Elsewhere: McCain's Praise, Ben's Goodbye

Vanity Fair has a profile of John McCain in which he says of Hillary Clinton:

"People underestimate her political intelligence and her antennae. She's not her husband--no one's her husband. But she's good. And I like her. I know you're not supposed to say that, but I do."

In a wrap-up of 2008 candidates, The Fix speculates about whether Barack Obama will announce his candidacy around MLK Day.

In a fun little web-based popularity contest on Huffington Post, Hillary beats Obama, McCain and Giuliani. (Also, Mike Bloomberg loses to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.)

A former U.N. ambassador joins the race for Yvette Clarke's City Council seat.

Michael Chertoff defended new homeland security funding formulas and says that NYC won't be shortchanged.

Karol Sheinin learned that she doesn't have to be on the same airplane as her luggage and doesn't feel safe flying.

The top investigator in the Albany County DA's office is reinstated. For now.

The Brennan Center wonders what rules the state Senate will pass when their current ones expire on January 15.

Greg Sargent finds more evidence that something pretty big was amiss with that "John Kerry eats alone"story.

Jerry Nadler hopes to read more this year, while the guy behind Streetsblog hopes to convince drivers "to stop honking their f--ing horns so much."

Ben says thank you.

And pictured above are two guys who share an interest in member items: Joe Bruno and Andrew Cuomo.