“Y’all have got a difficult problem.”
— Former Vice President Dick Cheney, quoted by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) in The Hill, offering advice to House Republicans on their problems passing a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
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A Terrible Start for Republicans
“The opening weeks of the 114th Congress have been nothing short of a disaster for Republicans, who declared upon taking control of both chambers last fall that the era of governing by crisis and fiscal cliffs was over,” The Hill reports.
“Since their declaration, House GOP leaders have yanked several high-profile bills from the floor after rebellions from rank-and-file members. Counting an emergency measure to keep the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) running through Friday, Congress has sent President Obama a total of only four bills, even as Republicans promised to get off to a fast start this session.”
Clinton Only Used Personal Email at State Department
Hillary Clinton “exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record,” the New York Times reports.
“Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act.”
Washington Post: “It was not clear why Clinton, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, created the private account. But the practice appears to bolster long-standing criticism that Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have not been transparent.”
Clinton Left Largely Defenseless Without Campaign
“Hillary Clinton is still weeks away from announcing her candidacy for president, but she’s already absorbing her share of damaging mid-campaign-style salvos from reporters and Republicans — without actual campaign staff to defend her,” Politico reports.
“Clinton, backed by Cheryl Mills, her most trusted adviser, has bucked the advice of many top Democrats — former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe personally urged her to staff up late last year — by pushing the hiring of many key staffers into the spring, until after her formal declaration. That has left Clinton, a defense-minded politician who coined the term “War Room,” without a rapid response team to offer robust explanations to reporters probing the fundraising and management practices of her family’s foundation — or even to muster an organized corps of surrogates to get out the talking points.”
Obama Wants Iran To Halt Nuclear Work for 10 Years
President Obama told Reuters that Iran should commit to a verifiable freeze of at least 10 years on its nuclear activity for a landmark atomic deal to be reached, but said the odds were still against sealing a final agreement.
Obama also said that “a rift over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress opposing the Iran deal on Tuesday was a distraction that would not be ‘permanently destructive’ to U.S. Israeli ties. But he said there was a ‘substantial disagreement’ between his administration and the Israeli government over how to achieve their shared goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”
Perry Staffs Up for White House Bid
“Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who is planning to make a second run for president in 2016 after his unsuccessful campaign four years ago, is putting more pieces of infrastructure in place,” the New York Times reports.
“The latest moves are for a super PAC, which can raise high amounts to support a candidate, that will back his effort. The super PAC is to be steered by Austin Barbour, a Mississippi-based lobbyist and political operative, according to three people privy to the staffing decisions at the group.”
Buffett Says Warren Should Be ‘Less Angry’
Billionaire Warren Buffett isn’t a fan of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) populist rhetoric, Business Insider reports.
Said Buffett: “I think that she would do better if she was less angry and demonizing. I believe in ‘hate the sin but love the sinner.’ And I’m not sure that I’ve fully convinced Elizabeth Warren that that’s the way to go.”
Kirk Predicts Doom for Chicago If Emanuel Loses Runoff
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) suggested that Chicago could go the way of financially strapped Detroit if voters fail to reelect Rahm Emanuel (D), USA Today reports.
Said Kirk: “The people who are running against Rahm don’t have the gravitas with the bond market. I would worry about the value of the Chicago debt if Rahm was not re-elected.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“My wife always reminds me I depress everybody so much that I need to pass out tranquilizers.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), quoted by the Boston Globe, joking about his curmudgeonly demeanor.
GOP Leaders, Conservatives Plot Next Moves
“House Republican leaders don’t expect to have a plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security until mid-week, potentially setting up another frantic shutdown fight later this week,” Politico reports.
“With a Friday deadline looming, Republican leaders are set to meet Monday afternoon to begin to plot their way out of what’s become one of the worst jams of John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) speakership.”
“Just hours after the leadership meeting, another emerging power center — the House Freedom Caucus, led by Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan — will gather Monday night to plan their next moves. Sources in the newly formed group say its members aren’t moving to oust Boehner, but some conservatives would support removing the speaker if it came up.”
Netanyahu Says He Means No Disrespect to Obama
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “opened his high-profile visit to the American capital by playing down any personal dispute with President Obama, but he said that he had a ‘moral obligation’ to warn against the dangers of an American-brokered nuclear deal with Iran,” the New York Times reports.
Said Netanyahu: “My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds. I have great respect for both.”
Walker Doesn’t Always Say What He’ll Do
“When White House hopeful Scott Walker talks to potential voters, he hawks himself as a leader who tells people what he will do and then does it. But the line has a snag. As a candidate for governor, Walker didn’t spell out or even mention some of the measures that would become key achievements in office,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“Most notably, Walker never told voters beforehand about what would become his signature accomplishment — repealing most collective bargaining for most public workers. During the uproar over that unexpected legislation known as Act 10 and the recall and re-election campaigns that followed, Walker said he wouldn’t let legislation affecting private-sector workers reach his desk. Now he says he’ll sign it.”
Most Want President to Have a College Degree
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that 62% of voters think it’s important for the President to have a degree, compared to only 31% who think it doesn’t matter.
Interesting: “There’s a large partisan divide on the issue: Democrats by an 81%-14% spread think it’s important while Republicans are evenly divided on the matter at 45%-45%.”
Republicans Started a Fight with No Exit Plan
“In multiple interviews in recent days with party leaders and senior aides, it’s clear the GOP had no real strategy to successfully end the party’s first major standoff with Obama since taking power in January,” Politico reports.
“Republicans had hoped pressure would build on recalcitrant Senate Democrats to ultimately rebel against Obama and force him to capitulate — or at least prompt them to negotiate a compromise. That didn’t happen. They had hoped more public attention to the issue might be spawned by a new outside event, such as more migrant children appearing at the southern border. That didn’t happen. And they had hoped that more time would give their party a fresh opportunity to settle on a coordinated and coherent legislative response to the president. But that certainly didn’t happen.”
Said on GOP senator: “Never go into these things without a plan.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“He’s a winsome personality. Everyone here is convinced he’s running…but sometimes I think, ‘well, maybe he’s just selling books.'”
— Former Iowa GOP official Craig Robinson, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, on Mike Huckabee’s presidential ambitions.
Pelosi Fills GOP Leadership Vacuum
“If anyone was in control of the House floor Friday, it was San Francisco Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, not the Republicans who won full control of Congress in November,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
“Less than two months into Republican governance, House GOP leaders suffered their most humiliating defeat yet on the House floor in the battle over funding the Department of Homeland Security, thanks in large part to Pelosi’s ability to marshal her shrunken Democratic minority when it counts. The Republican leadership team, including Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, demonstrated a stunning inability to do the same.”
Supreme Court Hears an Obamacare Fairytale
Steven Brill: “Congress knew exactly what it wanted to do when it passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, and contrary to the plaintiffs’ claim, that included wanting subsidies for buying health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges to be available to all citizens, even those residing in the 36 states that did not set up their own exchanges, instead relying on the exchange set up by the federal government.”
“I’m a reporter. I hate to take sides… But this is one of those issues where reporters err if they write an ‘on the one hand, on the other hand’ story that creates patently false equivalency.”
“I know what the legislators intended because in researching my book, I interviewed pretty much everyone involved in the conception and writing of the law. Moreover, I did that long before King v. Burwell had become the Obamacare opponents’ favorite new weapon, which means that those opponents had no reason to spin the fairytale that Congress did not intend for those subsidies to go to the millions of Americans signing up on the federally run exchange. At the time, no one had a dog in a fight over congressional intent, because there was no fight.”
Think Progress gives odds on how each Justice will vote.
Schock Used Taxpayer Money for Another Private Flight
Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) used taxpayer money to pay for a private plane to travel from Peoria to Chicago for the Bears-Vikings game on Nov. 16, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
“These new Sun-Times revelations are part of a growing number of questions surrounding Schock’s use of campaign and government funds to support his extravagant jet-set lifestyle.”
