The Golden Report

TOP STORY: Tonight, Congress has averted a potential government shutdown with the passage of a continuing appropriations bill for most of the federal government, and a spending package dubbed the “minibus” that funds five agencies for the rest of this year.

Earlier, the House voted 298-121 to approve the bill, with 101 Republicans breaking ranks with their party and voting against the bill. Tonight, the Senate voted 70-30 to send the bill to the President, with all Democrats voting in favor and most Republicans voting against.

Interestingly, with the President out of the country and the current continuing resolution lapsing at midnight, it is very likely that the bill Congress passed tonight, H.R. 2112, will be signed with an auto pen, only the second time in history when this procedure has been used (The previous time, earlier this year, occurred with the President was also out of the country and Congress passed a continuation of the USA PATRIOT Act).

The passage of tonight’s CR is a rare moment of bi-partisanship for a bitterly divided Congress, but there are no signs that the apparent goodwill will extend to the major issue Congress is considering: the Supercommittee’s deficit reduction charge.

POLITICO’s HEADLINE TONIGHT: “Supercommittee talks on brink of collapse.” From lead reporter Jake Sherman:

“Democrats appeared to be working on a new offer Thursday evening, but Republicans said they were not working on a fresh proposal. Staff level discussions were ongoing, aides said, but there was not much optimism.

With less than a week until the deadline, both parties appear ready to rally around their competing proposals — setting up a partisan showdown in the days before Thanksgiving.

Both proposals are like to fail in the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Wednesday.”

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

All members of the Committee are scheduled to be in Washington this weekend though it is not clear if the full Committee will meet or if work will continue in smaller groups. It is also unclear at what point, if ever, Congressional leadership may be called in to break any impasse. The Committee now has less than one week, until Wednesday November 23rd, to produce its final proposal.

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL TODAY:

NEWT GINGRICH continued to face questions about his consulting contract with Freddie Mac. As Gingrich’s standing has risen in the poll numbers, so too has the media questions about his long record of public service, which conflicts with his campaign’s message of being a fresh face and not a creature of Washington.

HERMAN CAIN turned down an opportunity to meet with the editorial board of the New Hampshire Union-Leader today, an almost unheard of decision less than 60 days before the New Hampshire primary.

The paper’s endorsement is seen as one of the most coveted, and important, in the run up to the primary and Cain’s apparent dissing is not likely to go over well. Of course, Cain did not have a good experience earlier this week with the editorial board of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, when he gave a long and waffling answer on US military policy in Africa.

Cain did, however, find time to make a visit to New York City tonight to tape the Late Show with David Letterman.

As of today, Cain is also receiving Secret Service protection, the agency reported today.

As Mike Allen reports tonight:

“We are protecting Herman Cain,” Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said. He said the decision was made by Homeland Security “Secretary Napolitano, at the request of the Cain campaign and in consultation with the Congressional advisory committee.”

“The authority was given to the Service to protect Herman Cain [beginning] today,” Donovan said.

Asked about the decision to protect Cain about a year before the general election, Donovan said: “Historically, it’s not that unusual.” The Secret Service spokesman noted protection was granted to Jesse Jackson at a similar point during his two campaigns, to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) in October 1979 and to a variety of candidates at a similar point in the 1976 cycle.

Donovan declined to say whether any threats prompted the decision to protect Cain, who at this point is the only candidate under protection other than President Barack Obama. “We don’t discuss the deliberations on which an assessment is made,” the spokesman said.”

WHITE HOUSE SHOOTING SUSPECT Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez was charged today by federal officials with attempting to assassinate the president or his staff, stemming from Friday night’s bullet exchange close to the White House that ended up reaching a glass window on the Truman Balcony. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

Meanwhile, new details are emerging about Ortega and his evidently makeshift plot, as The Washington Post reports,

“Authorities said Ortega was clad in black when he pulled his car within view of the White House on Friday night, fired shots and then sped away. The White House has not said whether the Obamas’ daughters, Sasha and Malia, were there at the time or commented on the shooting.

Ortega was questioned by police on Friday morning, before the shootings, just across the Potomac River from Washington in Arlington, Va. Police said they stopped him after a report of suspicious behavior, but let him go after photographing him because they had no reason to make an arrest.”

WALL STREET: After some traders were inconvenienced on their way into work today because of the Occupy Wall Street protests that declared today a day of mobilization, on the two month anniversary of the protests, anxiety from both Europe and Washington contributed to another down day. European stocks reported six-month lows today.

• DOW down 135
• NASDAQ down 52
• S&P 500 down 21

SYRIA UPDATE: For a second day, Syrian Army defectors engaged in attacks on government buildings and other landmarks today, a striking demonstration of the sectarian strife now turning violent in a country that is at risk of descending into civil war.

As The New York Times reports:

“The attacks may have been more symbolic than effective, but could mark the increased ability of a growing number of defectors to publicize their exploits. Attacks on government installations — in the southern town of Dara’a and the central city of Homs, for instance — have been reported since the start of the uprising.

The attacks themselves paled before the bloodiest episodes of Syria’s last uprising in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Then, insurgents stormed the office of the Aleppo Artillery School, killing 32 cadets. It was unclear whether anyone was killed or wounded in these attacks, but the constituency of armed strikes and the bold choice of targets has heightened the profile of Syria’s armed insurgency.”

FINALLY: Demi Moore and  Ashton Kucher are getting divorced.

Today, Moore told the Associated Press, “As a woman, a mother and a wife, there are certain values and vows that I hold sacred, and it is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life,” indicating that the reason for the divorce was Kucher cheating on Moore with Sara Leal in Las Vegas earlier this year.

Tonight, Kucher tweeted, “I will forever cherish the time I spent with Demi. Marriage is one of the most difficult things in the world and unfortunately sometimes they fail. Love and Light, AK.”

THE EVENING REPORT will next publish on Monday November 21 after your editor returns from a Caribbean cruise.

TOP STORY: Zuccotti Park in New York City’s Lower Manhattan is open again at this hour, per a court order, after being cleared and closed by the New York City Police Department in an early morning raid.

Zuccotti is considered the birthplace of the “Occupy” movement, which began two months ago this week under the name “Occupy Wall Street” and has grown to encompass cities across the United States- including Washington, DC, Portland, Ore. and Oakland, Calif.- and the world.

Shortly after 1am, Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave the order to clear the park. Over 150 people were arrested and the operation concluded before daybreak. The Mayor’s office released a lengthy statement just before 7am and Bloomberg appeared on camera just after 8am. Throughout the day, lawyers for the city and the protestors have battled in court over when and in what manner protestors should be allowed to return to the park.

This evening, the New York State Supreme Court sided with the city and said that protestors are allowed to return to the park but may be prohibited from carrying tents inside, thus making it impossible to replicate the conditions that have come to define Occupy Wall Street over the last eight weeks. Tonight, there are reports that over 750 people have crowded- standing- into the park.

The New York Times has a compelling account of the carefully planned police operation, including below:

“Officials had prepared by watching how occupations in other cities played out. A major disaster drill was held on Randalls Island, with an eye toward Zuccotti. Officials increased so-called disorder training — counterterrorism measures that involve moving large numbers of police officers quickly — to focus on Lower Manhattan.”

“The last training session was on Monday night, on the Manhattan side of the East River. The orders to move into the park came down at the “last minute,” said someone familiar with the orders, which referred to the assignment only as “an exercise.”

“The operation on Tuesday involved officers from various police units, including boroughwide task forces — scores of mobile officers who are usually used to flood high-crime neighborhoods.”

“Emergency Service Unit trucks with klieg lights and loudspeakers gathered at Pike Slip and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, near the Manhattan Bridge, before moving out. The lights and prerecorded messages booming from the loudspeakers seemed to cow many protesters. As the community affairs officers moved into the park in their light-blue windbreakers, many protesters simply gathered their belongings and left.”

“No tents were touched until 1:45 a.m., the police said, giving the protesters time to gather their belongings. Other teams of officers were seen gathering on the perimeter to move in if arrests were needed in the park.”

“As the police moved west through the dense tangle of protesters’ personal belongings, including luggage and plastic lawn and leaf bags stuffed with clothing, crews from the Sanitation Department followed, scooping up what was left behind.”

“No arrests were made in the park until about 3:30 a.m., Mr. Kelly said. The clearing operation was complete about 75 minutes later, the police said.”

“…About 142 people were arrested in the park. Most of the arrests were for “disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.”

THE WASHINGTON POST now has a countdown clock on its homepage until the time when the Congressional Supercommittee is charged with reaching a minimum $1.2 trillion deficit reduction agreement. 8 days remain.

A BLOOMBERG POLL released this morning finds a statistical four-way tie in the Iowa Caucuses (now just six weeks away). As we mentioned last night, this poll is the latest to suggest that NEWT GINGRICH has improbably revived a struggling campaign to within striking distance of front-runner status.

Of course, Gingrich is just the latest candidate to claim this mantle in the 2012 race. Recall that frontrunners thus far have included Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and, now, Newt Gingrich.

The Bloomberg Iowa Poll:

• Cain 20%
• Paul 19%
• Romney 18%
• Gingrich 17%
• Perry 7%
• Bachmann 5%
• Santorum 3%
• Huntsman 1%

REAL CLEAR POLITICS provides an average of all recent polling data. Mitt Romney still leads the field, but only by 0.7 points, over Herman Cain. Gingrich is strongly in third place and, Perry is struggling to prevent falling in the abyss of lower-tier candidates.

• Romney 22%
• Cain 21.3%
• Gingrich 17.6%
• Perry 9.9%
• Paul 7.3%
• Bachmann 4.1%
• Santorum 1.9%
• Huntsman 1.3%

WALL STREET:

• Dow up 17 to 12,096
• Nasdaq up 28 to 2,686
• S&P 500 up 6 to 1,258

APPLE today named Arthur Levinson, who is chairman of the pharmaceuticals company Genentech Inc, as its new board chairman. The chairman’s position was one created for (and by) Steve Jobs when he stepped aside as CEO in August of this year. The Board also named Rober Iger, who is President and CEO of Disney, as a director. Tim Cook remains Apple’s CEO.

GIFFORDS: In his new book published this week, Mark Kelly, the astronaut husband of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, openly blasts Speaker of the House John Boehner who, Kelly says, has only sent a single get-well card in the 11 months since the shooting and did not visit Giffords when he was in Houston in April to attend a NCAA college basketball game.

As The Hill reported this afternoon, Kelly writes in the book, “Considering that she was a member of Congress and he was the highest-ranking member, we thought he’d ask to visit Gabby or at least give a call to see how she was doing. Our only contact with him had been a simple get-well card he’d sent a few days after Gabby was injured.”

Kelly and Giffords sat for their first television interview last night on 20/20 with Diane Sawyer.

CBS: After a first report by Brian Stelter in Monday’s New York Times, CBS News announced today that they are completely revamping the morning program The Early Show, which is set to relaunch on January 09.

The new program- which will go by a new name- will be co-hosted by late night PBS staple and veteran journalist Charlie Rose and Gayle King, a former Connecticut local news anchor who went on to work with her best friend, Oprah Winfrey, on her daytime talk show.

King will co-host the second hour of the 7-9am program with Rose, and Rose will co-host the first hour with current co-host Erica Hill. Under new management, CBS is attempting to refocus the morning program, which as been chronically stuck in third place in the ratings, with a more “hard news” format, while also keeping it conversational. Chris Licht, the former Executive Producer of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, is now the EP of the new CBS morning broadcast.

FINALLY: Duke’ men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski tonight set a new record for wins as a Division One coach, with a 74-69 win over Michigan State. It was Krzyzewski’s 903rd victory. His lifetime record is now 903-284, including four national championships. He surpasses former Indiana & Texas Tech head coach Bob Knight, who has held the record since 2008.