Wonkette

• Time reporter Viveca Novak says Karl Rove was the likely source of a July 2003 article about Valerie Plame. Novak: “I remember [Rove's lawyer] looking at me and saying something to the effect of ‘Karl doesn’t have a [Matt Cooper] problem. He was not a source for Matt.’ I responded instinctively, thinking he was trying to spin me, and said something like, ‘Are you sure about that? That’s not what I hear around Time.’ He looked surprised and very serious.” [Time, NYT, WSJ]
• Sen. Frist threatens to use the “nuclear option” to save Samuel Alito from a filibuster. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): “We’re not close to a deal.” [WP, NYT, LAT]
• White House flack Trent Duffy: “What you will see more of next year is the president going back to the basics — winning the war and growing the economy and creating jobs.” [WT]
• Sen. Clinton’s quiet, centrist approach to Iraq “is drawing increasing scorn from liberal activists.” [WP]
• Ronald Brownstein on Alito’s abortion memos: “It’s still not clear these disclosures will seriously threaten Alito’s confirmation. And if they do not, both sides might need to rethink basic assumptions about the politics of the Supreme Court.” [LAT]
• Gov. Mark Warner (D-Va.) tours battleground states for a head-start on ‘08. Warner: “As Democrats, what we have to do is put forward ideas and candidates that can win in places like Florida, that can win in places like Virginia.” [NYT]

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• House passes $94.5b in tax cuts; “some budget analysts say the flourish of tax cutting badly undermines the recent shows of fiscal discipline.” [WP, NYT]
• Approval of Bush climbs back to 40% in NYT/CBS poll; 52% believe that the administration “intentionally misled the public when its officials made the case for war” and only 33% approve of Congress. Charles Cook: “It looks like they’re finally getting a little bit of credit for the economy performing as strongly as it has. We’ve had good economic news for a while, but Iraq so dominated things it couldn’t break through.” [NYT]
• Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald solicits new grand jury; sources say “Fitzgerald was probably providing the new grand jury with a primer on what has been learned in the investigation and what remains unresolved” and “could spell trouble for [Karl Rove], or for other people enmeshed in more recent developments in the case.” [WP, NYT]
• Bush shifts strategy in Iraq to focus on “smaller, more visible projects.” Bush: “Reconstruction has not always gone as well as we had hoped, primarily because of the security challenges on the ground. Rebuilding a nation devastated by a dictator is a large undertaking.” [WP, NYT, USAT]
• Rep. Robert Menendez (D) is expected to be named as Corzine’s successor. [WP, NYT]

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