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Meryl Streep And Hillary Clinton Snap Selfies At Kennedy Center Honors

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It's like a meme come to life.

We always dreamt they hung out

We always dreamt they hung out

Photo by Diana Walker / Time

Via: textsfromhillaryclinton

And they did at the Kennedy Center Honors Gala

And they did at the Kennedy Center Honors Gala

Image by Kevin Wolf / AP

The only question is what filter they used

The only question is what filter they used

Image by Kevin Wolf / AP


How America Learned To Love Mitt Romney

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Everybody loves a loser.

Source: facebook.com

Is it too late to identify with Mitt Romney?

Of all of the Republican nominee's many problems during what amounted to a six-year, nonstop failed campaign for president, none did more damage than the fact that most Americans seem to have found it impossible to see their own lives in his, even a little bit. This bit of conventional wisdom found striking validation in the exit polls: Obama won 81% of the fifth of Americans who said that the quality that matters most is that a candidate "cares about people like me."

Romney's many stumbling blocks are familiar. He chose to virtually never talk about three of the four most important things in his life: his faith, Bain Capital, and the Massachusetts governorship. He talked about his family constantly, but almost never about the serious problems and conflicts most families have. His wealth may have made him remote. His frugality, and pride in not having benefitted from his father's wealth, was even stranger: Most Americans who aspire to great wealth probably don't then plan on continuing to wash their clothes in the sink. His hair was always perfect.

Romney also never managed to project something that is familiar to most people, and which has made many other candidates sympathetic: defeat. He had, in fact, faced real setbacks, from a harrowing car wreck as a young man to losses in two high-profile campaigns, for Senate and president. But Romney's response — to keep his head high, to return to business, and evidently never to look back or mope — made him seem like the stiff-upper-lip hero of a Victorian novel. In 2012, the most powerful Republican in Washington, John Boehner, seems to weep constantly. But Romney's life, in his telling, had less an arc than a straight, 45-degree upward slope.

That approach seemed to reject — and repel — sympathy. The new images of Romney that have redefined him to a public he is largely avoiding, by contrast, compel sympathy.

Here he is at a gas station in La Jolla, hair notably imperfect. "[H]e looks tired and washed up," wrote the redditor who snapped it.

Source: qoou.net  /  via: reddit.com

There are cameras everywhere, and Romney's Nov. 20 visit to Disneyland with his sons and grandchildren was extensively documented. He looks, in it, as you'd expect to: He's escaping, having fun with his grandchildren, resigned to the curiosity-seekers.


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15 People Who Just Saw Mitt Romney

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The former presidential candidate has been spotted in La Jolla, Boston, Washington, and Salt Lake City since his defeat on Nov 6.


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Supreme Court Wait Continues For Same-Sex Couples

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On Monday, the Supreme Court again gave no word on the status of several cases addressing the rights of gay and lesbian couples. Next news could come Friday.

Marriage equality proponent Kat McGuckin of Oaklyn, New Jersey, holds a gay marriage pride flag while standing in front of the Supreme Court, Nov. 30, 2012.

Image by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — After a weekend of waiting, the Supreme Court issued no word Monday morning on the status of several cases involving same-sex couples' marriage rights. The justices are scheduled to reconsider the cases at their next conference, Dec. 7.

No new cases were granted in an order list issued on Monday morning, including the cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8. None of the cases' petitions were denied by the court either, meaning they remain before the justices.

The justices had been slated to consider 10 petitions on Nov. 30 asking the court to review various cases challenging DOMA, Proposition 8, and an Arizona law that would rescind domestic partner benefits to state employees. Although it is possible the cases were considered at that conference, the dockets for the petitions were updated Monday morning to state that the justices will consider them at their Dec. 7 conference.

The justices could continue to consider the petitions beyond the Dec. 7 conference; however, that would mean a delay of nearly a month for any likely decision on them, as the next conference after that is not scheduled to take place until the new year, on Jan. 4.

The Proposition 8 Case Supreme Court Docket:

The Proposition 8 Case Supreme Court Docket:

Congress Polling Just Above Car Salespeople In "Honesty"

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Only one out of ten Americans polled by Gallup rate the honesty and ethical standards of Congressional members as “very high” or “high,” ranking lawmakers just below advertising professionals and above only car salespeople on a list of twenty-two professions.

Source: gallup.com

How Bobby Jindal Got His Mojo Back In 2012

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The Louisiana governor is back as a contender for the presidency four years from now. His secret weapon: Rick Perry.

Image by Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images

The last year has been a bad one for many Republicans, but 2012 was exceptionally kind to Bobby Jindal.

The 41-year-old Louisiana governor ends the presidential campaign cycle as a staple on the Sunday talk shows, a regular subject of 2016 speculation, and a legitimate contender to become the next standard-bearer of a party that once again finds itself leaderless.

And the former Rhodes Scholar has Rick Perry to thank for it all.

As new fault lines begin to form in the national conservative landscape, many influential Republicans told BuzzFeed the dynamic between the governors of Texas and Louisiana may prove key to shaping the future of the party.

Jindal endorsed Perry early on in the GOP primaries, at a time when Republicans were stampeding toward the Texas governor, convinced that he would be the nominee. But if Jindal's initial endorsement was unsurprising, his unwavering fealty — expressed to the bitter end — impressed many in Perry's camp.

"Anything we asked of him, he was there," said one former Perry campaign official. "When the tide was high and when the tide was low, he was a loyal soldier."

The official, who asked for anonymity to discuss the relationship between the two men "in case they end up running against each other," marveled at Jindal's commitment — charging into spin rooms after Perry's spacey and stumbling debate performances, and stumping for the candidate through the last week of an ugly Iowa race where Perry ended up in fifth place.

So, why did Jindal stand by his man?

On the record, aides and operatives in both camps told BuzzFeed it was simply the product of a faithful friendship, describing a personal rapport between Perry, 62, and the younger conservative. They stressed the "friendly competition" shared by their neighboring states — complete with gentle trash talk at meetings of the Republican Governors' Association — and soberly recalled stories of Texas going out of its way to aide Louisiana in post-hurricane cleanup.

"I think Gov. Jindal and Gov. Perry have a strong relationship that goes beyond politics. They're personal friends on top of all that," said Kyle Plotkin, a spokesman for Jindal.

"It's a true friendship," Rob Johnson, Perry's campaign manager, said simply.

Two Republicans close to Perry even said the Texan would likely forego a second presidential race — which he is said to be actively mulling — if it meant running against his friend, Jindal.

"They have quite a good relationship ... It might be a deterrent," said one.

But granted anonymity to traverse the uncertain terrain post-2012 politics, many of the Republicans in both men's orbits admitted there was more to the story.

Left out of the "BFF" narrative is the extent to which Perry's campaign introduced Jindal to key voter blocs in early primary states, fine-tuned his skills on the stump, and propelled him back into the national spotlight.

Though Jindal failed to get his buddy elected president, his efforts left him exceptionally well-positioned for his own run.

Judy Davidson, chairwoman of the Scott County Republicans, was present at one of Jindal's first campaign stops with Perry in Iowa last year. His stump speech, she recalled, checked all the boxes of an effective surrogate — touting Perry's credentials, confidently predicting victory — but it also managed to weave in the story of Jindal's own greatest executive triumph: his handling of Hurricane Gustav.

In late August 2008, the devastation of Katrina was still an open wound in Louisiana when the state found itself bracing for another potentially disastrous mega-storm. As Gustav barreled toward the coastline, the newly elected governor moved fast, evacuating two million people, securing generators for the hospitals in harm's way, and aggressively mobilizing the National Guard. When the post-Gustav casualty count came in much lower than many had feared, Jindal was heralded across the country as a hurricane-fighting super-governor.

Ostensibly, Jindal brought up Gustav on the stump in Iowa as a way to praise Perry's proactive role in sending helicopters and National Guard units from Texas to help the storm-torn state.

But the takeaway for Davidson and many of her fellow Republicans was a deeper appreciation for Jindal's leadership.

"Everyone really came away feeling like he was a smart guy who had done a lot to help Louisiana recover," she said of that early event.

Meanwhile, among Perry's top aides, there was no denying the utility of Jindal's support — largely as a shield against the early campaign meme that Perry was a dull-witted George W. Bush redux.

"I think there was a tendency to not take some of Perry's policy ideas super-seriously because the dude obviously doesn't have a PhD from Yale or whatever," said one former Perry campaign aide. "But there were obviously reasons Jindal endorsed him, and he was seen as kind of the brain box of the party."

The campaign was not shy about touting Jindal's role in helping to craft Perry's voucher-friendly education proposal and advocacy for a flatter tax system, and they regularly put him on TV to explain and defend the policies.

Jindal also continued to log lots of time in Iowa — and his practice was showing, Perry's aides said.

The Louisianan had suffered a major setback in 2009 when he flubbed his highly anticipated State of the Union rebuttal. The address had been meant as a coming-out party for the rising star, and its substance — a condemnation of universal health care, and a call to shrink the size of the federal government — deftly tapped in to the federalist values that would define conservatism in the coming years.

But his painfully awkward performance — marked by a sing-songy cadence that had the effect of reading a bedtime story to a young child — earned him scathing reviews from pundits in both parties, and comparisons to the creepy 30 Rock character Kenneth.

Plotkin, who has been asked about that low point relentlessly by reporters over the years, gave BuzzFeed his standard response: "That obviously wasn't his best speech, but the substance of his speech certainly still stands."

But fast-forward to 2012, and Jindal was revving up crowds on the campaign trail and demonstrating remarkable comedic timing. A speech he would later give at CPAC Chicago, featuring as its centerpiece a sort of comedy of errors in working with the federal government on hurricane relief, has bounced around the conservative Twittersphere ever since.

One Perry campaign official said Jindal's time on the trail had "absolutely" improved his public speaking skills. And another Republican said that Jindal is now one of the best communicators among the current crop of potential 2016 candidates, despite the early misstep.

"The experience of stumping on the campaign trail is astronomically more difficult than campaigning for governor or Senator or anything else," said one Perry campaign aide. "The point is, yes, he's gotten better."

Jindal's momentum wasn't slowed when it turned out he had backed a losing horse. His transition to Romney surrogate was frictionless, he gave a well-received speech to Republican activists at the RedState gathering in Jacksonville, and he continued to find reasons to return to Iowa.

In September, for example, Jindal joined a weeklong bus tour sponsored by a social conservative group called the Family Leader to campaign against an Iowa justice who voted to legalize same-sex marriage in the state.

To many Republicans, the move was viewed as a transparent effort to make inroads with the state's crucial conservative Evangelical community. And strategists noted that if Perry were inclined to return the favor and endorse a Jindal candidacy in 2016, he could prove tremendously valuable in wooing these voters.

He has also never stopped talking up his friendship with Perry, and it's easy to see why. In many ways, the relationship between Texas and Louisiana — competing to bring more businesses to their respectives states, and sharing resources in times of disaster to go around the bumbling federal government — represent a sort of small-government utopia.

Plotkin dismissed speculation about Jindal's alleged 2016 maneuvering as the result of campaign-obsessed pundits looking at a political Rorschach test and seeing what they want to see.

"Gov. Jindal is completely focused on his job at home," he said. "Anyone thinking about 2016 needs to get their head examined."

But in October, Jindal returned to the Hawkeye State, this time to headline a fund-raising dinner put on by the Scott County Republicans.

"He left a very good impression, and he gave quite a lively speech without any notes," said Davidson, who helped organize the event.

Davidson said the organization always tries to attract the biggest star they can to deliver the night's keynote address, and Perry had occupied the seat of honor the year prior.

But Jindal's night in 2012 held a special distinction.

"Our event ended up being the same night as the Republican Party of Iowa event in Des Moines, and we had more people than they did," she noted proudly.

"They had Gov. McDonnell."

White House Increasingly Concerned About Syrian Chemical Weapons, Drawing Up Contigency Military Plans

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Obama draws a “red line” in Syria.

In this Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012 photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a Syrian soldier aims his rifle at free Syrian Army fighters during clashes in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, Syria.

Image by SANA / AP

WASHINGTON — White House officials raised alarm Monday over the Syrian government's chemical weapons stockpile, warning that any use by the Assad government would cross a "red line," that may provoke a military response.

"Our concerns about the regime’s intentions with respect to its chemical weapons stockpiles has increased," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

"Any use or proliferation of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime will cross a red line," he added. “There is no doubt that we have an increased concern about this.”

Carney said Obama drew the red line at the use of chemical weapons, adding that the administration is concerned by reports of movement of those weapons, as the Syrian regime loses ground to opposition forces.

"I wouldn’t want to speculate, but...we are preparing for all scenarios," Carney said, when asked about he response to Syria potentially using the weapons. Asked specifically about a military response, Carney said, "contingency planning of all kinds is the responsible thing to do."

White House Urges Israel To "Reconsider" Settlement Construction

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U.S “opposes” unilateral settlement construction, Carney said.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem December 2, 2012.

Image by Pool New / Reuters

WASHINGTON — White House Press Secretary Jay Carney urged the Israeli government to reconsider its decision to approve settlement construction in an area known as "E1," that would effectively cut the West Bank in two.

"We oppose all unilateral actions — including settlement activity and housing construction," Carney told reporters Monday.

The construction would connect the Israeli city of Maale Adumim to Jerusalem, which would make final status negotiations more difficult, Carney said.

“We urge Israeli leaders to reconsider these actions," he added.

On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also condemned the decision.

"This Administration – like previous administrations – has been very clear with Israel that these activities set back the cause of a negotiated peace," she said at the Saban Forum in Washington.


John Kerry And John McCain Troll Each Other

New School Says Assad Press Aide's Admission Was "Based On Merit"

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A controversy squelched Sheherezad Jaafari's plans to attend Columbia.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's former press aide Sheherezad Jaafari is a student at The New School in New York City, according to a story in a Columbia University student publication.

Jaafari, who was accepted into Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, never ended up enrolling there. Columbia students had demanded that the school rescind her admission, and Jaafari told the Columbia Communiqué in September that she would not attend "to avoid being harrassed."

But Jaafari's time at the New School has apparently been smooth so far. A source at the school told BuzzFeed they hadn't heard of any conflict over her admission to the program, and the Columbia Communiqué article indicates that most students don't know or don't care about her past.

"We respect the privacy of our students," said New School spokesman Sam Biederman, declining to comment on Jaafari specifically. "Any admissions decisions are based on merit."

Jaafari, the daughter of the Syrian envoy to the U.N., is reportedly a sharp dresser, favoring more "posh" clothes over the hipster garb favored by her New School colleagues.

She played a key role in facilitating the fawning and ill-timed Vogue profile of Assad's wife and got Barbara Walters to try to help her get an internship at CNN or a spot at Columbia's journalism school in return for Walters' landing an exclusive interview with Assad.

8 New Insights About The 2012 Race For President

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Campaign managers gathered at Harvard last week to share insight. The proceedings of the Institute of Politics gathering went online today.

Paul Ryan Was "Highly Meme-able”

Paul Ryan Was "Highly Meme-able”

Obama Digital Director Teddy Goff proclaimed Paul Ryan "highly meme-able” when asked about his initial response to Romney selecting the Wisconsin congressman as his running-mate.

"Voters usually don’t hear what is trending on Twitter," Goff explained, talking about Ryan's speech at the GOP convention. "The Janesville [GM plant that shut down] did."

“He was the perfect object for social media in this election," Goff added.

Source: heygirlitspaulryan.tumblr.com

The Ryan Pick Helped Wisconsin Democrats Get Over Recall Loss

The Ryan Pick Helped Wisconsin Democrats Get Over Recall Loss

After Scott Walker retained his seat earlier this year, “our folks in Wisconsin were totally demoralized," said Jeremy Bird, Obama's National Field Director.

“It was the hardest state for me as a field director to go out and organize," he added.

But that all changed when Romney selected Paul Ryan.

“Paul Ryan re-galvanized all of our troops in Wisconsin," Bird said.

Image by Sara Stathas / Reuters

What Obama's Digital Operation Was Really About

What Obama's Digital Operation Was Really About

Goff explained that more than 90% of the Obama e-mail list voted in 2008 — the challenge in 2012 wasn't as much to keep them on board, but to reach out to more people.

Aside from fund-raising, Goff said the digital operation wasn’t about getting supporters on their lists to vote — it was about getting their friends to vote for Obama.

Obama's Massive Facebook Reach

Obama's Massive Facebook Reach

According to Teddy Goff, the nearly 34 million Facebook users who "like" Barack Obama on the social networking sites are friends with 98% of the U.S. Facebook population, making it an effective tool to reach out to younger voters.


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Obama Likes This Girl's Hair

A Close Reading Of Barack Obama Typing

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President Obama is answering questions on Twitter right now. This is a photo of him typing, by official White House photographer Pete Souza . Let's look closer. Much closer.

Source: @petesouza

• Obama's hands look comfortable and relaxed. Most of his fingers are resting on the home row, so he is a trained, experienced typist. He does not finger peck, in other words. He types at least 60 words per minute, I would guess. Is he too relaxed though? Shouldn't he seem more concerned? Hmm.

• At first I thought he was using a 15-inch Retina display MacBook Pro because I couldn't see the "MacBook Pro" logo, but I think he's in fact using an older non-retina Pro, given the machine's older style MagSafe power connector... which is unplugged, so he'd better be careful or the computer will die and important Twitter questions from constituents will go unanswered. (Good thing he doesn't need their votes anymore!) It is definitely 15 inches, given the size of the speaker grills. Also, he is apparently using a second monitor, connected with what appears to be a cheap DisplayPort adapter — a Chinese knockoff even, not an official Apple adapter, which, WTF, how many jobs did that kill? Perhaps this is to keep an eye on national security threats, like Kate Middleton's spawn. (Most likely: TweetDeck is running on a second screen, since using the Twitter website is the least efficient way on earth to use Twitter outside of mailing your tweets to the Twitter office, one at a time, on a pretty pink glitter paper.) Also, wireless is not good enough for the president's tweets — there is a honking ethernet cable plugged into the side of it.

• I believe White House photographer Pete Souza snapped this photo with either Instagram or Hipstamatic, given the quality of the filter and the texture of border. (This is confusing, because his first picture of Obama's Twitter event was taken with Camera+.) I would tweet at Souza to ask, but his Twitter feed is little more than a glorified RSS feed of links. No human is behind it. Fortunately, however, I think we are past the days of debating whether news photography can happen with a retro filter on it. Answer: New York Times photographer Damon Winter shot a war with Hipstamatic, so the question has been asked and answered in the overwhelming affirmative.

• Where is this happening, really? Looking even more closely, it appears that this live-tweeting is indeed happening from within the Oval Office, based on the reflection in the monitor's glass, which reveals windows matching other photos of the Oval Office. Or at least somebody very much wants us to believe Obama's in the Oval Office and planted a reflection inside of Pete Souza's photo, which no one would suspect because it looks like it came out of Hipstamatic or Instagram, and you can't Photoshop a Hipstaprint, or every picture in the world would simultaneously combust.

• Oh, and his screen looks kind of dirty. I think it looks dirtier than it is because my screen is kind of dirty, but I'm definitely detecting the presence of a film or residue covering the president's display. I am mildly surprised he does not have a matte display version of the MacBook Pro. What if the glare obscured a very important marker on a map, like Osama bin Laden's hideout? This seems very irresponsible.

• At second glance, his posture is kind of odd. Put your hands on your keyboard. Notice where your arms are in relation to your hands, and your keyboard. Doesn't Obama seem like he's sitting too far back, like he's reaching? Stretching outward and ahead, reaching for something more? Perhaps this moment, more than any other in his entire presidency, is a metaphor for his entire life? Obama, reaching. Always reaching. But what more is there left to reach for?


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John McCain Says Rand Paul Is Helping Democrats Make The Case For Filibuster Reform

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Senator John McCain apologized to Democrats Monday on the Senate floor for efforts by Senator Rand Paul to block the National Defense Authorization Act. McCain said Paul's efforts “lends some credence” to the need for filibuster reform.

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Republicans Send Fiscal Cliff Counteroffer To The White House

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Negotiations are back on. If they were ever actually off.

Image by J. Scott Applewhite / AP

WASHINGTON — House Republicans put their criticisms of President Barack Obama's fiscal cliff package to paper Monday with an offer of their own.

The $2.2 trillion Republican package includes $800 billion in revenue from tax reform and $600 billion in health care savings, among other proposals.

The plan, detailed in a letter that was sent from House Republicans to the White House on Monday, is based in principle on a proposal originally engineered by Erskine Bowles, the co-chair of the president's deficit-reduction commission.

"This is by no means an adequate long-term solution, as resolving our long-term fiscal crisis will require fundamental entitlement reform," House Republicans wrote in their letter to the White House. "The Bowles plan is exactly the kind of imperfect, but fair middle ground that allows us to avert the fiscal cliff without hurting our economy and destroying jobs."

The offer will likely reinvigorate negotiations on how best to avert the fiscal cliff, which had stalled briefly after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner brought the administration's plan to Capitol Hill.

But the Republicans' counteroffer leaves a few obvious points of contention to be addressed. For example, Democrats have rejected the notion of revenue solely from tax reform, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office does not factor such revenue in its estimates.

Nevertheless, it is a step back toward the negotiating table — and a nod toward those Democrats who had urged the GOP to make the next move.

Earlier Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republicans needed to submit a counteroffer to the White House for talks to move forward.

"I have a bit of negotiating advice for Republican leaders: You’re doing it wrong," Reid said on the Senate floor Monday.

Last week, Boehner said fiscal cliff talks were in "a stalemate" after he and his party panned the president's proposal; meanwhile, Democrats blamed Republicans for stalled negotiations and pointed in particular to the lack of a concrete counteroffer from GOP lawmakers.


Harry Reid Is Torn On The Filibuster

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A “generational fight” in the Senate between Old Bulls and impatient liberals. Changes will “establish a precedent in the Senate … that our Democratic colleagues will have to endure,” warns McConnell.

Image by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell slammed Democratic plans to rework the chamber's filibuster rules, bluntly warning that Republicans will use the same tactics on Democrats when they control the chamber.

“Such a rules change won’t do them any good in the short term. The House is in the hands of the Republicans,” McConnell said in a floor speech Monday, adding that “it will do the institution irreparable damage in the long term and will establish a precedent in the Senate for breaking the rules to change the rules that our Democratic colleagues will have to endure when they are in the minority.”

Since Democrats retook the Senate in 2006, newer Democrats — including liberal Sens. like Sheldon Whitehouse — have increasingly become unhappy with the pace of action in the Senate.

Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Democratic colleagues have had progress on even mundane measures stalled thanks to Republicans’ success in using the chamber’s existing rules to slow walk legislation, drawing out debate for days and weeks on noncontroversial measures and burning precious legislative time off the clock.

That is not to say that Republicans are solely to blame for the collapse of comity in the chamber. Reid has consistently used procedural tricks of his own to block “message” amendments offered by Republicans that would put the dwindling number of moderates in his conference in a difficult position.

The situation has set up a “generational fight” within Reid’s conference, as one veteran Senate hand put it.

On the one side is his impatient, liberal wing made up of newer lawmakers who have not become steeped in the chamber’s tradition as the “cooling saucer” of the legislative process.

These lawmakers argue that at a minimum, Reid should ram through new rules requiring lawmakers to stand on the floor and conduct “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”–style filibusters if they want to block progress on bills.

But to do so, Reid would need to bypass traditional rulemaking procedures, which require a supermajority vote of the chamber, and implement the changes using a simple vote majority.

On the other side of Reid are the “Old Bulls,” veterans of decades of Senate service who prize the chamber’s stately reputation as the world’s greatest deliberative body.

The Old Bulls bristle at the idea of changing the chamber’s rules, particularly if it means bypassing the traditional way of changing them, as their younger colleagues have argued for.

Such a scenario would set a precedent for the future, and while reform advocates attempt to downplay its impact, the reality is that it could open the floodgates for Republicans.

“Republicans will take it places we’d never think of, especially on judges,” one former Democratic leadership aide warned, warning that liberals could wake up one day “with a bunch of right-wing wackos on the bench.”

Indeed, the very procedural tactics Republicans have used to great effect the last two years were used, albeit far less regularly, by Reid and Democrats during the Bush administration to block a number of bills, and the GOP insist they have simply refined the practice.

Multiple sources familiar with Reid’s thinking said Reid, a longtime appropriator and master of manipulating the rules in his own right, has generally sided with the Old Bulls, although he has used the threat of filibuster reform as rhetorical weapon in the past.

But, as the former aide noted, “The Senate is changing … Reid’s on that cusp of trying to walk the fine line between the older guys who think it’s really bad and the younger guys.”

That said, Democratic insiders acknowledge that the pressure on Reid is becoming untenable and that some sort of effort to change the rules now appears certain.

Ironically, McConnell’s threat came during a particularly productive time in the Senate as Sens. Carl Levin and John McCain have put on a legislative clinic over the defense authorization bill — a fact that was not lost on McConnell.

“It doesn’t have to be this way in the Senate, of course,” McConnell said. “Sens. Levin and McCain are reminding those of us who’ve been here a while and showing those who haven’t that it’s possible for the Senate to actually legislate. We’re in the process of doing that right now.”

President Obama Offers Twitter Vindication At Its Finest

Obama Rejects Boehner Fiscal Cliff Plan

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“Their plan includes nothing new,” Pfeiffer says.

Image by Carolyn Kaster, File / AP

WASHINGTON — White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer rejected Speaker of the House John Boehner's counter-proposal to avert the fiscal cliff in a statement to reporters Monday afternoon.

“The Republican letter released today does not meet the test of balance," Pfeiffer said. "In fact, it actually promises to lower rates for the wealthy and sticks the middle class with the bill. Their plan includes nothing new and provides no details on which deductions they would eliminate, which loopholes they will close or which Medicare savings they would achieve."

President Barack Obama has pledged to oppose any agreement that does not raise tax rates on the top two percent of wage-earners.

Pfeiffer continued:

Independent analysts who have looked at plans like this one have concluded that middle class taxes will have to go up to pay for lower rates for millionaires and billionaires. While the President is willing to compromise to get a significant, balanced deal and believes that compromise is readily available to Congress, he is not willing to compromise on the principles of fairness and balance that include asking the wealthiest to pay higher rates. President Obama believes – and the American people agree – that the economy works best when it is grown from the middle out, not from the top down. Until the Republicans in Congress are willing to get serious about asking the wealthiest to pay slightly higher tax rates, we won’t be able to achieve a significant, balanced approach to reduce our deficit our nation needs.

White House officials had said there woud be no further negotiations until Republicans presented their own proposal, which they did earlier Monday. But from Pfeiffer's call to "get serious," it doesn't appear that the exchange has moved negotiations forward.

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said the burden now falls on the White House to provide a plan that can pass Congress.

“Republicans have once again offered a responsible, balanced plan to avoid the fiscal cliff, and the White House has once again demonstrated how unreasonable it has become," he said, "If the President is rejecting this middle ground offer, it is now his obligation to present a plan that can pass both chambers of Congress.”

This Digital Advertising Company Is Not The Pope

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But, Pontiflex CEO says, there are similarities!

Brooklyn digital advertising start up Pontiflex has seen a surge in its Twitter follow count today thanks mostly to Pope Benedict XVI joining Twitter. The Twitter account "@Pontiflex" has a one letter difference from the Pope's new account "@Pontifex."

The Pope joined Twitter on earl Monday with the pledge to start Tweeting on December 12th using the @Pontifex handle for his English-speaking followers. "Pontifex" is the Latin word for "pontiff", the Pope's official title as head of the Roman Catholic church.

Since Monday, the Twitter account for the Brooklyn-based start up has gained 75-100 Twitter followers every hour according to Crains and has received thousands of mentions.

"The Catholic Church has billions of followers, and here are billions of mobile phone users," said Pontiflex CEO Zephrin Lasker comparing the mobile advertising platform and the Pope. "I think that's the biggest similarity between us."

Greg Burke, the former Vatican correspondent for the Fox News Channel who was hired by the Vatican in June to overhaul the Catholic Church's public-relations, said "the first tweets will be answers to questions sent to the Pope on matters of faith. The public can start sending them now."

Slow Movement On Banning Anti-LGBT Job Discrimination

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Although marriage equality advocates have found recent success, anti-LGBT job bias measures have been stalled in Congress and at the White House.

President Barack Obama, flanked by House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, left, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada on Nov. 16, 2012.

Image by Carolyn Kaster / AP

WASHINGTON — The LGBT movement scored a surprising wave of victories in marriage equality votes this November, but its efforts appear to have stalled on another front: job discrimination.

Indeed, from a stalled bill to bar private employers from discriminating against LGBT employees or job applicants to President Obama’s continued unwillingness to sign an executive order barring federal contractors from anti-LGBT job discrimination, the national landscape for LGBT workplace protections appears falling behind other LGBT issues.

Continued Republican control of the House means the Employment Non-Discrimination Act will again face an uphill battle in the 113th Congress. The choice of whether to push the Democratic Senate leadership for a full Senate vote on the legislation will be one of the key strategy decisions fought out among LGBT advocates in the coming months.

There also are signs that activists are renewing criticism of the nation's largest LGBT political group, the Human Rights Campaign. The group's new leadership, followed by the marriage victories, had quieted complaints for a time about the group's pace of and priorities for change.

At a post-election wrap-up panel on LGBT issues organized by UCLA’s Williams Institute on Nov. 14, however, Freedom to Work’s Tico Almeida asked HRC president Chad Griffin why he hadn’t mentioned getting a floor vote in the Senate on the workplace bill, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, as a priority for 2013.

“Why not push for that as well?” Almeida, a former House staff counsel who worked on ENDA, asked. “Wouldn’t we do important public education and build momentum by getting that vote, even if we get to 57, 58, 59 votes? Let them filibuster, let them out themselves as on the wrong side of history.” A filibuster would require the bill's supporters to secure 60 votes to move forward.

Griffin responded by urging caution.

“All of these things take work,” he told Almeida. “And it’s very easy to say, ‘Let’s just move forward and get a vote on this or that.’ I’m for doing it where we know we have a plan to win and we have the votes to win. And if that’s today, then let’s move forward. But, I do think we have to be smart. … I’m not looking to set up ourselves for losses.”

The comments were notable coming from Griffin, who made his name in the LGBT world by starting the group that sued to invalidate California’s Proposition 8 after all existing LGBT legal groups decided the move was too risky.

Charles Butler of Get Equal-DC, who also was in attendance, told BuzzFeed that he had been giving Griffin “the benefit of the doubt” since Griffin had taken over at HRC, but that, at the Williams Institute event, “it seemed to me like he was … presenting an old agenda that was somewhat tepid and favored partisan politics over LGBT rights.” Heather Cronk, also of Get Equal, agreed.

A floor vote would be an improvement for advocates pushing the bill from the past several sessions of Congress. LGBT advocates had sought a mark-up and committee vote on the bill this year, but the Senate’s Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee — helmed by Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa — did not even get that far with the legislation. The fact that it would be seen as ambitious to get a floor vote is itself a sign of the way that workplace issues have fallen behind the marriage debate. In contrast to ENDA, the bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the Respect for Marriage Act, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2011 although Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid never brought the bill to the Senate floor for debate and a vote.

Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin, second from left, is beginning to face questions about strategy decisions the LGBT rights group will be making in the coming year.

Image by Kevin P. Casey / AP

Where groups like HRC and Freedom to Work do agree, however, is that the first and most immediate step that they believe could be taken to oppose anti-LGBT workplace bias would be for Obama to sign an executive order to ban federal contractors from discriminating against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The order could amend or be modeled after an existing executive order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson that bans federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. In April, White House officials said Obama would not be signing such an order to address sexual orientation and gender identity bias “at this time.” (Later in April, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held that “sex discrimination” prohibited under Title VII includes “gender identity discrimination,” which arguably means that gender identity discrimination already is prohibited in the existing order.)

ENDA’s lead Senate sponsor, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, had criticized Obama’s decision not to sign the executive order, saying at the time, “I am deeply disappointed that the Administration will allow companies that accept federal contracts to discriminate against workers on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.” House leaders like Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado, who is expected to take up the lead on ENDA in the House because of Rep. Barney Frank’s House retirement this year, has been clear in his support of the executive order route as a first-step move. A spokesman on Monday noted that Polis “has urged the White House to do so.”

With the election done, advocates are hopeful that Obama will make a move on the executive order in the coming months. Thus far, however, the White House has not budged on the issue, with White House spokesman Shin Inouye telling BuzzFeed only that there is no update on the issue.


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