FROM THE BLOGS:

New Year, new dish, new media
Andrew Sullivan announced on Wednesday that the Daily Dish is leaving the Daily Beast and becoming its own completely independent blog. 

On gay marriage, is Illinois next?
Richard Soccarides at The New Yorker's News Desk blog analyzes whether Illinois is the next state to pass gay marriage legislation. 

Chris Christie versus every single Republican spending cut argument
During a press confernece on Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) resisted a common complaint ofCongressional Republicans on Hurricane Sandy aid: that it was full of waste, writes Dave Weigel at his blog. 

'He's under huge pressure': Schumer on Boehner's hurricane-relief paralysis
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Monday that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is under significant pressure to hold a vote on Sandy relief aid, reports Capital New York's Reid Pillifant. 

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Boehner tells GOP he’s done with one-on-one Obama talks
Boehner told House Republicans that one thing will definitely be different about the 113th Congress: no more one-on-one talks between him and President Obama, according to The Hill's Russell Berman. 

Pa. Governor sues NCAA over Penn State sanctions
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) is suing the NCAA over sanctions imposed on Penn State University in response to the Jerry Sandusky scandal, reports Mark Scolforo for The Associated Press.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Kill this deal
Tim Noah of The New Republic writes a letter to House and Senate Democrats saying President Obama has sold them out in "fiscal cliff" negotiations.

It's the spending, stupid
If the final fiscal-cliff deal raises revenues on anything but defense it should be widely rejected, The American Spectator's Quin Hillyer argues at the magazine's Spectacle blog.

Clinton's clot, Krauthammer's shame
A number of conservative pundits accused Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of faking a blood clot so she would not have to testify about a hearing on the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, notes Mark Kleiman at The Washington Monthly.

Reforming the Senate at snail's pace
Sarah Binder at The Monkey Cage writes that December has been a great month for observers of the Senate.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Biden, Senate nearing ‘cliff’ deal
Vice President Biden and Senate leaders are nearing a fiscal-cliff deal just ahead of the year-end deadline, reports The Hill's Alexander Bolton.

Huntsman says Republican Party is 'devoid of a soul'
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) described the Republican Party as "devoid of a soul" in a recent interview, writes The Hill's Alexandra Jaffe.

FROM THE BLOGS:

All reason leaves the GOP
Dick Polman at the Philadelphia Inquirer says the GOP has lost its sanity.

David Gregory makes the gun rights activists' argument
David French at the National Review says the "Meet the Press" host’s stunt makes a strong argument for gun rights activists.

Do Democrats want to take us over the cliff?
Debra Saunders at the SF Chronicle thinks so.

What I learned from being in Congress
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ari.) writes in the American Spectator about his life in Congress as he faces retirement.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Reid, McConnell working on fiscal-cliff deal after meeting Obama
Alexander Bolton at The Hill has the latest “fiscal cliff” update.

Another debt-ceiling showdown looms
Two Republican senators on Friday introduced a plan to reduce entitlement spending for an equal increase to the federal debt ceiling, reports Alexander Bolton at The Hill.

FROM THE BLOGS:

The preemptive war on Hagel
Opposition to former Sen. Chuck Hagel's (R-Neb.) possible nomination for secretary of Defense centers around Iran, writes Elizabeth Drew at the NYR blog. Read more...

FROM THE BLOGS:
 
Hillary Clinton goes back to work
Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin reports Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will return to work next week, following illness and a concussion.
 
The Tea Party is still influential
Salon’s Steve Kornacki writes that while the rallies have dwindled, the Tea Party mindset remains strong.
 
Obama should sidestep Congress
Rena Steinzer and Amy Sinden at the Baltimore Sun say President Obama must turn to executive orders in the face of GOP obstructionism.
 
Why the House is so divided
Nate Silver at the FiveThirtyEight blog says the House is so polarized because incumbents fear primary opponents more than the voters in their own districts.

OHER NEWS SOURCES:
 
House returns for the ‘cliff’
House members will return Sunday for one final year-end push on a “fiscal cliff” deal, reports Daniel Strauss at The Hill.
 
Acting EPA chief among most likely to succeed Jackson
Ben Geman at The Hill reports on the likely successors to Lisa Jackson, who announced Thursday that she will resign from the top spot at the Environmental Protection Agency.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Maria Bartiromo lays the smackdown on Ben Cardin, trading floor erupts in cheers
The New York Stock Exchange erupted in cheers after CNBC's Maria Bartiromo aggressively questioned Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) on a deficit-reduction deal. Watch the video at National Review's The Corner blog. 

No moderate makeover in Virginia
At The Washington Monthly's Political Animal blog, Ed Kilgore writes politics have already centered on the "midterm cycle" in Virginia. 

The GOP likes Michèle Flournoy for the wrong reasons, but she's the right choice
Michèle Flournoy is actually the best person to be the next secretary of Defense, writes The New Republic's Molly Redden. 

34 years of satellite temperature data show global warming is on a plateau
Ronald Bailey at Reason magazine highlights research by a pair of climatologists at the University of Alabama suggesting global warming has "been largely stalled" since 1998. 

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

US to hit $16.4 trillion debt limit on Dec. 31
The United States will hit its borrowing limit on Dec. 31, the Treasury Department said Wednesday, reports The Hills Peter Schroeder. 

Blues cruise
At New York magazine, Joe Hagan reported on the most recent National Review cruise.

FROM THE BLOGS:

John Boehner's Calvinball
Daily Intel's Jonathan Chait says the House Speaker's on-the-fly rulemaking as he negotiates with President Obama is reminiscent of the anarchic game from Calvin and Hobbes.

What could have stopped Adam Lanza?
National Review's Christina Hoff Sommers believes lawmakers seeking solutions in the face of the tragic Connecticut shooting might be asking the wrong questions.

A survival food taste test
With Mayans predicting the end of the world on Friday, Mother Jones's Tim Murphy samples some of the best survival foods for the impending apocalypse.

Will ObamaCare exchanges be ready?
Hit & Run's Peter Suderman questions whether the exchanges required under the president's signature healthcare law can meet their stated schedule.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Bloomberg: NRA deserves blame for Newtown shooting
The New York City mayor and anti-gun activist says the gun lobby is partially to blame for the massacre, The Hill's Justin Sink reports.

Hobby Lobby denied relief from Obama birth control rules
The religiously affiliated arts-and-craft store saw a request for an injunction against rules requiring healthcare with access to free contraception denied, The Hill's Elise Viebeck reports.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Cuomo, newly revealed gun owner, doubts there will be a special session for gun control
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) revealed he owns a shotgun on Thursday, according to Capital New York's Reid Pillifant.

Michael Kinsley's very strange take on taxing capital gains
James Pethokoukis at the American Enterprise Institute critiques a Michael Kinsley column on capital gains taxation.

15 More of the world's most dangerous people, selected by you
Robert Beckhusen, writing for Wired's Danger Room, lists the 15 most dangerous people in the world voted by readers in the blog's comments, on Facebook and over Twitter.

Boehner's ultimatum
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is confident that his Plan B deficit reduction plan will pass the House, writes Robert Costa at National Review's The Corner blog.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES: 

Liberal Democrats say chained CPI is a deficit deal breaker – almost
House Democrats are refusing to move on a chained CPI in a deficit reduction deal, reports The Hill's Mike Lillis.

WHIP COUNT: House lawmakers' position on GOP's 'Plan B'
Follow The Hill's whip count of legislators who say they won't vote for Boehner's Plan B here.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Robert Bork and the contingencies of history
The death of Robert Bork reminds us how much constitutional doctrine is directed by the course of history, argues Jack Balkin at Balkinazation.

Direct negotiations with terrorists?
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo argues that the White House suspects House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) can't deliver any type of deficit-reduction deal.

Speaking ill of the dead
At The American Prospect, Paul Waldman asks what you say when a public figure you find "repellent" dies.

Truth in advertising
Michael Walsh, writing at The Corner, highlights a billboard sign in Beverly Hills.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Senators: ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ a ‘dangerous’ mix of fact, fiction
A trio of senators challenged the truthfulness of the movie "Zero Dark Thirty," report The Hill's Carlo Muñoz and Jeremy Herb.

Boehner scrambles for votes on 'Plan B'
Boehner scrambled for enough votes to pass his backup deficit-reduction plan, according to The Hill's Russell Berman.