Good Saturday morning. There are two GW alumni among us, so: Raise High! GW vs. USF tips at 2 p.m.
WHAT’S GATES UP TO? -- Bob Gates didn’t think much of Donald Trump during the campaign. He penned an op-ed blasting the candidate as unfit for office. But for the last two days, Trump’s inner circle has met with and consulted Gates, one of the few true bipartisan wise men still around. On Friday, Trump himself spoke to Gates. We don’t expect Gates will take a job in the administration. But crazier things have happened. Gates’ book is called “Duty,” and service is his kryptonite. Whatever happens, Gates has been in Trump Tower for two days in a row, and the next president’s inner circle is clearly relying on him for critical advice -- and that itself is noteworthy.
-- “Petraeus’s Sunday Hail Mary: The former CIA director heads into interview facing obstacles to his secretary of state nomination,” by Ken Vogel, Eliana Johnson and Daniel Lippman: “David Petraeus’s performance on a Sunday talk show is shaping up as a high-stakes test of how he’d handle mounting concerns about his prospective nomination to be secretary of state ... Trump’s team will closely review Petraeus’s appearance on ABC’s ‘This Week with George Stephanopoulos’ to see how he handles questions about his past that are bogging down his prospects for nomination and could prevent his confirmation ... The retired general and former CIA director cleared the appearance with Trump’s team before committing to it ... [and] Petraeus’s advisers see it as a good opportunity for him to prove that he can deftly handle any questions that senators might raise during confirmation hearings.” http://politi.co/2gkKuMg
--MICHAEL O’HANLON in The National Interest, “The Case for David Petraeus as Secretary of State” http://bit.ly/2fW5fwP
THE CALL -- “Trump speaks with Taiwanese president, a major break with decades of U.S. policy on China,” by WaPo’s Anne Gearan: “President-elect Donald Trump spoke Friday with Taiwan’s president, a major departure from decades of U.S. policy in Asia and a breach of diplomatic protocol with ramifications for the incoming president’s relations with China. The call is the first known contact between a U.S. president or president-elect with a Taiwanese leader since before the United States broke diplomatic relations with the island in 1979. China considers Taiwan a province, and news of the official outreach by Trump is likely to infuriate the regional military and economic power.
“The exchange is one of a string of unorthodox conversations with foreign leaders that Trump has held since his election. It comes at a particularly tense time between China and Taiwan, which earlier this year elected a president, Tsai Ing-wen, who has not endorsed the notion of a unified China. Her election angered Beijing to the point of cutting off all official communication with the island government. It is not clear whether Trump intends a more formal shift in U.S. relations with Taiwan or China. On the call, Trump and Tsai congratulated each other on winning their elections, a statement from Trump’s transition office said.” http://wapo.st/2fSAiOI
-- THE LATEST: “China said it had lodged a formal complaint with the U.S., and Taiwan urged China to stay calm a day after Mr. Trump broke diplomatic protocol by speaking by phone with Taiwan’s leader. ‘We must point out, there’s is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory,’ read a statement posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website Saturday afternoon.” http://on.wsj.com/2fSD1HV
-- MICHAEL CROWLEY: “Bull in a China shop: Trump risks diplomatic blowup in Asia” http://politi.co/2gSUtJA
--NYT’s Mark Landler and David Sanger: “Newspapers in Taiwan reported last month that a Trump Organization representative had visited the country, expressing interest in perhaps developing a hotel project adjacent to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, which is undergoing a major expansion. ... A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, Amanda Miller, said that the company had ‘no plans for expansion into Taiwan,’ and that there had been no ‘authorized visits’ to the country to push a Trump development project. But Ms. Miller did not dispute that Anne-Marie Donoghue, a sales manager overseeing Asia for Trump Hotels, had visited Taiwan in October, a trip that Ms. Donoghue recorded on her Facebook page.” http://nyti.ms/2gRUtfn ... See Facebook screenshots of Donoghue talking about her visit http://bit.ly/2h55Jp8 (h/t a tweet from @EricLiptonNYT: http://bit.ly/2h5eZcY)
-- @realDonaldTrump at 7:44 p.m.: “The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!” … at 8:41 p.m.: “Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call.”
--Edward Wong (@comradewong): “Chinese diplomats told me before election they thought Trump’s brazen words were just an act. They assumed he would be ‘normal’ if elected.” … @davidfrum: “What the media doesn’t get is that while other people are playing checkers, Trump is playing Russian roulette.” … @AriFleischer: “Uh-oh. I wasn't even allowed to refer to the gvt ‘of’ Taiwan. (I could say gvt ‘on’ Taiwan.) China will go nuts. …. In summit meetings w China, Chinese leaders began by asking potus to restate one-China policy. Trump is changing how we do business w China. … Don’t misinterpret what I’m saying. So long as Trump called knowing it would change the status quo, I’m fine w it. I hope it was by design.”
PAGING MIKE PENCE -- @realDonaldTrump at 10:06 p.m.: “Rexnord of Indiana is moving to Mexico and rather viciously firing all of its 300 workers. This is happening all over our country. No more!”
COMING ATTRACTIONS -- “Philippines’ Duterte gets Trump White House invite during ‘animated’ call,” by Reuters’ Martin Petty in Manila and David Brunnstrom in DC: “Trump invited Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte to the White House next year during a ‘very engaging, animated’ phone conversation, a Duterte aide said on Friday, amid rocky relations between their two countries. A statement issued by Trump's transition team, however, made no mention of an invitation. ... Duterte has praised China and told Obama to ‘go to hell’ and called him a ‘son of a bitch’ whom he would humiliate if he visited the Philippines. The anger was unleashed after Democrat Obama expressed concern about possible human rights abuses in Duterte’s war on drugs, during which more than 2,000 people have been killed.” https://yhoo.it/2gMhWvB
THE FIRST DAUGHTER -- “Will Ivanka Trump Be the Most Powerful First Daughter in History?” by Alessandra Stanley and Jacob Bernstein, on the cover of NYT’s Sunday Styles: “When Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, called Donald J. Trump shortly after the Nov. 8 election, they talked about domestic policy and infrastructure. But when Ms. Pelosi raised the specific subject of women’s issues, the president-elect did something unexpected: He handed the phone over to another person in the room -- his 35-year-old daughter, Ivanka. Around the same time, Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook and the author of the best-selling women’s empowerment book ‘Lean In,’ reached out to Ms. Trump, hoping to begin what aides from both sides described as ‘a dialogue.’ ...
“Even Leonardo DiCaprio has weighed in. The Oscar-winning actor recently met with Ms. Trump privately and gave her a copy of his climate change documentary, ‘Before the Flood,’ according to aides to both people. … The Hollywood mogul David Geffen, a longtime supporter of Democratic candidates, said he has a fondness for Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner, even though he did not vote for her father in the election. ‘I’ve known Ivanka and Jared for years,’ he said. ‘She’s a lovely, intelligent woman, and Jared has been a loyal son-in-law. Trump depends on him. He’s a very smart guy. Is he a genius? No, but guess what: The geniuses all lost.’” http://nyti.ms/2gyMof5
FUTURE OF OBAMACARE -- NYT, A1: “G.O.P. Plans Immediate Repeal of Health Law, Then a Delay,” by Robert Pear, Jennifer Steinhauer and Thomas Kaplan: “Republicans in Congress plan to move almost immediately next month to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as President-elect Donald J. Trump promised. But they also are likely to delay the effective date so that they have several years to phase out President Obama’s signature achievement. This emerging ‘repeal and delay’ strategy, which Speaker Paul D. Ryan discussed this week with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, underscores a growing recognition that replacing the health care law will be technically complicated and could be politically explosive.” http://nyti.ms/2g4EREl
-- WE’VE been on the Obamacare-repeal-will-take-some-time bandwagon for a while. Republicans are going to take years to fully repeal and replace the law. But Trump and Congress will have to do something on Day One to show he’s taking his campaign promise to get rid of the law seriously.
DNC RACE -- “Dean’s drop-out reshapes DNC chair fight: Once thought to be the favorite, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison faces resistance,” by Gabriel Debenedetti in Denver: “Keith Ellison came to Colorado seeking to cement his position as the front-runner for [DNC] chairman. But the Minnesota congressman ended the week in worse shape than when it started. Just hours after Ellison’s role as the favorite was thrown into question by a stinging condemnation of his past statements about Israel by the Anti-Defamation League -- a move Ellison and his allies vigorously rebutted -- former Chairman Howard Dean dropped his comeback bid and bowed out of the race, scrambling an already complicated contest.
“The three remaining announced candidates for the chairmanship -- Ellison, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley, and South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison -- spoke to state party officials from across the country for nearly two-and-a-half hours here at the Association of State Democratic Chairs meeting, exhaustively laying out their hopes for a rejuvenated party in displays that appeared to leave the DNC membership just as unsure of its next leader’s identity as when it entered the room. The result is a race that’s even more of a muddle, with the likelihood of additional candidates jumping in prior to February’s vote. Ellison himself appeared to recognize his tenuous position, and pledged in his strongest terms yet to consider giving up his House seat if he gets the chair’s role. He pleaded with attendees to keep an open mind as he insisted the DNC would be his top priority, while the other candidates -- and Dean, in his pre-recorded video -- insisted over and over that the decimated party needs a full-time chair.” http://politi.co/2gYHXqH
INSTAPIC DU JOUR – From a Burlington bakery’s Instagram: former Gov. Howard Dean eating with current VT Gov. Peter Shumlin -- (with a bottle of San Pellegrino on the table) http://bit.ly/2g4791t
THE NEXT TREASURY SECRETARY -- “Trump voter lost home, blames incoming Treasury secretary,” by AP’s Josh Boak and Jeff Horowitz: “When Donald Trump named his Treasury secretary, Teena Colebrook felt her heart sink. She had voted for the president-elect on the belief that he would knock the moneyed elites from their perch in Washington. And she knew Trump’s pick for Treasury — Steven Mnuchin — all too well. OneWest, a bank formerly owned by a group of investors headed by Mnuchin, had foreclosed on her Los Angeles-area home in the aftermath of the Great Recession, stripping her of the two units she rented as a primary source of income. ‘I just wish that I had not voted,’ said Colebrook, 59. ‘I have no faith in our government anymore at all. They all promise you the world at the end of a stick and take it away once they get in.’” http://apne.ws/2gLR0w2
-- “Trump, Cabinet could avoid millions in taxes thanks to this little-known law,” by WaPo’s Drew Harwell: “President-elect Donald Trump’s ultra-wealthy Cabinet nominees will be able to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes in the coming weeks when they sell some of their holdings to avoid conflicts of interest in their new positions. ... The benefit is one of the more subtle ways that the millionaires and billionaires of Trump’s White House, which already will be the wealthiest administration in modern American history, could benefit financially from their transition into the nation’s halls of power. ... People who sell company stock typically have to pay taxes on any profits, known as capital gains. But the divestiture benefit allows officials to skip that tax bill, as long as they reinvest the gains into assets where conflicts are less likely, such as U.S. Treasury bonds or diversified mutual funds.” http://wapo.st/2h4Zth8
GOTHAM READ -- “The Scourge of Racial Bias in New York State’s Prisons: A New York Times investigation draws on nearly 60,000 disciplinary cases from state prisons and interviews with inmates to explore the system’s inequalities and the ripple effect these can have,” by Michael Schwirtz, Michael Winerip and Robert Gebeloff. http://nyti.ms/2gYVgaM
CLICKER – “This Muslim Comedian Sat Next To Donald Trump’s Son On A Plane To Scotland,” by BuzzFeed’s Aisha Gani: “Mo Amer ... an Arab-American standup comedian who was on his way to Scotland ... found himself sitting next to Eric Trump on his flight. [Amer told Eric:] ‘You gonna really make my people get ID cards and all this?’ ... in reference to a proposed registry for immigrants from Muslim countries ... Amer said that Trump replied: ‘Ah, come on, man. You can’t believe everything you read. Do you really think we’re gonna do that?’ He told Trump he thought his father had played the media like a fiddle, and knew the tricks inside that ‘created this firestorm’, and how it had “worked out lovely’, to which he said Trump replied: ‘Yeah you’re absolutely right.’” http://bzfd.it/2gSXBW6
WHAT SENATE REPUBLICANS ARE READING -- “Clinton allies plot anti-Trump movement: ‘We’re going to throw everything at him that he threw at us,’ said one longtime Democratic operative,” by Glenn Thrush and Nolan McCaskill. http://politi.co/2gYMTMv
-- REPUBLICANS WANT TO KNOW: Is this the same or worse than Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) saying his top priority was to make Obama a one-term president?
WHITE HOUSE NORTH -- “Secret Service faces massive bill for protecting Trump,” by Sarah Wheaton: “Protecting Donald Trump and his family will involve unprecedented costs for taxpayers. But federal and New York City officials are dismissing speculation about sky-scraping expenses. The Secret Service renting a floor or two of Trump Tower for as much as $3 million a year? Not happening, the agency says. New York City paying a million dollars a day to protect the first family? ‘Inaccurate and unconfirmed,’ said a spokesman for Mayor Bill De Blasio. ... The biggest variable, Secret Service veterans say, is how much time Trump himself will actually spend in New York.” http://politi.co/2gYzggl
TELLING ANECDOTE – Foreign Policy’s Tom Ricks: “I find myself this week having serious talks with friends who have been approached to work for Trump in national security positions. (Apparently you have to swear that you didn’t sign a ‘Never Trump’ letter, and also maybe promise not to spill beans after you leave.) It’s a surprisingly hard decision. They have friends who are still in uniform and can’t just leave the military. ... You can’t just abandon the people who are stuck. Even worse are people in the government who would like to leave but feel they can’t, with mortgages pending in Fairfax or Annapolis and kids in college. As one guy wrote to me this week, ‘I am sorry but I can’t afford to live up to my principles.’ What a soul-crushing thought.” http://atfp.co/2h55j21
PLAYBOOK I.R.L. – Two inaugural parade stands are being built right outside the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue – see them in a pic taken earlier this week: http://bit.ly/2gPyVxz
WEST COAST WATCH -- “To Stop Trump’s Immigration Funding Threat, L.A. Should Turn The Tables On States’ Rights Litigation,” by Adam Sieff in LAist: “Thanks to an arcane constitutional rule that protects states’ rights known as the ‘anti-commandeering doctrine,’ Los Angeles can and should sue the federal government if it tries to force the city’s hand.” http://bit.ly/2fW8l3F
GET SMART FAST – CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL on the N.Y. Times Sunday Review cover, “What the Alt-Right Really Means”: “Mr. Trump’s success is bound to embolden other dissenters. This could mean a political climate in which reservations about such multiculturalist policies as affirmative action are voiced more strenuously. It could mean a rise in racial conflict and a platform for alarming movements like [Richard] Spencer’s.’ ...
“Likewise, the common alt-right slur ‘cuckservative,’ a portmanteau combining cuckold and conservative, is not just a colorful way of saying that establishment conservatives have been unmanly. According to Matthew Tait, a young ex-member of the far-right British National Party, the metaphor has a precise ornithological meaning. Like the reed-warbler hatching eggs that a cuckoo (from which the word ‘cuckold’ comes) has dropped into its nest, cuckservatives are raising the offspring of their foes.” http://nyti.ms/2gSY9Lp
HAPPENING TODAY – “Today the delegates attending the Fortune/Time Global Forum in Rome had a special audience at the Vatican with His Holiness Pope Francis. The Forum is convening select global Fortune 500 CEOs, members of the Time 100 and non-profit, academic, religious and labor leaders to address the need for a global economic system that both encourages growth and spreads its benefits more broadly.”
The conference is led by Alan Murray and Nancy Gibbs while Time Inc. president and CEO Rich Battista gave opening remarks. Participants include: Cherie Blair, Dominic Barton, Richard Branson, Hernando de Soto, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Mo Ibrahim, Declan Kelly, Nicholas Kristof, David Miliband, Jorge Ramos, Judith Rodin, Ginni Rometty, Charlie Rose, Martin Sorrell, Lawrence Summers. What the Pope told the conference’s attendees http://for.tn/2fSs751
WHAT BEKAH MERCER IS READING -- “Trump ‘Villains and Heroes’ to Mingle at Annual Mercer Costume Party,” by Bloomberg’s Zachary Mider: “Each Christmas season since 2009, the Mercer family’s costume party on Long Island has been the subject of awed gossip in Republican circles. [Tonight’s] ticket will be more coveted than ever. … The theme of this year’s party is ‘Villains and Heroes’ -- appropriate, perhaps, for a year in which the Mercers described the presidential contest as offering an ‘apocalyptic choice’ in which only a Trump victory could save the nation. An invitation seen by Bloomberg News features a sword-wielding centurion crouching in an ancient ruin, facing down a serpent-haired Medusa.” http://bloom.bg/2ggGXhQ
MEDIAWATCH -- For the last regular episode of “With All Due Respect,” which aired yesterday, Bloomberg Politics asked some people who have been fans of the show to share their thoughts on the past two years -- Jeff Goldblum, Jeff Daniels, Julianne Moore, Adam Scott, and Savannah Guthrie. Script written by Matt Negrin. http://bit.ly/2fS4LMK
-- “BuzzFeed Names Fake News Expert Craig Silverman Its First Media Editor,” by Fortune’s Matthew Ingram: http://for.tn/2guRQ2C
CLICKER – “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker – 17 cartoons: http://politi.co/2h4KHXZ
GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:
--“The Last Diplomat,” by Adam Entous and Devlin Barrett in WSJ: “As Robin Raphel worked for the State Department in Pakistan, her brand of traditional diplomacy ran into the new realities of covert surveillance. The collision turned her life upside down.” http://on.wsj.com/2gyBjdX
--“The Attorney Fighting Revenge Porn,” by The New Yorker’s Margaret Talbot: “Carrie Goldberg is a pioneer in the field of sexual privacy, using the law to defend victims of hacking, leaking, and other online assaults.” http://bit.ly/2gRxgK8
--“The New Intellectuals,” by Evan R. Goldstein in the Chronicle of Higher Education: “Is the academic jobs crisis a boon to public culture?” http://bit.ly/2g44O6V (h/t ALDaily.com)
--“What I Learned Binge-Watching Steve Bannon’s Documentaries,” by Adam Wren in Politico Magazine: “He has the next president’s ear. Here’s what 13 hours and 11 minutes of fever-dream conservative viewing says about his dark worldview.” http://politi.co/2gYo4jG
--“Digital Pimps or Fearless Publishers?” by Kate Knibbs in The Ringer: “The owners of Village Voice Media gamed the online classified business with Backpage.com and made millions. But when it became a breeding ground for child rape, the publishers became something else: defendants.” http://bit.ly/2g43PUd (h/t Longform.org)
--“The End of the Anglo-American Order,” by Ian Buruma in the N.Y. Times Magazine: “For decades, the United States and Britain’s vision of democracy and freedom defined the postwar world. What will happen in an age of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage?” http://nyti.ms/2h4P6dn
--“The Yankee Comandante,” by David Grann in the May 28, 2012 issue of The New Yorker: “A story of love, revolution, and betrayal” in Cuba. http://bit.ly/2gLMDkH
--“The Need to Read,” by Will Schwalbe in WSJ: “Reading books remains one of the best ways to engage with the world, become a better person and understand life’s questions, big and small”. http://on.wsj.com/2gyypGf
--“Hidebound: The Grisly Invention of Parchment,” by Keith Houston in a Longreads excerpt of “The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time”: “While most of the Old World was writing on papyrus, bamboo, and silk, Europe carved its own gruesome path through the history books.” http://bit.ly/2g42Z9Y ... $17.82 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2fW5O9G
--“The Tiger of Mysore,” by Zareer Masani on HistoryToday.com: Tipu Sultan’s “huge household, comprising 12 sons, eight daughters, a harem of 600 and several thousand dependents, was generously pensioned off and comfortably housed by the East India Company, first at Vellore, near Madras, and later at Calcutta.” http://bit.ly/2h4Wo0w
--“Garry Kasparov Says ‘It’s a Fact Russia Helped Trump,’” by Alexander Bisley in Playboy: “Yes, the Putin regime will fall. The collapse of the regime will lead to the collapse of the country.” http://bit.ly/2fZhJaa
--“Simmons vs. Gladwell: The Future of Football,” by Bill Simmons and Malcolm Gladwell on The Ringer: “Sagging ratings, national controversy, horrifying head injuries, shameless greed: The conversation about the NFL has officially changed. Is it too late to fix it?” http://bit.ly/2fW3W0x (h/t TheBrowser.com)
SPOTTED: Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison in first class on yesterday’s 8:25 a.m. Detroit to Denver Delta flight on his way to a meeting of state Democratic Party chairs ... Former NY Gov. George Pataki having drinks last night at the Trump hotel in D.C. with Washington State GOP chair Susan Hutchison and her husband Andy -- Fox News’ James Rosen dropped by to say hi … Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad at Dulles Airport late morning yesterday ... Josh Goldberg, a FCC and Boeing alum, at Medium Rare on Capitol Hill celebrating his early graduation from Georgetown with family and friends … Eric Lesser and PG Sittenfield yesterday at the Renaissance hotel on 9th St. at the NewDEAL conference of progressive “pro-growth” local and state Dems.
PRESIDENT’S WEEK AHEAD: “On Monday, the President will attend meetings at the White House. On Tuesday, the President will travel to Tampa, Florida, where he will meet with active duty service members at MacDill Air Force Base, the home of the U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Central Command. While in Tampa, the President will deliver remarks on the counterterrorism campaign and meet with uniformed leadership from both commands.
“On Wednesday, the President will attend meetings at the White House. On Thursday, the President and the First Lady will attend the Congressional Ball at the White House. On Friday, the President will attend meetings at the White House.”
TRANSITIONS – PATRICK GASPARD named VP of the Open Society Foundations: “Gaspard, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa and former senior advisor to President Obama, will join the philanthropy as vice president of programs starting January 9, 2017. Ambassador Gaspard will oversee the Open Society Foundations’ advocacy work in Washington and Brussels, as well as provide strategic direction and oversight to the organization’s programmatic agenda. He will take on a public role to advance the network’s mission, strategies, and activities.” https://osf.to/2gLUEWO
OUT AND ABOUT: Friends of Jack and Susanna Quinn gathered at their house last night to celebrate their 10th anniversary, dining on a heart-shaped beet and goat cheese gateau and Maine lobster tail and grilled tenderloin of beef. One highlight of the night was the screening of a video that Patrick Gavin produced and Dana Bash anchored of the Quinns’ friends saying funny and nice things about the couple, with Rob Lowe making a cameo. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) also sang a love song he had written originally for his wife. Every guest got M&Ms with a picture of the couple on every M&M. Pic of Jack and Susanna http://bit.ly/2h56SNF ... The cake http://bit.ly/2gyWjBa
--SPOTTED: Brianna Keilar, Kevin Madden, Ed and Shirley Henry, Stephanie Cutter, Rep. Jared Polis, Dana Bash and Spencer Garrett, Nancy Cordes, Patrick Gavin, Allen Gannett and Trevor Faden, Alex Wirth, Jim Sciutto and Gloria Riviera, Bill McQuillen and Amy Argetsinger, Marc Adelman, Elizabeth Thorp, Virginia Coyne, Meredith Balenske, Tony Powell.
--Friends and family toasted NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker and fiance John Hughes at an engagement party last night thrown by Chuck Todd and wife Kristian at the historic Decatur House downtown. The last time an engagement party was held in the Decatur House was in 1818 by Susan and Stephen Decatur for President James Monroe’s daughter. SPOTTED: Andrea Mitchell, Alan Greenspan, Pete Williams, Dana Bash, Peter Alexander, Olivia Petersen, Alison Starling, Mary Bruce, Carol Lee, Brianna Keilar, Shawna Thomas.
SPOTTED at Steve Rochlin and Christina Sevilla’s “Holiday Splash” Friday night: Indira Lakshmanan and Dermot Tatlow, Garance Franke-Ruta, Mike Isikoff and Mary Ann Akers, Ben Chang, Rodell and Sheena Arora, David Corn, Tom Toles, Nancy Trejos, Mieke Eoyang, Peter Cherukuri, Juliet Eilperin, Jay Newton Small, Jonathan Swan, Nurith Aizenman, Nihal Krishan, Eric Schmitt, Nova Daly, Amb. Abdulwahab al-Hajjri.
BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Mina Moore of Glover Park Group (h/ts Jas Sajjan and Saat Alety)
BIRTHDAYS: Robby Mook, the pride of Norwich, Vermont … The White House’s Jesse Lee ... Politico Florida’s Bruce Ritchie ... Eleanor Schiff ... Mike Inacay, Sen. Brian Schatz’s comms director ... Katelyn Rieley Johnson (hubby tip: Benny Johnson) ... Ali Zelenko, SVP of NBC News PR (h/ts Erika Masonhall and Maggie Steenland) ... WashPost’s Scott Higham ... Jacqueline Quasney, director of brand and comms at Personal Capital and an ABC News and Politico alum ... Elizabeth Edelman, VP of biz development and strategic partnerships at Global Citizen and a Romney alum ... Bill Sternberg, editorial page editor of USA Today, is 6-0 ... Jamie Carroll — Bush White House, Obama State Department, Embassy Islamabad and Jeb! alum ... Washington Institute’s Jamie Sherman (h/t Ian Byrne) ... Katherine Klein, vice dean of the Wharton Social Impact Initiative and professor of management (h/t Jon Haber) ... Margaret Mulkerrin, a press assistant at Treasury, is 24 (h/t McCauley Mateja) ... NYT biz reporter Diane Cardwell ... Angelica Brantley ... journalist Kevin Baron ... Aron Goldman is 46 ... Robert Pondiscio ...
… Bill Tighe, COS for Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.), is 39 ... former Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio) is 92 ... Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) is 58 ... Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.) is 81 ... former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) is 66 ... former Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandler (D-SD) is 46 … Matthew Flaherty ... Amanda Critchfield, corporate comms. manager, legal and gov’t relations at SunTrust and a Mike Crapo alum (h/t Katie Niederee) ... Neal Ungerleider ... CQ-Roll Call VP David Meyers ... Lance Trover … Let Freedom Ring USA president Colin Hanna ... Brookings alum Chris Kelaher, senior acquisitions editor for APA Books at the American Psychological Association ... Rich McFadden ... Miles Doran, associate producer for “60 Minutes” … Tom Oppel … John Toohey … Greg Everts … Francie Phelps (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) ... movie director Jean-Luc Godard is 86 … Ozzy Osbourne is 68 … Daryl Hannah is 56 … Julianne Moore is 56 ... Amanda Seyfried is 31 (h/ts AP)
THE SHOWS, by @MattMackowiak filing from Austin, en route to Pittsburgh to see the Penguins vs. Red Wings tonight, the Steelers vs. the Giants tomorrow and Grandma Margaret Mackowiak all weekend:
--NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Panel: Amy Walter Andrea Mitchell, Heather McGhee and Rich Lowry
--ABC’s “This Week”: Mike Pence … Gen. David Petraeus (Ret.). Panel: David Axelrod, Alex Castellanos, Matthew Dowd and Sara Fagen
--CBS’s “Face the Nation”: Reince Priebus … Leon Panetta … Newt Gingrich … House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Panel: Susan Page, NPR’s Audie Cornish, Dan Balz and Reihan Salam
--“Fox News Sunday”: Kellyanne Conway … Dr. Jill Stein. Panel: Kimberley Strassel, Lisa Lerer, Monica Crowley and Juan Williams. “Power Player of the Week” segment with Warrior Canine Connection founder Rick Yount
--Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” (10 a.m. ET / 9 a.m. CT): House Republican Conference Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) … Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) … Gen. Keith Alexander (U.S. Army, Ret.). Panel: Ed Rollins, Julie Roginsky and former NFL player and The Brewer Group’s Jack Brewer
--Fox News’ “MediaBuzz” (SUN 11 a.m. ET / 10 a.m. CT): Erin McPike … Sarah Isgur Flores … Michael Tomasky … Mike Huckabee … Susan Ferrechio … the University of Maryland’s Mark Feldstein … Charlie Gasparino
--CNN’s “Inside Politics” with John King (SUN 8 a.m. ET): Panel: Julie Pace, Jonathan Martin, Abby Phillip and Jeff Zeleny
--CNN’s “State of the Union” (9 a.m. ET / 12 p.m. ET): Kellyanne Conway and Robby Mook from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics forum
--CNN’s “Reliable Sources”: (SUN 11 a.m. ET): Panel: Salena Zito, John Huey, Frank Sesno and David Zurawik … Amy Goodman … Van Jones
--Univision’s “Al Punto” (SUN 10 a.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT): Antonio Villaraigosa … Univision News’ Blanca Rosa Vilchez … Fidel Castro’s (estranged and exiled) sister Juanita Castro … author and journalist Anabel Hernández (“La Verdadera Noche de Iguala”) … actor Diego Luna
---C-SPAN: “The Communicators” (SAT 6:30 p.m. ET): Georgetown University Law Center’s Paul Ohm, questioned by Reuters’ Dustin Volz … “Newsmakers” (SUN 10 a.m. ET): Bob Goodlatte and John Conyers, questioned by WaPo’s Kimbriell Kelly and AP’s Jesse Holland … “Q&A”(SUN 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET): Author, historian and Huntington Library Fellow Ronald C. White (“American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant”)