President Obama “is urging the Illinois General Assembly to legalize gay marriage in his home state as lawmakers are poised to take up the measure as early as this week in Springfield,” the Chicago Sun Times reports.
Long Lines Cost 50K Votes in Florida
An Ohio State University researcher has found that “as many as 49,000 people across Central Florida were discouraged from voting because of long lines on Election Day,” the Orlando Sentinel reports.
“About 30,000 of those discouraged voters — most of them in Orange and Osceola counties — likely would have backed Democratic President Obama … About 19,000 voters would have likely backed Republican Mitt Romney … This suggests that Obama’s margin over Romney in Florida could have been roughly 11,000 votes higher than it was, based just on Central Florida results. Obama carried the state by 74,309 votes out of more than 8.4 million cast.”
Clinton Admitted to Hospital for Blood Clot
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was admitted to a New York City
hospital on Sunday after doctors discovered that a blood clot had formed
after she sustained a concussion a few weeks ago, NBC News reports.
The Washington Post notes Clinton hasn’t been seen in public in three weeks.
Congress Peers Over the Fiscal Cliff
“Senate negotiations to craft a bipartisan budget deal proceeded in
chaotic fits and starts Sunday, raising new questions about whether
Congress would be able to steer the country away from the fiscal cliff,”
the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The center of gravity had shifted by day’s end after talks between
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-KY) reached an impasse. Mr. McConnell instead struck
up talks with Vice President Joe Biden, a former Senate colleague with
whom he has worked on bipartisan budget deals in the past. The two men
planned to talk by phone into the night… No details of their
discussions were immediately available.”
Roll Call: “Efforts in the Senate to cut a last-minute bipartisan deal to avoid the
fiscal cliff’s tax increases and spending cuts continued Sunday evening
with little sign of an imminent breakthrough.”
Congress’ Self-Sabotaging Kabuki Act
John Avlon: “If this supposedly liberated lame-duck Congress can’t agree on basic outlines of a grand bargain agreement that has been debated in detail for the past two years, why should we believe that the next Congress will have more success? Immigration reform, gun reforms — those more difficult debates will be effectively DOA from day one. This is self-government committing economic suicide, putting ideological absolutism ahead of solving problems. The idea of a productive lame-duck session after the contentious election has been erased. Hopefully, Senators Reid and McConnell will surprise us with some kind of patchwork compromise by the self-imposed deadline of 3 p.m. today, but they have been keeping rumors of progress to themselves.”
“This congressional Kabuki is killing us, because it masks a more fundamental problem. Congress seems unable to act unless confronted with a crisis at the last minute — and even then, they can’t agree on anything significant or substantive that actually deals with long-term problems. Maybe they should just stay on vacation and spare us the rhetoric. But as the clock ticks to New Year’s, they should have a guilty conscience that might inspire a genuine resolution to reform. Because they created this crisis and now seem unable to fix it. We’re the ones who will feel the pain. It is an epic act of self-sabotage.”
Quote of the Day
“They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they’re behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected. That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme.”
— President Obama, on Meet the Press, blaming Republicans for failing to reach a deal to avert the fiscal cliff.
Republicans Resigned to Getting Blamed
BuzzFeed: “It’s difficult to find a Republican operative who is willing to say on the record that going over the fiscal cliff next Tuesday is a good idea. Provoking a crisis is bad politics: Republicans are resigned to taking the blame. And it’s bad for their policy agenda: They will likely be cornered into a broader tax hike than the best deal they could get from President Barack Obama today, and with none of the spending cuts that might now be on the table.”
“And yet, the dominant emotion among most Republicans here is one of sheer resignation.”
Said one prominent Republican: “It’s a shit show. Tax rates are going to go up on everyone, and we’re going to get the blame.”
Most Unproductive Congress in 60 Years
Huffington Post: “As 2012 comes to a close, the 112th Congress is set to go down in American history as the most unproductive session since the 1940s… Obama has signed 219 bills passed by the 112th Congress into law. With less than a week to go in the year, there are currently another 20 bills pending presidential action. In comparison, the last Congress passed 383 bills, while the one before it passed 460.”
“The 104th Congress (1995-1996) currently holds the ignominious distinction of being the least productive session of Congress … Just 333 bills became law during that two-year period, meaning the 112th Congress needs to send nearly 100 more bills to Obama’s desk in the next few days if it wants to avoid going down in history — an unlikely prospect, considering that both chambers are squarely focused on averting the ‘fiscal cliff’ before the new year.”
Obama Still Thinks Fiscal Cliff Deal is Possible
After meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, President Obama said he was “modestly optimistic” that an agreement to avert the “fiscal cliff” could still be reached, the New York Times reports.
“This was the first time the group has met together in weeks to try to reach a resolution as Congress headed toward a rare New Year’s Eve session.”
Meanwhile, The Hill reports Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are working to reach a deal on the fiscal cliff.
“The two have laid out a 48-hour plan for reaching a deal to prevent looming tax hikes and spending cuts, with both men indicating they’d offer something for their conferences to consider.”
The Week: Who will voters blame if we go over the fiscal cliff?
Democrats Rally Around Markey to Replace Kerry
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said he supported Rep. Edward Markey’s (D-MA) decision to seek his Senate seat, “heaping strong praise on the Massachusetts congressman” and an aide says Kerry would vote for Markey in a special election, the Boston Globe reports.
Kerry’s statement was immediately followed by an endorsement from Victoria Kennedy, widow of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Jr.”
Mark Halperin notes Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Michael Bennet also came out for Markey.
Republicans to Blame for More Polarized Congress
Harry Enten looks at statistics that rank members of Congress on a scale from -1 for most liberal to 1 for most conservative and finds Senate and House Democrats have been fairly stable at -0.4 since 1992.
“There has, however, been an increase in partisanship in the House, and it truly is ‘asymmetrical’. The Republican House caucus has been becoming more conservative every year since 1977, whether or not House Republicans are winning or losing elections. Republicans have climbed from 0.4 on the DW nominate scales after the 1992 elections to near 0.7 in the last congress. That type of charge towards polarization is historically unusual over data that stretches back 130 years.”
Likewise, Senate Republicans “have slowly and become more conservative in their roll call votes by moving from about 0.3 to 0.5 on the scale.”
Media Tip: 5 Things to Remember Next Time You Go on TV
A guest post from Brad Phillips, author of The Media Training Bible.
Appearing on television can be an odd experience, especially for spokespersons who aren’t familiar with some of the more challenging formats (such as “remote” interviews, in which spokespersons look directly into a camera and speak to a host in a different location).
This post will help strip away some of the mystery by arming you with five details you’ll need to know prior to your next television interview.
First Holiday Votes Since 1970
The New York Times reports that yesterday was the first time in 42 years that there have been roll call votes in Congress during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
“The House and Senate have held numerous pro forma sessions during the week between Christmas and New Year over the years, and in 1995 during a major budget battle. But the last time they held roll call votes that week, before Thursday, was during the second session of the 91st Congress, in 1970, amid a large spending fight and a filibuster over financing for a supersonic transport plane.”
Why They Want to Go Over the Fiscal Cliff
For all the warnings about the fiscal cliff, President Obama and congressional leaders are acting like they’ve decided it’s better to go off the cliff (at least in the short term) than make a deal.
Politico: “For many Republicans, a cliff dive means blaming President Barack Obama for a big tax hike in the short term and then voting to cut taxes for most Americans next month… For Democrats, the cliff is better than setting a rich man’s cutoff in the million-dollar range — or worse yet, extending the Bush tax cuts for all earners — and slashing Medicare and Social Security to appease Republicans. They, too, see an advantage in negotiating with Republicans who will feel freed from their promise not to vote to raise taxes once the rates have already gone up.”
Steve Kornacki: “It’s unclear whether today’s eleventh hour fiscal cliff summit at the White House represents a good faith effort to broker a deal or if it’s just for a show… The reality, though, is that it’s probably in both parties’ interest for no deal to emerge from today’s session.”
Wonk Wire: What it really means to fall off the fiscal cliff.
Dewhurst Campaign Manager Took at Least $600K
Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s (R) campaign manager “is under criminal scrutiny, suspected of stealing at least $600,000 — and possibly more than $1 million — from the Republican’s political accounts over the past several years,” the Dallas Morning News reports.
“The revelations, startling not only in the amount of missing money but also in the apparent brazenness of a campaign insider, have stunned Dewhurst’s close circle of advisers.”
Quote of the Day
“I assume there will be some Supreme Court appointments in this next term; that alone was reason to vote for him. I don’t think I said anything a lot of people weren’t thinking. It’s easier now more than ever in my life to feel the fix is in, the game is rigged and no matter how hard you work to change things, it just doesn’t matter.”
— Matt Damon, in an interview with Playboy, on his frustration with President Obama.
Why Abercrombie Bucked Inouye
Politico: “Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s decision to buck the dying wish of legendary Sen. Daniel Inouye and install his own No. 2, Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz, as the state’s soon-to-be senior senator may be less surprising than it seems.”
“Abercrombie and Inouye were not allies. In fact, their two-decade relationship in Congress was marked by rifts — most notably over Inouye’s encouragement of a primary challenger to Abercrombie in the 2010 governor’s race. Abercrombie and Schatz were running mates in that same election.”
Electoral Clout of Blacks Is Driven by Turnout
A new Pew Research survey finds that blacks voted at a higher rate this year than other minority groups and for the first time in history may also have voted at a higher rate than whites.
“Unlike other minority groups whose increasing electoral muscle has been driven mainly by population growth, blacks’ rising share of the vote in the past four presidential elections has been the result of rising turnout rates.”
