From NBC's Boston affiliate WHDH-TV
We know one thing for sure about outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) presidential announcement plans: It won't occur on January 4. Per sources, Romney will announce early, he'll do it in Boston, but it won't be on January 4. Why not? Because that's the day that Romney's successor, Deval Patrick (D), will be inaugurated as the state's next governor.

 

Special to First Read from Hotline
Select members of Sen. Hillary Clinton's political team have started to interview Democrats who might one day fill senior and mid-level positions in Clinton's yet-to-be-announced presidential campaign. Those interviewed have been asked not to tell their friends or members of the press that they've been in contact with Clinton's team, and they've been cautioned against expecting a job offer because Clinton has not formally given her team the go-ahead to assemble a campaign.

A Clinton spokesman declined to comment.

Clinton's aides, when asked about Sen. Barack Obama's aggressive presidential explorations, contend that his expected entrance into the race has not influenced the time frame for Sen. Clinton to make her decision. Some Clinton donors believe that if Obama announces shortly after the turn of the year, Clinton would decide to wait a few more weeks, pushing her own announcement into late January or early February, or beyond.

That would give her more time to assess the impact of Obama on the field, on her donors and on elected Democratic officials, and more precisely, the ability to change the storyline from him to her as soon as she entered the race. Officially, Clinton's political team has the same, somewhat exasperated response: that Sen. Clinton won't make her decision with any reference to whomever else might get in, that it's premature to speculate about her decision, and that reporters asking the questions are fishing for news where there is none. They do deny, strenuously, reports that prominent Iowa Democrats have been told Clinton is leaning against a run.

Sen. Evan Bayh, Gov. Bill Richardson, Ret. Gen. Wes Clark, Sen. John Kerry and Ex-Sen. John Edwards are all expected to announce full or exploratory presidential committees by the middle of January

From NBC's Mike Viqueira
A Democratic House aide with knowledge of the issue confirms that Rep. Silvestre Reyes will be named the next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. This appointment makes Reyes the only Hispanic member in the House to chair a committee.

Reyes, a former border-patrol agent and Vietnam veteran, became a possibility after incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi passed over two senior members of the committee -- Reps. Jane Harman and Alcee Hastings. Harman and Pelosi are said to have political differences while ethics issues complicated Hasting's chances.

 

From Mark Murray, Huma Zaidi, and Jennifer Colby
A day after the New York Times said the Iraq Study Group will recommend a gradual US pullback from Iraq but set no firm timetable for withdrawal, the Washington Post today reports that the panel will recommend -- as a goal -- that all US combat forces depart Iraq by 2008, while leaving behind soldiers to train and advise Iraqi forces. NBC's Andrea Mitchell says that the target of 2008 comes with the condition that there aren't "unexpected developments" in Iraq, which she says is a big loophole.

The 2008 date, of course, carries huge political significance. Mitchell reports that while the Iraq Study Group couldn't agree on a fixed date for a withdrawal, its target for accomplishing it by 2008 is partly with an eye on the political calendar. Participants in the group's discussions tell her that both Democrats and Republicans on the panel believe it must be accomplished before the 2008 primary season. Which means that Iraq could become a less important topic in the upcoming presidential election.  

Speaking of, with just a bit more than 700 days left until Election Day 2008 -- that's right, 700 days -- the potential and already-declared contenders continue revving up their presidential engines. Outgoing Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack begins Day Two of his announcement tour. Today, he's in New Hampshire; on Saturday, he hits Pittsburgh (his original hometown, where he started out as an orphan with an adoptive mother who was an alcoholic) and Des Moines, IA (the site of his campaign headquarters); and on Sunday, he's in Nevada, home to the Democrats' second nominating contest.

Barack Obama also once again jumps into the spotlight, this time appearing today -- which is World AIDS Day -- at evangelical pastor and author Rick Warren's mega-church in Lake Forest, CA, to discuss AIDS and HIV. After that, Obama sits down with NBC's Jay Leno to tape his appearance on the "Tonight Show." Obama's visit to Warren's church, however, has angered some anti-abortion activists due to his support for abortion rights. As we mentioned yesterday, Obama will take a HIV test at the event and will encourage others to do the same; he took an AIDS test when he visited Kenya earlier this year. 

(Obama isn't the only one gearing up for World AIDS Day. In addition to President Bush participating in a meeting this morning on AIDS, the White House announced yesterday that Bush will meet with South African President Thabo Mbeki next Friday to discuss, among other things, ways to fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa.)

In more oh-eight news, John McCain crashed Mitt Romney's Republican Governors Association meeting in Florida (see below for more on that). And then there's the nominating calendar. On Saturday afternoon, the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee meets to discuss a proposal that would award bonus delegates to states that hold their presidential nominating contests at later dates as a way to discourage a front-loaded calendar. Per a source, the committee will likely recommend this proposal, and the full DNC will vote on it in February. 

Also at the DNC confab, chairman Howard Dean -- a day after his counterpart at the RNC gave his own midterm assessment -- will discuss what the party accomplished in 2006. Joining him will be Nancy Boyda of Kansas and Tim Walz of Minnesota, who were two of the more surprising House Democratic challengers to win on Election Day. And Dean will obviously highlight them as successful examples of his controversial 50-state strategy.

The Washington Post's scoop that the Iraq Study Group is recommending withdrawing all troops from Iraq by 2008 notes that it "would be more a conditional goal than a firm timetable… But panel members concluded that it is vital to set a target to put pressure on Iraqi leaders to do more to assume responsibility for the security of their country." More: "The choice of early 2008 as a goal could also, intentionally or not, change the nature of the debate over the war at the height of the U.S. presidential primary season."

Despite that Post report, a New York Times analysis notes that "the idea of a rapid American troop withdrawal is fast receding as a viable option."

Incoming Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin yesterday "made it clear he would use his position to try to steer Bush in a direction that the president has publicly resisted: setting a deadline of four to six months to withdraw most of the 140,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq."

The Wall Street Journal writes that although Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki "both said it was necessary to speed the handover of security responsibility, senior U.S. military officials caution that big barriers remain to achieving this. The Iraqi Army and police forces remain rife with corruption, and embedded U.S. advisers regularly complain that because the U.S. doesn't control the Iraqi ministries, they can't get corrupt Army and police officers fired or replaced."

"Analysts said the [Bush-Maliki] meeting broke no new ground and instead highlighted what appears to be a growing rift between the White House and Maliki's government."

The Des Moines Register covers Tom Vilsack's presidential announcement yesterday.

So do the other big papers, like the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune 

In its Vilsack write-up, USA Today says former governors "have occupied the White House for 26 of the past 30 years, propelled by their experience running states and the absence of voting records ripe for dissection. But in the post-9/11 era, with violence gripping Iraq, they face a special challenge in convincing voters they can keep the country safe." The paper adds that Vilsack devoted just two paragraphs of his speech to world affairs. 

Previewing Barack Obama's appearance at Rick Warren's church today, the Chicago Tribune writes that the senator will be on stage "with one of the religious right's favorite politicians, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), as he addresses more than 1,000 evangelical pastors and church leaders at a summit on AIDS organized by Warren." More: "Obama's appearance at the evangelical summit is but one hint of the gathering potential many political and religious analysts see for a recalibration of the political loyalties of churchgoing Americans."

The New York Times reports that John McCain turned up yesterday at the Republican Governors Association meeting, which was being headed by potential GOP rival Mitt Romney. "Mr. McCain commandeered a room at the Doral Resort for eight hours of meetings with nine Republican governors, including Gov.-elect Charlie Crist of Florida… Mr. Romney has hoped, like George W. Bush in 2000 and Bob Dole in 1996, to use the overwhelming support of the Republican governors as a springboard to the presidential nomination. Mr. McCain served notice with his incursion that Mr. Romney could not take them for granted."

The Miami Herald adds that McCain "invited the governors and other elected officials to a 5 p.m. reception, and even dispatched buses to shuttle them to Don Shula's Hotel in Miami Lakes and back to Doral in time for the 8 p.m. dinner headlined by Romney." 

In another investigation by his hometown paper, the Boston Globe reports that Romney, who "has grown outspoken in his criticism of illegal immigration" has for the last decade "used a landscaping company that relies heavily on workers ... illegal Guatemalan immigrants, to maintain the grounds surrounding his pink Colonial house on Marsh Street in Belmont."  When asked about the report in Miami yesterday by a reporter, Romney "said, 'Aw, geez,' and walked away." His press office later said he knew nothing of the matter and would look into it.

So who is popular or not among the possible presidential candidates? In a recent poll of registered voters in Washington State, conducted by Peter Hart Research Associates, voters were asked whom they would "most want to spend a weekend with" among prominent political families. Bill and Hillary Clinton topped the list, with President Bush and his family trailing in second place. The Obamas finished third, followed by the Giulianis, the Gores, the McCains, and the Cheneys. Last place went to the Kerrys.

Profiling incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Los Angeles Times writes that he was effective playing defense in the minority. "But with Democrats catapulted into control of the Senate, the former amateur boxer will assume a broader responsibility for charting alternatives to the Bush agenda… Can he cobble together a legislative record his party can be proud of? Though his low-key style masks toughness and great political dexterity, it is unclear if that will be enough."

USA Today is the latest to write how the new Democratic-led Congress could help both Washington, DC and Utah win House seats. "Monday, the Utah Legislature will set in motion a plan that would permanently increase the size of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time since 1911" -- to 437 members. 

The Washington Post adds that DC Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton met with incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the legislation that would expand the US House.

And USA Today writes that conservative commentator Dennis Prager blasted incoming Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, for his decision to take the oath of office with his hand on a Koran. "'He should not be allowed to do so,' Prager wrote [on Townhall.com], 'not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American culture.'" A spokesman to Ellison says the incoming congressman "has received hundreds of 'very bigoted and racist' e-mails and phone calls since Prager's column appeared." 

The Washington Post covers outgoing RNC chairman Ken Mehlman's speech to GOP governors about the 2006 midterm results, in which he "acknowledged voter anger about the Iraq war and a spate of GOP corruption scandals, but he pointed to a broader culprit: the erosion of the core conservative principles of small government and personal responsibility."

CNBC's Patti Domm notes that the Dow finished November 121 points shy of the record it set November 17.  Up 14% for the year, the Dow scored a 1.2% gain for the month, its fifth monthly advance in a row but its worst performance since July.

The Washington Post profiles new Treasury undersecretary Robert Steel, who is in charge of domestic finance. At the same time, however, "he moonlights as the unpaid chairman of the Board of Trustees of Duke University, a major recipient of federal funds and one of the country's most richly endowed colleges. Experts say it is rare for a senior executive branch official … to hold a significant position outside government." The Post adds, though, that government and university ethics officials "approved the combination as long as Steel did nothing that had a 'direct and predictable effect' on Duke's finances, a stipulation that he accepted."

In Louisiana's run off between embattled incumbent Rep. William Jefferson (D) -- he of the $90,000 in his freezer fame -- and challenger Karen Carter (D), Jefferson is up with a TV ad declaring: "I have never taken a bribe from anyone. This is an desperate attempt by an ambitious young woman [Carter], who won't debate me on her codependent relationship with the insurance industry."