Peggy Noonan: “I have never seen a president in exactly the position Mr. Obama is, which is essentially alone. He’s got no one with him now. The Republicans don’t like him, for reasons both usual and particular: They have had no good experiences with him. The Democrats don’t like him, for their own reasons plus the election loss. Before his post-election lunch with congressional leaders, he told the press that he will judiciously consider any legislation, whoever sends it to him, Republicans or Democrats. His words implied that in this he was less partisan and more public-spirited than the hacks arrayed around him. It is for these grace notes that he is loved. No one at the table looked at him with colder, beadier eyes than outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , who clearly doesn’t like him at all. The press doesn’t especially like the president; in conversation they evince no residual warmth. This week at the Beijing summit there was no sign the leaders of the world had any particular regard for him. They can read election returns. They respect power and see it leaking out of him. If Mr. Obama had won the election they would have faked respect and affection.”
Secret Emails from Possible Clinton Managers Leaked
“For the past five years, a prominent Democratic operative who is a leading contender to manage a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign has maintained a private email listserv for friends and associates that carries a provocative name: the ‘Mook Mafia,'” ABC News reports.
“The listserv, which one member said reaches more than 150 fellow campaign veterans, has been a means for Robby Mook and a close friend Marlon Marshall to stay connected with many of the operatives who would likely populate a Democratic presidential campaign in 2016. Mook and Marshall have both been mentioned as possible Hillary Clinton campaign managers.”
GOP Divided Over Confronting Obama on Immigration
Congressional Republicans “have split into competing factions over how to respond to President Obama’s expected moves to overhaul the nation’s immigration system,” the Washington Post reports.
“The first, favored by the GOP leadership, would have Republicans denounce what House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has called ‘executive amnesty’ and use the party’s new grip on Congress to contest changes to the law incrementally in the months ahead.”
“The second, which has become the rallying cry for conservatives, would seek to block the president’s decision by shutting down the government for an extended period until he relents.”
Liberal Donors Urge Warren to Run for President
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) “insists she has no interest in running for president in 2016, but the rich liberals to whom she spoke Thursday afternoon seemed unwilling to take ‘no’ for an answer,” Politico reports.
“The Massachusetts senator got a rock stars’ welcome during a closed-door speech to major donors, one of whom interrupted her by yelling ‘Run, Liz, Run!’ Warren drew multiple standing ovations during her talk, held in a banquet room at Washington’s Mandarin Oriental hotel during the annual winter meeting of the Democracy Alliance, a club of major liberal donors.”
Roll Call: Warren gets seat at leadership table
At Least Six Democrats Voted Against Reid
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) “faced the first internal opposition to his grip on power Thursday as at least six Democrats rejected his bid for another leadership term during an emotional meeting following last week’s drubbing in the midterm elections,” the Washington Post reports.
“Four straight election victories had produced unwavering support and increasing power for Reid in the Democratic caucus, but the repudiation on Nov. 4 tested his clout.”
Politico: How Reid kept his job
Obama Pushes Ahead on Many Fronts
“President Obama emerged from last week’s midterm election rejected by voters, hobbled politically and doomed to a final two years in office suffering from early lame-duck syndrome. That, at least, was the consensus in both parties. No one seems to have told Mr. Obama,” the New York Times reports.
“In the 10 days since ‘we got beat,’ as he put it, by Republicans who captured the Senate and bolstered control over the House, Mr. Obama has flexed his muscles on immigration, climate change and the Internet, demonstrating that he still aspires to enact sweeping policies that could help define his legacy.”
New Yorker: “Once upon a time—about six years ago, to be precise—Obama was a feted celebrity in Washington, too. These days, it’s not quite like that, of course, and the President, once he gets home, will be frequently and painfully reminded of what has changed. But perhaps it’s a bit early to write him off. “
Boehner Weighs Expanding Lawsuit Against Obama
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) “is considering expanding a federal lawsuit on President Obama’s executive orders to include immigration. Filing a separate lawsuit over the president’s authority to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation is another option that gained traction Thursday during talks among party leaders,” the Washington Post reports.
“The idea to use the courts as an initial means of dissent, should the president move forward in the coming weeks and save millions from deportation, moved to the front of the House GOP’s playbook after the leadership reviewed it. Boehner is said to want to respond forcefully and quickly should the president act and is of the opinion that a lawsuit would do that, as well as signal to conservatives in his conference that he shares their frustrations about the president’s use of executive power.”
Republicans Don’t Need to Govern
Jay Rosen is tired of reading post-election news reports that state, “Republicans must show they can govern.”
“These are false statements. I don’t know how they got past the editors. You can’t simply assert, like it’s some sort of natural fact, that Republicans ‘must show they can govern’ when an alternative course is available. Not only is it not a secret — this other direction — but it’s being strongly urged upon the party by people who are a key part of its coalition.”
“The alternative to ‘show you can govern’ is to keep President Obama from governing. Right? Keep him from accomplishing what he wants to get done in his final two years and then ‘go to the country,’ as Karl Rove used to say, with a simple message: time for a change! This is not only a valid way to proceed, it’s a pretty likely outcome.”
McConnell Says He’s ‘Disturbed’ By Obama’s Actions
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) declared that he was “very disturbed” by President Obama’s recent attempts to exercise his executive powers, the Huffington Post reports.
“Those include moving ahead on dealing with undocumented immigrants, cutting a deal with China on climate change and suggesting that the Internet should be regulated like a utility under so-called net neutrality rules.”
Said McConnell: “I’ve been very disturbed about the way the president has proceeded in the wake of the election… I had maybe naively hoped the president wold look at the results of the election and decide to come to the political center and do some business with us. I still hope he does at some point, but the early signs are not good.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“This president has been floating the trial balloon on executive amnesty for a long time. Today, new details surfaced that the president plans to attempt amnesty as early as next Friday, sending us into a constitutional crisis.”
— Rep. Steve King (R-IA), quoted by The Hill, on President Obama using executive action to make immigration changes.
Reid Gets an Earful from Senate Democrats
“Senate Democrats voted on Thursday to keep Senator Harry Reid of Nevada as their leader, but his victory came only after a nearly four-hour closed-door meeting in which 28 caucus members expressed their frustration with the party’s direction after an Election Day drubbing,” the New York Times reports.
“The voting was done by secret ballot, but it was not unanimous, reflecting a divide within the party over the need to elevate new faces and younger leaders. Those concerns were reflected in part in the decision Thursday to create a new but relatively small leadership role for Senator Elizabeth Warren, 65, of Massachusetts, a folk hero of the left.”
Why Didn’t People Vote?
Pew Research: “Among those who were registered to vote but chose not to, two-thirds (67%) gave reasons related to lack of time: 35% had work or school conflicts and 34% were too busy, ill, out of town or simply forgot. Two-in-ten (20%) registered non-voters say they either didn’t like the candidate choices or issues on the ballot, didn’t care about this election or didn’t have any or enough information to vote. And 10% of non-voters reported having a technical reason for not voting, either having missed the registration deadline, recently moving, or not have transportation to the polls.”
Boehner Faces No Tea Party Uprising
Roll Call: “House Republican leaders who have faced opposition from the most conservative wing of their own caucus in recent years may have stumbled across the best way to quash an intraparty revolt: Win.”
“Last week’s Election Day gains have quieted the talk of a mutiny against John A. Boehner that has obsessed some conservatives since a failed attempt to dethrone the speaker at the start of the 113th Congress. Even tea party members who have long spouted anti-Boehner bombast and candidates who hinted on the trail they would look elsewhere for leadership are sounding pleased with the status quo.”
What Era Do Republicans Actually Want to Restore?
Peter Beinhart: “Unlike Reagan, today’s Republicans are generally shrewd enough to avoid identifying exactly which previous age they wish to restore. But for African Americans, Latinos, women, and gays and lesbians, idealizing any previous age means idealizing one in which they enjoyed fewer rights and opportunities than they do today. Pledging to ‘restore’ America appeals to many older, straight, Anglo, white, and male voters, because it’s a subtle way of saying Republicans will bring back the good old days. The GOP’s problem is that to win back the White House, it must make inroads among Americans who know the good old days weren’t all that good.”
Axelrod Says Inevitability is a Problem for Clinton
David Axelrod, the chief strategist who guided President Obama into the White House, offered a blunt assessment of Hillary Clinton’s likely 2016 presidential campaign, saying she needs to “get out of the cocoon of inevitability,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Axelrod: “Tactics have to follow strategy. I think the danger for Secretary Clinton is that, as was the case in 2007, her candidacy is out in front of the rationale for it.”
The Worst Political Ad of 2014
A controversial ad by Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) attempted to link former state Attorney General Dan Sullivan (R) to an allegedly lax record on sentencing sex offenders but it backfired badly.
The Fix: “Begich pulled the ad — but the damage was very much done. Up until that point — early September — Begich had been the candidate with the momentum, maintaining a steady polling edge over Sullivan despite the conservative nature of the state. The Active ad ended that momentum. From that point onward, Begich’s numbers tumbled while Sullivan’s soared.”
Outside Spending Didn’t Buy the Election
New research from Alan Abramowitz: “The correlation between the Democratic and Republican outside spending difference and the Democratic margin was .23, which is not statistically significant. In contrast, the correlation between the Democratic margin and incumbency status was a more significant .76, and the correlation between the Democratic Senate margin in 2014 and the Democratic presidential vote margin in 2012 was an even more significant .89.”
“In other words, partisanship in a polarized era, represented by the ’12 presidential vote margin, was by far the strongest predictor of 2014’s Senate vote. Naturally, incumbency status is also significant. But the difference between amounts of outside spending by groups affiliated with both parties has surprisingly little effect, perhaps because both sides spent so much that the money from Republicans neutralized the cash from Democrats, and vice versa.”
White House Hints at Veto of Keystone XL Legislation
The White House has begun hinting that President Obama would veto legislation that mandates approval of the Keystone XL oil-sands pipeline, National Journal reports.
“While a Keystone bill may not be able to clear the lame-duck Senate, the legislation will very likely have more than the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster when Republicans take over the chamber next year. But it’s unclear whether the new Senate could muster the 67 votes necessary to override a presidential veto.”
Wonk Wire: Using Keystone XL to save Mary Landrieu
