SPITZER cozies up to lobbyists.

NEWSBUSTERS WONDERS why the Huckabee stem cell story isn’t getting more attention. Well, it’s the slowest news weekend of the year and lots of media folks are on vacation. Oh, and also, they want Huckabee to get the nomination so the GOP will lose in the fall.

UPDATE: “That queasy Little Rock feeling.” This does have a familiar feel. . . .

PHIL BOWERMASTER on the importance of being “unrealistic.”

ALMOST ENOUGH REASON BY ITSELF TO BACK BARACK: “Jesse Jackson can still get a crowd going—when he can find one. He appeared at a Los Angeles restaurant this fall, primed to discuss school dropout rates and home foreclosures. But only eight people showed up, mostly reporters. It’s no longer Reverend Jackson’s day in the sun, or any other black leader’s whose name isn’t Barack Obama. So where does that leave the leaders to whom black America has long turned in times of crisis—Jackson, and the Revs. Andrew Young and Al Sharpton? At times they can seem like jealous, cranky old men.”

HAPPY FESTIVUS! I neglected to order a Festivus Pole this year, but maybe next . . . .

Anyway, here’s the Story Of Festivus:

VITAMIN D UPDATE: “Vitamin D tests conducted on a group of University of Toronto students have found that virtually all non-whites had insufficient levels of the sunshine vitamin, putting them at elevated risk of debilitating diseases such as osteoporosis, cancer and diabetes. . . . Vitamin D insufficiency used to be thought of as a problem causing only rickets, but in recent years, researchers have found that low levels of the nutrient are linked to a disparate range of diseases and health problems, including many types of cancer, osteoporosis, mult-iple sclerosis, diabetes and susceptibility to tuberculosis and influenza.” And many of the whites had low levels, too. Sun isn’t all bad, you know.

And it’s not just Canada — we see low levels in the United States, too:

Recent research shows up to 50 percent of kids and adults in the United States are at high risk for vitamin D deficiency. It’s not to be taken lightly — a lack of vitamin D has been linked to a whole host of diseases. And research continues to show it has a significant effect on cancer.

We’re even seeing a resurgence in rickets as people keep their kids indoors or slather them with sunscreen. And Vitamin D may even slow aging:

A King’s College London study of more than 2,000 women found those with higher vitamin D levels showed fewer ageing-related changes in their DNA. . . . They found that, after adjusting the results for the age of the volunteer, women with higher levels of vitamin D were more likely to have longer telomeres in these cells, and vice versa.

That’s good, if it’s true. Meanwhile, don’t hide from the sun. You only need 10-15 minutes a day, but it’s important to get that.

CHRISTMAS CARDS from Iraq. Video from the troops.

MORE ON THE LAME incandescent bulb ban that Congress just produced. And this seems right to me: “Sure, you’ll see more compact fluorescents five years from now, but you would have seen them without any energy bill.” The only real argument for this is that it preempts even dumber — and probably inconsistent — laws from the states.

HOW LAW PROFESSORS THINK: “I love It’s a Wonderful Life because it’s the greatest financial services movie ever made.”

NOT JUST A WRONG-HOUSE RAID, but an actual home invasion by a police officer who appears to have been moonlighting in crime. But he still couldn’t get the right house: “Ferman said the men were looking to retaliate against someone they thought had stolen money from a friend of theirs who was a drug dealer. Apparently, the men picked the wrong address and broke into the apartment of a couple who were not involved, Ferman said.”

JOHN TIERNEY: Smart elevators, dumb people.

I’ve had experience with this technology, and I don’t think it’s the people who are dumb.

ADVICE TO MUSICIANS FROM DAVID BYRNE: “What is called the music business today, however, is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that’s not bad news for music, and it’s certainly not bad news for musicians.”

NEURO-FUEL.

CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS IN BAGHDAD.

FRED THOMPSON works Iowa hard. “Fred is confounding the pundits with a bruising schedule when it matters most.”

UPDATE: Did the L.A. Times pull a Politico? “Not only not accurate, but it sure seems that between the two of them, Michael Finnegan is much lazier than Fred Thompson.”

MARS, MEET ASTEROID: “Mars could be in for an asteroid hit. A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30.” I’d rather see a nice big comet strike that might donate some water and volatiles — might as well jump-start the terraforming process . . . .

RACIAL UNDERCURRENTS IN THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN: “It has unfolded mostly under the radar. But an important development in the 2008 Democratic battle may be the building backlash among African Americans over comments from associates of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that could be construed as jabs at Sen. Barack Obama’s race.” I noted this danger a while back.

JULES CRITTENDEN: Look back in anger.

LIVEBLOGGING RON PAUL on Meet the Press. Video here.

CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS from Queen Elizabeth.