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TheDC Morning: The Daley Show cancelled

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1.) The Daley Show cancelled — Yet another White House chief of staff slinks back to Chicago. The revolving door at the White House is starting to create a weather pattern that can be seen from space. TheDC’s Neil Munro reports:

“Meet the 2012 caretaker for the White House: Jacob Lew, long-time Democratic manager, policy wonk and budget dealmaker. His arrival in the West Wing means the President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden can quit their day jobs and stay almost full-time on the campaign trail. Meanwhile, the outgoing chief of staff, Bill Daley, will return to his home in the Democrat-dominated state of Illinois. Daley was hired shortly after Democrats’ stinging defeat in the 2010 midterm elections to help build ties between Obama and both the GOP and the business sector. But those efforts at compromise needed Obama’s approval, which Daley didn’t get. Instead, his outreach efforts were trumped by Obama’s political priorities, which included tax increases, expanded government regulation of business and constant conflict with the GOP’s majority in the House and minority in the Senate. In contrast, Lew has worked for years as an agency manager, budget negotiator and policy wonk. That’s a resume tailor-made for someone who is expected to handle many important decisions while the principals are out kissing babies, damning Republicans and scoring donations. Daley’s departure — and Lew’s ascension — leaves Obama and his political team with more freedom to set their 2012 calendar.”

Remember how Daley was going to be “the adult in the room”?

2.) Romney turns on the charm — So. Looks like it’ll be Obama vs. Romney, huh? Yep. Romney. Alrighty then. TheDC’s Alex Pappas reports from Bedford, NH:

“With just hours before the New Hampshire primary, Mitt Romney leapt onto a small portable stage inside the gymnasium at McKelvie Intermediate School. ‘I see some of you want me to sign something,’ the Republican presidential candidate said to those in an overflow room at the school. ‘I can’t sign everything, obviously. And by the way, the professional autograph seekers, I don’t sign your stuff.’ The awkwardness didn’t stop there. Romney went on to play a game he frequently finds himself doing while on the trail — guessing ages. ‘What is she? About six months?’ he said, pointing to a young girl in the crowd. ‘Three months? Oh wow.’ Pointing to another baby, he said: ‘There’s one there that’s even younger than two months.’ And attempting to connect with sports fans, Romney said: ‘Let’s see. What’s on TV tonight? Which game is on now? Oh, it’s the Bama-LSU game. This is the college football night.’ Questions about the former Massachusetts governor’s authenticity and ability to connect to ordinary people have followed him throughout his campaign for president since announcing last year.”

Between this guy and Obama, the debates will be like a game of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. In other news, Romney is refusing to release his tax returns. Wait… demanding personal records from a presidential candidate? Isn’t that racist? Also, he said he likes being able to fire people, which is bad except when Obama does it.

3.) “You can’t uphold the law in here, this is the Justice Department!” — Another day, another example of Eric Holder’s blatant dereliction of duty. TheDC’s Matthew Boyle reports:

“The Department of Justice’s inspector general has refused to investigate Attorney General Eric Holder’s response to public safety threats stemming from the ongoing ‘Occupy’ movement nationwide, especially in New York City and Washington, D.C. The nonprofit investigative firm Cause of Action asked DOJ Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar to look into Holder’s response to concerns about the potential for violence in connection with Occupy protests. In his request for Schnedar to investigate, Cause of Action executive director Dan Epstein cited a March 2011 letter from Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz to Holder. In that letter, Chaffetz warned that former Service employees International Union official Stephen Lerner was plotting a massive ‘secret plan’ to ’cause a financial crisis [to] weaken Wall Street’s grip on power … [via] civil disobedience.’ Epstein’s Nov. 9, 2011, request came just days after Occupy protesters attacked elderly women in Washington, D.C. outside a political summit hosted by the conservative group Americans for Prosperity. Epstein asked Schnedar to ‘investigate the status of the DOJ response to any threats to public safety posed by the Occupy Wall Street events and whether the DOJ investigated the allegations in Rep. Chaffetz’s letter.’ More than six weeks later, on December 28, 2011, Schnedar responded: ‘We are declining at this time to initiate the review requested in your letter.'”

And yet they’re still calling it the Department of Justice. Orwell wept.

4.) Update on Marine vs. NYC — TheDC’s Steven Nelson reports:

“New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran wants the criminal case against Ryan Jerome, a former Marine facing 15 years in prison for unknowingly violating the state’s tough gun laws, to be dismissed. Halloran, a Republican, told The Daily Caller that he has been in touch with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s office, but he isn’t optimistic that the DA will let the case go. Jerome visited New York City in September with $15,000 worth of jewelry he intended to sell. He brought a gun, for which he has a valid Indiana concealed carry permit, after reading online gun law information which he believed indicated it was legal to do so. Upon asking security officers if he should check his weapon at the Empire State Building, Jerome was arrested. He now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 3.5 years in prison and a maximum of 15 years behind bars. A grand jury has not yet indicted him. Halloran said that the case is ‘another unfortunate New York District Attorney fiasco…’ Vance is an opponent of H.R. 822, a bill that passed the House of Representatives in November with broad bipartisan support. If enacted into law, the bill would make what Jerome did perfectly legal by requiring states to honor out-of-state concealed carry permits.”

Until then, take the hint: Stay away from New York. Spend your money elsewhere.

5.) You can’t get to the White House without stepping through the looking glass — Lewis Carroll specialized in paradoxes and willful illogic, which makes him a perfect fit for the Obama administration. Neil Munro reports:

“The Obamas’ secret and incongruously extravagant White House Halloween party is being pushed further down the rabbit hole. The sumptuous ‘Alice in Wonderland’-themed Halloween party, featuring actor Johnny Depp and decorations by filmmaker Tim Burton, was covertly held in late 2009, but White House officials are still trying to keep it hidden because it clashes with efforts to portray the administration as a modestly run establishment amid a bitter, government-created recession. ‘This wasn’t a publicity event for the outside. This was for military children and their families,’ White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday… The White House published no pictures of the event, and neither Depp nor Burton were recorded on the official White House visitor’s log… Carney insisted the White House made no effort to hide the event, but veteran reporters said they never knew of the party…”

They weren’t hiding anything. They were just keeping it away from public view. If it was such a big secret, why did it take over two years for you to learn about it? When the Obama administration uses a word, it means just what they choose it to mean, neither more nor less. Just add it to the other five impossible things they expect you to believe before breakfast.

6.) Today’s words of wisdom from Alec Baldwin’s Twitter feed — “Read a newspaper, in print or online, every day.”

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