, you start to realize what a genius Wallace was," said Roy Davies, author of The Darwin Conspiracy: Origins of a Scientific Crime. Some Wallace-ites accuse Darwin of stealing his ideas while others claim outright plagiarism. So how do they propose remedying the situation? Well, changing the name of Darwin, Australia, to Wallace would be a good start.

It started in Athens, moved to France, and has now landed in Sweden. It the "Greek Syndrome," as The Independent calls the youth riots sprouting up across Europe. In Athens, thousands of young Greeks have rioted for almost two weeks, protesting the country's political system. In France, students have taken to the streets to protest proposed school reforms; in Sweden, immigrants and leftists are rioting against the closure of an Islamic cultural center. While there doesn't seem to be much of a connection on the surface, these events are related in the mind of EU officials, including French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who fears that French protesters are inspired by their riotous Greek brethren. Others fear that the worldwide recession along with the constant stream of images of the riots will inspire young people in other European countries. The protesters themselves certainly feel the solidarity. Slogans spray-painted around Athens include "Spark in Athens. Fire in Paris. Insurrection is coming" and "France, Greece, uprising everywhere".

Doctors in England are taking all necessary precautions to prepare for an epidemic this holiday season. Wii knee, they say, is on the rise. Brought on by an obsession with the Nintendo Wii, Wiii knee refers to all Wii-related injuries, typically affecting the elderly and those otherwise not used to moving with such alacrity. After doctors reported an increase in back injuries last year from dads trying to keep up with their Wii-loving children, researchers at Leeds Teaching Hospital diagnosed the first case of Wii knee. Other maladies include smashed fingers, sprained wrists, and broken nails. Dr. Andrew Coley not only treats patients with Wii-related injuries, he is a patient. "I hurt myself by trying to get an Ace on my serve in the tennis game," he said.