Mitt and Ann Romney were spotted at the new Twilight movie in California, TMZ reports.
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Rubio Already Visits Iowa
Politico:
“Thirty-eight months before the next presidential vote is cast, Marco
Rubio on Saturday night became the first of the potential 2016
contestants to swoop in to this first caucus state and test the GOP’s
new rallying cry to broaden its appeal. Seven hundred people turned out
to see the Florida senator at the annual birthday fundraiser bash for
GOP Gov. Terry Branstad. Rubio had the spotlight all to himself — he
said he was merely here to help the governor mark his 66th birthday, but
no one believed it for a minute.”
“In his speech at Branstad’s
party, Rubio said he understood Republicans’ frustrations over their
electoral loss, but insisted that the country needed to return to its
traditional principles to remain a power and global role model.”
National Memo: GOP leaders already jockeying for 2016.
Quote of the Day
“We’re working on this budget, we’re going to need a lot of prayer for that.”
— President Obama, quoted by ABC News, visiting a Buddhist temple in Thailand.
Democrats Get a Jump on 2016
Mike Allen: “The Obama campaign continues to refine, update and expand its vast database, working the muscle to increase its value for 2014 and 2016. The organization wants to avoid a post-2008 lull, when Obama’s high command was so focused on building a government and staving off a depression that some in the grassroots network felt neglected. This time, supporters are already being asked if they are interested in running for office, and “how many hours per week” they would be willing “to volunteer in your community as part of an Obama organization.”
Republicans Split Over Party’s Problems
“Republican governors are torn between essentially staying the course in the wake of Mitt Romney’s loss and a more proactive strategy aimed at radically shaking up their party in an effort to reach out to young and minority voters,” Politico reports.
“Some governors believe that Romney’s loss two weeks ago to President Barack Obama was just that — a loss by a single candidate who ran a defensive campaign pummeled by negative ads and lacking in vision… But other Republicans here attending the Republican Governors Association conference last week believe a more dramatic Republican makeover is in order.”
Daily Beast: How the Republicans can win again.
Petraeus Mistress Devastated by Fallout from Affair
Paula Broadwell, “whose extramarital affair with CIA chief David Petraeus led to his resignation, is telling friends she is devastated by the fallout,” the AP reports.
“A person close to Broadwell said Sunday she deeply regrets the damage that’s been done to her family and everyone else’s, and she is trying to repair that and move forward. The friend spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.”
“A group of friends and neighbors welcomed Broadwell, her husband, Scott, and their young sons back to their home in Charlotte, N.C., after Broadwell spent more than a week being hounded by media while staying at her brother’s home in Washington. The family friend said she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from her neighbors.”
The Week: The 9 strangest details of the Petraeus affair.
Ryan Emerges as a Power Broker
While the campaign trappings and the high profile of the national campaign are behind him, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) “now finds himself at the center of one of the biggest fiscal negotiations in a generation,” the New York Times reports.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has tapped Ryan “to help strike a deal to avoid big tax increases and spending cuts by the end of the year, and to bring along fellow Republicans.”
“The test will be whether Mr. Ryan — who declined last year to sit on another Congressional committee charged with taming the deficit, in large part because doing so might have hurt his prospects for national office — can make the transition from House budget philosopher to governing heavyweight who can help negotiate a bipartisan deal and sell it to his colleagues.”
Most Independent Candidates Elected Since 1942
Ballot Access News reports that 25 minor party and independent candidates were elected to state legislatures this month.
“Checking records of past elections reveals that this is the highest such number since 1942, when there were 31 such candidates elected. In 1944, there were 22 such candidates elected, and at no time since 1944 (until 2012) had there been any election with more than 17.”
What Romney Didn’t Say
Peggy Noonan: “Thank goodness… for Mitt Romney, who in a conference call with donors said he got beat and beat bad, that his campaign was lacking, that his gut on the big issues was probably off, that he shouldn’t have allowed his campaign to become (in the grandiose, faux-macho lingo of campaign…) an air war and not a ground war, and that they were smoked in get-out-the-vote. He added, with an eye to concerns larger than his own, that he wanted to help the party analyze and define what didn’t work in 2012 so it would be stronger in 2016. Sorry. Kidding! He didn’t say that.”
Petraeus Lawyers Up
Mike Allen: “Gen. David Petraeus has retained superlawyer Robert Barnett of Williams
& Connolly for advice on post-governmental issues, and to assist him
in planning his future. No book is planned. The two had met and talked a
little over the years. Petraeus is facing probes by Capitol Hill, the
Justice Department and the CIA, and now has Barnett’s 250-member firm on
his side.”
The Economist: The questionable legacy of General David Petraeus.
Why a Benghazi Cover-Up Makes No Sense
The Economist: “At the most fundamental level, the reason it is absurd to suspect the existence of a ‘cover-up’ over the Benghazi attack is that such a cover-up could not have had any conceivable goal.”
“Back to the beginning: the underlying accusation about Benghazi is that the Obama administration deliberately mischaracterised the terrorist attack there as having grown out of a spontaneous demonstration because that would be less politically damaging. Such a cover-up would have made no sense because the attack would not have been less politically damaging had it grown out of a spontaneous demonstration. The attack on the Benghazi compound would not have been any less politically difficult for the administration if it had grown out of a riot, nor would any normal voter have expected it to be less politically damaging, nor would any normal campaign strategist have expected any normal voter to have expected it to be less politically damaging.”
The Six Week Congressman
Rep. David Curson (D-MI) was sworn-in last week to complete the remainder of former Rep. Thad McCotter’s (R-MI) term — but he’ll only be there until the end of the year, the AP reports.
“He was one of four members of the House sworn in this past week to fill a partial term, but he’s the only one who didn’t win a full, two-year term to go with the temporary gig. In January, he’ll drive his truck home and be replaced by Republican Rep.-elect Kerry Bentivolio, whom Curson beat out for the partial term.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“Oh shit, I’m in the wrong meeting. Where are the Republicans meeting?”
— Rep.-elect Chris Collins (R-NY), quoted by Roll Call, when he found out he was in a House Democratic Caucus meeting.
The Patriarch
Just published: The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw.
New York Times: “Kennedyland is terrain notably susceptible to idolatry, hatemongering, whitewash, conspiracy-thinking, sensationalism and other agendas. Nasaw credibly avers that he has taken forensic pains to excise anything that could not be confirmed by primary sources. I am no historian, but the evidence appears to support his claim. His research is Robert Caro-esque; barely a paragraph is not footnoted. And he is unsparing about his subject’s shortcomings, which are numerous.”
Debunking 5 Post-Election Myths
Marc Ambinder clarifies some myths that the political elite has been building in the aftermath of the presidential election.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I’m tired now of the elections. People spoke. Move
on, get on with it. I want to do other things and not to be ugly.”
— Barbara Bush, quoted by Reuters.
The Romney Purge Begins
Ben Smith: “There appears to be no Romney Republicanism to propagate. No Romney strategy to emulate. No Romney technology to ape. No generation shaped by his failed effort. And no Romney infrastructure to inherit, though he may still be asked to write and bundle quite a few checks…”
“Romney is being erased with record speed from his party’s books for three reasons. First, many Republicans backed him because they thought he had a good chance of winning; that appeal, obviously, is gone. Second, Romney had shallow roots, and few friends, in the national Republican Party. And those shallow roots have allowed Republicans to give him a new role: As a sort of bad partisan bank, freighted with all the generational positions and postures that they are looking to dump.”
The Week: Why Republicans want Mitt Romney to take a hike.
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