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FIRST IN PLAYBOOK -- NEWT UPS HIS PRICE -- Newt Gingrich is cashing in on Donald Trump’s popularity. Gingrich’s speaking agency, Worldwide Speakers Group, sent out a notice Thursday afternoon with the subject line “Newt Gingrich Fee Increase.” “Few people in the world have as much insight into President-elect Trump’s philosophies, principles and objectives as Newt Gingrich. As the senior voice in the Republican Party and advisor to the new Administration, Gingrich has been at the forefront of the Republican strategy for the last two years,” the email read.
IF YOU WANT TO BOOK the former House speaker for a D.C. speech, it will now cost you $25,000 plus ground transportation. For speeches east of Chicago, he’s charging $60,000 plus first class travel for two, and for speeches west of Chicago, he’s asking $75,000 plus first class travel for two.” It’s an increase of about $15,000, our source tells us. No wonder he wanted to stay out of the administration! Gingrich had “no comment,” he said in an email.
THE TRUMP AGENCY -- Lobbyists have been scrambling to pump up their connections to the incoming Trump administration, but few have been as brazen as Gotham Government Relations & Communications and Gerstman Schwartz & Malito. David Schwartz sent an email Thursday detailing his firm’s “storied relationship” with Trump, whom he has represented since 2010. “It has been the thrill of a lifetime to work for this man whom I have grown to respect and admire over the years, and I believe he deserves a chance to succeed as our President,” Schwartz wrote, noting that he and his partners started the website “Should Trump Run” ahead of the 2012 election, setting the stage for his 2016 presidential bid.
SCHWARTZ WRITES that, in addition to assisting Trump on several lobbying issues, he was also involved in Trump’s campaign launch at Trump Tower. “Our firm set up that entire event.” He adds: “We have an insight into the thinking of the new President. We look forward to meeting with you and analyzing all of the problems of your business, industry, not-for-profit and trade associations.” The firm expects to expand into Washington, linking up with a yet unnamed firm.
DEPT OF RAW NERVES -- “Clinton and Trump strategists still throwing punches,” by Shane Goldmacher and Gabe Debenedetti at the Harvard Institute of Politics’ post-election conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts: “The scene on Thursday was fraught, from the moment the top campaigns’ top officials sat down across the room from each other. There were interruptions, accusations and plenty of crosstalk for more than two, tense hours. ‘We’re not at a Trump rally, Corey,’ Clinton’s chief strategist Joel Benenson snapped at one point at Trump’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. Later, Trump’s last campaign manager Kellyanne Conway cautioned her side of the table, ‘Hey guys, we won, we don’t have to respond.’ … Clinton’s advisers looked pained from the start. They gulped water. They gripped their pens. They crossed their arms. They glared. Then they boiled over.
“After 90 minutes, when Trump deputy campaign manager Dave Bossie called Trump’s campaign CEO Steve Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News, ‘an unbelievably brilliant strategist,’ an impassioned Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s communications director, jumped in. ‘If providing a platform for white supremacists makes me a brilliant tactician I am glad to have lost,’ Palmieri said. ‘I would rather lose than win the way the guys you did.’ Palmieri called Clinton’s speech in Reno denouncing the ‘alt-right’ in August one of her ‘proudest’ moments as shouting ensued across the room. ‘Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?’ Conway snapped back. ‘You’re going to look me in the face and tell me that?’ ‘I did, Kellyanne,’ Palmieri said. ‘I did.’ ‘Do you think you could have just had a decent message for the white working class voters?’ Conway said, adding to no one in particular as the conversation moved on, ‘You guys are bitter.’ ...
“On Wednesday evening, Republican campaign managers shouted down and heckled CNN president Jeff Zucker when he said that all candidates had been invited onto his airwaves. ‘Wrong!’ shouted Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who had worked as campaign manager for her father. Later, Sanders rattled off one statistic from August 2015 that in a 10-day period Trump had been on CNN during prime time for 256 minutes, and Mike Huckabee had been on for 17 seconds.” http://politi.co/2h1ysLC … Audio of all of this year’s sessions, which have been taking place every 4 years since 1972 http://bit.ly/2gtQJ2Y
BUZZ -- Sen. Claire McCaskill is expected to join the Senate Finance Committee, according to multiple sources. The Missouri Democrat would take the slot left open after incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer opted to leave the panel to serve in leadership. McCaskill and Schumer’s offices were mum on the move.
PLAYBOOK EXCLUSIVE: NEW NRCC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR -- Newly elected National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) has tapped John Rogers to run the NRCC this cycle. Rogers was the political director of the NRCC last cycle, and the deputy during the 2014 cycle. “We are building a world-class team, which will be laser-focused on maintaining the House Majority, and gaining seats where we can. John is the first part of that team," Stivers said.
WHY THIS MATTERS: The NRCC has helped keep a House Republican majority since 2010. Stivers and Rogers will have to do that again -- two years into Donald Trump’s administration. Stivers has been a top official at the NRCC, and Rogers has run the political department, which should help the organization in 2018.
BECERRA OUT, NEAL IN -- Rep. Xavier Becerra’s unexpected appointment to become California’s attorney general has made way for Massachusetts Rep. Richard Neal to ascend to the plum spot of ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee. Neal has the job all but locked up, according to several sources. PLAYBOOK’S TAKE: Neal is popular with his colleagues, will easily be able to go toe to toe with his Republican counterpart, Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas, and is a favorite among the K Street crowd.
THE 45TH PRESIDENT -- “Trump Kicks Off ‘Thank You’ Tour, Reveling in Crowd and Campaign Themes,” by Nick Corasaniti in Cincinnati and Mike Shear in D.C. on A1 of the NYT: “He boasted about himself in the third person. He sneered at the opponents he had vanquished. He disparaged journalists and invited angry chants from the crowd, grinning broadly at calls of ‘lock her up’ and ‘build the wall.’ He ridiculed the government’s leaders as stupid and dishonest failures. In his first major address since winning the presidency three weeks ago, Donald J. Trump soaked up the adulation of tens of thousands of his supporters at a campaign-style rally here, unabashedly gloating about the ‘great’ victory he had secured. If there were any question about whether his evolution to president-in-waiting would temper his presentation or moderate his tone, the rally offered a forceful answer: Not a chance. ...
“‘How about North Carolina — how well did we do in North Carolina? Remember when they said he cannot win North Carolina?’ Mr. Trump said, adding a moment later: ‘Donald Trump can’t break the blue wall, right? We didn’t break it, we shattered that sucker. We shattered it, man. That poor wall is busted up.’” http://nyti.ms/2fNtPEP
-- POLITICO, by Eli Stokols: http://politi.co/2fShREY … WaPo, by Jenna Johnson and John Wagner: http://wapo.st/2fSsBmL.
-- @RVAwonk: “#Trump tells Cincinnati rally that violent crime is at a 45-year high. It's actually at a 51-year low, according to latest FBI data.” http://bit.ly/2gfKlcU … @glennkesslerWP: “[What] will he say in a year when violent crime is his problem?”
TWO TIDBITS for your radar from Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt’s interview with TRUMP that’s airing this morning on “Fox and Friends.”
-- EARHARDT: “Mitt Romney -- I was out there in the crowd. You can hear them out there; they’re so excited for you to come out on stage tonight. They don’t love Mitt Romney as your pick. If you do pick him, what can you say to the American public?” TRUMP: “Well, he’s been very gracious and don’t forget I hit Mitt pretty hard also … so I understand how it all works. He’s been very, very nice. We had dinner the other night, it was great there was actually a good chemistry.” …
EARHARDT: “Day One, what are you going to do? The wall? Obamacare repeal?” TRUMP: “We could do the wall. We are going to do some repealing. We are going to [reverse] some executive orders that we think are inappropriate. We are going to be working. We are going to be working very hard. If you would have seen the people of Indiana today, 1,100 people are going to have a great Christmas, that I can tell you.”
MIKE PENCE INTERVIEW -- “Vice President-elect Mike Pence Says Trump Administration Plans Ambitious Agenda,” by WSJ’s Peter Nicholas in Cincinnati: “Mr. Pence is positioned to be an active vice president wielding substantial influence in the Trump administration. Asked if he saw himself in the mold of such previous running mates as Dick Cheney or George H.W. Bush, he said he ‘can learn a great deal from vice presidents over the last 30 and 40 years. But ultimately I have a firm conviction that the president [Mr. Trump] will define that role. Not me.’” http://on.wsj.com/2fSrL9K
FUTURE OF MEDIA -- SUSAN GLASSER for Brookings: “Covering politics in a ‘post-truth’ America: Journalism has never been better, thanks to these last few decades of disruption. So why does it seem to matter so little? Reflections on the media in the age of Trump”: “I have a different and more existential fear today about the future of independent journalism and its role in our democracy. And you should too. Because the media scandal of 2016 isn’t so much about what reporters failed to tell the American public; it’s about what they did report on, and the fact that it didn’t seem to matter.” http://brook.gs/2h1Q36g
PENTAGON WATCH -- “Trump picks General ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as defense secretary: Mattis would be only the second retired general to become the civilian leader of the military,” by Bryan Bender and Andrew Hanna: “Mattis, 66, so nicknamed for his salty language and obsessive dedication to the military, was the top U.S. commander in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2010 to 2013. He had earlier co-authored a counterinsurgency strategy manual credited with helping to halt some of the worst sectarian violence in Iraq before the U.S. military withdrawal in December 2011. But as head of the U.S. Central Command he also clashed with President Barack Obama's National Security Council, particularly over Iran, which Mattis has called ‘the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.’ ...
“Yet not all of Mattis’ views are so in sync with Trump and Flynn, who have made friendly gestures to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mattis has expressed deep wariness of Russia's intentions, saying it wants ‘to break NATO apart.’” http://politi.co/2fSpsmQ
-- “Trump’s pick for defense secretary went to the mat for the troubled blood-testing company Theranos,” by WaPo’s Carolyn Johnson: http://wapo.st/2gu0GgT
-- CLICKER: “9 unforgettable quotes by James Mattis,” by Madeline Conway: http://politi.co/2h1GTGI
-- ICYMI, TOM RICKS on ForeignPolicy.com, Nov. 21: “Mattis as defense secretary: What it means for us, for the military, and for Trump”: “[C]areer Pentagon officials who otherwise might decline to serve in a Trump administration instead might be encouraged to stay on by the presence of Mattis, who is extremely popular among the rank and file. His Chuck Norris-like reputation is likely be worn down by the realities of the job. But Mattis admires the way Robert Gates operated as defense secretary, and that is a good model to have.” http://atfp.co/2fZmH6N
PAUL RYAN ON “60 MINUTES” -- From CBS: “Scott Pelley interviews House Speaker Paul Ryan about his relationship with President-elect Donald Trump and the first issues he will address after the inauguration.” PELLEY: “You called Donald Trump a racist.” RYAN: “No, I didn’t. I said his comment was.” PELLEY: “Well -- I’m not sure there’s a great deal of daylight between those two definitions. But he definitely called you ineffective and disloyal. Have you patched it up?” RYAN: “Yeah, we have. We’re fine. We’re not looking back. We’re looking forward. We -- we actually -- we’ve had -- we -- like I said, we speak about every day. And it's not about looking for -- back in the past. That’s behind us. We’re way beyond that.” …
PELLEY: “Have you told him being president is not being CEO of the United States, that the Congress is going to have a say?” RYAN: “Oh, we’ve talked about that extensively. We’ve talked about-- the Constitution, Article I [of] the Constitution, the separation of powers. He feels very strongly, actually, that-- that, under President Obama’s watch, he stripped a lot of power away from the Constitution, away from the Legislative Branch of government. And we want to reset the balance of power, so that people and the Constitution are rightfully restored.”
IF YOU READ ONE THING -- NYT A17, “Trump’s Breezy Calls to World Leaders Leave Diplomats Aghast,” by Mark Landler: “President-elect Donald J. Trump inherited a complicated world when he won the election last month. And that was before a series of freewheeling phone calls with foreign leaders that has unnerved diplomats at home and abroad. In the calls, he voiced admiration for one of the world’s most durable despots, the president of Kazakhstan, and said he hoped to visit a country, Pakistan, that President Obama has steered clear of during nearly eight years in office. Mr. Trump told the British prime minister, Theresa May, ‘If you travel to the U.S., you should let me know,’ an offhand invitation that came only after he spoke to nine other leaders. He later compounded it by saying on Twitter that Britain should name the anti-immigrant leader Nigel Farage its ambassador to Washington, a startling break with diplomatic protocol. ...
“Mr. Trump’s conversation with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan has generated the most angst, because, as Mr. Earnest put it, the relationship between Mr. Sharif’s country and the United States is ‘quite complicated,’ with disputes over issues ranging from counterterrorism to nuclear proliferation. … The breezy tone of the [Pakistani government’s] readout left diplomats in Washington slack-jawed, with some initially assuming it was a parody. In particular, they zeroed in on Mr. Trump’s offer to Mr. Sharif “to play any role you want me to play to address and find solutions to the country’s problems.” http://nyti.ms/2fZlA6S
FOR YOUR RADAR -- “Russia accuses Ukraine of sabotaging Trump: A Foreign Ministry official says Ukrainian officials hampered Trump by targeting Manafort,” by Ken Vogel and Julia Ioffe: “A spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday contended that the Ukrainian government over the summer damaged Trump’s campaign by implicating his then-campaign chief Paul Manafort in a corruption scandal involving a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party funded by oligarchs.” http://politi.co/2gPbTqz
SCOOP -- “Christie throws his hat in the ring for RNC chair,” by Alex Isenstadt: “New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expressing serious interest in the job of [RNC] chairman -- and he’s getting an audience to make his case. Christie told senior members of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team on Thursday morning that he is interested in the post ... One person said the governor had embarked on an aggressive, ‘full-court press’ in hopes of getting the chairmanship.” http://politi.co/2fZjeVz
VIDEO DU JOUR -- @MattNegrin: “so here are a bunch of news anchors who don’t know how to pronounce Steven Mnuchin’s name” http://bit.ly/2gfQfLd
HOT DOC -- “Trump team urges GOP to play up Sessions’ ‘strong civil rights record,’” by Seung Min Kim: “President-elect Donald Trump’s team is advising Senate Republicans to promote Jeff Sessions’ deep familiarity with the Justice Department, his ‘strong civil rights record’ and that he is ‘known for his deep respect and adherence to the rule of law’ as senators talk about the his nomination as attorney general. For Steven Mnuchin, the Trump team wants senators to emphasize that the former Goldman Sachs executive is a ‘world-class financier’ whose history in the financial sector ‘make him the ideal candidate’ to be Trump’s pick to lead the Treasury Department. And Tom Price, whom Trump intends to nominate for Health and Human Services secretary, is ‘a renowned physician” who ‘has earned a reputation for being a tireless problem solver.’ Those are just a sample of talking points sent by Trump’s transition team -- and obtained by POLITICO -- to the Senate GOP Conference this week to promote the incoming president’s choices for his administration.” http://politi.co/2fZi7VX
-- K-FILE: “Jeff Sessions fought as Alabama attorney general to keep an LGBT conference from meeting on a public campus,” by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski: http://cnn.it/2gNrglL
HILLWATCH -- “Rep. Himes Elected Head Of Moderate Democrats Group,” by the Hartford Courant’s Russell Blair: “U.S. Rep. Jim Himes has been elected chairman of the New Democrat Coalition, a group of about 50 Congressional Democrats that calls itself moderate and fiscally responsible.” http://cour.at/2fZzQws
WEST COAST WATCH -- “Mayor Eric Garcetti is trying to strike a balance with Donald Trump. Will it pay off?,” by L.A. Times’ Dakota Smith: “Before election day, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti didn’t hold back when it came to Donald Trump. ‘He’s a racist. He’s a bigot. He’s sexist,’ Garcetti told reporters in May, criticizing the Republican presidential hopeful for his views on the economy, immigration and women, among other things. ‘What we cannot do with Donald Trump is normalize him as a candidate.’ ... But since Trump’s victory, Garcetti has adopted a more civil tone. They spoke by phone last week, and Garcetti has expressed his willingness to work with the president-elect on infrastructure and the economy. At the same time, Garcetti has offered assurances that the city won’t aid Trump on any widespread crackdown against immigrants who are in the country without authorization.” http://lat.ms/2h1ObKI
POLITICO “PULSE CHECK” podcast — DOES TRUMP NEED A HEALTH REFORM CZAR? Tom Daschle, who was President Obama’s original choice for that role in 2008, tells POLITICO’s Dan Diamond that it’s a necessary job — even if he fiercely disagrees with Trump's priority to repeal Obamacare. “You really want someone who can be … a czar-like individual. Somebody who can really coordinate the entire effort. It can’t be bifurcated, it can’t be divided up with a number of people involved, or you lose a lot of the ability to move the process forward.” Listen to the podcast: http://bit.ly/2gGYal2 … Read the story: http://politi.co/2gt3L0R
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN in Seattle on the NYT Business Day front, “Starbucks Chief Howard Schultz to Step Down Next Year”: “Mr. Schultz, 63, will be succeeded by his close friend Kevin Johnson, the company’s current president and a longtime Starbucks board member. ‘This is a big day for me,” Mr. Schultz said in an interview. ‘I love the company as much as I love my family.” But he said it was the right time to hand the keys to Mr. Johnson, whom he described as being ‘better equipped’ to ‘run the company than I am,’ ticking off a list of Mr. Johnson’s operational talents, and saying that he wanted to ‘relinquish the role and responsibility to the right person.’ …
“The move is likely to ignite renewed speculation about whether Mr. Schultz is paving the way to leave the company entirely to enter politics. An outspoken Democrat, Mr. Schultz has spent an increasing amount of time traveling around the country speaking publicly about the need to fix the ‘dysfunction in Washington.’ He has a close relationship with President Obama and had been a supporter of Hillary Clinton.” http://nyti.ms/2gNGp6E
MEDIAWATCH -- from TJ Ducklo at Bloomberg: “Today is the 526th and final regular episode of Bloomberg TV’s ‘With All Due Respect’ hosted by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. Special appearances by Jeff Goldblum, Jeff Daniels, and many more surprise guests will send off Bloomberg Politics’ staple television program. Watch the finale at 5 p.m. ET on Bloomberg and 6 p.m. ET on MSNBC.”
-- “A look at Facebook’s billion dollar 2016 hit on the news ecosystem,” by Poynter’s Rick Edmonds: “With a little help from advertising analyst Gordon Borrell, I’m estimating that Facebook has sucked well over $1 billion out of print advertising budgets for U.S. newspapers just this year. And that’s at a time when newspapers have seen that figure (once $43 billion a year) fall well below $15 billion.” http://bit.ly/2gfPh1t
--@deanemurphy, N.Y. Times business editor: “A huge welcome to @katekelly who is coming to The Times as a Wall Street reporter after six great years at CNBC!” (h/t Morning Media)
-- John Schwartz (@jswatz): “Brilliant immigration reporter @JuliaPrestonNYT is retiring; the National desk celebrated her tenure with mariachis.” Video: http://bit.ly/2fZFleM
--“New York Times to Offer Special Puzzle Section, Exclusive to Print Readers”: “The special broadsheet section [on Dec. 18], which will be edited and introduced by New York Times Crossword editor Will Shortz and The Times’s puzzle team, will be devoted entirely to a series of different puzzles, including, as a centerpiece, the largest crossword puzzle in the history of The New York Times. Will Shortz and the puzzle team have pulled out all the stops for the Puzzle Spectacular, which includes more than 30 puzzles of all kinds, from logic puzzles like Sudoku to acrostic and cryptic crosswords, to brainteasers and visual puzzles.” http://bit.ly/2gGYxMs
HOT VIDEO: Trevor Noah’s Daily Show interview with combative conservative commentator Tomi Lahren went viral yesterday http://bit.ly/2fZPYxZ
SPOTTED: Neera Tanden on a Shady Grove-bound Red line train at Metro Center around 7 p.m. last night ... Jonathan Capehart walking out of the White House driveway yesterday ... House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi at Don and Megan Beyer’s party last night at the Cosmos Club … Eva Longoria and Ana Navarro having dinner with a large group at Le Diplomate -- Eva was the host of last night’s National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony – Video of Obama’s last tree lighting as president http://bit.ly/2gNNjsF
OBAMA ADMIN DEPARTURE LOUNGE -- Cathy Cochran, USDA’s press secretary and the pride of Greenville, Mississippi, has her last day at the department today before heading next week to Glover Park Group as a director.
OBAMA ALUMNI -- TOM REYNOLDS emails friends and colleagues: “[A]fter leaving the Obama Administration earlier this year ... [n]ext week, I am joining the Facebook policy communications team ... The job will take Anne and me to the Bay area, so while we are sad to say goodbye to our DC friends (who are more like family), we’ve had an awesome run.”
TRANSITIONS -- Stephanie Benedict has joined Waxman Strategies as a senior account executive. She worked for Hillary Clinton the lead press fellow in four primary campaigns. She previously was a member of the China practice at the Albright Stonebridge Group. http://bit.ly/2gtSbm1 ... Sen.-elect Maggie Hassan has hired Jude McCartin, currently with Sen. Heinrich, as her new LD. ... Kelley Moore has been promoted to press secretary in Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s office.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- AP diplomatic writer Matt Lee and Amanda Meister Lee, administrator for Signal Group (formerly McBee Strategic), have welcomed Vaille Olivia Meister Lee, born early Wednesday at seven pounds, four ounces.
OUT AND ABOUT -- Natalie Portman and director Pablo Larraín headlined the D.C. premiere of their new film “Jackie” at the Newseum last night. The film, which opens in theaters today, “is a psychological portrait of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the days following John F. Kennedy’s assassination as she fights through grief and trauma to regain her faith, console her children, and define her husband’s historic legacy.” The screening was hosted by Fox Searchlight, 21st Century Fox and the MPAA. Trailer http://bit.ly/2gg73RY
--Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery): “Q: Advice to First Lady Melania Trump? Natalie Portman, at ‘Jackie’ screening: ‘I dunno... don’t ride in a convertible in a motorcade?’”
SPOTTED: Former Attorney General Eric Holder and his wife Sharon Malone, Amb. Peter Selfridge, Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Chris Murphy, Reps. Rick Allen, Cheri Bustos, Steve Cohen, Jim Cooper, Louie Gohmert, Denny Heck, Billy Long, Barry Loudermilk, Reid Riddle, Jackie Speier and Dave Trott, Maureen Dowd, Margaret Carlson, Ed O’Keefe, Sally Quinn, Nina Totenberg, Howard Fineman, Amy Argetsinger, Dan and Rhoda Glickman, Carter Roberts, Ben Schreckinger, Allie Goldstein, Rachel Schindler, Marty Kady, Ed O’Keefe, Bob Cohn, Kelly O’Donnell, David Sanger, Caitlin Legacki.
--AEI President Arthur Brooks and AEI scholars hosted the grand opening of their new HQ, The Daniel A. D’Aniello building, at 1789 Massachusetts Ave. last night. SPOTTED: Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), Rep. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.), Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), RSC Chairman Bill Flores (R-Texas), RSC Chairman-elect Mark Walker (R-N.C.), Carl Cannon, S.E. Cupp and John Goodwin, Hugo Gurdon, Daniel Halper, John Parkinson, Paul Teller, Chris Isham, Jonathan Karl, Michele Kelemen, Bill Kristol, Libby Liu, Josh and Ali Rogin, Neil Irwin, Chris Bedford, Lauren Zelt, Benny Johnson, Katie Glueck, Rich Lowry, Chris Stirewalt, Niels Lesniewski, Matt Continetti, Jim Geraghty, John Bolton, Jim DeMint, Strobe Talbot, Sue Desmond-Hellman, Jonah Goldberg, Robby George, Ramesh Ponnuru, April Ponnuru, Cornel West, Marc Thiessen, Tim Carney, David French, Danielle Pletka, Michael Strain, Kevin Hassett, Michael Barone, Paul Wolfowitz.
SPOTTED at La Jambe for the Americans For Responsible Solutions Holiday Party last night with Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly: Pia Carusone, Isabelle James, Robin Lloyd and Zach Stewart, Dan Kanninen, Chris Fleming, Aaron Wells, Gabby LaVerghetta, Lauren Pollack, Jeff Pollock, Matt Canter, Jen Bluestein, Arun Chaudhary.
SUNDAY SO FAR:
--NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Vice President-elect Mike Pence
--ABC’s “This Week”: Vice-President-elect Mike Pence … Ret. Gen. David Petraeus. Panel: David Axelrod, Alex Castellanos, Matthew Dowd and Sara Fagen
--CBS’s “Face the Nation”: Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta … Newt Gingrich … Nancy Pelosi
--"Fox News Sunday": Monica Crowley, Kimberley Strassel, Lisa Lerer, Juan Williams
--CNN’s “State of the Union”: War Stories: Inside Campaign 2016 (From Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics Forum) ... Kellyanne Conway ... Robby Mook
--CNN’s “Inside Politics,” hosted by John King: Julie Pace, Jonathan Martin, Abby Phillip, Manu Raju
ANNIVERSARY: Autumn and Jim VandeHei celebrate 16 today.
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Marc La Vorgna, spokesman for Mike Bloomberg and founder of comms and public affairs firm MLV Strategies, who celebrated last night by watching the Cowboys game at a bar in NYC with his dad and brother -- read his Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2fZvIfW
BIRTHDAYS: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is 77 … Packers QB Aaron Rodgers is 33 … former Attorney General Edwin Meese III is 85 … Stone Phillips is 62 … Nancy Haberman, the pride of the Upper West Side ... Cal Thomas is 74 ... Ken Babby is 37 ... Grant Everett Starrett ... Paul Walhaus ... Bob Carey, RNC’s director of military and veterans engagement ... Jason Huntsberry ... CBS politics reporter Emily Schultheis … Megan McCafferty ... Caroline Gangware, pride and joy of Riverside, Ill. ... Mark Irion, former president at Levick, member of Prosper Group’s advisory board and resident sommelier ... Rep.-elect Carol Shea Porter (D-N.H.) is 64 ... former Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Tex.) is 55 ... Rayshon Bush WH alum Eleanor Schiff ... country music superstar Jana Kramer … Dan Puskar, executive director of the Association for the Partners of Public Lands ... Mairead Lynn, press secretary for Nevada Dems and an SKDK alum ... Erin Bailey, former executive director of the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute ... Politico’s Alexandra Short ... Sara Siskind (h/t Teresa Vilmain) ...
… Patricia Rojas-Ungar, VP of gov’t relations at the U.S. Travel Association ... Andrew Howell of Monument Policy Group (h/ts Stewart Verdery) … Conyers Davis of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute ... Guillermina Garcia Moore, director at Glover Park Group (h/t Riley Moore) ... Bush 41 alum Mark A. Shiffrin is 6-0, celebrating with sushi and scotch as family and friends gather at Congregation Beth Israel, the historic New Haven Orchard Street Shul; Shiffrin also has served as CT commissioner of consumer protection, where he regulated boxing in the state (h/t Bryan Anderson) ... Audrey Lavin ... Celeste Brown of Rep. Doggett’s office ... Rayshon Payton ... Monica Seles is 43 … Britney Spears is 35 (h/ts AP)