ABC’s Denver affiliate accidentally ran a fake cover of Paula Broadwell’s biography of General David Petraeus in a story on the burgeoning sex scandal, Americablog reports.
The book’s real title is All In. The doctored book cover read, All Up In My Snatch.
Montana state Rep. Jerry O’Neil (R) “is spooked enough about the country’s fiscal picture to request that his legislative pay come in the form of gold and silver coins,” the Daily Inter Lake reports.
O’Neil said he is largely trying to make a point and get “people to start thinking about what will happen if our money collapses. Also, I would like the state to think about the logistics of actually following the Constitution when it comes to gold and silver coin.”
The Daily Beast looks at better uses for the billions spent on election campaigns this year.
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Harry Enten: “The 1990s culture wars were fought over many social issues that many on the right thought were being redefined from their traditional normals by progressive activists and the liberal media for the next generation. Three of the key points of contention were abortion, gay rights, and recreational drug use. The results from last Tuesday’s election indicates that the right is losing the war on these three issues.”
A new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll finds that most Americans think President Obama and House Republicans will fail to reach an agreement in time to avoid the fiscal cliff, 51% to 38%.
“Amid a global fright over Washington’s political brinkmanship, U.S. lawmakers return to the capital on Tuesday with a seven-week deadline to reach agreement on scheduled tax hikes and budget cuts that threaten to trigger another recession,” Reuters reports.
“The post-election battle over the so-called fiscal cliff is shaping up as an extension of the political campaign with Democrats trying to rally support for raising taxes on the wealthy as part of any deal, and Republicans countering that such an approach would devastate ‘job creators’ across the country.”
Wonk Wire: Will 2016 hopefuls sink a grand bargain on the nation’s debt?
E! Online has tweets and video clips of Donald Trump, Karl Rove, Ted Nugent and others upset with President Obama’s re-election.
Politico:
“House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will meet with top Democrats on
Tuesday night — followed by another leadership-only session early
Wednesday as she prepares for a meeting with all House Democrats — but
it is still unclear whether she will stay or go after nearly a decade in
power. Pelosi has declined to discuss her plans since Democrats picked
up as many as eight seats on Election Day.”
A pregnant Arizona woman was arrested after allegedly running over her husband with her SUV after learning he did not vote in last week’s election, Fox News reports.
Police say Holly Solomon was enraged when she discovered her husband Daniel did not vote because she believes President Obama’s re-election will bring hardship to their family.
“We’ve got to make sure that we are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything. We cannot be, we must not be, the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys.”
— Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), quoted by Politico, urging Republicans to “stop being the stupid party.”
Charlie Cook: “It’s certainly true that 51 percent (rounding up from 50.5) to 48 percent is close, but since the end of World War II, five elections have been closer. Mitt Romney won only two more states (Indiana and North Carolina) than John McCain did, and even if he had won Florida, the GOP nominee would still have needed to win Ohio, Virginia, and either Colorado or Iowa, based on the sequence of the election margins.”
“The danger for Republicans clinging to that solace is that it sidesteps the inconvenient truth that they have now lost the popular vote in five of the past six presidential elections, from 1992 on. For the GOP, this was more than one bad night.”
Less than 12 hours after his concession speech to Tammy Duckworth (D), Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) told the Daily Herald he was not ruling out a future bid for governor or U.S. Senate.
Said Walsh: “You know that I believe fervently in that vision. I don’t know of many other candidates who articulate that vision. Am I going to do something? Oh gosh, I don’t know. People approach me every day and ask, ‘Walsh, are you going to run for the governor? Are you going to run for Senate?’ I want to do my part to lead a movement to present a vision to this. I’d rather go down fighting. Democrats have ruined this state but they’ve been able to do it because the Republicans have allowed them to.”
Marine Gen. John R. Allen, the four-star U.S. commander of the war in Afghanistan, exchanged thousands of “potentially inappropriate” emails with Jill Kelley, the Tampa woman who claimed to have been harassed by the ex-mistress of former CIA Director David Petraeus, Politico reports.
The FBI notified the Defense Department on Sunday of “potentially inappropriate communications” between Allen and Kelley, and turned over to Pentagon lawyers 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails exchanged by the two from 2010 to 2012.”
The Washington Post reports the developing scandal “further calls into question the personal behavior of two
of the U.S. military’s highest-ranking and most respected figures, who
apparently ignored concerns about the highly sensitive nature of their
jobs as they embraced personal relationships with younger women who
were not their wives.”
However, the New York Times says a defense official could not explain how the e-mails between Ms.
Kelley and General Allen were related to the e-mails between
Mr. Petraeus and his his biographer Paula Broadwell and e-mails between Ms. Broadwell and Ms.
Kelley.
Daily Beast: Five facts about the Petraeus affair’s mystery woman, Jill Kelley.
President Obama is considering asking Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) to serve as his next defense secretary, the Washington Post reports.
“Although Kerry is thought to covet the job of secretary of state, senior administration officials familiar with the transition planning said that nomination will almost certainly go to Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.”
Meanwhile, counterterrorism adviser John Brennan is a leading contender for the CIA job vacated by David Petraeus if he wants it.
“The numbers we were looking at looked like we stood a pretty good chance of winning. So, when the numbers came in, going the other direction. When we saw the turnout that was occurring in urban areas that were unprecedented, it did come as a bit of a shock. So, those are the toughest losses to have — the ones that catch you by surprise.”
— Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), in an interview with WISN-TV.
With her razor thin Arizona congressional race finally called, Kyrsten Sinema (D) “becomes the first openly bisexual member of Congress,” the AP reports.
“Her victory came in a year when three states approved gay marriage, and at least five openly gay Democrats were elected to House seats. A Wisconsin congresswoman also became the first openly gay person elected to the Senate.”
The FBI agent who launched the investigation that ultimately led to the resignation of CIA chief David Petraeus “was barred from taking part in the case over the summer due to superiors’ concerns that he had become personally involved in the case,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“New details about how the Federal Bureau of Investigation handled the case suggest that even as the bureau delved into Mr. Petraeus’s personal life, the agency had to address questionable conduct by one of its own–including allegedly sending shirtless photos of himself to a woman involved in the case.”
CBS News reports “it is now becoming clear just how lopsided President Obama’s victory was in some cities: in dozens of urban precincts, Mitt Romney earned literally zero votes.”
“The Phildadelphia Inquirer reported today that, in 59 precincts in inner-city Philadelphia, the GOP nominee received not a single vote. And according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, nine precincts in Cleveland returned zero Romney votes.”
“At first blush, it seems almost impossible: how, even in some of the most heavily Democratic strongholds in the country, could a major party’s presidential candidate fail to earn even one vote?”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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