“I’m just honored to even have a voice that matters a little bit. A lot of people dream to be part of the policy mix.”
— Former Utah Gov. Jon Hunstman (R), in an interview with BuzzFeed, claiming he takes only 2% of interview requests.
Obama Staffers Shut Out of Inaugural Events
In a “sour footnote” to President Obama’s re-election last November, many of his campaign staffers tell BuzzFeed they have been shut out of the inaugural festivities.
Said one: “We worked our butts off, and I’m going to watch it on TV instead of being there. It’s a huge bummer.”
“Former staffers — who spoke to BuzzFeed on the condition of anonymity to preserve their relationships, and possible jobs, in Obama’s second term — say they have grown frustrated by what they see as inadequate communication from the Presidential Inaugural Committee, the group responsible for the inaugural balls, and in particular by its restrictions on access to the official events.”
House GOP Considers Four Year Debt Limit Deal
House Republicans are weighing an increase in the national debt limit for four years in exchange for big spending and entitlement cuts, Roll Call reports.
“The plan would, however, come at no easy price for Obama, who pledged as recently as Monday morning not to negotiate with Republicans on a debt ceiling hike. Republicans would demand major tax and entitlement reforms — the latter of which has been anathema to many Democrats — and they could also ask for movement on the sequester and an expiring continuing resolution that must be dealt with in the next three months.”
Three Fiscal Cliffs Approach
Politico: “The White House and Congress are facing three critical deadlines — the country hits its debt limit as early as mid-February, $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts take effect March 2, and the government runs out of money to fund operations later that month.”
“There is no real optimism among Republicans and Democrats that the standoff will end quickly, or painlessly. The strategy of each party rests largely on the other one folding.”
Marc Ambinder: Why the White House really rejected the trillion dollar coin to avoid the debt ceiling fight.
Obama Plans Big Gun Control Package
President Obama “will embrace a comprehensive plan to reduce gun violence that will call for major legislation to expand background checks for gun purchases and lay out 19 separate actions the president could take by invoking the power of his office,” the New York Times reports.
“Lawmakers and other officials said that the president could use a public event as soon as Wednesday to signal his intention to engage in the biggest Congressional fight over guns in nearly two decades, focusing on the heightened background checks and including efforts to ban assault weapons and their high-capacity clips. But given the difficulty of pushing new rules through a bitterly divided Congress, Mr. Obama will also promise to act on his own to reduce gun violence wherever possible.”
Roger Simon: “The gun lobby has weathered this before. It has faced public outrage over gun massacres many times. And it has its playbook ready.”
New York Reaches Quick Deal on New Gun Control
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers agreed to “a broad package of changes to gun laws that would expand the state’s ban on assault weapons and would include new measures to keep guns away from the mentally ill,” the New York Times reports.
“Approval of the legislation would make New York the first state to act in response to the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., last month.”
Scott Gave Back His Dog
Shortly after winning the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2010, Rick Scott (R) announced that his family had rescued a Labrador Retriever and gave it a name: Reagan.
But when the Tampa Bay Times “asked last week what had happened to the dog, Scott’s current and former communications directors refused to answer… At one point an exasperated reporter asked Burgess if he had killed the dog, and Burgess denied ever killing a dog, but still wouldn’t say where Reagan was.”
Later a spokeswoman called to say Reagan had been returned about a year ago.
Ann Romney Turns Down Dance Show
Ann Romney rejected an invitation to appear on the “Dancing with the Stars” television show, TMZ reports.
“You may recall, Ann showed up at last season’s finale and gushed that she was a big, big fan. Our sources say Ann and producers had several meetings to try to hash out the details, but Ann ultimately decided against it.”
Some Consensus on Gun Control
A new Pew Research poll finds “there are clear areas of agreement when it comes to a number of gun policy proposals. Fully 85% of Americans favor making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks, with comparable support from Republicans, Democrats and independents. Similarly, 80% support laws to prevent mentally ill people from purchasing guns, with broad support across party lines.”
“But this bipartisan consensus breaks down when it comes to other proposals. Two-thirds of Americans (67%) favor creating a federal database to track gun sales, but there is a wide partisan divide between Democrats (84%) and Republicans (49%). A smaller majority of the public (55%) favors a ban on assault-style weapons; Democrats (69%) also are far more likely than Republicans (44%) to support this. Similar partisan divides exist when it comes to banning high-capacity ammunition clips or the sale of ammunition online.”
Jenny Sanford Will Not Run for Congress
Former South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford said she will not run for Congress, USA Today reports.
Said Sanford: “I think my job as mom right now is much more important, much more rewarding and much more productive. The idea of killing myself to run for a seat for the privilege of serving in a dysfunctional body under John Boehner when I have an eighth-grader at home just really doesn’t make sense to me.”
The AP notes had she run, it likely would have set up a race between her and her
ex-husband, former Gov. Mark Sanford.
Military Suicides Hit New High
“Suicides in the U.S. military surged to a record 349 last year, far exceeding American combat deaths in Afghanistan, and some private experts are predicting the dark trend will worsen this year,” the AP reports.
“The problem reflects severe strains on military personnel burdened with more than a decade of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, complicated by anxiety over the prospect of being forced out of a shrinking force.”
Glenn Beck Plans $2 Billion Libertarian Commune
Shortly after announcing that he was reinventing The Blaze as a global libertarian news network, the Dallas Observer reports Glenn Beck announced “the next stage of his full-bodied embrace of libertarianism, which seems to be a massive commune inspired by ‘Galt’s Gulch,’ Ayn Rand’s utopian community in Atlas Shrugged.”
Napolitano Will Stay On for Second Term
Washington Post: “Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will remain in the
same post as President Obama begins a second term… While not unexpected, her remaining in place means that most of
Obama’s first-term Cabinet will begin the second term unchanged.”
America Divided by More Than Just Partisanship
National Journal: “The same demographic trends that helped the GOP keep the House will hurt their shot at the presidency. And the trends that propelled Obama to reelection will impede Democrats from retaking the House.”
Obama Says Debt Ceiling is Not Negotiable
President Obama repeated his call for deficit reduction at a press conference “but warned against the potentially catastrophic effect on the economy by tying cuts to raising the debt ceiling,” Politico reports.
Said Obama: “While I’m willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficit, America cannot afford another debate with this Congress over how to pay the bills they’ve already racked up. To even entertain the idea of this happening, of America not paying its bills, is irresponsible. It’s absurd.”
He added: “They will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy. The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip.”
South Grows More Isolated
George Packer:
“Every President elected between 1976 and 2004 was, by birth or by
choice, a Southerner, except Ronald Reagan, who enjoyed a sort of
honorary status. (When he began the 1980 campaign in Philadelphia,
Mississippi, scene of the murder, in 1964, of three civil-rights
workers, many Southerners heard it as a dog whistle.) A Southern accent,
once thought quaint or even backward, became an emblem of American
authenticity, a political trump card. It was a truism that no Democrat
could win the White House unless he spoke with a drawl. Now the South is
becoming isolated again.”
“Every demographic and political trend that
helped to reelect Barack Obama runs counter to the region’s
self-definition: the emergence of a younger, more diverse, more secular
electorate, with a libertarian bias on social issues and immigration;
the decline of the exurban life style, following the housing bust; the
class politics, anathema to pro-business Southerners, that rose with the
recession; the end of America’s protracted wars, with cuts in military
spending bound to come. The Solid South speaks less and less for America
and more and more for itself alone.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I think the Republican Party is having an identity problem.”
— Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, on Meet the Press.
Is Air Leaking Out of Gun Control Balloon?
First Read: “The White House is serious about making a push for some new gun laws, with universal background checks serving as the likely centerpiece of what the president asks Congress to pass when guns are brought up at the State of the Union. But you also get the sense that the air is leaking ever-so-slightly out of this balloon that is called gun control — as those advocating new government regulations start accepting the political realities on Capitol Hill. The wild card here: the victim groups. Just like the 9/11 widows, they could become a powerful force that does move public opinion.”
A new Gallup poll finds 38% of Americans “are dissatisfied with
the nation’s gun laws and want them strengthened. This is up from 25%
who held this set of views a year ago, and is the highest since 2001.
Still, more Americans are either satisfied with current gun laws, 43%,
or think they should be loosened, 5%.”
