News Nuggets 1119

DAYLEE PICTURE: A mallard duck on a frozen pond in 

Dortmund, Germany.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Obama's 'Impetuous' Visit to Burma Put Iran on Notice (Clemens Wergin) from Die Welt [of Germany in English]
"For the United States, this is also about taking a global stand. After the military coup of 1988, the Americans isolated Burma and imposed severe sanctions. Now Obama wants to make it clear to North Korea and the mullahs in Iran that good behavior pays off ... America can no longer be accused of not having done everything possible to dissuade Tehran by peaceful means from acquiring the bomb. Now it is up to the mullahs to decide."

GOP Lawmakers Say Fracking Study Could Hurt Job Growth from The Hill 
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering examining a potential link between hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and drinking water contamination. The lawmakers sent a letter to Sebelius Friday stating that such a study could stymie job growth if not properly executed."

The Insourcing Boom (Charles Fishman) from the Atlantic
"After years of offshore production, General Electric is moving much of its far-flung appliance-manufacturing operations back home. It is not alone. An exploration of the startling, sustainable, just-getting-started return of industry to the United States."

Lessons for Obama’s New Cabinet (Frank Rich) from New York Magazine 
"For the good of the country, it’s time to fetch a butterfly net for McCain. At a moment when the Middle East is on fire, you have a United States Senator threatening to hold our State Department hostage for no coherent reasons other than to exercise his temper and to satisfy his insatiable desire for television coverage."

Obama Fiscal Cliff Offer Reflects Lesson From 2009 from the Huffington Post
"With the tax-hiking proposal President Barack Obama sent to Congress on Thursday, it seems the president is finally heeding a lesson he learned in the first month of his first term. ... It's a lesson he put to use Thursday. For weeks, congressional Republicans have complained that the president hadn't offered a plan to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff," but on Thursday the Obama administration finally offered a detailed proposal. Republicans are now upset."

The Obama Administration's Genius Idea on the Debt Ceiling (Matthew Yglesias) from Slate
"This is a little lost in the dust of the fiscal cliff negotiations, but the White House's opening bid contains as a sub-theme a really smart idea on the debt ceiling."

Nothing Like Being Re-elected (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast 
"So this was a strong play, however it all turns out. It tells the GOP they're dealing with a different guy now. High time."

Obama to GOP: I’m Done Negotiating with Myself (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post
"Perhaps the key lesson the White House took from the last couple of years is this: Don’t negotiate with yourself."

Democrats Bet Republicans Will Cave on Taxes from Politico
"Democrats are increasingly confident that rank-and-file Republicans will cave on taxes and force House GOP leaders to pass a tax cut plan for families who earn less than $250,000."

GOP Furious That Obama Is Acting Like He Won The Election (Jason Sattler) from the National Memo
"So are we just seeing brinksmanship or does the GOP want to go head to head with a president who has just been re-elected and has the greatest platform in world—his inauguration—just weeks away? We’ll soon find out."

Fiscal Cliff Fictions: Let’s All Agree to Pretend the GOP Isn’t Full of It (Michael Grunwald) from Time Magazine
"Mainstream media outlets don’t want to look partisan, so they ignore the BS hidden in plain sight, the hypocrisy and dishonesty that defines the modern Republican Party. I’m old enough to remember when Republicans insisted that anyone who said they wanted to cut Medicare was a demagogue, because I’m more than three weeks old."

Republicans Would Rather Laugh Than Bargain (David Firestone) from the New York Times
"...some of that laughter may contain nervousness, because there is more going on here than just a pathway to splitting the difference. The White House made clear yesterday that it is approaching these talks from a position of responsibility, and that it actually takes seriously the notion of old-fashioned bargaining. That’s something Republicans have refused to do — and now they realize they’ve been called out."

It's Republican Versus Republican in Obamacare Fight in the States (Joan McCarter) from the Daily Kos
"Now that the Affordable Care Act really is the law, the battle ground has moved to the individual states, and the combatants are now all Republicans."

Mitt Romney's Loss Creates GOP Leadership Vacuum (Steve Peoples) from the Associated Press
"His loss and immediate withdrawal from politics, while welcomed by most, has created a leadership vacuum within his party."

House Dems Waste No Time Plotting for 2014 from Politico
"Barely three weeks after losing their bid to retake the House, Democrats are back at it again. They’re zeroing in on their top GOP targets for 2014. They’re trying to figure how to win in the South in a
nonpresidential year. They’re poring over data from the 2012 election."

The GOP and Its Urge to Purge (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post 
"It seems the Republicans have run out of squishy moderates to purge. Now they’re starting to run conservatives out of town for being insufficiently doctrinaire. Exhibit A: The defenestration of Tom Cole."

Is the Right-Wing Media Bubble Impenetrable? (Joshua Holland) from Salon 
"Nearly a month after their blow-out defeat, Republicans still refuse to confront their demographic challenges."

When Internal Polls Mislead, a Whole Campaign May Be to Blame (Nate Silver) from the New York Times
"Republicans began to complain publicly that the polls conducted by their campaigns and by affiliated groups implied considerably more optimistic outcomes for them than actually occurred. Perhaps these Republicans shouldn’t have been so surprised."

A Detached Romney Tends Wounds in Seclusion After Failed White House bid from the Huffington Post
"The man who planned to be president wakes up each morning now without a plan. Mitt Romney looks out the windows of his beach house here in La Jolla, a moneyed and pristine enclave of San Diego, at noisy construction workers fixing up his next-door neighbor’s home, sending out regular updates on the renovation. He devours news from 2,600 miles away in Washington about the “fiscal cliff” negotiations, shaking his head and wondering what if."

Simpson's comment on Rucker's piece:
Ann Romney Might Be Taking This Loss Harder Than Mitt (Connor Simpson) from the Atlantic
"If you're wondering how the Romney family is holding up post-election loss, the answer is: not well. Mitt has resorted to retail therapy, and Ann might be the most disappointed Romney of all."