Essential Reads
Essential Reads is your one-stop source for the top stories of the day as reported by your favorite Washington Week panelists. It's a simple way to save time and stay informed about the news you need to know. Check it out every day!
Nov 18, 2011
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Super Committee Struggles With Deficit Endgame
By Alexis Simendinger, RealClearPolitics“It’s tougher than you think,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat from California, as he exited another super committee meeting Thursday afternoon. The good news was that lawmakers were still talking as a Nov. 23 deadline approached. The bad news was that Democrats were huddled with themselves in the Capitol and not with the opposing party, while Republicans were dug in elsewhere. Each side taunted the other across acres of cold marble, quarreling about the meaning of “balance” when it comes to $1.2 trillion in future deficit reduction. Would balance be defined as 50-50 between spending cuts and tax hikes? Sixty-forty? Some now and some later?
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The Latest Non-Romney
by John Dickerson, SlateBeing the non-Mitt Romney candidate in the Republican field is like being the No. 3 leader of al-Qaida: You don't keep the job for long. Newt Gingrich's rise starts a Doomsday clock, which counts down the minutes from the time a campaign begins to rise until it collapses. This unscientific number is based on the flameout rate of Romney’s opponents. According to the RealClearPolitics poll averages, it took two months from when Michele Bachmann started her rise to when she started to fall. That was about the same amount of time it took for Herman Cain (though his zoom back to earth is still ongoing and presumably could reverse). For Rick Perry, it took three months for the turnaround.
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Nov 17, 2011
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Indulging Iowa
By Todd Purdum, Vanity FairThis year the Iowa caucus will give an early boost to Republican presidential candidates on the extreme conservative end of the spectrum—contenders who otherwise would fizzle out quickly. Who do Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann have to thank for this electoral-college quirk? Liberal Democrats, naturally. Vanity Fair national editor Todd Purdum, in the first of a new series of online columns, looks back at the 1968 and 1972 presidential elections, which gave birth to the Iowa caucus—and speaks to Gary Hart, who was then George McGovern’s campaign manager. “I’ve said two or three times to Governor Vilsack of Iowa that I ought to have a statue on the capitol grounds,” says Hart. “I’ve done more for economic development there than anyone.”
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When are GOP candidates going to take on Herman Cain?
By Gloria Borger, CNNIt's hard to remember a presidential candidate who seemed more, er, unacquainted with the national dialogue -- or presidential prerequisites -- than Herman Cain.
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Distrust, Anxiety Rise as Super Committee Clock Ticks Down
by Alexis Simendinger, RealClearPoliticsThe political clash on Capitol Hill about the role and scope of government will continue no matter what the deficit-cutting congressional super committee does or fails to do by next week. President Obama, now out of the country, will return to Washington next week before the committee’s Nov. 23 deadline and decide how he will proceed if an ideologically divided Congress remains at loggerheads, unwilling to trust him or one another.
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Newt Gingrich faces big questions
By Jonathan Martin and John F. Harris, POLITICONewt Gingrich surging to the top of the Republican field? It’s a turn of events so improbable that even a political analyst as sympathetic as Newt Gingrich acknowledges that the latest poll numbers may turn out to be a short-lived fluke.
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Romney's Tea Party Firewall in Iowa
By Beth Reinhard, National JournalRepublican frontrunner Mitt Romney remains at the top of the polls in Iowa and many of his more tea-party friendly rivals are struggling to overcome major campaign gaffes. Eventually, those tea party activists will come around to Romney in their zeal to defeat President Obama, right?
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In debt talks’ new phase, blame game overshadows fiscal blueprint
By Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane, Washington PostNegotiations over the national debt entered a troubling new phase Wednesday on Capitol Hill as lawmakers appeared to spend more time trading blame for the impasse than in talks aimed at developing a blueprint to reduce borrowing.
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Deficit Stalemate Signs Rise
By Naftali Bendavid and Janet Hook, Wall Street JournalOne week before Congress's deficit-cutting supercommittee hits its deadline, and with signs of stalemate increasing, lawmakers Wednesday grappled with the consequences of possible failure.
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Gingrich on Defensive Over Freddie Mac Fees
By Jeff Zeleny and Trip Gabriel, New York TimesFor roughly six years, Newt Gingrich worked closely with high-level officials at the government-sponsored mortgage company Freddie Mac. As a highly paid consultant, he coached them on how to win over the conservatives who consider their company an anathema, spoke to their political action committee and offered general advice as they worked to stave off various threats to Freddie Mac’s survival, several people familiar with his role there said Tuesday.
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Obama says U.S. to reassert role as Pacific power
By Christi Parsons, Los Angeles TimesConfronting anxiety about China's growing political and economic clout, President Obama announced a strategic shift by the United States to reassert its role as the dominant military power in the Pacific as it pulls back from post-Sept. 11 wars.
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Newt Gingrich, on the rise, says, ‘Hopefully, I’m going to be more disciplined’
By Karen Tumulty, Washington PostFor months, Newt Gingrich has had a front-row seat from which to observe what happens when a Republican presidential candidate emerges from the pack to be touted as the next great insurgent hope and the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney.
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A Marine Base for Australia Irritates China
By Jackie Calmes, New York TimesFresh from announcing an expanded American military presence in Australia, a plan that has angered China, President Obama came to this remote northern town that will be the base of operations and told American and Australian troops it is “the perfect place.”
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Bloomberg Poll: Republicans Conflicted on Romney
By Julie Hirschfeld Davis, BloombergRepublican primary voters are torn between their confidence in Mitt Romney’s professional competence and doubts about his political character.
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Will 'New Newt' prevail?
By Doyle McManus, Los Angeles TimesWhen Richard M. Nixon ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968, he faced a daunting problem: A lot of voters just didn't like him. Nixon had made his name in politics as an angry, partisan hatchet man, famous for lashing out against Democrats and the news media. To win the presidency, he needed to find a way to soften that too-harsh image.
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Newt Gingrich, on the rise, says, ‘Hopefully, I’m going to be more disciplined’
By Karen Tumulty, Washington PostFor months, Newt Gingrich has had a front-row seat from which to observe what happens when a Republican presidential candidate emerges from the pack to be touted as the next great insurgent hope and the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney.
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Deserters Attack Syrian Air Force Base, Symbol of Assad and Torture
By Martha Raddatz and Rym Momtaz, ABC NewsThe Syrian government reeled from two blows today, as the members of the Arab League voted to suspend the country, and as defectors from the Syrian military mounted an assault on a military base associated with torture and with the Assad family's long hold on power.
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Nov 16, 2011
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Hoyer Slams Perry’s Proposal for Part-Time Congress
By Naftali Bendavid, Wall Street JournalRep. Steny Hoyer (D., Md.), the second-ranking Democrat in the House, reacted angrily Tuesday to the suggestion by Texas Gov. Rick Perry that Congress become a part-time institution.
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Eying China, U.S. Expands Military Ties to Australia
By Jackie Calmes, New York TimesPresident Obama and Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia announced plans on Wednesday for the first sustained American military presence in Australia, a relatively small deployment that is still a major symbol of American intentions to use regional alliances to counterbalance a rising China.
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DC Shooting Suspect Could Be Threat to Obama, Police Say
By Pierre Thomas, ABC NewsABC News has learned authorities are increasingly concerned that a man sought in connection with a bizarre shooting incident on the Washington Mall last week may pose a threat to President Obama.
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