Hillary Clinton met with Elizabeth Warren, setting the stage for some awful imagined dialogue in the opening chapter in "Game Change 3." Joe Biden graduated with honors from the George W. Bush School of Awkwardly Grabbing Women's Shoulders. And it looks like the greater D.C. area is pulling a Congress this week by only going to the office three days while spending the rest of it at home, pretending to care. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Tuesday, February 17th, 2015:
ADMINISTRATION TO DELAY IMMIGRATION ORDER AFTER RULING - Times: "Just one day before undocumented immigrants were set to begin applying for work permits and legal protections, the Obama administration announced on Tuesday that it would delay carrying out President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, saying a federal judge’s last-minute ruling had tied the White House’s hands. Jeh C. Johnson, the Homeland Security secretary, vowed to appeal the court ruling, which said that the president had not followed proper legal procedures in instituting his program. But Mr. Johnson said the department would comply with it by suspending plans to begin accepting applications from an expanded group of illegal immigrants on Wednesday. 'The Department of Justice, legal scholars, immigration experts and even other courts have said that our actions are well within our legal authority,' Mr. Johnson said in a statement. 'Our actions will also benefit the economy and promote law enforcement. We fully expect to ultimately prevail in the courts.'" [NYT]
Ooh, Hillary Clinton met privately with Elizabeth Warren in December, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin report.
GOP NOT RELENTING ON DHS DESPITE COURT RULING - They won't rest until the president's order that basically leaves things as they are is defeated so things are… left as they are. Politico: "Mitch McConnell and John Boehner aren’t saying whether a Texas judge has handed them a way out of Congress’ stalemate on funding the Department of Homeland Security. If anything, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s decision Monday to temporarily halt the implementation of President Barack Obama’s immigration orders now gives 26 states time to move forward with their lawsuit against the president’s unilateral initiatives. And it sends Capitol Hill Republicans a signal that the courts may be the best venue to battle against Obama’s move to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation -- perhaps lessening the stakes of the Hill’s drama on how to fund DHS past Feb. 27. For now, though, Congress’ top GOP leaders aren’t changing their old scripts. The only difference Tuesday is that now a federal court agrees with them." [Politico]
HuffPost Haircuts: Jim Manley, Igor Bobic.
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - A new research paper suggests Congress helped the economy to the tune of nearly 2 million jobs when lawmakers killed long-term unemployment benefits at the end of 2013...But while the study might help the GOP take credit for an improving economy, the story isn't so simple, as several other recent studies have found the long-term benefits weren't holding back workers. [HuffPost]
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U.S. TO ALLOW EXPORT OF ARMED DRONES - Kill them with kindness. WaPo: "The Obama administration will permit the widespread export of armed drones for the first time, a step toward providing allied nations with weapons that have become a cornerstone of U.S. counterterrorism strategy but whose remotely controlled power to kill is intensely controversial. The new policy, announced Tuesday after a long internal review, is a significant step for U.S. arms policy as allied nations from Italy to Turkey to the Persian Gulf region clamor for the aircraft. It also is a nod to U.S. defense firms scrambling to secure a greater share of a growing global drone market. But in a reflection of the sensitivity surrounding sales of the lethal technology to allied countries, some of which have troubling records on human rights and political freedoms, the new policy lays out principles that foreign governments must embrace to receive the aircraft." [WaPo]
NANCY PELOSI IN CUBA - Fox News' producers will be buying all the rounds tonight as they spent the day not thinking or working at all thanks to this item. Roll Call: "As congressional Republicans continue to slam the White House for overreaching on immigration and promising to veto Iran sanctions, House Democrats traveled to Cuba in celebration of another Obama administrative initiative much-derided by the GOP: the recent normalization of ties between the United States and the long-marginalized country. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and eight colleagues were in Havana Tuesday to meet with government officials, Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino, local community leaders and American representatives from the U.S. Interests Section. It was the first House-led delegation to Cuba since President Barack Obama announced the new policy in December. 'This delegation travels to Cuba in friendship,' Pelosi said in a statement. '[It] will work to advance the U.S.-Cuba relationship and build on the work done by many in the Congress over the years, especially with respect to agriculture and trade.' In addition to Pelosi, participants in the all-Democratic delegation include three ranking members of relevant House committees: Agriculture’s Collin C. Peterson of Minnesota, Foreign Affairs’ Eliot L. Engel and Small Business’s Nydia M. Velázquez, both of New York." [Roll Call]
HOLDER: FERGUSON PROBES NEARING END - All of America's race problems to be forever solved thereafter. Ryan Reilly: "Attorney General Eric Holder indicated on Tuesday that the Justice Department is wrapping up two separate investigations that stemmed from the shooting of Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, six months ago. Holder, speaking at the National Press Club, said he was 'confident' that he would be able to announce the results of a civil rights investigation into the shooting of 18-year-old Brown by Officer Darren Wilson as well as of a broader investigation into the conduct of the Ferguson Police Department before he steps down as attorney general, which is likely to happen in the next few weeks. Holder intends to retire once his successor is confirmed. Loretta Lynch's nomination for the position is currently pending in the Senate. 'My hope will be, as I said, to make these determinations before I go,' Holder said in response to a question about the probes, adding that he was briefed on the status of both of the investigations last week." [HuffPost]
SOMEONE PLEASE SEND THE VICE PRESIDENT TO EMPLOYEE SENSITIVITY TRAINING - Nia-Malika Henderson: "We've been here so many times with Joe Biden, the world's most powerful close talker, that it hardly seems worth commenting on. But we couldn't help noticing this photo from Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony of Ashton Carter, the new secretary of defense. The woman whose ear Biden appears to be whispering into is Stephanie Carter, Ashton's wife. Why Biden is doing this only he knows. It's not the first time he's done it, though. He did a similar thing to a motorcycle-riding woman who didn't seem to mind much. (Her friends are not as impressed.)" [WaPo]
Speaking of odd Joes: "Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) doesn't appear to be content with fading graciously into obscurity after failing to return to Congress for a second term. Walsh told The Hill last week that he was 'seriously considering' challenging Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) next year. He currently hosts a daily conservative radio show. After coming to Congress in the 2010 tea party wave, Walsh found his niche as an outspoken advocate for conservative priorities. However, his bluster made him vulnerable, and in 2012 he lost to Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who is also weighing a 2016 challenge to Kirk." [HuffPost's Samantha Lachman]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here is a panda who want a hug.
Update from Wall Street: "Did Shakespeare Make the Wrong Decision Going Into Liberal Arts and Not Finance?" [WSJ]
COMFORT FOOD
- "Scarface" as an 8-bit video game.
- Grandpa catfishes the women of Tinder.
- Instead of learning a new language or develop engineering skills, this guy filmed himself improving his ping pong skills every day for a year.
TWITTERAMA
@blippoblappo: an alternate universe where it's socially acceptable to use air horn sounds to respond to interrupt TED talks
@daveweigel: I never feel like saying “thanks, Obama” since Obama himself said it. He did to the dumb meme industry what he did to coal.
@atrios: stop joe biden before he gaffes again. and please don't let him zinger.
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