White House Correspondents Insider
Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.
A new Obama pundit joined the Sunday show ranks yesterday. Jeremy Bash, former chief of staff to former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and his top deptuy at the CIA, appeared on This Week’s panel explaining the President’s new position on Syria. Joining him were George Will, Jeffrey Goldberg and Martha Raddatz.
While Will went with the Napolean quote to lead of the Sunday conversation, Bash used his own experience at the CIA to go over the issues.
In case you thought it was the end of the world–well, it’s just another Friday for the District.
In pre-Christmas media shuffle CNN announced that Jake Tapper is their new chief Washington correspondent and anchor. Mike Ryan’s Playbook backstory sheds light on what CNN seems to have in mind for the former ABC correspondent: “Tapper’s new show will initially air during one of the hours that CNN programming is in D.C., between 4 and 7 p.m., after which it will likely find a later time slot. The pitch to Tapper by incoming CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker was key to the hire. Before his White House gig, Tapper was a utility player at ABC News, doing stories on Iraq, the culture wars, and plenty of general assignment stories ranging from the Virginia Tech attacks to interviewing Larry David. A show that focused on a broader palette of story subjects, from politics to international affairs to sports to popular culture, has always been his main goal.”
Which means over at ABC, Jonathan Karl has become their new Chief White House Correspondent and Martha Raddatz is bumped to Chief Global Affairs Correspondent, which the release notes will find her as “primary substitute for George Stephanopoulos on This Week and will contribute regularly to the roundtable” along with Karl.
Going to the pundit side, Politico has Purple Stategies’ Rob Collins being vetted for the National Republican Senatorial Commitee.
Would you call the failure to pass Speaker John Boehner’s “Plan B” proposal “embarrassing”? You’re not alone as nearly everyone lead with that description after last night’s rejection of his fiscal cliff spending plan. Here’s a sampling:
Bloomberg: “The flawed approach left Boehner embarrassed and Republicans without a clear alternative to Obama’s proposal to raise $1.2 trillion in taxes on high earners and cut $1.2 trillion in spending.”
Washington Post’s Right Turn: “House Republicans embarrassed their speaker Thursday night by shutting down his Plan B to protect all but millionaires from a tax hike, come Jan. 1. How close was the GOP to having enough support for Speaker John Boehner’s plan? A senior leadership aide replied glumly, ‘Not close enough.'”
On Morning Joe, David Axelrod said: “But the fact that they couldn’t even pass that was an embarrassment. This is the longest day of the year and certainly true for John Boehner, I’m sure he’s scratching his head right now.”
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It’s hard to figure out what’s worth your time with all the first reads, politico blasts and tweets that race by before your third coffee of the morning. So let us provide some curation to your otherwise blur of a morning before your second conference call.
That should get you through at least your first lunch-that-gets-turned-into-a-coffee-break.