New Year's Eve in 60 Seconds: Byron Dorgan to GOP Finger-Pointers -- 'Knock It Off'

Good morning, Capitolists! It's an icy and jittery last day of 2009 in the nation's capital, where news of suicide bombings and warnings of more are being met with questions of who was at fault for last week's security breaches and rumors of whose heads will roll over the whole episode.

With hopes that 2010 starts on a more positive note than it's ending on, here's what's making news in Washington today:

* Overnight News. The New York Times reports a suicide bomber wearing an Afghan Army uniform killed eight Americans in Southeastern Afghanistan last night. CNN also reported that the U.S. Embassy in Bali has warned of a possible New Year's Eve attack in that nation.

* Dem to GOP: "Knock It Off" One Congressional panel planning hearings on the Christmas Day bombing attempt is the Senate's Aviation Security Subcommittee, chaired by the usually soft-spoken Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.). Yesterday the senator detailed a long list of security lapses he's examining, but added a few choice words for finger-pointing Republicans. "I hope those few members of Congress who are trying to use this terrorist attack for their own partisan gain will knock it off," he said. "Our country deserves better than to have people try to use a terrorist attack for political gain."

* Times Square Scare. The New York Police Department gave the all-clear yesterday after a bomb-detection robot looked through a white cargo van that had been parked in Times Square for two days. People who work in the area told the New York Post said the van's windows were covered by tarps, that it had no license plates, and it displayed a placard that read "Detective's Crime Clinic." NYPD found only fake Burberry scarves inside the van, but New Yorkers were spooked nonetheless.

* Obama's First Veto. The president issued his first veto Wednesday, but on a piece of legislation that never needed to be enacted. The AP reports the bill was a temporary spending measure passed by Congress during the December snowstorm, just in case lawmakers could not meet to fund the government permanently. Since senators passed a long-term spending bill days later, the stop-gap measure needed a veto as a technicality.

* Super-Delegates on the Chopping Block. Take yourself back to the magical days of Campaign 2008, when Democratic super-delegates became the hanging chads of the Obama-Hillary smackdown: We'd never heard of them before, but it looked like they might pick the next leader of the free world. Fast-forward 18 months, and the Washington Post reports Democratic leaders, who we bet are not super-delegates, are recommending that the all-powerful party players be required to follow the will of the voters from their states in 2012. What fun is that?