The Golden Report

26 DAYS UNTIL IOWA

TOP STORY: Shooting at Virginia Tech- A VT campus police officer on a routine traffic stop was shot dead today by a gunmen, who police believe later shot himself on the campus of the Blacksburg, Virginia university that is the site of the worst school shooting in American history, on April 16, 2007.

JUST IN: Police have identifed the slain police officer as 39-year old Deriek Crouse. He is survived by his wife and five children.

From The Washington Post:

“A routine traffic stop at Virginia Tech turned violent Thursday, leaving a police officer and his assailant dead and the campus on lockdown, a scenario reminiscent of the 2007 massacre that claimed 33 lives and redefined how universities respond to emergencies.

The mayhem began about 12:15 p.m., when a Virginia Tech patrol officer stopped a driver at the university’s coliseum parking lot. Someone — not the person who was pulled over — walked up to the officer and shot him. The shooter then ran.

The officer’s body was found in a sprawling parking lot near the Virginia Tech stadium. The gunman’s body, along with a weapon, were found in another parking lot nearby, law enforcement and government officials said. Authorities say they think he killed himself as police closed in. They would not say whether he was a student.”

TONIGHT normal operations have resumed on the Virginia Tech with the most recent message from the University reading:

“Virginia Tech Police, in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies, have determined that there is no longer an active threat or a need to secure in place. Resume normal activities.”

SENATE BLOCKS CORDRAY NOMINATION: Voting 53-47 and failing to reach the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican-led filibuster, the Senate today refused to move forward with the nomination of Richard Cordray to be the first commissioner of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The vote, while expected, was used as leverage by the President, who went into the Press Briefing Room of The White House at 11:30am- minutes after the vote- to lambast Senate Republicans. Many expect that the President may move to nominate Cordray via recess appointment over the holidays, if the Senate adjourns.

FROM THE PRESIDENTS REMARKS:

“This morning, Senate Republicans blocked his nomination, refusing to let the Senate even go forward with an up or down vote on Mr. Cordray.  This makes absolutely no sense.

There is no reason why Mr. Cordray should not be nominated, and should not be confirmed by the Senate, and should not be doing his job right away in order to carry out his mandate and his mission.

So I just want to send a message to the Senate:  We are not giving up on this.  We’re going to keep on going at it.  We are not going to allow politics as usual on Capitol Hill to stand in the way of American consumers being protected by unscrupulous financial operators.  And we’re going to keep on pushing on this issue.”

ON TAX CUTS

The President also continued his pitch for Congress to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut, an issue that many political analysts say he has a leading position on.

“And I just want to make clear:  This is not about me.  They shouldn’t extend the payroll tax cut for me.  They shouldn’t extend unemployment insurance for me.  This is for 160 million people who, in 23 days, are going to see their taxes go up if Congress doesn’t act.  This is for 5 million individuals who are out there looking for a job and can’t find a job right now in a tough economy who could end up not being able to pay their bills or keep their house if Congress doesn’t act.

So rather than trying to figure out what can they extract politically from me in order to get this thing done, what they need to do is be focused on what’s good for the economy, what’s good for jobs and what’s good for the American people.

And I made very clear I do not expect Congress to go home unless the payroll tax cut is extended and unless unemployment insurance is extended.  It would be wrong for families, but it would also be wrong for the economy as a whole”

ON KEEPING CONGRESS IN SESSION THROUGH CHRISTMAS

“With respect to my vacation, I would not ask anybody to do something I’m not willing to do myself.  So I know some of you might have been looking forward to a little sun and sand — but the bottom line is, is that we are going to stay here as long as it takes to make sure that the American people’s taxes don’t go up on January 1st, and to make sure that folks who desperately need unemployment insurance get that help. And there’s absolutely no excuse for us not getting it done.”

ON PLAN B

In his press conference, the President also affirmed support for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and her decision yesterday to overrule a FDA recommendation and restrict access to the Morning After Pill, also known as “Plan B”

THE OSAMA CARD

But this morning’s press conference might be remembered most because the President responded to his Republican rivals who have questioned his foreign policy credentials by referencing his Administration’s successful killing of Osama bin Laden. The President has only referenced the killing a few times, and never so explicitly in this political context.

“Ask Osama bin Laden, and the 22 out of 30 top Al Qaeda leaders who have been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement — or whoever is left out there, ask them about that.”

WALL STREET:

• DOW down 198
• NASDAQ down 53
• S&P 500 down 27

CAMPAIGN 2012:

SANTORUM NABS BIG ENDORSEMENT- Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz is set to endorse Santorum on Friday

RICK PERRY is beginning a bus tour on Saturday across the state of Iowa, leading up to the January 3rd caucuses

As MITT ROMNEY sharpens his attack against frontrunner NEWT GINGRICH, Gingrich is trying to stay above the fray, telling reporters in South Carolina today, “We’re gonna stay positive. All I’m gonna say is, we’re gonna stay positive. We’re gonna stay solution-oriented and talk about what America needs to do. And the only opponent I have is Barack Obama.”

THE NEXT DEBATE is Saturday, 9pm ET, nationally televised on ABC News and sponsored by the Iowa Republican Party.

In next week’s edition, TIME Magazine goes behind the scenes of the Obama Campaign’s war room, including this passage:

“Obama’s guerrilla war on Republicans is being waged on three fronts. At the White House, senior aides including David Plouffe oversee a master strategy and communicate most often with the President, while the growing Chicago operation focuses on rapid responses to candidate attacks on Obama.

The Dems’ attacks come from the second floor of the DNC headquarters, a few blocks south of the Capitol, where communications director Brad Woodhouse oversees a daily flood of biting e-mails, ads and Web videos.

A sign of his instincts: his glass-walled office is plastered with a half-dozen images of kittens in fields, kittens purring for the camera, kittens pawing each other. Look closely and one of the images stands out: a Photo­shopped picture of George W. Bush biting into a kitten like a cob of corn, a clear sign that this is not the workplace for the faint of heart. It is an oft repeated maxim of Obamaland’s that the country is closely divided and the final count next November is likely to be so too. “

FINALLY...HOW TO GET FIRED, QUICKLY…From the Hill’s Justin Sink

“Three staffers for Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) were fired Thursday after a series of tweets in which they insulted the congressman, complained about their work and described drinking on the job.

“We became aware of the issue through a tweet referencing an article about the incident. Congressman Larsen immediately decided to fire the three staff members involved in the incident,” Larsen spokesman Bryan Thomas said in a statement.

“Congressman Larsen is disappointed by their actions and takes this very seriously. He has made it clear that he will not tolerate this kind of behavior.”

The tweets — which belonged to legislative assistants Seth Burroughs and Elizabeth Robbee and legislative correspondent Ben Byers — repeatedly referenced “December to Remember,” a campaign devised by the staffers to spend the final month of the legislative session in what the Daily Marker called “a state of perpetual debauchery.”

According to the tweets, the “December to Remember” began with a round of shots on the steps of the Cannon House Office building. From there, staffers  sneaked drinks throughout the workday, watched music videos on YouTube, and lobbed insults at their bosses.

Burroughs, in tweets that spanned multiple months, referred to Larsen as an “idiot” and a “selfish a———.” He also described sneaking shots of Jack Daniels in his coffee and destroying his work Blackberry.”

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