TheDC Morning

TheDC Morning: Is Jane Harman angling for SecDef?

Jamie Weinstein Senior Writer
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1.) Is Jane Harman angling for SecDef? — As former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel continues to get hammered by his critics, an odd name made an appearance in an anti-Hagel document which has reportedly popped up on the Hill. TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein reports:

“The document focuses on condenming Hagel for his pro-Second Amendment voting record as senator, and for his pro-life position. It also specifically contrasts Hagel’s record with that of former Democratic California Rep. Jane Harman, suggesting that perhaps the document’s creator is behind a stealth campaign to support Harman for Panetta’s job. ‘The Brady Campaign against Gun Violence has given Hagel a LIFETIME RATING OF 7 OUT OF 100. That’s better than his ZERO from NARAL on women’s issues and a ZERO on gay rights from the Human Rights Campaign,’ the document reads. ‘By contrast, Former House Intelligence Committee Chair Jane Harman received a rating of 100 from the Brady Campaign, 100 from NARAL, and 100 from the Human Rights Campaign.’ Harman served for a time as ranking member of the House intelligence committee, not as its chair as the document states. She has not been mentioned among those President Obama is considering nominating to lead the Defense Department.”

Bizarre. Why is Harman mentioned in the document? Is someone pushing her for Defense secretary? Has she launched a stealth campaign herself? And, if so, how in the world did the document get it wrong that she once served as intelligence committee chairman?

2.) It’s the Senate’s show now — House Republicans have reiterated that it’s the Senate’s turn figure out how to avoid the fiscal cliff.  TheDC’s Alexis Levinson reports:

“With just six days remaining until the country goes over the fiscal cliff, Speaker of the House John Boehner, who until last week was the primary negotiator with President Barack Obama in an attempt to reach a deal to avert the cliff, is putting pressure on the Democratic-controlled Senate, saying it is their turn to act. ‘The House has acted on two bills which collectively would avert the entire fiscal cliff if enacted,’ Boehner said, in a statement issued jointly with Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, and House Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers. “Those bills await action by the Senate. If the Senate will not approve and send them to the president to be signed into law in their current form, they must be amended and returned to the House. Once this has occurred, the House will then consider whether to accept the bills as amended, or to send them back to the Senate with additional amendments. The House will take this action on whatever the Senate can pass, but the Senate first must act.”

Just one problem: No one is apparently doing anything.

3.) The unwanted manThe most insufferable man in America is apparently unwanted back in his native land. TheDC’s Caroline May reports:

“Piers Morgan is a man without a country … sort of. In the wake of a petition on Whitehouse.gov calling for the CNN host’s deportation back to the United Kingdom, a response petition has cropped up on Change.org from British citizens urging the UK government not to take Morgan back. ‘We got rid of him once and why should we have to suffer again. The Americans wanted him so they should put up with him. We washed our hands of him a long time ago,’ the introduction to the Change.org petition explains. The petition, addressed to the British Home Secretary Theresa May simply states: ‘Stop Piers Morgan from being deported back to the UK from America.’”

4.)Still ill — Former President George H.W Bush is not doing well, the AP reports:

“Former President George H.W. Bush has been admitted to the intensive care unit at a Houston hospital “following a series of setbacks including a persistent fever,” but he is alert and talking to medical staff, his spokesman said Wednesday. … The 88-year-old has been hospitalized since Nov. 23, when he was admitted for a lingering cough related to bronchitis after having been in and out of the hospital for complications related to the illness.”

TheDC Morning is wishing 41 a speedy recovery.

5.) Tweet of Yesterday — Andrew Kaczynski: Next week on Meet the Press David Gregory will take bath salts and eat a man’s face.

6.) Today in North Korean News — BREAKING: Message to Kim Jong Un from President of Guinea-Bissau

AUDIO: Mary Steyn slams CNN’s Piers Morgan

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Jamie Weinstein