Good Sunday morning. From all the out-of-office messages we’re getting, it seems like D.C. has decided to cut out for Christmas early!
NEW NARRATIVE BUILDING -- @CNNSotu: “Sen. John McCain says ‘we need a select committee’ to investigate Russia involvement in US election during intv. w/ @jaketapper. #CNNsotu”
-- NOTE: SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL has already rejected the idea of a select committee, and said the Senate’s existing panels can handle whatever probes are required.
**SUBSCRIBE to Playbook: http://politi.co/1M75UbX
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE meets tomorrow. The result will be what we all expect: Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States.
--“In last-shot bid, thousands urge electoral college to block Trump at Monday vote,”by WaPo’s Robert Samuels: “Pressure on members of the electoral college to select someone other than Donald Trump has grown dramatically — and noisily — in recent weeks, causing some to waver but yielding little evidence that Trump will fall short when electors convene in most state capitals Monday to cast their votes. Carole Joyce of Arizona expected her role as a GOP elector to be pretty simple ... But then came the mail and the emails and the phone calls — first hundreds, then thousands of voters worrying that Trump’s impulsive nature would lead the country into another war.” http://wapo.st/2hVhuis
-- “Electors under siege: Members of the Electoral College votes have been inundated by harassing phone calls and hate mail. Many report receiving death threats,” by Kyle Cheney: http://politi.co/2i2TSnY
--On SNL last night, in a hilarious segment called “Hillary Actually,” Hillary Clinton (Kate McKinnon) went to an elector’s house and tried to persuade her to not vote for Trump, using big cue cards (like in “Love Actually”). 3-min. video http://bit.ly/2hx2Htk
NBC/WSJ POLL: “Poll: 50 Percent Approve of Trump’s Transition Handling So Far,” by NBC’s Mark Murray: “Fifty percent of Americans say they approve of the way President-elect Donald Trump is handling the transition and his preparations to take the Oval Office, while 41 percent disapprove, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. But Trump's approval score is significantly below Barack Obama’s in December 2008 (73 percent) and Bill Clinton's in December 1992 (77 percent).” http://nbcnews.to/2heWak4
SPY GAMES -- “Mossad chief and security delegation meet with Trump team: In a clandestine visit, the head of the Mossad and a security delegation organized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to the United States to meet with President-elect Trump’s staff and brief him on security issues,” by Yediot Ahronot’s Itamar Eichner and Tzipi Shmilovitz: “Director of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, clandestinely visited the United States to meet with President-elect Donald Trump’s staff and brief them on pressing security matters including the Iranian nuclear deal, the Syrian civil war, terror threats and the Palestinian issue. The security delegation was organized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was led by National Security Council head Yaakov Nagel. The Israeli ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer was also present during meetings.” http://bit.ly/2hVlkIx
DIPLOMACY ON TWITTER -- “China said it would return a seized U.S. naval drone. Trump told them to ‘keep it,’,” by WaPo’s Missy Ryan and Emily Rauhala: “The Chinese government said Saturday it will return a U.S. naval drone seized last week in the South China Sea, a step toward defusing maritime tensions between the two Pacific powers. President-elect Donald Trump reacted to the news by telling them he doesn’t want it back. ‘We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!’ he tweeted Saturday evening. The comment could prolong one of the most serious incidents between the U.S. and Chinese militaries in recent memory, potentially complicating ties ahead of Trump’s inauguration.” http://wapo.st/2gYM60I
--MARTHA RADDATZ interviewed JAMES WOOLSEY, Trump senior adviser and former CIA director, on “This Week”: “I want to just very quickly, if we can, on the drone that the Chinese took, and they’re apparently now returning. A day after Donald Trump tweeted his displeasure, Jason Miller from the Trump team tweeting, 'Donald Trump gets it done. China says it will return U.S. drone it seized.’ And they say they return the drone ... and then Donald Trump tweets, ‘Keep the drone.’ What’s going on there?”
WOOLSEY: “I don’t know. I can’t keep up with the tweets. I don’t do the social media myself, so who knows.” RADDATZ: “OK, better start reading those Donald Trump tweets, then.” Transcript http://abcn.ws/2hIyrJV
FAKE NEWS UPDATE – NYT A1, “How a Putin Fan Overseas Pushed Pro-Trump Propaganda to Americans,” by Mike McIntire: “The Patriot News Agency website popped up in July, soon after it became clear that Donald J. Trump would win the Republican presidential nomination, bearing a logo of a red, white and blue eagle and the motto ‘Built by patriots, for patriots.’ ... Patriot News — whose postings were viewed and shared tens of thousands of times in the United States — is among a constellation of websites run out of the United Kingdom that are linked to James Dowson, a far-right political activist who advocated Britain’s exit from the European Union and is a fan of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.” http://nyti.ms/2gZgjP9
TRUMP’S WASHINGTON – NYT A1, “Outsiders Selected by Trump Aim to Unnerve Washington,” by Mike Shear: “Some of those chosen -- 17 picks so far for federal agencies and five for the White House -- are among the most radical selections in recent history. ... [A] number of Mr. Trump’s most important selections have no experience in federal government and a great drive to undo it. Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma state attorney general who was picked to lead the E.P.A., rejects the established science of human-caused climate change and has built his career on fighting environmental regulations. At the Education Department, Betsy DeVos wants to steer government money away from traditional public schools. Rick Perry was picked to head the Energy Department -- unless he eliminates it, as he once promised.” http://nyti.ms/2gZ769t
LEGACY WATCH -- LOTS OF GREAT NUGGETS IN THIS STORY -- “Kerry leaving legacy of hope in role at State,” by the Boston Globe’s Matt Viser: “The former Massachusetts senator plans to return to Boston. He said he will seek work in the private sector, declining to provide details while he still holds his public job. And he said he looks forward to shedding the diplomatic reserve that has prevented him from speaking out on domestic politics over the last four years. As Kerry sat in his State Department office, he was nursing a cold, sucking on cough drops and drinking vitamin water — a key source of nutrients for a man with a frenzied, peripatetic schedule. ‘You hydrate. When you’re flying around and changing time zones, that’s the secret. Stay hydrated,’ Kerry said. ‘People don’t drink enough water. Really. … That’s when you get tired and lose track of where the hell you are.’ ...
“Kerry said that at one point he thought about getting into the race himself. ‘For a minute or two, maybe somewhere along the line, it crossed my mind — possibly,’ he said. ‘But there are a number of reasons why I dismissed the idea. And I’m glad. I think it was right. I never really thought that seriously about it.’ He declined to say when he had these thoughts. ‘I’m not going to go into that. ... It passed my mind a few times where I thought the issues were such and the campaign was — sort of seemed complicated,’ he said. ‘But I stayed away. I didn’t get into any serious conversation. Mostly because I love this job, and I really said, ‘I want to finish this.’” ...
“He also intends to work in the private sector for one of the first times since he opened a cookie shop in 1976 in Quincy Market. ‘I’m going to continue to work for peace and conflict resolution in a constructive forum that I’m trying to think about and shape right now,’ he said. ‘I want to do private sector.’ He would not elaborate much on what that might entail.” http://bit.ly/2hVouMv
CHOOSE YOUR NEWS -- WSJ: “Donald Trump Takes Conciliatory Tone at Postelection Rallies: President-elect pulls back on rhetorical punches, aiming to resolve tensions in forming key parts of government” http://on.wsj.com/2i2Onps … WaPo: “Trump is stoking his base on his pre-inaugural tour. But is he building bridges?” http://wapo.st/2gYPIjp … WaPo A1 headline: “On ‘thank you’ tour, Trump’s still at war” http://bit.ly/2i36qMi
WHAT CHAPPAQUA IS READING -- “In the Chappaqua woods, a search for Hillary Clinton,” by WaPo’s Stephanie McCrummen in Chappaqua, New York: “Two days after the election, a young woman had spotted Clinton and taken a photo with her that went viral, leading to fake news stories alleging that the whole thing was staged, which was said to prove once again that Hillary Clinton couldn’t do anything that did not strike a false note. But Chappaquaians knew better. ... [T]he young woman in the photo ... received hate mail afterward.” http://wapo.st/2i2SsK7
MITT ROMNEY letter in the Salt Lake Tribune, “I was surprised but willing to serve”: “My political journey was surely not so bizarre as the 2016 campaign. That said, let me offer this personal perspective. I was indeed very critical of Donald Trump during his campaign. But now he has been elected president and accordingly, if I could have helped shape foreign policy to protect the country I love, I would have been more than willing to do so.
“I was more than a little surprised that the president-elect reached out to me to potentially serve as secretary of state of the United States. I see it as a welcome sign that he will be open to alternative views and even to critics. As the country’s next president, I earnestly hope that he will be successful in fostering greater prosperity and peace. I believe all Americans can join in that wish.” http://bit.ly/2hMMAFE
SUNDAY BEST -- REINCE PRIEBUS to CHRIS WALLACE on “Fox News Sunday.”@FoxNewsSunday: “.@Reince on #FNS: I’m 100% sure Tillerson will be confirmed” ... “.@Reince on #FNS on Tillerson: We’ve been working with @SenJohnMcCain @LindseyGrahamSC @marcorubio to get them on board.”
JAKE TAPPER interviewed ATTORNEY GENERAL LORETTA LYNCH on “State of the Union.” TAPPER: “In retrospect, ‘I’m sorry Mr. President it’d be inappropriate for us to talk’ -- you wish you’d said that?” LYNCH: “Well I do regret sitting down and having a conversation with him, because it did give people concern. And as I said, my greatest concern has always been making sure that people understand that the department of justice works in a way that is independent and looks at everybody equally. And when you do something that gives people a reason to think differently, that's a problem. It was a problem for me. It was painful for me, and so I felt it was important to clarify it as quickly and as clearly and as cleanly as possible.” TAPPER: “Do you think that Director Comey’s press conference was also affected by this, the idea that you wanted to be as transparent as possible in that summer press conference, because of this impression that some people might have because bill Clinton came to you that day?”
LYNCH: “You know I didn’t speak to the director about why he had his press conference before he did it, and we learned of it right before that. My view is he was trying to be as transparent as possible in a matter that was of great attention and that was generating a lot of attention.” TAPPER: “But certainly if Bill Clinton hadn't gotten on the tarmac that time and gone to you things might have been different. You would have had more say. You would have been able to control Comey more ... It might have changed the letter that he gave at the end there.” LYNCH: “I don’t think it would have changed his view of what he had to say or not say to Congress, I mean that’s what he based his letter on…” TAPPER: “And you would have deferred to him?” LYNCH: “And I also can’t speculate also as to how anyone might have considered that view differently at all.”
CHUCK TODD interviewed ROBERT GATES on “Meet the Press.” TODD: “Do you think there’s been enough of a sense of urgency about this from the Obama administration, from congressional leaders, Democratic and Republican, from Donald Trump?” GATES:“No. I think that given the unprecedented nature of it and the magnitude of the effort, I think people seem to have been somewhat laid back about it. And maybe part of the problem was that it took the intelligence community a while to assemble really firm evidence of Russian involvement and Russian government involvement that delayed a response. Attribution is a challenge but it seems pretty clear to me that they’ve developed really reliable information that the Russian government was involved.”
TODD: “As you know, President Obama said this week that he directly spoke with Putin back in September, warned him to cut it out. A month later, the WikiLeaks, Podesta’s emails become public. So obviously that lecture didn’t do anything. But the question now is how do you retaliate? ... How do you characterize it?” GATES: “Well, I would characterize it as a thinly disguised, covert operation intended to discredit the American election and to basically allow the Russians to communicate to the rest of the world that our elections are corrupt, incompetent, rigged, whatever and therefore no more honest than anybody else's in the world including theirs. And, you know, the U.S. ought to get off his high horse in telling other nations how to conduct their elections and criticizing those elections and so on. Whether it or not it was intended to help one another candidate, I don’t know. But I think it clearly was aimed at discrediting our elections and I think it was aimed certainly at weakening Mrs. Clinton.”
MARTHA RADDATZ interviewed DNC interim chair DONNA BRAZILE on “This Week”: RADDATZ: “President Obama also said Friday that the cyber attacks stopped after he warned Putin at an international conference in September. You’ve been briefed on the party’s computer system. Is that right? They stopped?” BRAZILE: “No, they did not stop. They -- they came after us absolutely every day until the end of the election. They tried to hack into our system repeatedly. ... And, you know, this is not just about computers; this is harassment of individuals, it’s harassment of our candidates, harassment of our donors. We had stolen information, personal information. People were personally harassed.” ...
RADDATZ: “And Donna, given that all you’ve -- all you’ve said about this hack, do you think Donald Trump’s win was legitimate?” BRAZILE: “No, I was involved a close election in 2000. And it was an election where we believed that every vote should count, and every voter should matter. At the end of the day, the electors had an obligation to do their job. And George Bush won the election, and Al Gore had the most electoral -- I mean, the most popular vote. Donald Trump used this information in ways to also sow division. I was very disappointed in his repeated usage some of the stolen information. He used it as if he received daily talking points.” Transcript http://abcn.ws/2hIyrJV
CONFIRMATION BATTLES -- “Sessions’ confirmation message: I’m not a racist,”by Seung Min Kim and Nancy Cook: “Jeff Sessions took a surprise trip to South Carolina this week at the behest of the Senate’s only black Republican. His allies talk up how Sessions locked arms with Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. And the senator, in a lengthy nominee questionnaire delivered this month, practically depicts himself as a civil rights hero. When the Senate takes up President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be the nation’s next top law enforcement official in January, allegations of racism that have dogged Sessions for three decades running are certain to be his biggest liability. So he and his allies have mounted an aggressive public relations campaign to refashion Sessions’ image. The core message: The charges that sank Sessions’ bid to become a federal judge in 1986 don’t represent who Sessions is now, or even who he was at the time. Delivering it is a lineup of prominent black leaders and others with personal ties to Sessions enlisted by Trump’s transition team.” http://politi.co/2gZjlCF
-- “ExxonMobil helped defeat Russia sanctions bill,” by Isaac Arnsdorf and Elana Schor: “ExxonMobil successfully lobbied against a bill that would have made it harder for the next president to lift sanctions against Russia, clearing the way for the oil giant to restart a program worth billions of dollars if Donald Trump eases those restrictions as president. The company’s effort could be helped by outgoing CEO Rex Tillerson, who, if confirmed as secretary of state, would be a key adviser on the decision.” http://politi.co/2hIsvRa
SNL COLD OPEN, “Donald Trump Christmas Cold Open”: “President-elect Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) receives a surprise visit from Vladimir Putin (Beck Bennett) and Rex Tillerson (John Goodman).” Putin: “So you trust me more than American CIA?” Trump: “All I know is I won.” Putin: “Oh this guy is blowing my mind. Donald, I want to state officially that we in Russia are so happy that you are U.S. president.” Trump: “Well thank you.” Putin: “We think you’re the best candidate.” Trump: “Sure.” Putin: “The smartest candidate.” Trump: “No doubt.”
… Putin: “The Manchurian candidate.” Trump: “I don’t know what that means but it sounds tremendous.” Putin: “And since it is Christmas after all, I got you a gift. This is elf on a shelf. It’s fun. You just put it right here next to your internet router and you keep it there all year. It’s fun yes.” Trump: “It’s beautiful. Vladimir, I’m sorry but I did not know you were coming so I do not have a gift for you.” Putin: “Please Mr. Trump, you are the gift.” 6-min. video http://bit.ly/2heMiXw
GLENN THRUSH for POLITICO Magazine, “‘Everything Feels Existential Now’”:“After a campaign season spent obsessing over divided allegiances within the Republican Party, it is now the Democrats who find themselves in an existential crisis. They lost the presidency and the Senate and trail Republicans in the House, as well as in state legislatures and governorships across the country. Worse, in the 2018 midterms, Democrats are defending 25 Senate seats, 10 of them in states that went for Donald Trump. After that, if the Dems can’t gain ground in state legislatures, the 2020 redistricting process is likely to hurt them even more. Where did Democrats go wrong, and how can they rebuild? At this point, can they?” Featuring Neera Tanden, Guy Cecil, Thomas Frank and Matt Barreto http://politi.co/2heUqau
PAGING THE SENATE HELP COMMITTEE -- “OxyContin goes global — ‘We’re only just getting started,’” by LA Times’ Harriet Ryan, Lisa Girion and Scott Glover: “OxyContin is a dying business in America. With the nation in the grip of an opioid epidemic that has claimed more than 200,000 lives, the U.S. medical establishment is turning away from painkillers. Top health officials are discouraging primary care doctors from prescribing them for chronic pain, saying there is no proof they work long-term and substantial evidence they put patients at risk.
“Prescriptions for OxyContin have fallen nearly 40% since 2010, meaning billions in lost revenue for its Connecticut manufacturer, Purdue Pharma. So the company’s owners, the Sackler family, are pursuing a new strategy: Put the painkiller that set off the U.S. opioid crisis into medicine cabinets around the world. A network of international companies owned by the family is moving rapidly into Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and other regions, and pushing for broad use of painkillers in places ill-prepared to deal with the ravages of opioid abuse and addiction.” http://lat.ms/2hIv5qj
HOT TAKE -- NICK KRISTOF, “Donald Trump: The Russian Poodle”: “I never thought I would see a dispute between America’s intelligence community and a murderous foreign dictator in which an American leader sided with the dictator. ... Frankly, it’s mystifying that Trump continues to defend Russia and Putin, even as he excoriates everyone else, from C.I.A. officials to a local union leader in Indiana. Now we come to the most reckless step of all: This Russian poodle is acting in character by giving important government posts to friends of Moscow, in effect rewarding it for its attack on the United States.” http://nyti.ms/2hMNySo
REMEMBERING BENJAMIN GILMAN -- “Benjamin Gilman, a New York Congressman for 30 Years, Dies at 94,” by NYT’s Joseph Fried: “Benjamin A. Gilman, a New York congressman for 30 years and a leading Republican critic of the Clinton administration’s foreign policy initiatives, died on Saturday at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital at Castle Point in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. He was 94 ... [and] had been hospitalized for more than three years after hip surgery. First elected to the House of Representatives in 1972, Mr. Gilman was a moderate Republican who focused on foreign affairs throughout most of his years in Washington. From 1995 to 2000, he was chairman of the International Relations Committee, as the House Foreign Affairs Committee was then known. He was named to lead the panel after the Republicans won control of the House in 1994. Mr. Gilman accused President Bill Clinton of favoring Russia over other former Soviet republics, and said the president was indecisive on issues involving Bosnia, Haiti and Somalia.” http://nyti.ms/2hx2k23
MEDIAWATCH -- “MSNBC quietly cancels ‘Live With Thomas Roberts’,” by Page Six’s Carlos Greer: “MSNBC on Friday quietly pulled the plug on its afternoon show, ‘Live With Thomas Roberts,’ after less than two years, Page Six has exclusively learned. Roberts was brought on to do the two-hour show last year to replace the much-hyped but low-rated ‘Ronan Farrow Daily.’ ‘Thomas was taken off of his [show] quietly,’ said a news insider. ‘They’re not going to announce it, but he’s gone. His last day was Friday.’ Another source close to the anchor explained, ‘Thomas is in discussions to take on a new role with MSNBC in 2017.’” http://pge.sx/2hMHFEC
BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico:
-- “Best of 2016” -- Longform: “We recommended 1,399 articles this year, from 1,088 writers and 307 publications. These were our favorites.” http://bit.ly/2hpRmLC
--“An American Huckster,” by Matt Novak in Gizmodo: “The Untold Story of Napoleon Hill, the Greatest Self-Help Scammer of All Time.” http://bit.ly/2hzcdNa
--“Finding North America’s lost medieval city,” by Annalee Newitz in Ars Technica: “Cahokia [in the St. Louis suburbs] was bigger than Paris—then it was completely abandoned. I went there to find out why.” http://bit.ly/2gQbN3G (h/t TheBrowser.com)
--“An Enemy of the Kremlin Dies in London,” by Jeffrey E. Stern in the Jan./Feb. issue of the Atlantic: “Who killed Alexander Perepilichny?” http://theatln.tc/2gOUe5B
--“Longreads Best of 2016: Here Are All of Our No. 1 Story Picks from This Year”: http://bit.ly/2hpNfix
--“Stop Calling Us Warriors” – AngryStaffOfficer.com: “[T]here’s a problem with all this ‘warrior’ rhetoric; warriors are not soldiers. Warriors don’t transition, because warriors are part of a class. Warriors don’t have tasks, because tasks are antithetical to the undisciplined and chaotic warrior. Essentially, stop calling us warriors.” http://bit.ly/2gOTrBH
--“How The West Invented Itself,” by David Wootton in the Dec./Jan. issue of Standpoint magazine: “[T]he discovery of the New World was the achievement of semi-educated sailors — it brought about a new cooperation between intellectuals and practical men, a cooperation particularly fostered by the mathematicians who taught the skills of navigation and cartography and who had long believed in the importance of useful knowledge.” http://bit.ly/2hASQkl (h/t ALDaily.com)
--“Why I’m Leaving My Job at the Illuminati and Joining the Trump Administration,” by Jason O. Gilbert in McSweeney’s: “I love orchestrating global financial events and mass media coverage in a way that is favorable to a cabal of ultra-wealthy power players; indeed, nothing tops the regular joy I get from chartering a chemtrail-emitting jetliner to Davos and informing a hedge fund billionaire I’d arranged for the assassination of his enemy.” http://bit.ly/2gOMrF1
--“What I learned about China by searching for the world’s rarest bird” – The Economist: “The story of the Chinese crested tern is bound up with that of China itself.” http://bit.ly/2h5Lp3n
--“How to Fix the Internet,” by Walter Isaacson in The Atlantic: “Anonymity has poisoned online life.” http://theatln.tc/2gHX7QY
--“Business Tips from a Refugee Camp,” by Richard Davies in 1843 Magazine: “Many of the Syrians who have fled to the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan have started companies there. … Companies [have sprung] up everywhere: by the time the camp was two years old it had more than 1,400 firms.” http://bit.ly/2hpUpUd
--“Dispatches From Dakota: Chasing The Pipeline Protest,” by Inside Energy’s Amy Sisk: “Long after this pipeline controversy ends, I hope journalists who have come to Standing Rock from around the world report on their local indigenous communities. Far too often Native American news is overlooked in the mainstream media. Reservations tend to be far from urban centers and many journalists lack a knowledge of indigenous history, culture and current events.” http://bit.ly/2hIBzIp
--“He Was a Crook,” by Hunter S. Thompson: “A scathing obituary of Richard Nixon, originally published in Rolling Stone on June 16, 1994.” http://theatln.tc/2hLpZwG
--“The Human Side of Trade,” by Russ Roberts in Medium: “Trade has undeniable human costs — dislocated and unemployed workers, some of whom struggle to find dignified ways to support themselves and who may be left with dreary lives without meaning. What are the benefits? One benefit is obvious — less expensive clothes, toys, and gadgets. But if that’s the end of the story, it’s a pretty bad deal.” http://bit.ly/2hTikID
--“The nightmare before Christmas,” by Colm Tóibín in The Guardian: “Forget seasonal cheer, Dickens’s A Christmas Carol takes greater pleasure in Scrooge’s ghostly visions than in his redemption.” http://bit.ly/2hTilfr
SPOTTED: Steve Case at Jammin Java in Vienna at the “Joe Grushecky and the House Rockers” concert Saturday night ... Rep.-elect Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) at Casa Luca last night
WEEKEND WEDDING -- LIZ SIDOTI and ANDY DAVIS married Saturday at Roses Run Country Club in Ohio, before a candle-lit mantle and a crowd mostly of family and friends from their nearby hometown of Kent. Liz, head of U.S. comms for BP and former Associated Press political journalist, and Andy briefly dated in their early 20s and reunited three years ago, more than a decade later. Andy, a commercial printer, runs the production center at the Cato Institute. Their mothers brought the house down by jointly singing a toast to the tune of Mr. Sandman, “You’re livin’ the dream. You waited so long we wanted to scream.” Pic http://bit.ly/2gZgIB7
SPOTTED: Stephanie Cutter, Nedra Pickler, Sara Fagen, Laura Capps, Nathan Daschle, Kelley Daschle and Eric Chader, Michael and Tovah Meehan, Todd Harris and Ieva Augstums, Terry Sullivan and Shealah Craighead, Tom and Kristen McMahon, and Steve and Cynthia McMahon.
HOLIDAY PARTY CIRCUIT -- Susan Rice and Ian Cameron hosted their annual holiday open house Saturday evening. SPOTTED: Loretta Lynch, Tina Tchen, Valerie Jarrett, Fred Hochberg, Lee Zak, Gayle Smith, Phil Gordon, Lisa Monaco, Puneet Talwar, Taara Rangarajan, Meridith Webster, Nate Tibbits and Suzy George, Nick Schmit and Jonathan Capehart, Wendy Sherman and Bruce Stokes, Elizabeth Cousens, Madeleine Albright, John Brennan, Ben and Ashley Chang, Penny Pritzker, Warren Bass, Tony Blinken.
OUT AND ABOUT – SPOTTED at a party yesterday evening to celebrate Robert Draper’s and Kirsten Powers’ engagement, which had a great wine selection since Draper is a vino connoisseur: Matt Lewis and Erin DeLullo, Paul Shapiro, Mark Salter, Molly Ball, Michael Wear, Dave Wasserman, Mark Leibovich, Julia Ioffe, Mark Paustenbach, Manuel Roig-Franzia, Ceci Connolly, Jonathan Kott, Paul Kane, Susan Goldberg, John Scofield, Carl Cannon, Jen Hing, Melinda Henneberger.
ENGAGED -- Alex Miller, comms director for Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), and Rory Murphy, attorney at Squire Patton Boggs, got engaged on Friday evening and celebrated with dinner at Rose’s Luxury and a tour of the White House Christmas decorations the next morning. They met in 2013 when they were both working for their home state senators, she for Sen. Bob Casey, and he for Sen. Max Baucus on the Finance Committee. They were introduced by their mutual friend and current Finance Committee senior comms advisor Ryan Carey. Goose (their cat) is very excited for mom and dad. Pic http://bit.ly/2gOFuPu
--Taylor Haulsee, the recently promoted press secretary for the Senate HELP Committee and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), proposed on Thursday night at Zoo Lights in Woodley Park to Katie Delzell, GOP fundraiser for Value in Electing Women PAC (VIEW PAC). Despite forgetting all of his prepared lines in the 22 degree weather, Katie still said yes. They met in Iowa during the 2012 cycle -- Katie was working for the RNC, and Taylor for the Romney campaign. Pics http://bit.ly/2hIuaZH ... http://bit.ly/2heO6Q4
BIRTHDAYS: Robb Watters, managing partner of the Madison Group and a squash devotee (h/t Blair) … Dwight Holton is 51 … Jeanne Cummings, political editor for the WSJ … former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark is 89 … Lindsay Conwell of Google’s GOP ads team ... Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) is 69 ... Randi Weingarten, president of American Federation of Teachers (h/t Hilary Rosen) ... Frank Coleman, SVP of public affairs at Distilled Spirits Council (tap tip: Sean Spicer) ... Matt Schlapp, principal at Cove Strategies, chairman of the American Conservative Union and the pride of Wichita, is 49 ... CNN producer Rachel Streitfeld ... Julie Donofrio (h/t Tammy Haddad) ... DCI Group’s Jennifer Scoggins Hanks, a CNN alum ... Rich Luchette, comms. director for Rep. David Cicilline ... Google’s Jesse Suskin ... Politico’s Andrew Restuccia is 31 (h/t Nancy Cook) ... Politico’s Max Mounkhaty … Politico alum Jon Prior, now with The Dallas Business Journal, is 32 ... Sara Kamla Pasi, daughter of Peter, is 4 ... Noam Neusner, co-owner/principal at 30 Point Strategies ... Micah Lasher, head of external affairs for Sidewalk Labs and Bloomberg and Jerry Adler alum ...
… Brendan Kelly, account executive at Summers Strategies and a No Labels alum, is 25 (h/t Allie Wright) ... Lee Spieckerman ... Deborah E. Cunningham ... Kristina Budelis, cofounder of KitSplit and a New Yorker alum ... Spencer Sharp, publisher at Louise Blouin Media and a NY Observer alum ... AP’s Will Lester is 64 ... Wes Coulam, executive director of Washington Council Ernst & Young and a Morgan Stanley alum ... RNC and Chamber alum Anna-Claire Whitehead, executive director of Noah’s Arc Foundation ... Nicole Audet ... Tyler Lechtenberg ... Paul Cooper … McCall Johnson … Jim Whitney … Wendy Strout (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) ... Adam Phillips ... Mary Grace ... Sheena Jeffers ... rock singer-musician Keith Richards is 73 … Steven Spielberg is 7-0 … movie reviewer Leonard Maltin is 66 … Brad Pitt is 53 … Katie Holmes is 38 (h/ts AP)