1.) Merry Christmas, Attorney General Eric Holder — It’s the holiday season, and you know what that means: Eric Holder is being investigated. Again! TheDC’s Matthew Boyle reports:
“Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman has directed the staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which he chairs, to investigate miscommunication between law enforcement agencies related to the Justice Department’s Operation Fast and Furious. A spokesperson told The Daily Caller Wednesday that Lieberman ‘believe[s] that the lack of interagency coordination along the border merits further examination, and as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he has directed his staff to follow up with the relevant federal agencies on that topic…’ With Lieberman’s committee now investigating Fast and Furious details, that means two Senate committees are probing the matter — the homeland security committee and the judiciary committee. Sixty-one congressmen, two U.S. senators and two sitting governors have called for Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation over Fast and Furious.”
If this keeps up, Holder might just give Obama a present on Christmas 2012: a U-Haul truck.
2.) Obama’s pretty darn great, says Obama — Has there ever been a better president than Barack Obama? According to His Humbleness, there have been three of them! TheDC’s Neil Munro reports:
“White House spokesman Jay Carney tried Wednesday to calm the jeers caused by President Barack Obama’s claim to rival or surpass the accomplishments of Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, but instead padded his boss’ resume. ‘This has obviously been of great interest in the conservative blogosphere, but the fact of the matter… [is] he was making a point about the volume and substance of the legislative accomplishments, and the foreign policy accomplishments, in his nearly three years in power,’ Carney claimed during the Dec. 21 daily press briefing. The reaction to Obama’s statement followed the release of a video from a 60 Minutes interview, in which Obama calmly claimed that he ‘would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president — with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R. and Lincoln — just in terms of what we’ve gotten done in modern history.'”
That’s right, Obama thinks he’s the fourth-greatest president ever. The question is: President of what?
3.) Politico’s appeal is becoming more selective — If you read Politico, they owe you a Christmas card for sticking around. TheDC’s Josh Peterson reports:
“New independent circulation numbers show a sharp decline in readership of Politico and other left-leaning news websites, an ominous trend for the suburban Virginia-based news outlet and its peers as Americans head into an election year. Recently published and publicly available Web traffic data indicates that ‘unique visitor’ traffic to politico.com in November 2011 was 15 percent lower than in the previous month, and 31 percent lower than in November 2010… Politico’s traffic losses appear to be part of a year-long trend on the political left. Media Matters For America’s website, for instance, lost 56.83 percent of its unique visitors between November 2010 and November 2011. In the same 12-month period, Talking Points Memo lost 41 percent, Wonkette was down by 32 percent, Gawker declined by 31 percent, Salon decreased by 22 percent and progressive blog Daily Kos shed 18 percent of its unique visitors. Other political news sites, including some decidedly not left-leaning, have seen dramatic increases in unique visitors in the year-long period ending Nov. 30. Newsmax.com’s numbers increased by 247 percent, The Daily Caller’s by 124 percent, and The Huffington Post’s by 113 percent… Politico’s downturn in unique visitors during November 2011 is remarkable since its marquee reporting moment during the GOP primary campaign — a story about businessman Herman Cain’s past alleged incidents of sexual harassment — first appeared online late on the night of October 30. Politico followed that initial story with another 90 during the following week. Data from Alexa, Inc., indicate that politico.com saw a traffic spike after the Cain story broke, but Compete and Alexa data show that it was temporary. Ultimately, Politico’s sustained assault on Cain may have turned off as many readers as it drew in, even as the news outlet’s reporters and editors saw heavy rotation on liberal news network MSNBC during the scandal’s early days.”
Probably just a coincidence! Hang in there, Politico. That narrative ain’t gonna maintain itself.
4.) Third prize is you don’t run for mayor — This can be a stressful time of year, especially if you’re Alec Baldwin. What a month the poor guy has had. First he quit Twitter because a flight attendant told him what to do even though she’s a woman. Then his best friend died. And now, according to the New York Daily News:
“Alec Baldwin claimed Wednesday he is abandoning his much-discussed plans to make a run for City Hall. ‘I’ve lost my appetite,’ Baldwin said on his weekly WNYC podcast. The ’30 Rock’ star claimed the other mayoral candidates’ naked ambition turned him off — and he threw cold water on his plans to run in two years. ‘They’re like a guy on a date that you can tell he just can’t wait to get his hand up your blouse before even the lights go out in the theater,’ Baldwin said. ‘They’re all just so horny for it,’ he said.”
Sounds like he’s been dealing with some heretofore repressed memories. But yeah, that’s the problem with running for political office, isn’t it? Somebody else might want it more than you. At least it’s serving as a much-needed appetite suppressant.
Look on the bright side, Alec: You’ll always be the mayor of our hearts.
5.) In which inquiries are made of Matt Labash — Christmas comes but once a year, and so does “Ask Matt Labash.” That’s right, Labash is back with his annual advice column. We’ll just tease you with this, because anything more will be a spoiler:
“When I think ‘Ron Paul,’ I think ‘tender lover.'”
Please accept that mental image in lieu of a present.
6.) Today’s words of wisdom from Ebenezer Scrooge’s Twitter feed — “I just saw my own grave. #whoa”
VIDEO: Finally, an answer for anyone who’s ever asked, “What if Sarah Palin was 10 years older?”
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