News Nuggets 1120

DAYLEE PICTURE: A male weedy sea dragon. From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT CAMPAIGN NUGGET!!
Republicans Go To Obama School from BuzzFeed
"Demoralized Republicans arrived in Boston Wednesday night for a rare moment in American politics: They came to learn from Democrats. ... When it was finally over, more than one Republican walked out shaking his head. “We weren’t even running in the same race,” one downtrodden Romney aide told BuzzFeed after hearing the details of the Obama operation. “They were just amazing.”"

Obamacare Medicaid Expansion For Poor On The Brink from the Huffington Post
"It's health care brinksmanship, with hundreds of billions of dollars and the well-being of millions of people at stake. President Barack Obama's health care law expands Medicaid, the federal-state health program for low-income people, but cost-wary states must decide whether to take the deal."

Billionaire Bloomberg Knocks Out Joe Baca, Adds Dynamic to Gun Politics from the Sacramento Bee
""By homing in on a loyal National Rifle Association politician, Bloomberg altered a long-standing element of American politics. Time was, a politician like Baca could cast pro-gun votes, receive NRA support and not worry about an attack from any moneyed interest that promoted gun control. No such group existed, at least not on the order of the NRA." ... Said Bloomberg aide Howard Wolfson: "It sends a message: you can lose your seat by voting against prudent gun legislation. Hopefully, members will think twice before taking these votes. They can't just vote the NRA's way and assume they won't hear about it.""

Criticized as Weak in Past Talks, Obama Takes Harder Line (Peter Baker) from the New York Times
"Mr. Obama, scarred by failed negotiations in his first term and emboldened by a clear if close election to a second, has emerged as a different kind of negotiator in the past week or two, sticking to the liberal line and frustrating Republicans on the other side of the bargaining table."

No, Dems Don't Need to Compromise Up Front (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"...  if we do nothing, Democrats will get their way. All the tax cuts will expire, and Dems can come back and push a new tax cut just for the middle class -- a circumstance that will only increase the Dems' leverage further."

Obama Knifes GOP Plan To Avoid Tax Rate Hike from Talking Points Memo 
"When President Obama spoke at a small business in Hatfield, Pennsylvania on Friday, he subtly knifed the GOP’s best hope for avoiding the expiration of Bush tax cuts on top earners."

The Big Budget Mumble (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"In the ongoing battle of the budget, President Obama has done something very cruel. Declaring that this time he won’t negotiate with himself, he has refused to lay out a proposal reflecting what he thinks Republicans want. Instead, he has demanded that Republicans themselves say, explicitly, what they want. And guess what: They can’t or won’t do it. No, really."

On the Fiscal Cliff, Republicans Got Nothin’ (Daniel Gross) from the Daily Beast
"It’s Day 26 of the fiscal-cliff hostage situation, and it’s clear that GOP negotiators have lost touch with reality. Daniel Gross on their astounding lack of a counteroffer to the Dems."

Paying for It: A Carbon Tax (Elizabeth Kolbert) from the New Yorker 
"Perhaps because a carbon tax makes so much sense—researchers at M.I.T. recently described it as a possible “win-win-win” response to several of the country’s most pressing problems—economists on both ends of the political spectrum have championed it."

The Ongoing Cost of the GOP's Diversity Problem (Alec MacGillis) from the New Republic
"...the image of an indisputably accomplished senior diplomat being relentlessly hounded by two angry white Sun-Belt senators is presumably not the one that Republicans would ideally have dominating the scene as they start trying to broaden their appeal."

False Start: GOP Stumbles Badly With Women In First Month Since Election Day from Talking Points Memo
"After losing women voters on Nov. 6, Republicans promised to change how they reach out to the female electorate. One month in, it’s hard to see any evidence of a change in tone or substance when it comes to the GOP and women’s issues, however."

Republicans, Welcome to the Reality-Based Community (Gary Younge) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Defeat has shattered the US right's impenetrable front on tax and healthcare. The party's pragmatists are finding their voice."

Swing Counties Tell Story of Republicans’ Defeat (Albert R. Hunt) from the Bloomberg News Service
"Pennsylvania will remain relatively blue in presidential politics until Republicans can compete in these counties. This state of affairs is replicated in venues that really were swing states, Virginia and Colorado for starters."

Hillary is Running: A Dispatch from the Saban Forum (David Remnick) from the New Yorker
"Hillary Clinton is running for President. And the Israeli political class is a full-blown train wreck. These are two conclusions, for whatever they are worth, based on a three-day conference I attended this weekend at the annual Saban Forum, in Washington, D.C."

KENNEDY BOOK NUGGET!!
Just Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: A Review of David Nasaw’s ‘Patriarch,’ on Joseph P. Kennedy from the New York Times
"Joseph P. Kennedy’s life, Mr. Nasaw observes, “was punctuated by meteoric rises, catastrophic falls, and numerous rebirths, by cascading joys and blinding sorrows, and by a tragic ending near Shakespearean in its pathos.”"

MONGOLIAN HISTORY NUGGET!!
The Hunt for Genghis Khan's Tomb from Newsweek
"For centuries historians and treasure seekers have searched for the burial site of history's most famous conqueror. New findings offer compelling evidence that it's been found."

SCARY SNOWMAN VIDEO NUGGET!!
Snowman Prank Season 2 Episode 10 from YouTube