By DAN K. THOMASSON, Scripps Howard News Service

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama's apparent decision to ask Eric Holder to be his attorney general is not without peril for a young president-elect who has repeatedly promised to clean up the scandal polluted, partisan atmosphere of Washington.

WASHINGTON -- This could only happen in America.

The insurance giant AIG that is more than a little responsible for the current economic crisis reportedly has decided to lay out $503 million of early deferred compensation to top employees so they won't abandon a ship that is being kept afloat only by billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars.

WASHINGTON -- It wasn't too long ago that most Americans accepted the adage that what is good for General Motors is good for the nation. That symbolic concept of U.S. industrial might certainly has slipped dramatically over the last four decades, but at this moment it just may be truer than it ever was.

WASHINGTON -- Whatever Sarah Palin's future in politics outside Alaska, she will go down as one of the most trashed and controversial vice presidential candidates in American history, a victim of some bad journalism, a negative atmosphere she helped create, her shallow qualifications and sabotage by those who chose her as an improbable running mate for John McCain.

WASHINGTON -- My son, a nominal Republican, called from the West Coast to inform me that he had just voted for Barack Obama.

"I just felt l had to be a part of history," he said excitedly. "I wanted to be able to say that I helped elect the first African American president of the United States."

WASHINGTON -- The next supreme leader of the United States should take the oath of office with his sleeves rolled up. The few seconds required for the Chief Justice of the United States to swear him in are about all he will have to enjoy before beginning to wonder why in heaven's name he thought running for this office was a good idea.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joe Biden seems to have all but disappeared and he hasn't even been elected vice president yet. Could it mean that Sen. Barack Obama, if chosen president next week, has decided to relegate his running mate to a more traditional role than has been the case in the last two administrations?

WASHINGTON -- It probably wouldn't have made much difference but Sen. John McCain's chances might have improved somewhat had he focused almost exclusively on the theme of two of his recent national ads -- Sen. Barack Obama's lack of experience -- and forgone the negativism that in the end only served to energize the opposition.

WASHINGTON -- If you intend to vote for president solely on the basis of either candidate's claims about what he will do to solve the nation's growing health care pains, you have to be one confused dude or dudess.

WASHINGTON -- If you live in one of those so-called presidential battleground states the chances are about the only political sound you hear regularly is Sen. Barack Obama telling of his childhood love of America or of his plans to sort out the mess with the economy and revolutionize health care, or delivering a half dozen other different messages mainly knocking Sen.