Helene Cooper: "While it is difficult to judge whether the moment will have any lasting impact, Hispanic leaders said that what is being dubbed by some as the 'dustup in the desert' could play in the president's favor given the unfavorable view many Hispanics have of the governor for her advocacy of tough immigration measures."  Full Story..

Sheryl Gay Stolberg: "Mr. Gingrich, Democrats and Republicans here agree, emerged as one of Washington's most aggressive practitioners of slash-and-burn politics; many fault him for erasing whatever civility once existed in the capital."  Full Story..

Plus: An editor calls Speaker John Boehner racist for asking President Obama to postpone his address to Congress for one night.  Full Story..

Who cares what an unelected dictator thinks of the Republican primary field? The New York Times apparently does: "'The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is - and I mean this seriously - the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been,' [Fidel Castro] wrote in an opinion piece in state-owned news media."  Full Story..

Reporter Michael Schmidt: "Iraqis were outraged Tuesday to learn that the Marine considered the ringleader of a 2005 massacre that left 24 of their countrymen dead in 2005 was sentenced on Tuesday to a reduction in rank but avoided any jail time after pleading guilty the day before to a reduced charge." Schmidt quoted three outraged Iraqis, two of whom were relatives of victims, while ignoring the Marines' side completely.  Full Story..

Eric Pfanner exudes leftist sensibilities in his report from the World Economic Forum in Davos: "...a new wave of anger was welling up, one that, over the last year, would shake up old assumptions about the ultrarich, the middle class and the growing gulf that separates them."  Full Story..

Trip Gabriel likens Tea Party conservatives to angry bulls: "As he moved to consolidate the conservative base behind him, Newt Gingrich waved the red cape of a former Florida governor who quit the Republican Party and lost to the Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio - a line that got a big reaction from crowds who have not forgotten that act of moderate apostasy."  Full Story..

More tax-hike propaganda in Wednesday's lead slot, conveniently matching President Obama's tax-the-rich campaign strategy. The Times took an obsessively detailed look at Mitt Romney's recently released tax returns while suggesting the findings bolstered Obama's argument that the rich are undertaxed, while ignoring the reality that "Romney pays at a much higher rate than most Americans."  Full Story..

Helene Cooper claimed Republicans in Congress were seeing their "poll numbers diving," but failed to note Obama's poll numbers are also underwater, and took Obama's lead in suggesting his message that the rich are undertaxed was vindicated by Mitt Romney's tax returns.  Full Story..

From the front page to the education section to reality show reviews, the Times is still obsessed with Occupy Wall Street and the 99% "aspiring idealists" bravely fighting "the political and financial masters of the universe."  Full Story..