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!
Dec 05, 2011
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Despite Surge, Gingrich Faces Major Hurdles
By Trip Gabriel and Jeff Zeleny, New York TimesSurging in polls is one thing. But as Newt Gingrich seeks to turn his impressive performance in surveys into votes, he is scrambling madly to build the kind of organization that Mitt Romney has methodically put in place for a year, one that will let him compete through all 50 contests, often in multiple states at once. Upending expectations, Mr. Gingrich has taken a decisive lead in new polls in several early-voting states, benefiting from the drift of Herman Cain supporters even before Mr. Cain suspended his campaign on Saturday.
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'Make or Break' Week for Italy and the Eurozone
With Sudeep Reddy, Wall Street JournalWSJ's Sudeep Reddy reports on key meetings this week among European leaders and previews U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's meetings with Euro leaders as well.
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Cain Train Went from Silver Bullet to Train Wreck
By Sam Youngman, ReutersThe slow-motion train wreck ground to a halt on Saturday when Cain announced that he would suspend his campaign. The breaking point was an allegation by Atlanta businesswoman Ginger White this week that she had engaged in a 13-year affair with the candidate. Cain's presidential bid unraveled in public as women complained of sexual harassment, he forgot U.S. policy in Libya in a video interview and confused the language spoken in Cuba.
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U.S. Unemployment Rate Falls to 8.6%
By Don Lee and Christi Parsons, Los Angeles TimesFor months, political analysts have been saying that President Obama's reelection hopes hinge on the economy, with an unemployment rate of 9% or higher certain to pose serious problems for the White House. On Friday, the Labor Department announced an unexpectedly sharp decline in the November unemployment rate, to 8.6% from 9% in October, raising hopes of an accelerated recovery.
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U.S. Hangs Back as Inspectors Prepare Report on Iran’s Nuclear Program
By David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, New York TimesAn imminent report by United Nations weapons inspectors includes the strongest evidence yet that Iran has worked in recent years on a kind of sophisticated explosives technology that is primarily used to trigger a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials who have been briefed on the intelligence. But the case is hardly conclusive. Iran’s restrictions on inspectors have muddied the picture.
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The Endless GOP Audition for President
By Gloria Borger, CNNIt's an audition without end, because the Republicans still can't figure out how to cast the lead role. Here's how the internal discussion goes: We need someone who is a true conservative. We need someone who is right on the matters we care about -- the deficit, immigration, cultural issues. We need someone we can trust, who won't betray us. And, by the way, we also need someone who can win.
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Romney says Attorney General Holder should quit
By Charles Babington, Associated PressRepublican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is calling on President Barack Obama’s attorney general to resign because of the flawed law enforcement initiative aimed at dismantling major arms trafficking networks on the Southwest border.
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In Gingrich, Romney Now Sees a Grave Threat
By John Harwood, New York Timesnside a drab office building here, Mitt Romney’s aides have been following all the rules. Now they’ll find out if the rules still apply. Build on Mr. Romney’s 2008 run to assemble a broad but lean campaign infrastructure? Check. Focus the candidate’s message, in strong debate performances and well-controlled campaign events, on the core issue of economic revival? Check.
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Dec 02, 2011
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A very good week
By Greg Ip, The EconomistPerhaps it's time to dial back some of the gloom. This week gave us positive news on two fronts. First, the underlying American economy seems to be in reasonably good shape. Second, the biggest risks hanging over the economy—policy errors in America and Europe—receded just a bit. It is not time to declare the all clear. This recovery, having disappointed so many times before, probably will again at some point.
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Obama to Vie for Arizona as Latino Numbers Rise
By Helene Cooper, New York TimesRepublicans in the State Legislature here push a law that would require President Obama to provide his long-form birth certificate in order to get on the Arizona presidential ballot in 2012. The governor uses Facebook to denounce the president’s “backdoor amnesty plan.” Cars traveling on State Route 260 are treated to a giant billboard bearing Mr. Obama’s mug on a mock $100 trillion bill that asks, “But Who Will Pay the Piper?” Given the openly hostile environment, Mr. Obama would seem to have little chance of winning Arizona’s 11 electoral votes in 2012 or even the incentive to make much of an effort here. But the state’s crackdown on illegal immigration has coincided with a boom in its Hispanic population, now nearly a third of the state’s residents.
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"Better Buildings" Bring Obama, Bill Clinton Together Again
By Alexis Simendinger, RealClearPoliticsThey share a high regard for the secretary of state. They love policy conundrums, government, and being best-selling authors. They know firsthand that it's the economy, stupid. And on Friday, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton will join forces in Washington to tout "Better Buildings" as a public-private initiative that can save energy, money and create (even without new legislation) somewhere between 35,000 and 50,000 jobs.
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“He Kept His Word”
By Todd S. Purdum, Vanity FairWhen Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts announced his retirement this week, President Obama declared that the country had never had a congressman quite like him, and that is true. In 2009, he became that rarest breed, a House member interesting enough to warrant a biography: Barney Frank: The Story of America’s Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman, by Stuart Weisberg. Funny and fast-talking, the former chairman and current top-ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, Frank is finishing his 16th term. And his colorful persona and status as one of the tiny handful of openly gay members in congressional history has long made him a rumpled standout in a sea of gray faces.
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Payroll tax break: Extension proposals from both parties fail in Senate
By Lori Montgomery and Felicia Sonmez, Washington PostThe Senate late Thursday rejected competing partisan visions for extending a temporary tax break that benefits virtually every American worker, clearing the way for more serious negotiations over how to cover the cost of the tax cut. All but a handful of Democrats voted in favor of their party’s proposal, but in a surprising turn, more Republicans voted against the GOP plan than in favor of it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted this week that a majority of his conference would vote for the party’s plan to extend the payroll tax cut.
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Gingrich: Kill Romney with kindness
By Philip Rucker and Karen Tumulty, Washington PostThe surging Republican presidential candidate instructed his aides on Thursday morning not to respond to any attacks Romney has leveled against him or advance in coming days, according to a Gingrich campaign adviser. After reading news accounts Thursday morning about Romney’s advisers gaming out strategies to attack him, Gingrich told aides he wants his campaign, and himself, to focus exclusively on his ideas and what he sees as President Obama’s failings.
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Supreme Court takes case on pilot's privacy
By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAYThe Supreme Court took up an important privacy case Wednesday that traces to the mid-2000s when the Social Security Administration and Department of Transportation exchanged confidential information related to thousands of private pilots. As part of the fraud investigation called "Operation Safe Pilot," Social Security officials revealed to aviation regulators that San Francisco pilot Stanmore Cooper was HIV-positive and had obtained disability benefits.
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Obama redirects $50 million to fight AIDS
By Christi Parsons and Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles TimesPresident Obama declared a new day in the fight against AIDS in the U.S. and around the world as he unveiled a plan to make life-saving drug treatments available to millions more people. The Obama administration will redirect $50 million to prevention and treatment programs across the country and will aim to help provide anti-retroviral drugs to more than 6 million people around the world, an increase of 2 million from the previous goal.
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Senate Approves Sanctions On Iran
by Tom Gjelten, NPRIn a clear rebuff to the Obama administration, the Senate approved a defense bill amendment for tough sanctions targeting the Central Bank of Iran. Administration officials are warning that the measures could undermine international cooperation against Iran.
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Justice League
By Yochi J. Dreazen, National JournalThe Arab League, an unwieldy 22-nation conglomerate of autocrats and monarchs, has long been the object of scorn. Established in Cairo in 1945 by a half-dozen Arab countries, it was known—if known at all—for its incompetence and hostility toward Israel. The league declared war on the Jewish state in 1948, froze out companies that did business with Israel, and expelled Egypt after it signed the Camp David peace accords. A 2002 summit in Beirut devolved into chaos when Lebanon’s president refused to give Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, a prime speaking slot; the Palestinians walked out in protest, and nothing substantive got done. A 2004 summit to devise a consensus position on the Iraq war achieved so little that Arab commentators derided the meeting as “ridiculous,” “a failure,” and “instantly forgettable.” Both Washington and Jerusalem have completely ignored the Arab League’s repeated offer for a wide-ranging peace deal with Israel. In a March interview, a senior Obama administration official told National Journal that the group “was at best useless and at worst actively unhelpful.” Eight months later, the Arab League is emerging as one of the White House’s most important—and most unlikely—regional allies.
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Expiration of jobless benefits sparks debate
By Michael A. Fletcher, Washington PostThe looming expiration of federal unemployment insurance is reigniting a debate that could result in substantial changes to a program that serves as a lifeline to millions of jobless Americans. The failure of the congressional supercommittee to reach a debt-reduction agreement that would have included an extension of benefits has left people who have been out of work for more than six months in danger of losing their payments. If lawmakers allow the unemployment program to expire on Dec. 31, an estimated 1.8 million people would lose benefits by the end of January.
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Democrats See an Advantage in Debate Over Payroll Tax
By Jackie Calmes, New York TimesAfter struggling all year for an economic message that resonates broadly with Americans in hard times, President Obama and Congressional Democrats have settled on one they believe can carry through next year’s election as they use a fight over payroll taxes to portray Republicans as defenders of the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. With Mr. Obama leading the charge in Washington and political swing states, Senate Democrats have put proudly antitax Republicans in the position of opposing a tax cut for more than 160 million mostly middle-class Americans because they object that it includes a tax on about 350,000 people, those with more than $1 million in annual taxable income.
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