IF YOU?RE A BOSS, BE LIKE JOHN TODAY: A foggy little bird says that at the start of the State Department?s daily senior staff meeting in the Secretary?s seventh-floor suite on Tuesday, Secretary of State Kerry had a diplomatic warning for his team. ?Thursday is Valentine?s Day,? he said, ?and I want you all out of here.? No late meetings! Yesterday, when he again met with the staff and raised the possibility of an evening meeting today, the secretary was reminded it was Valentine?s Day. ?Can?t break my own rule,? he said, before scotching the idea.
PANETTA?S FAREWELL ? A senior Defense official: ?On what may be his final day in Washington after nearly 50 years of service, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will spend time in and out of the Pentagon thanking those who have worked to protect the nation these past four years. At 1000, Panetta will be joined by General Dempsey in presenting former Secretary Clinton with the Department's highest awards for public service at a ceremony attended by DoD and State Department workers. This will likely be Panetta's final open-press speech? and Clinton's first since she left office. After lunchtime, Panetta will make one final trip up the river to CIA to thank his former deputy and acting Director Michael Morell in an all-hands call for agency staff.? He'll then quietly go to Section 60 at Arlington one last time to thank those we've lost on the battlefield. Panetta will return to the Pentagon to see immediate staff and then is expected to go wheels up for Monterey late this afternoon. He promised his wife, Sylvia, he would be home in time for Valentine's Day dinner.? Panetta will remain Secretary of Defense -- and will execute those responsibilities -- until Chuck Hagel takes the oath of office.?
FIRST LOOK ? ROBERT DRAPER has cover of N.Y. Times Magazine, which shows a black, rotary-dial phone with the headline, ?G.O.P. SMARTPHONE: Can young, tech-savvy Republicans overthrow their party?s disconnected old guard? ? THE LATE ADOPTERS: Can young Republican dissidents rise up and drag their party into the 21st century??: ?Romney?s senior strategist, Stuart Stevens, may well be remembered by historians, as one House Republican senior staff member put it to me, ?as the last guy to run a presidential campaign who never tweeted.? (?It was raised many times with him,? a senior Romney official told me, ?and he was very categorical about not wanting to and not thinking it was worth it.?) With palpable envy, they describe the forward-leaning impulses of the Obama campaign: Axelrod?s tweeting endlessly; the deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter?s becoming a YouTube dynamo with her sassy Web rebuttals to the Romney campaign; Jim Messina?s traveling westward to receive wisdom from Eric Schmidt, Steve Jobs and Steven Spielberg. ? The person they are seeking is the Republican incarnation of David Plouffe ? the seemingly unremarkable Hill staffer and itinerant consultant who, like the Howard Dean strategist Joe Trippi before him, recognized that the only way his relatively unknown and underfinanced candidate could prevail over the front-runner would be to muster a guerrilla operation. ?
?I asked Plouffe, wasn?t the G.O.P. just one postmodern presidential candidate ? say, a Senator Marco Rubio ? away from getting back into the game?? Pouncing, he replied: ?Let me tell you something. The Hispanic voters in Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico don?t give a damn about Marco Rubio, the Tea Party Cuban-American from Florida. You know what? We won the Cuban vote! And it?s because younger Cubans are behaving differently than their parents. It?s probably my favorite stat of the whole campaign. So this notion that Marco Rubio is going to heal their problems ? it?s not even sophomoric; it?s juvenile! And by the way: the bigger problem they?ve got with Latinos isn?t immigration. It?s their economic policies and health care. The group that supported the president?s health care bill the most? Latinos.? ?
?The Republicans did in fact recently have a David Plouffe of their own. ? Referring to the campaign that re-elected George W. Bush, Plouffe told me: ?You know how in fantasy baseball you imagine putting up your team against the 1927 Yankees? We would?ve liked to have faced off against the 2004 Republicans. Beating the Clintons? ? during the 2008 primaries ? ?that was, in terms of scale of difficulty, significantly above beating Romney. But going up against the Bushies ? that would?ve been something we all would?ve relished. ? [Campaign manager Ken] Mehlman got technology and organization? ? He added that he and Mehlman were friends, and that during the 2012 cycle, Mehlman ? who had been informally advising the Romney campaign ? was also ?very free with advice about structure, how they dealt with an incumbent president, how they dealt with debate prep.? (Similarly, the former Bush senior strategist Matthew Dowd told me that Axelrod reached out to him for advice and they sat down together. ?Which never happened with me and Romney-world.?)?
--Inside art shows a manual typewriter as ?G.O.P. LAPTOP,? a megaphone as ?G.O.P. TWITTER,? a hardback book as ?G.O.P. TABLET? and a filing cabinet as ?G.O.P. HARD DRIVE.? http://nyti.ms/YfZJGh
YOU?RE INVITED ? SIMPSON-BOWLES, LIVE! Former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson, co-founders of the Campaign to Fix the Debt, will make a newsy announcement at Playbook Breakfast TUESDAY at 8 a.m. at the Newseum. Outside cameras welcome. Please RSVP here. http://bit.ly/PlaybookBfastSimpsonBowles
HIGH DRAMA ? ?Reid sets the stage for Chuck Hagel showdown,? by Manu Raju and Tim Mak: ?Senate Republicans see the writing on the wall: Chuck Hagel will get his job at the Pentagon, and John Brennan will soon be headed to Langley. But that doesn?t mean they won?t drag out the proceedings ? In an attempt to get Hagel installed as secretary of defense before next week?s recess, [Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid] set up a Friday vote to cut off debate, setting up a crucial 60-vote test. If Reid can find five Republicans to join the 55 members of the Democratic Caucus, the Senate could approve Hagel quickly ? possibly Saturday or earlier. But if he can?t, the White House could be forced to recalibrate its strategy as the nomination drags out into late February. And that could give the GOP more time to mount opposition ? Sen. John McCain, who previously opposed a filibuster on a defense secretary nominee, is now among those Republicans warning they may block Hagel until the White House coughs up more information over last September?s Benghazi attacks. ?
?Democrats are warning Republicans that the precedent they set by forcing a cloture vote on the national security nominees ? would come back to haunt them ? ?This is the first time in the history of our country that a presidential nominee for secretary of defense has been filibustered,? Reid said on the floor. ?What a shame, but that?s the way it is.?? ? McCain ? wrote a letter to Obama this week pressing him on the September 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, asking him if he personally spoke with Libyan government officials to ask for assistance for American personnel there. ? Brennan?s nomination hit a fresh snag on Wednesday when [Sen. Rand] Paul said that he would object to efforts to schedule a vote if the White House refuses to articulate its policy on whether government drones can kill Americans on U.S. soil.? http://politi.co/12jMr1g
**A message from the National Association of Manufacturers: Manufacturers released a Growth Agenda yesterday to get our economy moving again and create jobs! Let?s put pro-growth tax, energy, regulatory, trade and workforce policies in place. Manufacturing means jobs, and the 12 million men and women who make things in America are depending on it! Visit www.nam.org/stateofmanufacturing to read NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons? full remarks from the Detroit Economic Club.**
FIRST LOOK: ?The YG Network is launching a geo-targeted, six-figure digital campaign today in North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, and other locations to megaphone a conservative policy vision contrasting the President?s liberal agenda tour. The new spots excerpt a recent AEI speech by original Young Gun Eric Cantor, who lays out a new direction focused on growth, opportunity and a commitment to conservative principles.? See the ad. http://bit.ly/UinUGn
EMAILS WE DIDN?T MOVE OUT OF OUR SPAM FOLDER: From MicheleBachmann.com, ?FWD: Did you watch the State of the Union??
SPOTTED LAST NIGHT, at Regal Cinemas: 500 people -- including Tracy's Kids founder Matt Gerson, Comcast EVP David Cohen, and Marcelle and Patrick Leahy ? at a movie-themed event to honor Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp and raise funds for the charity, which helps young cancer patients cope with the emotional stress and trauma of cancer and treatment.? Those watching one of seven award-winning films included Rep. Greg Walden, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Rep. Fred Upton, Sen. Ben Cardin, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Sen. Bob Casey, Sen. Jack Reed, Rep. Mel Watt, Rep. Ted Deutch, Rep. Jeff Miller, Rep. Sean Duffy, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Jim McGovern, Rep. Peter Welch, Rep. Mike Pompeo, Rep. Mac Thornberry, Treasury Under Secretary David Cohen, White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel and outgoing FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.
WASHINGTON, INC. -- ?The anti-establishment establishment,? by Alexander Burns with Kenneth P. Vogel: ?If you were to map the geographic center of the conservative uprising against the national GOP establishment, you might settle on ? Alexandria ? where a pair of ? public relations firms ? stoke and channel the fires of activist outrage. One peek at any Washington reporter?s email in-box would confirm the omnipresence of ? CRC Public Relations and Shirley & Banister Public Affairs ? a barrage of indignant subject lines ? cementing the backbone of what the national press calls the ?anti-establishment? message of the day. ? Last week?s uproar over the Conservative Victory Project, the American Crossroads-and Karl Rove-backed initiative to pick favorites in 2014 Senate primaries, ? neatly illustrates how quickly any given dispute can turn into a full-blown political firestorm ? [T]he current leadership of CRC and S&B looks a bit like the Pat Buchanan alumni association: CRC founder Greg Mueller worked with Banister on Buchanan?s insurgent 1996 campaign. Craig Shirley, the S&B partner, worked for the Reagan-era Republican National Committee and for the National Conservative Political Action Committee in 1984.? http://politi.co/14U6jXk
AMERICAN CROSSROADS VIDEO, ?Mystery Logic Theater 2013,? lampoons Obama's SOTU speech, ?Mystery-Science-Theater?-style: "These cuts, known in Washington as the sequester, are a really bad idea." ? "Um, wasn't that your idea?" http://bit.ly/Yt3ozu
THE WAY TO WIN ? ?Elizabeth Warren?s silent Senate approach,? by Kate Nocera and Patrick Reis: Senator ?Warren has kept the lowest of profiles, speaking only to select Massachusetts media outlets while [largely] shutting out the national press ? For a left-leaning icon and national media darling, the role of silent senator is a sharp departure from her rousing campaign and outspoken consumer advocacy. It?s the same tactic used by other first-term senators who entered the chamber to great fanfare ? former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton [and] Sen. Al Franken ?? [O]utlets hoping to nab Warren?s thoughts in the Capitol hallways are either ignored or offered a litany of excuses for why she can?t talk, including Warren?s own recent explanation that she?s ?walking right now.? ? By picking her battles and flying under the radar, Warren is working to convert her campaign star-power into a reputation as a serious legislator among her Senate colleagues. ? Warren?s conspicuously quiet entrance to Congress, as well as her laser-sharp focus on the Bay State, is in part a bid to prove she?s not the carpet-bagging bomb-thrower her critics predicted.? http://politi.co/X75fgD
MASSACHUSETTS SPECIAL ? Boston Globe A1, ?MARKEY?S HOME ... .AND MARKEY?S HOME: Long-running residency issue has 2 sides,? by Noah Bierman and Frank Phillips in Malden, Mass.: ?The yellow two-story house, squeezed snugly into a blue-collar neighborhood, has been the place Edward J. Markey has called home since he was a toddler and the link to his congressional district since he ran for office 37 years ago. But his critics view the house as the base he left behind when he became a figure in Washington, married a Beltway player [Susan Blumenthal], and purchased a grander house, triple the size, on a leafy cul de sac in the exclusive Rolling Hills neighborhood of Chevy Chase, Md. ? [Markey] polled potential voters, in an unreleased internal survey, on whether [the residency issue] mattered to them. ? Markey?s Malden water bills suggest he is there infrequently, paying only the monthly minimum for service. ? [L]ongtime neighbors in Malden, and local politicians, say Markey ? is active in using his position to push local development and public works projects.
?Around Washington, he and his wife, Susan Blumenthal, a health care consultant and former high-ranking official in the Clinton administration, appeared frequently for a time in the society pages. But Markey also makes it into local newspapers in his congressional district, cutting ribbons and speaking at City Council meetings. The congressman says he made 34 round trips from Washington to Boston last year, but he declined a Globe request to provide his daily schedules for the last two years. His opponent in the Democratic primary, Representative Stephen F. Lynch, also declined.? http://bo.st/XBcucQ
BIRTHDAYS: Jill Barclay, former Romney campaign travel director ? Mayor Michael Bloomberg is 71 ? Carl Bernstein is 69 (hat tips: Patrick Gavin) ? former Sen. Judd Gregg is 66 ? Karen Anderson, Hamilton Project visionary and? sweetheart of the economics set (h/t Jenny Backus) ? photographer Rod Lamkey (h/t Christina Bellantoni) ? the U.S. Chamber?s favorite Aussie, Mark Elliot, Executive Vice President of the Chamber?s Global Intellectual Property Center (h/t Blair Latoff Holmes) ? Jen Pihlaja ? Brooke Lierman ? Kate Sullivan (hat tips: Teresa Vilmain) ? Hugh Downs is 92 ? Florence Henderson is 79 ? Teller is 65 (h/ts AP)
**A message from the National Association of Manufacturers: The state of manufacturing is dependent on being able to hire the right people with the right skills. Talent and skills are without borders, and policymakers must address comprehensive immigration reform. Visit www.nam.org/stateofmanufacturing for more information.**
Source: http://feeds.politico.com/click.phdo?i=4d713a147d89954b07839713dfac47de
kelly clarkson school closings Lumineers The Lumineers grammys miguel pope
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.