Online Journal: President Obama was urged by the few White House insiders from whom he still takes advice to leave the country on his 10-day Asian trip, his longest trip abroad since becoming president, in order to not inflict any more damage to the Democratic Party in the wake of one of the worst electoral [...]
The Hill: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) cost the GOP control of the Senate, a powerful House Republican said. Rep. Spencer Bachus (Ala.) said that Tea Party-backed candidates endorsed by Palin underperformed against their Democratic rivals, costing the GOP key pickup opportunities. “The Senate would be Republican today except for states [in which Palin [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court has turned down the first preliminary challenge to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. The decision Monday to reject an appeal from a former Republican state lawmaker in California was no surprise because a federal appeals court has yet to consider the case. The high court almost never reviews [...]
Politico: Vice President Joe Biden has agreed to a sit-down to discuss the 2009 economic stimulus with incoming Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, the subpoena-wielding foil for Democrats who worry the new House GOP leadership will be all too eager to conduct political investigations. After speaking by phone last week, Biden and [...]
The Hill: Rep.-elect Allen West (Fla.) said last week, “I’m gonna find out when they meet, and I will be a member.” The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is staying silent about a Tea Party Republican’s bid to join the group. Rep.-elect Allen West (R-Fla.) indicated last week he intends to join the CBC to challenge [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) – The discovery of a militant training camp in Indonesia, along with persistent terrorist attacks there, have increased U.S. concerns that extremists are regrouping and eyeing Western targets in a country long viewed as a counterterrorism success story. With President Barack Obama set to begin a visit Tuesday to the world’s most populous [...]
Politico: President Barack Obama has performed his act of contrition. Now comes the hard part, according to Democrats around the country: reckoning with the simple fact that he’s isolated himself from virtually every group that matters in American politics. Congressional Democrats consider him distant and blame him for their historic defeat on Tuesday. Democratic state [...]
Pop Eater: Keith Olbermann might have been suspended from MSNBC after breaking company rules regarding making contributions to political candidates, but now sources tell me it’s Keith whose demands have been met, allowing him to return to his perch atop the cable network. “Keith is furious about the way this has all been handled and [...]
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) – A Connecticut man was condemned to death Monday for a night of terror inside a suburban home in which a woman was strangled and her two daughters tied to their beds, doused in gasoline and left to die in a fire. Jurors in New Haven Superior Court voted unanimously to [...]
Fox News: From a House Democratic Source: FOX has obtained a letter being penned by defeated House Democrats that implores House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to step aside. The letter is now circulating Capitol Hill and has not yet been sent to the Speaker. FOX has obtained draft language of the letter. In the draft [...]
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday that only a credible military threat can deter Iran from building a nuclear weapon, Israeli political sources said. In comments signaling growing Israeli impatience with diplomacy, the sources said Netanyahu, beginning a five-day U.S. visit, argued that economic sanctions [...]
Washington Times: For the first time in years, House lawmakers will soon have the chance to vote on a standalone measure to increase the federal debt limit next year under the new Republican majority — a vote that’s shaping up as the first early test of the GOP’s commitment to spending restraint. The House Republican [...]
Washington Post: Efforts to repeal the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy this year could be in jeopardy as top senators are discussing removing language repealing the ban from the annual Defense authorization bill. Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman and ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, are exploring [...]
Wall Street Journal: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, on a visit to Hong Kong and the neighboring city of Shenzhen, had some harsh criticism for his own fellow Americans: Stop blaming the Chinese for their problems. As the debate rages over China’s trade and currencies policies, the 68-year-old Bloomberg, now in his third term [...]
New York Times: WASHINGTON — American authorities sent David C. Headley, a small-time drug dealer and sometime informant, to work for them in Pakistan months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, despite a warning that he sympathized with radical Islamic groups, according to court records and interviews. Not long after Mr. Headley arrived there, he [...]
CAIRO (AP) — A U.S.-born radical Yemeni cleric involved in previous attacks on the U.S. called for Muslims around world to kill Americans in a new video message posted on radical websites Monday. Anwar al-Awlaki said since all Americans are the enemy, clerics don’t need to issue any special fatwas or religious rulings allowing them [...]
Washington Times: President Obama has already conceded that last week’s midterm elections put an end for now to his “cap-and-trade” plan to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, but European officials fear the GOP gains mark the death knell for the broader campaign for a binding worldwide agreement this year to address climate change. Mr. Obama [...]
McClatchy: WASHINGTON – Republican leaders in the House and the Senate said Sunday that there would be no compromise with Democrats on whether to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers. President Barack Obama has said he wants to extend the tax cuts for taxpayers with a combined annual income of less than [...]
The Hill: Democratic allies are not optimistic about their legislative priorities getting done in the lame-duck session after Democratic candidates got pummeled on Election Day. Senate Democrats had discussed as many as 20 bills up for consideration during the lame-duck session, the period between the Nov. 2 election and Christmas. In the wake of a [...]
Skip ahead to the four-minute mark. And let’s see who recognizes her. A Conversation with President Obama on MTV