President Obama “is preparing to nominate Mayor Julián Castro of San Antonio as his new secretary of housing and urban development, elevating one of his party’s Hispanic rising stars as part of a cabinet shuffle that has possible implications for the 2016 presidential race,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Castro, who has often been mentioned as a potential vice-presidential candidate for the Democrats, would take the place of Shaun Donovan, who is to become director of the Office of Management and Budget. That job is being vacated by Sylvia Mathews Burwell, whom Mr. Obama tapped to be secretary of health and human services and who seems headed to Senate confirmation.”

Washington Examiner: “The secretary of Veterans Affairs has almost overnight replaced Sebelius as the new fall guy for Obama, in this case over mismanagement of veterans’ health care. But, for various reasons, Shinseki is faring a little better. Unlike Sebelius, most elected lawmakers have resisted calling for his resignation for now. Republicans seem to prefer pinning the problem on Obama, not Shinseki.”

New York Times: “The assets of President Obama and his wife, Michelle, were valued as high as $7 million last year, according to a financial disclosure form released by the White House on Thursday. Most of the president’s income came from royalties on his three books and investments made possible by the proceeds.”

“Amid increasing patient loads and an exodus of disenchanted employees, VA medical centers in Phoenix and elsewhere became overwhelmed over the past few years, with new patients sometimes waiting a year to see a primary-care physician and facing months-long delays for specialist appointments,” the Arizona Republic reports.

First Read: “For all the political sound and fury over Benghazi, the mismanagement at the Department of Veterans Affairs has been (and will be) the bigger story… There’s bipartisan outrage (unlike regarding Benghazi), and it cuts at the heart of the ‘competency’ issue for the Obama administration (see the health-care website). Yes, VA hospitals have been a mess for years. Then again, we’re now in Year Six of the Obama presidency.”

Huffington Post: The real cost of Benghazi politics

In his latest “McCar­thyesque flourish,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) declared he had a list of “76 instances of lawlessness and other abuses of power” of President Obama, Dana Millbank writes.

“To his credit, Cruz made his list public. But perhaps he shouldn’t have. An examination of the accusations reveals less about the lawlessness of the accused than about the recklessness of the accuser.”

Timothy Geithner says in a new memoir “that he considered stepping down as Treasury secretary in 2010 after the financial crisis and suggested Hillary Clinton as a possible successor,” the AP reports.

President Obama “rebuffed Geithner’s suggestion, and he remained at Treasury until 2013.”

The House of Representatives “voted to hold Lois Lerner, a former Internal Revenue Service official accused by Republicans of abusing power, in contempt, laying bare the bitter divide over which much of the midterm elections will be fought,” the New York Times reports.

“It was a moment of high drama, complete with allegations that the White House orchestrated a Watergate-style cover-up that helped steal a presidential election, and invocations of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and his delusions of a huge conspiracy.”

Wall Street Journal: “What happens next is unclear. Federal law says that if the House or Senate votes to hold someone in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena, the matter will be referred to the local U.S. attorney, a Justice Department official. It is then the duty of the U.S. attorney to bring the matter before a grand jury. But that doesn’t guarantee an indictment. Justice officials didn’t respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.”

Washington Post: “When most Americans turn on their televisions at night, they expect their meteorologists to get the forecast right, or at least try. That level of trust is one reason President Obama and his staff spent hours Tuesday giving top weather forecasters the royal treatment — a briefing in the Roosevelt Room with multiple Cabinet secretaries and senior officials on a major new report on climate change, plus Rose Garden interviews with the president. It was the White House’s latest attempt to penetrate a polarized media climate where Americans increasingly read and view — consciously and unconsciously — material that matches their political beliefs.”

Washington Post: “The glitchy rollout of HealthCare.gov and a contentious relationship with Congress might have bedeviled the White House over the past year, but at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington on Saturday night, President Obama milked them for comedic fodder.”

[Read more…]

A Politico survey of White House correspondents finds that 41% say former President George W. Bush’s White House was more transparent than President Obama’s, while only 5% say the current occupant has been better on that front.

President Obama is naming W. Neil Eggleston, “a veteran Washington lawyer with extensive experience representing government officials in congressional and criminal investigations, as his next White House counsel,” the New York Times reports.

A new Fox News poll finds 37% think President Obama lies “most of the time,” while another 24% say he lies “some of the time.” Twenty percent of voters say “only now and then” and 15% “never.”

A new Pew Research poll finds that 52% of Americans don’t see President Obama as black but instead consider him mixed-race.

New York Times: “Unlike John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, who inspired virtual legislatures of politicians and became generational touchstones, Mr. Obama has so far had little such influence. That is all the more remarkable considering he came to office tapping into spirit of volunteerism and community service that pollsters say is widespread and intense among young people. Mr. Obama has come to represent that spirit, but he has failed, pollsters say, to transform it into meaningful engagement in the political process.”

New York Times: “The White House frustration with Ms. Sebelius crystallized by Thanksgiving, as it became clear in Washington that she would eventually have to go… But three things put off Ms. Sebelius’s departure: Mr. Obama’s fear that letting people go in the middle of a crisis would delay fixing the website; his belief that ceremonial firings are public concessions to his enemies; and the admiration and personal loyalty that Mr. Obama still felt for Ms. Sebelius and her advocacy for his chief domestic legacy.”

“Over the next four months, Ms. Sebelius engaged in a kind of slow-motion resignation, largely staying out of the national limelight but crisscrossing the country in a furious effort to enroll people in health insurance and taking comfort from strangers who recognized — and offered thanks — for her efforts.”

A heated Attorney General Eric Holder accused congressional critics of launching “unprecedented, unwarranted, ugly and divisive” attacks on him and the Obama administration, ABC News reports.

Said Holder: “Forget about me [specifically]. Look at the way the attorney general of the United States was treated yesterday by a House committee. What attorney general has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment? What president has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment?”

Pat Robertson blasted President Obama as an “absolute disaster,” warning people of all party affiliations that action must be taken against him, the Huffington Post reports.

Said Robertson: “We need to do something to pray to be delivered from this president.”

Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Sam Clovis (R) says he believes “many congressional Republicans want to impeach President Obama. The only thing standing in their way, Clovis said in an interview, is the color of the president’s skin,” the Daily Times Herald reports.

Said Clovis: “I would say there are people in the House of Representatives right now that would very much like to take the opportunity to start the process. And I think the reason that they’re not is because they’re concerned about the media.”

He added: “It’s not that what he has done would not rise to the level where it might be impeachable. I don’t think it’s a practical, pragmatic issue. And simply because I don’t think the nation is ready for it. Now we have a situation where race is thrown into the cards as well. Whether we like it or not, race is an issue.”