FROM THE BLOGS:

Obama’s arrogant overreach – and the Republican opportunity
Breitbart’s Patrick Caddell writes that the Republicans are going to go off a "political cliff" if the current dynamics on the Hill don’t change.

Arizona governor shocked reporter would ask about climate change before energy speech
Think Progress’s Rebecca Leber says Gov. Jan Brewer (R) should have been prepared for such a question.

The purge of House conservatives continues
Red State’s Daniel Horowitz explains the ramifications of having like-minded members in leadership positions.

John Boehner’s hostage crisis
Mother Jones’s David Corn highlights the pressure Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is under from Tea Party members.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

House GOP makes $2.2 trillion debt counteroffer to Obama on cliff
House Republicans have made a counteroffer to President Obama, revealing cuts in spending and entitlement reforms, The Hill’s Russell Berman reports.

Budget gurus to debt negotiators: Get off the Sunday talk shows
While the White House and House Republicans have been posturing on talk shows, the country closes in on the fiscal cliff, The Hill’s Erik Wasson reports.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Gitmo North returns: Obama’s shady prison deal
When everyone’s eyes were turned towards the election, the Obama administration was making concerning advancements on the Gitmo front, according to Michelle Malkin.

White male anger finds an outlet in Susan Rice
Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) has successfully led the crusade that turned Susan Rice into a punching bag, and according to Slate’s Amanda Marcotte, his intentions are completely political and transparent.

Ramirez on compromise
Liberal reporters need to hold Obama to the same standard as his GOP rivals, and make sure he is sticking to the policies he campaigned on, says Hot Air’s Ed Morissey.

Will Democrats vote for filibuster reform?
According to Mother Jones’s Kevin Drum, it isn’t the GOP that we need to be concerned about not passing for filibuster reform, it's Democrats.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Spending bill could see vote next week
As soon as next week the House floor could see the massive $1.047 trillion spending package that would cap off fiscal year 2013, reports The Hill’s Erik Wasson.

White House rules out repercussions for Palestinians after UN statehood vote
After the Palestinian Authority was recognized by the U.N. as a non-member observer state, Obama said he has no plans to cut U.S. aid to the Palestinian authority, reports The Hill’s Julian Pecquet.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Republicans just don’t get it
After an election cycle filled with offensive statements made by GOP members, Joan Walsh of Salon suggests that Republicans are out of touch.

Obama, aids dismiss compromise with GOP on tax hikes, fiscal cliff
On The Daily Caller, Neil Munro asserts that President Obama and his team are raising the stakes of the budget negotiations by refusing to compromise with the GOP.

Why Susan Collins’ opposition to Susan Rice is hypocritical
Because she supported Condoleezza Rice and opposes Susan Rice, Hayes Brown of Think Progress suggests that Rep. Susan Collins (R-Main) is hypocritical.

Top five reasons Republicans should take us over the fiscal cliff
According to John Nolte on Breitbart.com, going over the "fiscal cliff" is the best option for Republicans.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Romney, Ryan meet off Capitol Hill
Before his lunch meeting with President Obama, former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney met with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) off Capitol Hill, The Hill’s Justin Sink reports.

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen to call for cutting UN, Palestine funds over statehood vote
According to The Hill’s Julian Pecquet, the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee will call for funding cuts for the Palestinian Authority and for United Nations agencies that recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization as a state.

FROM THE BLOGS:
 
Climate change denier appointed to head House Science Committee
According to Kris Benson at Wonkette, the GOP appointed Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), a denier of climate change, to chair the House Committee on Science.

'Average Joe' Biden heads to Costco
Despite the fact that he and his wife earned $379,000 in 2011, Keith Koffler of White House Dossier reports that Vice President Biden shops at discount retailer Costco.
 
Democrats demand Republicans name the entitlement cuts they want
At Daily Kos, Joan McCarter reports that Democrats are pushing for details concerning the GOP’s proposed entitlement cuts.
 
Conflict-of-interest issue for Rice on Keystone XL project?
HotAir's Ed Morrissey reports that Susan Rice’s shot at secretary of State is shrinking because of a personal investment in the Keystone XL pipeline project.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
 
Reid: I don’t understand Boehner’s brain
According to The Hill’s Alexander Bolton, the budget negotiations have become so contentious that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he doesn't understand Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) brain.
 
GOP fumes as TSA head skips aviation security hearing
TSA administrator John Pistole was criticized by Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for skipping a scheduled hearing, reports The Hill’s Keith Laing.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Top ten reasons to oppose Susan Rice
Breitbart’s Joel Pollak gives his opinion on why people should oppose U.N. Ambassador Rice's potential appointment as Secretary of State.

Mitt Romney: Truly the 47-percent man
Mother Jones’ David Corn compares Mitt Romney’s 47-percent comments with his overall popular vote in the presidential race.

Grape growers can now sue the USDA
Hot Air’s Erika Johnsen explains why this small capability by grape growers actually highlights the problems with farming industries and government bodies.

The Republican party’s image problem – and how to fix it
The Atlantic’s Charlie Cook shows how the GOP’s image is in crisis and how it is affecting the party.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Obama quietly signs bill shielding airlines from carbon fees in Europe
President Obama has signed into law that U.S. airlines be excluded from European carbon emission fees, reports The Hill’s Keith Laing.

Reid: ‘Fiscal Cliff’ deal must raise debt ceiling
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) has signaled that President Obama also feels that the debt ceiling must be raised to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” reports The Hill’s Alexander Bolton.

FROM THE BLOGS:

O yeah, the debt ceiling. Yawn.
On Daily Kos, Jed Lewison argues that the debt limit will only be a crisis if congressional Republicans and the White House want it to be a crisis.

The lost irony in the tax debate
In spite of their intense fight to block them in 2001 and 2003, Daniel Horowitz of RedState suggests that Democrats have fallen in love with the Bush tax cuts.

The top four whoppers Norquist tells to keep Republicans from defecting
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist has begun a wide-ranging media campaign to combat the perception that Republicans are abandoning his pledge, writes Igor Volsky at ThinkProgress.

Gun control, RIP
The American Conservative’s Brian Doherty asserts that the liberal case for the 2nd Amendment is irrelevant.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Protesters strip down in Boehner’s office
According to The Hill’s Alicia Cohn, several protesters stripped naked in Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office while protesting possible cuts to AIDS research. Read more here.

Rice fails to convince Republican senators on Benghazi attack
Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice failed to convince GOP senators that she is not to blame for the attack in Benghazi, reports Julian Pecquet of The Hill.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Taxpayers stuck with another bill?
Breitbart's Sydney Williams says taxpayers are facing a massive new housing tab.

Obama puppet Mohammed Morsi is not working out
Red State's Moe Lane says Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi is failing to do his job.

Washington needs Joe Biden
Salon's Alex Seitz-Wald argues that Joe Biden is the only senior official willing to dissent from the foreign policy consensus.

If the budget debate had a Nate Silver
The Huffington Post's Dean Baker says that neither party wants to acknowledge that deficits were relatively modest until the economy tanked in 2008.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

White House: Raising taxes would cut $200B from economy
The White House released a report Monday saying that not extending tax cuts for the middle class would reduce consumer spending by $200 billion, reports Justin Sink.

Halvorson to run for Jackson seat
Former Rep. Debbie Halvorson is running to replace the seat left empty by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in the upcoming Illinois special election, reports Alexander Jaffe.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Revenge of the reality-based community
The American Conservative's Bruce Bartlett provides a chronological narrative of his shift from the Republican party to the center-left.

Can billions save problems that trillions couldn't?
National Review's David French dismisses the argument that the wealthy are concerned only about their own economic interests and argues that government is the "monster inflicted upon us."

What the war of 1812 can teach us about the fiscal-cliff debate
The Atlantic's Pietro Nivola draws up similarities between political debates leading up to the war of 1812 and the current debates over the national debt.

Why did Asian Americans vote for President Obama?
Slate's Richard Posner lists the main reasons why there was a surge in the Asian American vote for Obama.  

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

SEC head announces departure, beginning second-term shake-up
Mary Schapiro will retire as chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the middle of December, reports The Hill's Peter Schroeder.

GOP, Dem lawmakers see room for compromise ahead of fiscal cliff
Lawmakers from both parties are showing a willingness to compromise to resolve the impending "fiscal cliff" problem, according to The Hill's Alicia Cohn.

FROM THE BLOGS:
 
Ronald Reagan and what I got wrong
Redstate’s Erick Erickson predicts that for the next decade, the Republican politician will embody the ideals and policies of Ronald Reagan.

Rich people complain that fiscal cliff could force them to pay slightly higher taxes
Think Progress’s Aviva Shen says that high-net-worth individuals will not be affected by the "fiscal cliff," but insist on complaining about higher tax rates under President Obama’s plan.

Immigrants against empire
The American Conservative’s Scott McConnell argues that America’s anti-war views can help the right make peace with multiculturalism.

Nineteen percent of Congress is female. Why not half?
Mother Jones’s Kate Sheppard explains the social and cultural reasons for why the gender gap is so wide in Congress. 

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
 
Tax fight freezes defense industry out of negotiations over ‘fiscal cliff’
Defense firms desperately want to prevent the $500 billion worth of sequestration cuts, but they’re finding themselves sidelined to the issue of taxes, reports Jeremy Herb. 

 
Rep. West concedes House race to Murphy
Allen West concedes to Murphy after pressing officials for a recount since Election Day, reports Meghashyam Mali.