Winners & Losers - Which Are Which?

Have you noticed that most of Santa's gifts for Washington this year came attached with strings, complicated instructions and most of the time batteries were not included?

Like Hillary Rodham Clinton's book deal: Do you think Republicans will make it easy for her to keep it after the ruckus Democrats raised about a book deal half the size that former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich tried to make?

George W. Bush got what he wanted, but as the old joke goes, "he wanted it in the worst possible way". And it's hard to think of a worse way to be president than to start with no mandate, a Senate divided 50-50, a House almost as close, and a nation split down the middle on almost everything, including who really won the election?

But this is the season when all things seem possible so we wish him the best.

Al Gore got the lump of coal, but sometimes in life what looks like a bad break turns out to be just the opposite. With what George W. Bush faces, that lump of coal may look better and better in time. In any case, we wish him the best, too.

Next year will surely bring a load of problems. But the next year always does and there'll be time enough to talk about them next year, because I think I heard a jingle bell which reminds me to tell you we've had a wonderful year - maybe the best ever - here at Face the Nation.

The hundreds of e-mails and letters we now receive each week -; even the ones that tell us when we are wrong - tell me that you really care about the news.

Well, so do we. So from all of us here, thanks for watching and listening and to paraphrase a famous person, "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good morning!"

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