A positive jobs report may have convinced Mitt Romney that now more than ever America needs somebody who is unafraid to fire people. A Nebraska court green lit the Keystone XL pipeline, pleasing conservatives who have long urged the courts to dictate policy. And in the 1990s, Jeb Bush campaigned on a "Spankers Bill of Rights," which we're pretty sure is also a chapter in Mike Huckabee's new book. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, January 9th, 2014:
SCRAMBLE FOR BOXER’S SEAT UNDERWAY - Air Bud lives in Hollywood, right? Roll Call: “Rep. Loretta Sanchez told CQ Roll Call she was “not ruling it out.” California Democrats said Reps. John Garamendi, Adam B. Schiff, and Jackie Speier might consider bids as well. Reps. Mark Takano, Julia Brownley, and Ami Bera told CQ Roll Call Thursday they had no intention of running….Republicans suggested several of the candidates who ran for statewide office in 2014: Neel Kashkari, who ran for governor; Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, who ran for controller; Pete Peterson, who ran for secretary of state. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and former Rep. Doug Ose, who lost a comeback bid to Congress last year, are also potential candidates.” [Roll Call]
ROMNEY 2016 - Patrick O'Connor and Beth Reinhard: "Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney , the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, told a meeting of donors Friday that he is considering another White House bid in 2016, people present said." [WSJ]
Jerks on Twitter are circulating this clip of Romney saying "politics is not a career." It's not a career, you guys. Remember, Romney is unemployed.
JEB BUSH AND THE SPANKERS - Christina Wilkie: "As former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) prepares to run for president in 2016, he rarely misses a chance to praise the nation's young people, whom he saysare a model for the rest of the country because they 'believe that the future will be better than whatever life is like now.' But Bush wasn't always such a upbeat cheerleader for kids. As the Republican nominee for governor in 1994, Bush ran as the pro-spanking candidate -- literally -- by endorsing a controversial bill known as the 'Spanker's Bill of Rights.' The so-called bill of rights was a set of laws that shielded Florida parents who spanked their children from the threat of child abuse charges, as long as they stopped short of inflicting 'significant' welts or bruises on the child." [HuffPost]
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - Downer caught up with some Past People Of The Downer to see how they're doing on the occasion of today's jobs report. Here is one: Marie Roth told HuffPost in December 2010 that she had lost her property management job the previous year and worried she'd soon be facing foreclosure. At the time, Congress was deciding whether to reauthorize long-term unemployment insurance, and Roth followed the story closely, fearing her house hung in the balance. Lawmakers eventually came to an agreement, and this week Roth said she got a job before her benefits ran out -- but the job paid less than the benefits did. She said she wound up losing the house, in Hemet, California, in 2012. Roth, 44, said she has had a series of property management jobs and recently landed a new one in San Diego, where she said she and her daughter are much happier. She said that each job, including the most recent one, was difficult to get. "People are like a dime a dozen," Roth added. "That’s just what I’ve encountered the past five years." [HuffPost]
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EFFORT TO OUST BOEHNER A TOTAL FARCE - The tea party wing really defecated in the bed on this one. Politico: “A group of House conservatives spent almost a year dreaming big about toppling Speaker John Boehner, but less than a day before the vote, they still hadn’t found someone to replace him...Interviews with members involved in the coup attempt show that a small band of conservatives had been actively discussing the prospect of challenging Boehner since early 2014, and had spent months slowly trying to build support. Some of them were deeply impressed with [Florida GOP Rep. Daniel] Webster, who has heard from conservatives ever since he came to Congress in 2011 that he would make an ideal speaker….But Webster has said he didn’t decide to jump into the race until less than 24 hours before the vote. His candidacy came as a surprise to his close friend and ally Rep. Richard Nugent, a fellow Florida Republican who said Webster never told him he was running.” [Politico]
NEBRASKA COURT APPROVES KEYSTONE PIPELINE - All those displaced bison will now get high paying jobs. Kate Sheppard: “In a victory for proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the pipeline's proposed route through the state can go forward. The decision means that TransCanada, the company seeking to build the pipeline, can build the route that Nebraska's former governor approved in 2013. The court ruling was split, with four of the court's seven judges agreeing with a lower court that the 2012 law used to grant TransCanada that permission was unconstitutional. However, Nebraska requires a supermajority of at least five judges to strike down the law. ‘We believe that Nebraska citizens deserve a decision on the merits. But the supermajority requirement … coupled with the dissent’s refusal to reach the merits, means that the citizens cannot get a binding decision from this court,’ the court wrote in the majority opinion.” [HuffPost]
SO DOES THE HOUSE - Reuters: “The Keystone XL oil pipeline cleared two hurdles on Friday, setting up a showdown between Congress and President Barack Obama who has raised new questions about the project after more than six years of review. Following months of deliberation, the Nebraska Supreme Court allowed a route for the pipeline to cross the state, shifting the debate over TransCanada Corp's project fully to Washington, where Republicans now in control of Congress are seeking to force its final approval. Hours later, the House of Representatives passed a bill 266 to 153, with 28 Democrats in support of the project. The Senate will debate a Keystone bill next week, but White House officials said Obama would reject the legislation. "If presented to the president, he will veto," spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement. Obama has criticized the pipeline recently saying it would do little to cut prices for U.S. consumers and that it would mainly benefit the company as the petroleum would eventually be shipped abroad.” [Reuters]
HOUSE DHS BILL WOULD UNDO IMMIGRATION EXECUTIVE ORDER - Elise Foley: “House Republicans are set to vote next week on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security that will be coupled with a number of hard-line conservative measures going after President Barack Obama's central immigration policies. The bill is likely to set up a weekslong fight between Republicans and the president that could risk shutting down DHS at the end of next month. The $39.7 billion DHS funding package was introduced on Friday, and will be coupled next week with amendments limiting the president's immigration authorities. One amendment is expected to block Obama's recently announced executive actions on immigration, which could give work authorization to up to 5 million people who are in the country illegally. Members said the legislation would also halt the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which protects undocumented young people who came to the U.S. as children. Along with those measures, members said the amendments would reinstate the controversial Secure Communities immigration enforcement program, which DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson announced would be ended late last year due to pushback from state and local officials. The package is also expected to do away with most of the "Morton Memos," guidance from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that instructs agents to focus deportation efforts on immigrants who are perceived as more dangerous or who have recently crossed the border illegally.” [HuffPost]
Tulsi Gabbard ENGAGED.
HARRY REID DISAGREES WITH MITCH MCCONNELL, MACROECONOMICS EDITION - Igor Bobic: “Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Friday laughed off Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) recent attempt to claim credit for economic growth, arguing that Democratic policies helped the recovery despite overwhelming Republican obstruction since the beginning of the Obama presidency. ‘If [Republicans] had cooperated with us even a little bit, the economy would have been even stronger than it is now,’ Reid said on NPR, his first public interview since an exercise accident left the Nevada Democrat bedridden with broken bones in the face as well as several broken ribs. "Think where the economy would be, if we didn't have programs like Cash for Clunkers and the bailout of Detroit," Reid said, referring to parts to the stimulus legislation passed early in the recession.” [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here’s a pitbull answer questions.
COMFORT FOOD
- Waiter slices meat like no one’s business.
- Deconstructing Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”
- Scroll through this website slowly and enjoy some opitcal illusions
- Today’s least necessary web app: a site that tells you how many Indian government employees are logged in at their workstations.
TWITTERAMA
@moneymorningben: The Iowa Straw Poll can never go away because we cannot allow the Meat on Stick industry to fail.
@timothypmurphy: But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich
@david_J_roth: "I want this nation to meet the real Willard Mitt Romney," the candidate booms. "I have a lot of new weird ideas and wear dungarees now."
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