Interests: Politics, Government, Media, Transportation, Space, Social Media, Civic Engagement, Washington, DC Following: The Obama Presidency, Decision 2012, The 112th Congress Work: myImpact.org- a non-profit working at the intersection of social media & citizen engagement
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
The Evening Report for Tuesday December 13
21 DAYS UNTIL IOWA
JUST IN: Conservative activist and former Delaware senate candidate Christine O’Donnell tonight announced her endorsement of Mitt Romney on FOX News. And tonight, the Romney campaign is TRUMPETING the endorsement.
TOP STORY: The House passed a payroll tax cut extension this evening; it is considered dead on arrival in Senate.
THE VOTE: 234-to-193. 10 Democrats joined 224 Republicans in backing the measure, while 14 Republicans and 179 Democrats voted no.
WHAT’S NEXT: Unclear. Democrats are using as leverage in the debate over the payroll tax cut the omnibus appropriations bill which will fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year.
That bill is ready to be filed and considered and has bipartisan support. But Senate Majority Leader Reid doesn’t want to bring it to the floor until there is an agreement on the tax cut, as the omnibus is the last remaining “must-pass” item before the holiday recess. That despite the fact the tax cut expires on 12/31. The current continuing resolution funding the government expires on Friday night, 12/16.
TRUMP’S FIRED- Today the man who has played an outsized role in the Republican primary so far said he was pulling out of his own debate, which was set to be held in Iowa two weeks from tonight sponsored by Newsmax. Only Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum had agreed to participate.
GETTING LOCAL- President Obama conducted interviews with four regional network affiliates today. The White House Communications Office has scheduled these block interviews with TV stations from around the country about twice a month, allowing the President to sit for questions with reporters outside of the White House Press Corps.
Today he was interviewed on WVEC (Norfolk, VA), WEAR (Pennsacola, FL), KOAA (Colorado Springs, CO) and KIMO (Seattle, WA).
HERE’S HOW KOAA-NBC5-Coloardo Springs led their 5pm broadcast tonight, with a clip of President Obama’s interview with a local news anchor saying “Colorado, I always like to think, is the future of America” then a 3-part split screen with video from the interview, a live picture of the press briefing, and B-roll of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Then, local reporter Rob Quirk live from the North Lawn of The White House.
A theme for this round of regional television interviews was the end of the war in Iraq. THE WHITE HOUSE has released an interactive timeline that walks through the President’s speeches and decision-points on Iraq since taking office at whitehouse.gov/iraq
DEFENSE SECRETARY LEON PANETTA made a previously unannounced visit to Afghanistan today
J.W. MARRIOTT, JR. announced today that he will retire as CEO of MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, the international hotel chain his parents started and which is headquartered in Bethesda, MD.
The Washington Post reports on the end of an era of a local business leader:
“Throughout the growth of his family’s company and the industry, there was Mr. Marriott, as his devoutly loyal employees call him, espousing his family’s simple maxim that if you take care of your employees, your employees will take care of your customers, and your customers will come back.
That philosophy still permeates the company — which is now worth nearly $10 billion and employs 129,000 people — after countless nights of putting heads in beds. Arne Sorenson, a trusted Marriott lieutenant for more than a decade, will become chief executive in March, the first non-Marriott to run the company. J.W. Marriott, known as Bill, will become executive chairman.”
TODAY ON THE STREET- from CNBC- “Wall Street sold off sharply in the final hour of trade after the Federal Reserve delivered little hope that it would turn on the easing spigots anytime soon and as a formerly rosy holiday retail season suddenly turned gloomy.
Major averages closed just off their lows from the day in a selloff that began shortly after the Fed’s Open Market Committee released its meeting statement shortly after 2. The red numbers accelerated into the close as banks and energy — leaders during a morning rally — turned tail and dropped sharply.”
- DOW down 66
- NASDAQ down 33
- S&P 500 down 11
CAMPAIGN 2012- THREE WEEKS UNTIL IOWA CAUCUS NIGHT
GINGRICH STAFFER OUT IN IOWA- Following a Des Moines Register report that a staffer for the Gingrich Campaign raised questions about Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, the campaign today fired the staffer.
Via POLITICO: Craig Bergman agreed to step away from his role with Newt 2012 today,” Gingrich spokseman RC Hammond said in a statement. “He made a comment to a focus group prior to becoming an employee that is inconsistent with Newt 2012’s pledge to run a positive and solutions orientated campaign.”
GINGRICH TOPS ROMNEY BY 17 POINTS in new NBC NEWS/WALL STREET JOURNAL POLL (a national survey) released tonight at 6:30pm.
- GINGRICH 40
- ROMNEY 23
- PAUL 9
- BACHMANN 8
- PERRY 6
- HUNTSMAN 5
- SANTORUM 3
THREE POINTS:
1/ It’s the first time that Gingrich has topped 40 points in a national survey.
2/ Romney remains mired in the low to mid 20s.
3/ The field is separating between Newt/Romney and everyone else, with Ron Paul currently in third place, 14 points behind Romney
In IOWA, Gingrich has a 12-point lead over Romney according to a Real Clear Politics average of recent polls
In NEW HAMPSHIRE, Romney has a 10-point lead over Gingrich, with Paul in 3rd and Huntsman in 4th.
In SOUTH CAROLINA, Gingrich has almost a 20-point lead over Romney.
HARD HITTING AD by RON PAUL in IOWA “Selling Access”
As one political observer put it today “we didn’t know Ron Paul could create an ad that good”
FINALLY.…No Labels, the 501(c)(4) organization formed about a year ago with the lofty goal of bringing Republicans and Democrats together, today took their first tangible step at relevance in a crowded political environment, releasing a blueprint for reforms that Congress can make to the way it does business, unveiling a 12-step action plan to “Make Congress Work” at nolabels.org/work including
1/ No Budget, No Pay- members of Congress would not be paid if the annual Congressional budget process wasn’t completed on time
6/ Question Time for the President- a monthly forum for Members of Congress to ask questions of the President, a la Prime Minister’s Questions
8/ No Pledge But the Oath of Office
10/ Bipartisan Seating
11/ Formation of a Bipartisan Leadership Committee
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The Evening Report for Wednesday November 30, 2011
34 DAYS UNTIL IOWA
JUST IN: Virginia Attorney Governor Ken Cuccinelli will announce that he is running for governor in 2013, the Washington Post reports tonight.
Cuccinelli was elected Attorney General in 2009 and has become a hero among tea party conservatives for his positions on health care, immigration and gay rights.
Incumbent Republican Governor Bob McDonnell is not eligible to run for re-election in 2013 due to term limits. Cuccinelli is expected to face Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling in a primary.
On the Democratic side, former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe is reportedly considering a second attempt at the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
CAMPAIGN 2012:
NEWT GINGRICH ON FOX NEWS TONIGHT: “And it’s clear that across the country, people are saying, you know, I think we need Newt Gingrich,” he said. “Whereas I would have thought originally it was going to be Mitt and not-Mitt, I think it’s going to — it may turn out to be Newt and not-Newt.”
RON PAUL ATTACKS GINGRICH: In a new web video out today (that only has 301 views), the Ron Paul campaign attacks Gingrich for what they call “serial hypocrisy” and applies the same flip-flopping charge that is more often leveled against Mitt Romney, to Gingrich.
HERMAN CAIN ON FOX NEWS THIS AFTERNOON: “I can only conjecture that maybe I am the Democrats’ worst nightmare if I win the nomination … Maybe the Democrats want Newt Gingrich to win the nomination, so they can then go after his personal life.” Officially, Cain is still “reassessing” his candidacy.
AND THEN, Cain said this, via POLITICO, “On the many, many phone calls between him and the woman accusing him of having a 13-year affair Ginger White, Cain said: “I talked to a lot of people 61 times.”
STILL TONIGHT, Cain had more to say, in a 9pm news conference, he said he could not guarantee that more allegations could come forward.”I can’t say that someone won’t drum up another accusation. It just comes with the territory, he siad.
MITT ROMNEY UP WITH NH AD: The second ad of the campaign cycle put up by the Romney Campaign. Their first, last week, was widely criticized for a misleading quote from President Obama during the 2008 campaign. The ad is straightforward and attacks the President’s economic policy.
PRESIDENT OBAMA is in New York City tonight, attending four campaign fundraisers. Earlier today, the President was in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of Vice President Joe Biden (who is in Baghdad today) urging Congress to extend & expand the payroll tax cut passed last year for in 2012. He is due back at The White House at 12:30am Thursday.
ON CAPITOL HILL, there is some movement on extending the payroll tax cut, with GOP leadership emerging generally in favor of doing so, resisting the opposition of some more conservative members.
In a closed-door House Republican caucus meeting today, The Hill reports that Majority Leader Eric Cantor laid down the gauntlet, saying, “taxes are a Republican issue and you aren’t a Republican if you want to raise taxes on struggling families to fund bigger government.”
THE REPUBLICAN PLAN as it is currently being floated, would freeze pay for federal workers an additional year (it has already been frozen for two years), trim the federal workforce by roughly 10% and introduce some means-testing for federal programs such as Medicare and unemployment insurance.
Ordinarily, these proposals would be dismissed out of hand by Democrats (much like their proposal, to pay for the tax extension by charging a surtax on millionaire taxes, is being by Republicans), however, the proposals in the Republican plan are taken from the bi-partisan Simpson/Bowles Committee recommendations that many Democrats see as the basis for long-term deficit reduction.
COORDINATED ACTION BY THE FED and other central banks around the world this morning was designed to increase the amount of US dollars in circulation around the world and act as a buffer to continued anxiety over the European debt crisis.
As the New York Times reports:
“The banks announced that they would reduce by roughly half the cost of an existing program under which banks in foreign countries can borrow dollars from their own central banks, which in turn get those dollars from the Fed. The banks also said that loans will be available until February 2013, extending a previous endpoint of August 2012.”
“The purpose of these actions is to ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses and so help foster economic activity,” the banks said in a statement. The participants in addition to the Fed were the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank.”
WALL STREET reported its best day of 2011 as a result of the Fed’s announcement:
- DOW up 490 to 12,045
- NASDAQ up 105 to 2,620
- S&P 500 up 52 to 1,247
BILLY GRAHAM was admitted to a hospital today in North Carolina, reportedly suffering from pneumonia-like symptoms. The iconic Evangelical minister is 93-years old and has been in declining health in recent years.
$9 GAS? it looks like that’s a possibility this winter in NOME, ALASKA. A historic winter storm earlier this month prevented a barge from reaching the Alaskan city best known the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and now officials are coming up with a plan to fly small quantities of gasoline into the community of 3,500 residents, at an extraordinarily high cost.
The Associated Press reports on the predicament:
“A gallon of gas was selling for $5.98 and jet fuel $6.77 a gallon on Wednesday. The next barge delivery wouldn’t be until next June. In the meantime, flying fuel to the city could increase the cost per gallon by $3 to $4, officials said.”
“We are going to have to have fuel drivers picking up fuel 24 hours a day as flights are available to fly into Nome,” said Jason Evans, board chairman of Sitnasuak Native Corp., which provides services to the region.”
“Sitnasuak arranged in May with petroleum distributor Delta Western Inc. to have three barges deliver fuel to Nome, but only one arrived early in the summer, Evans said. That barge carried home heating fuel.”
“The storm that barreled into Alaska’s western coastline in mid-November, zeroing in on Nome, prevented the arrival of a barge carrying 1.6-million gallons of gasoline and diesel.”
FINALLY...the 2011 Rockefeller Christmas Tree is lit! This year’s tree is a 74-foot tall Norweigan Spruce from Miffinville, Pa. Over 34,00 lights- stretching some five miles- illuminate the tree.
The first Christmas Tree was placed in Rockefeller Plaza in 1931 and the first tree lighting ceremony was held in 1933. The 2011 tree will be illuminated each evening- and all day Christmas Day- until January 07, 2012.
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