From msnbc.com's Tom Curry
The chairmen of the fiscal reform commission appointed by President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that the members of the panel will vote on a final deficit-cutting plan by the end of this week.

“I don’t know if we’re going to get two votes or five votes or 10 votes or 14 votes,” said former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles. But the good news, according to Bowles, was that “the era of deficit denial is over.”

He also argued that “regardless of how the vote turns out, we won – and we won big.”

In effect, Bowles was saying the work of the commission was a worthwhile exercise in educating the public about the dangers of the growing national debt, no matter what happens to the plan.

According to the presidential executive order that created the panel, 14 out of its 18 members would need to vote for the recommendations in order for them to be reported to Congress.

The text of the final plan will be released later Tuesday, Bowles told reporters. “We’re putting the final touches on it now.”

He and the commission co-chairman, former Republican Senate Whip Alan Simpson, said the proposal would recommend elimination of tax expenditures, or tax breaks, which cost the Treasury $1.1 trillion a year.

Simpson insisted on calling those provisions “tax earmarks.”

“We don’t use the phrase ‘tax expenditures’ any more – that’s a fake. Tax earmarks are spending by another name… and they just chip away revenue,” Simpson said.

By eliminating tax preferences, “We can broaden the base, simplify the (tax) code, reduce (tax) rates, and pay the deficit down between $80 billion and $180 billion a year, every year,” said Bowles.

Bowles echoed a warning last summer from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office that investor doubts about U.S. Treasury bonds might someday cause a fiscal crisis.

“When the markets lose confidence in a country, they act swiftly and they act decisively. Look at Greece, look at Portugal, look at Ireland, look at Spain. If they markets lose confidence in this country and we continue to build up these enormous deficits and debt, they will act swiftly and decisively,” Bowles warned.

After 30 years of service in the United States Senate, Democrat Chris Dodd used a farewell speech to the chamber Tuesday to issue a plea for civility in government and to warn against major reforms to the Senate’s filibuster rules.

Throughout his career, Dodd, who was first elected to the House in 1974 and the Senate in 1980, played a major role in legislation that changed the landscape of American life, including the Family and Medical Leave Act and mortgage and financial reform laws.

Watch the whole speech here:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Dodd, himself the son of a senator, chose not to seek re-election last December after his poll numbers showed a serious decline in his popularity.

Earlier this year, NBC’s Ken Strickland sat down with Dodd as part of a week-long Web series about the departing members of the Senate. Read a transcript of that interview here.

From NBC's Kelly O'Donnell
Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet is apparently unhappy with the Democratic leadership's plan for the lame duck session.

Bennet, who was first appointed to the Senate and narrowly won election to hold that seat in November, was heard on an open microphone today while presiding during a vote.

Bennet's distinctive voice was picked up on a microphone that is typically off while votes are being recorded. On the C-SPAN feed, you can see someone react and signal to Bennet that the mic was hot.

Bennet was speaking to a colleague who appeared to be and sounded like Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar when Bennet said of this lame duck session, "It's all rigged. The whole conversation is rigged. The fact that we don't get to a discussion before the break about what we're going to do in the lame duck. It's just rigged."
When contacted for a comment on the hot mic, Bennet's staff responded, "Michael was telling the same truths on the Senate floor that he tells folks back home in Colorado."

Bennet aide Adam Bozzi added, "For almost two years, he has talked about needing to fix a broken Washington. We can't move forward on major issues facing our country because of a broken system that is rigged to prevent progress. We are now in the second week of this session and haven't begun debating Defense Authorization or tax cuts that will expire at the end of the year. Colorado and the rest of our country deserve better which is why he has proposed overhauling the way Washington works, including filibuster and lobbying reforms."

From NBC's Courtney Kube
Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen are speaking now about the release of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" report.

Here are a few quick highlights -- more to come:

- "When coupled with prompt implementation of the recommendations" the "risk of repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell to overall military effectiveness is low."

- "In the short term repeal will "bring about some limited and isolated disruption to unit cohesion and retention" but the disruption will not be widespread or long lasting and U.S. military members can adjust.

- The repeal "will not have a negative impact" on the overall ability to conduct a military mission.

- In the open forums, found they don't have a problem with the a gay service member serving, that the concern is with them serving openly

- "Repeatedly we heard service members express the view that 'open' homosexuality would lead to widespread and overt displays of effeminacy among men, homosexual promiscuity, harassment, and unwelcome advances within units, invasion of personal privacy, and an overall erosion of standards of conduct, unit cohesion, and morality."

- On moral and religious objections: "we cannot and should not expect individual service members to change their personal, religious, or moral beliefs about homosexuality," but they do expect them to treat all others with dignity and respect.

- gay men and women are often discreet and guarded with who they share information about their sexual orientation with, and that "would be true even more so" in a military environment. 15% of gay service members would want their sexual orientation known to their unit. Most would be private and discreet "to fit in, co-exist, and succeed."

- A higher percentage of service members in warfighting units predict negative effects of repeal

- Training, education and leadership will make implementation work. "Most surveyed know nothing but a military at war."

SURVEY RESULTS
* 70% believe impact of repeal on ability to work together and get the job done will be positive/mixed/or no effect
* 69% have worked with a service member they believed to be gay
* 92% had very good/good/or neither good nor bad feelings about co-worker they have served with they believed to be gay
* 50-55% believed repeal would have mixed or no effect
* 15-20% believed repeal would have positive effect
* 30% overall believed repeal would have negative effect
* 12% of spouses would want their spouses to leave earlier if DADT is repealed
* 40-60% of the Marine Corps and various combat arms specialties believe repeal will have a negative impact ...
==> 43% of the Marine Corps overall believed it would have a negative impact
==> 48% soldiers in Army combat arms units said negative impact
==> 58% Marines in combat arms units said negative impact
* 67% Marines in combat arms units said negative impact in the field or at sea

SURVEY INFO
- about 400,000 active and reserve service members were sent surveys;
115,052 responded (28%)
- about 150,000 spouses were sent surveys;
44,266 responded
- margin of error is +/- 1%

From NBC's Athena Jones
President Barack Obama announced plans Tuesday for top administration officials to work with members of both parties to break the logjam on extending the so-called Bush tax cuts.

After a long-awaited bipartisan meeting with congressional leaders, Obama announced that he has tasked Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Budget Director Jack Lew with reaching an agreement with Republicans, who want to see the tax cuts -- set to expire at the end of the year -- extended for everyone.

The White House wants to see the tax relief extended only for individuals making less than $200,000 and couples earning less than $250,000. The administration has argued the country cannot afford to borrow $700 billion over the next decade to pay for tax cuts for those making more.

"I've asked the leaders to appoint members to help in this negotiation process," Obama said in brief remarks to the press after the meeting. "They agreed to do that. That process is beginning right way and we expect to get some answers back over the next couple of days about how we can accomplish our key goal, which is to make sure the economy continues to grow and we are putting people back to work."

Ratifying the new START Treaty with Russia on arms control -- which the president said was "absolutely essential for national security"-- extending unemployment insurance and tax relief measures topped Obama's wish list for congressional action over the final weeks of the year. He did not mention the repeal of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy or the Dream Act, both contentious items on Capitol Hill.

In his first public comments after the Thanksgiving holiday on Monday, the president said he hoped today's meeting would mark a "a first step towards a new and productive working relationship" between Democrats and Republicans. The White House originally wanted to host the meeting right after the mid-term election, with the president himself expressing hope that it would spill over into dinner. Instead, it had to be postponed due to Republican scheduling conflicts.

Obama declared himself pleased with how the meeting turned out, calling it "a good start", and urged members of both parties to chose the "best of our ideas over the worst of our politics" as they work to tackle the challenges facing the country. He announced plans for additional bipartisan summits like this one in the future, including at Camp David. But he also said that differences on many issues would likely remain and that reaching agreement would not be easy.

The president's bipartisan deficit commission was also a subject of discussion at today's meeting. Reducing government spending is high on the list of Republican concerns and the commission is due to release a full set of recommendations on how to reduce the budget deficit this week.

Geithner, Lew and Vice President Biden joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), incoming Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) for the meeting, which lasted nearly two hours.

President Barack Obama’s first formal meeting with Republican and Democratic top dogs since the midterm elections yielded mutual praise from both sides, cautiousness about the politically charged debates to come, and no major breakthroughs on key policy negotiations.

Which is pretty much what was expected.

Dubbed the “Slurpee Summit” after Obama's often-used campaign line accusing Republicans of lazily sipping on the tasty frozen treats while Democrats toiled to fix the economy, the discussion was praised by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as "useful and frank." The president called it a “productive” conversation that could signal “the beginning of a new dialogue” between the two parties.

But, while the compliments flowed freely, both the president and GOP leaders warned that it may be difficult to overcome stark ideological differences between the two sides.

“We have two parties for a reason. There are real philosophical differences, deeply held principles to which each party holds,” Obama said. “Although the atmosphere in today’s meeting was extremely civil, there’s no doubt that those differences are going to remain no matter how many meetings we have. And the truth is there is always going to be a political incentive against working together, particularly in the current hyperpartisan climate.”

"We had a very nice meeting today. Of course, we have had a lot of very nice meetings," said House Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner. "The question is can we find the common ground the American people expect us to find."

The two parties have not yet reached agreement on the key issue of a looming logjam over the extension of Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class and for high earners. “There’s still differences about how to get there,” Obama said of a solution. He and Republican leaders have named negotiators to continue attempts to hammer out an agreement.

Other agenda items for today’s meeting included the extension of emergency unemployment insurance benefits, which expire at the end of the month, as well as the passage of spending bills that fund almost all government operations and the ratification of the new START treaty.

The "summit" attracted rapt attention and media coverage because it was the first such face-to-face meeting of Republican leaders at the White House since the November "shellacking" delivered to the president’s party.

But, while it was the first occasion since the ascendant GOP majority was made official at the ballot box, Boehner and McConnell are no strangers to the White House.

In 2010 alone, Obama hosted meetings at his residence with Republican leaders to address job creation, financial reform, health care legislation, foreign policy, and energy proposals.

But such summits have previously resulted in minimal agreement between the two parties.

When the president and House Republicans engaged in a 90-minute televised question-and-answer-session during a GOP retreat in February, many hailed the candid “question time” as a new benchmark for bipartisan public debate. But some Republicans were less enthusiastic about the glare of the cameras, which allowed a fairly flattering performance by a defiant president. GOP aides told NBC at the time that allowing cameras to capture the long exchange was “a mistake.”

A subsequent highly publicized summit to address health care overhaul with members of both parties. A top Republican called the event ‘pointless’ before it even took place; McConnell said he was “discouraged” by the event’s outcome as soon as it was over.

Shortly before that meeting in February, as the second of two epic D.C. snowstorms loomed, Obama quipped that a bipartisan tete-a-tete with congressional leaders went so well that McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were “out doing snow angels together on the South Lawn.”

But the giggles soon gave way to a slightly more frosty assessment by the president. “'Bipartisan' can’t be that I agree to all the things that they believe in or want and they agree to none of the things that I want,” Obama told reporters.

Democratic sources confirm to First Read that Washington Sen. Patty Murray -- who narrowly won re-election earlier this month -- is expected to announce to colleagues today that she will be the next chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

With Democrats having many more seats in play in 2012 than Republicans -- Jim Webb (VA), Sherrod Brown (OH), Claire McCaskill (MO), and others are up for re-election this coming cycle -- the party had a difficult time recruiting someone to oversee the Senate elections in 2012.

Murray, though, has done this job before, serving as DSCC chair during the 2002 cycle.

From NBC's Ken Strickland
A vote today in the Senate to ban earmarks for two years failed to secure the 67 votes needed to advance. The vote was 39 yes, 56 no. (A super-duper majority of 67 votes was needed due to the way the measure was filed under Senate rules.)

The measure was offered by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn and Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill and Mark Udall.

Only seven Democrats voted for the ban. They were McCaskill, Udall, Evan Bayh, Michael Bennet, Russ Feingold, Bill Nelson, and Mark Warner. (Bayh is retiring this year, and Feingold lost his re-election bid.)

Earlier this month, Senate Republicans voted -- amongst themselves -- to ban earmarks in a nonbinding resolution. But eight of them voted against banning earmarks. They were Robert Bennett, Thad Cochran, Susan Collins, Jim Inhofe, Dick Lugar, Lisa Murkowski, Richard Shelby, and George Voinovich.

Of those Republicans, six of the eight (Bennett, Cochran, Collins, Murkowski, Shelby, and Voinvoich) sit on the Appropriations Committee, which doles out the federal dollars. (Bennett lost in Utah's GOP primary; Voinovich is retiring.)

Who didn't vote? Republicans Kit Bond and Sam Brownback, who are both retiring this year. Oddly, Democrats Barbara Boxer, Barbara Mikulski, and Jeanne Shaheen didn't vote on earmarks, but did vote on another measure minutes later.

Two different approaches in advance of today’s 10:30 am ET bipartisan meeting at the White House… And those two approaches present different dangers… What to expect from the meeting? Not much… START, Kyl, and 2012… Should Obama have gotten something in return for the federal pay freeze?... Bowles and Simpson to talk to reporters at 3:30 pm ET before tomorrow’s deadline for the deficit commission… “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” study to be released today… And Dayton picks up votes on the first day of the recount in Minnesota.

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg
*** Two different approaches: Two very different approaches to the lame duck -- and likely the next Congress -- were on display in advance of today's bipartisan congressional meeting at the White House at 10:30 am ET. On the one hand, you had President Obama preaching "shared responsibility" with Republicans now set to take over the House in January. “My hope is that tomorrow’s meeting will mark a first step towards a new and productive working relationship,” the president said yesterday, “because we now have a shared responsibility to deliver for the American people.” On the other hand, you had John Boehner and Mitch McConnell demanding extension of the Bush tax cuts and a reduction in federal spending. “If President Obama and Democratic leaders put forward a plan during the lame-duck session to cut spending and stop the tax hikes on all Americans, they can count on a positive response from Republicans,” the two write in a Washington Post op-ed today.

*** With two different dangers: Both approaches present potential dangers. For the White House, the danger is that the let’s-hold-hands-together-and-get-to-work routine won't work when the other side is packing brass knuckles in their pockets. After all, this didn’t exactly produce sterling results for Democrats in 2009-2010. Also, as soon as Obama yesterday announced a concession by proposing a federal pay freeze, Republicans were taking credit for the idea. For congressional Republicans, the danger is too harsh of a tone (see their cancellation of the meeting Obama originally scheduled) and interpreting the midterm election results as a broad mandate (when even they acknowledge that the American public has them on a short leash). On “TODAY” this morning, soon-to-be House Majority Leader Eric Cantor struck a conciliatory tone. Americans, he said, “want to see Washington producing results.”

*** What to expect? Not much: The White House, however, expects nothing concrete to come out of today’s meeting. This is all about the two sides feeling each other out -- and seeing where there is a line in the sand and where there isn’t. And the meeting won’t just be about the Bush tax cuts. Indeed, the first thing Obama mentioned yesterday when teeing up the meeting was NOT anything to do with taxes or the economy -- but rather ratifying the new START treaty. Here’s the full attendance roster: President Obama, Vice President Biden, Treasury Secretary Geithner, OMB Director Lew, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, future Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, future House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, and Minority Whip Jon Kyl.

*** Kyl START-ing up for 2012? Speaking of the START treaty and Kyl, we’ll re-ask the question we raised yesterday: Would Kyl be willing to drop his opposition to START if Senate Democrats dropped the Dream Act in the lame duck? Remember: Kyl is up for re-election in 2012 -- and in a state with a large Latino population. And remember this, too: Republicans didn’t fare very well in the West earlier this month, picking up just a handful of congressional seats (none in California!) and going 0-4 in the most competitive Senate races west of the Rockies (California, Colorado, Nevada, and Washington). One reason for this poor performance was the party's poor performance with the Latino vote. By the way, in an interview on ABC today, John McCain sounded more optimistic on ratifying new START than Kyl has been.

*** Is Obama a poor negotiator? Returning to yesterday’s pay freeze, some voices on the left were disappointed that Obama put it on the table without asking for anything in return from Republicans. “If the president is willing to accept a civilian pay freeze, fine. I wish he wouldn't, but that's where he's prepared to go,” Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly wrote. “But in exchange for this concession, Obama appears to be getting literally nothing in return… The president has some extraordinary strengths. Negotiating tactics do not appear to be among them.” The White House will respond that it needed to get out in front of an issue that Congress was destined to take up and get some credit. Still, the criticism that Obama goes public too quickly with concessions is something to watch over the next couple of years. Quietly, the left has been irked by the number of times the White House has tossed them under the bus without getting something in return (see: option, public).

*** Bowles and Simpson meet the press, again: At 3:30 pm ET today, Deficit Commission co-chairs Erskine Bowles (D) and Alan Simpson (R) hold a press conference to update the media on the state the of negotiations. Tomorrow is the deadline for 14 of the commission’s 18 members to agree on a final proposal to send to Congress. Bowles and Simpson will lead a public meeting in DC on Wednesday morning to discuss the commission’s final proposal. Yesterday, Obama said that he hopes the commission’s final product “will spark a serious and long-overdue conversation in this town” about the ways in which to reduce the deficit and debt.

*** DADT report is released: One other thing to watch today: the release of the military report on repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” As the AP writes today -- and as the Washington Post wrote earlier this month: “Officials familiar with the 10-month study's results have said a clear majority of respondents don't care if gays serve openly, with 70 percent predicting that lifting the ban would have positive, mixed or no results. The Post also reported: “Although a majority of respondents signaled no strong objections, a significant minority is opposed to serving alongside openly gay troops. About 40 percent of the Marine Corps is concerned about lifting the ban, according to one of the people familiar with the report.”

*** Dayton picks up votes in first day of MN recount: As expected, the first day of the recount in Minnesota’s gubernatorial contest didn’t alter Mark Dayton’s (D) nearly 9,000-vote lead over Tom Emmer (R); in fact, Dayton expanded his lead. The Star Tribune: "Dayton picked up 20 votes while Emmer lost four. Dayton now leads Emmer 43.6 percent to 43.2 percent -- a margin of 8,794 votes. Those numbers represent only a snapshot, since more than half of the state's ballots have yet to be recounted. Before the recount began, Dayton led Emmer by 8,770 votes."

*** Programming note: Sen. Dick Durbin, who’s attending today’s bipartisan meeting at the White House, will appear tonight on “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.”

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“When President Obama sits down with the new Republican congressional leaders for their first face-to-face meeting on Tuesday, the stated mission will be to make progress on ratifying an arms agreement with Russia and reaching a deal on soon-to-expire tax cuts,” the Washington Post reports. “But with the White House session scheduled to last just one hour, neither side anticipates emerging with a grand compromise. Instead, the goal will be to set a course for the weeks ahead - and to try to determine whether either side is serious about making concessions necessary to reach a deal.”

The Wall Street Journal previews today’s meeting this way: “The first debate of the 2012 presidential election cycle will occur Tuesday, and taxes will be the subject. It's quite possible that, in the end, the tax cuts simply will be extended for everyone temporarily, punting the debate into next year and beyond. Meanwhile, there likely will be lots of maneuvers and test votes, all designed to probe the underlying question: What is the real balance of power in Washington in the wake of the midterm elections?”

Politico: “It won’t be the relaxed dinner-and-drinks working session President Barack Obama wanted, but the White House still hopes Tuesday’s delayed and abbreviated summit with Republicans will start to bridge the bipartisan divide. The problem for Obama is that GOP leaders have little incentive to cut any deals in the lame-duck congressional session -- the better to capitalize on their new House majority in January -- and have no appetite for major compromise on the extension of Bush-era tax cuts or their deficit-cutting platform.”

The Boston Globe: “In the first test of Washington’s new political alignment, President Obama will meet with Republican leaders today with the nation’s tax rates and a nuclear arms treaty in doubt. Neither side expects final deals from the meeting, but the sparring could have major short- and long-term consequences.”

It appears John McCain is more optimistic that the Senate can ratify the new START treaty than Jon Kyl is. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said on ABC that he hopes START can get done by the end of this year, per The Hill. "I believe that we could move forward with the START treaty and satisfy Sen. Kyl's concerns and mine about missile defense and others, and I would hope that we can do that," McCain said. When asked if negotiations had advanced to the extent that a vote could be held by the end of the year, McCain said, "I would hope so. But Sen. Kyl's concerns are very legitimate, and I think that attempts are being made to address them … What I would hope that we could do is we could do is agree to the extension of tax cuts at all levels and also reach some agreement on moving forward with the START treaty as well," he said. "I think that is a serious result that could ensue from the meeting today."

The AP writes on today’s release of the military’s report on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:: “Officials familiar with the 10-month study's results have said a clear majority of respondents don't care if gays serve openly, with 70 percent predicting that lifting the ban would have positive, mixed or no results. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the findings hadn't been released.”

The Hill: “President Obama on Monday proposed a two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers, stealing a play from the Republican handbook in the process.”

The AP adds, “Obama’s move was an attempt to get in front of Republican plans to slash federal pay and the workforce next year, when they will flex more legislative muscle than now. It came a day ahead of Obama’s meeting at the White House with both Republican and Democratic leaders -- his first with Republicans since the midterm elections -- and two days before the deadline for recommendations by his deficit-reduction commission.”

“Republicans and Democrats appear content to end the 111th Congress the way it started, by following a ‘change’ election with a round of fiercely partisan fighting over an agenda that even many Democrats have little interest in,” Roll Call reports. “In fact, the House and Senate returned to Washington, D.C., on Monday for the lame duck with few solid details about what will be on their plates beyond partisanship.”

“Senate Republicans on Monday formally claimed President Obama’s former Senate seat with the swearing-in of Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.),” The Hill writes.

The doc fix is in: “Congress agreed to a one-month delay in Medicare payment cuts to doctors yesterday, giving a short-term reprieve to a looming crisis over treatment of the nation’s senior citizens,” the AP says.

“Rep. Charles Rangel returned to Capitol Hill yesterday to anxiously await a House vote on disciplinary action against him for ethics violations,” the New York Post writes. “As early as today, the 80-year-old Harlem Democrat will face a vote on censure, the most severe punishment short of expulsion. The vote could come up anytime.”

“The latest trove of diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks provides a rare glimpse into behind-the-scenes meetings Senator John F. Kerry has held with world leaders, offering a window on his style of diplomacy and providing an unvarnished view of his take on some of the United States’ most formidable foreign policy problems,” the Boston Globe writes. “While the cables do not differ dramatically from statements that Kerry, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has made publicly, they portray him as a statesman who is constantly seeking a middle ground and appearing to hold out hope that longtime foes of the United States -- such as Syria and Iran -- might be prodded into friendlier relations with the United States. Analysts, however, cautioned that Kerry’s private conversations with foreign diplomats should not be taken as his unfiltered view on a subject, given that diplomatic exchanges are often geared toward finding common ground.”

Writing in Politico, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough argues, “Republicans have a problem. The most-talked-about figure in the GOP is a reality show star who cannot be elected. And yet the same leaders who fret that Sarah Palin could devastate their party in 2012 are too scared to say in public what they all complain about in private. Enough. It’s time for the GOP to man up.”

Chris Christie’s $271 million IOU: “New Jersey owes the federal government more than $271 million after canceling a rail tunnel connecting the state with New York City, according to a debt notice obtained yesterday by the Associated Press. The letter from the Federal Transit Administration’s chief financial officer to NJ Transit’s executive director demands payment of $271,101,291 by Dec. 24. It’s money the government wants New Jersey to repay for work done on the Hudson River tunnel before Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, terminated the project. The notification follows a warning letter earlier this month estimating the charges.” More: “A Christie administration spokesman, Michael Drewniak, would not say yesterday whether the charge would be paid in full or disputed, or where New Jersey would get the money if it decides to repay the government or is found liable for all or part of the bill.”

“Potential candidates for chairman of the Republican National Committee will take questions at a panel discussion in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday afternoon, and they'll be ranked on their humility, fairness and managerial skills, among other things,” Roll Call reports. “The Republican National Conservative Caucus, a group of 26 RNC members, is organizing the panel, along with FreedomWorks, the group founded by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas). Former RNC Political Director Gentry Collins, former RNC Co-Chairwoman Ann Wagner, Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Chris Healy, former Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis and Maria Cino, the CEO of the 2008 Republican National Convention, have confirmed they’ll participate in the panel, said caucus Chairman James Bopp Jr., a committeeman from Indiana.”

“George W. Bush added a high-profile friend to his social network on Monday, trading jokes and compliments with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in a live chat watched by nearly 7,000 viewers,” the New York Daily News reports.

MINNESOTA: The Minneapolis Star Tribune on the first day of the gubernatorial recount: “By day's end, more than 400 ballots were challenged, with the vast majority coming from Emmer's side. County officials declared half of those challenges ‘frivolous,’ meaning they remain in the current count but could get another look.”

That said, "Dayton picked up 20 votes while Emmer lost four. Dayton now leads Emmer 43.6 percent to 43.2 percent -- a margin of 8,794 votes. Those numbers represent only a snapshot, since more than half of the state's ballots have yet to be recounted. Before the recount began, Dayton led Emmer by 8,770 votes."

NEW YORK: NY-1: “The fate of the nation's only remaining undecided congressional race will be submitted to a State Supreme Court judge in Riverhead today,” Riverhead Local writes. “Lawyers for Tim Bishop (D) and Randy Altschuler (R) are scheduled to appear in the Riverhead courtroom of Judge Peter H. Mayer today to begin arguing over the more than 2,000 absentee ballots challenged by both candidates in the race for New York's First Congressional District.” Bishop leads by 235 votes.

Stu Rothenberg wonders if the special election in May was a turning point and that Democrats misread the message of their win there. (But one could argue that May was a turning point because of other events -- namely, the BP spill and Greek debt crisis, which produced a summer of bad news for the White House.)

Nathan Gonzales: “For most of the election cycle, Democratic strategists were optimistic they could hold the House because of their arsenal of opposition research. But Democratic attacks failed to bring down enough Republican challengers to keep the majority.”

“Sen. Patty Murray was buttonholed on the Senate floor Monday night by Democratic colleagues, many facing re-election in 2012, who urged her to lead Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee next year,” Roll Call reports. “According to a Democratic Senate aide, a host of Members approached the Washington state lawmaker Monday night during a floor vote to encourage her to take over the DSCC next year.”

FLORIDA: Former Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned after he was revealed to have sent male pages sexually charged internet messages, is seriously considering a bid for West Palm mayor, the Palm Beach Post reports.

MAINE: “There is a budding mystery along the northern border, where a local tea party leader insists a credible challenger has emerged to attack Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe from the right,” Roll Call reports. “Just don’t ask who it is.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE: “Former U.S. senator Rick Santorum visited New Hampshire Monday for the seventh time this year, laying the groundwork for a potential 2012 presidential bid,” visiting the Manchester Rotary Club and a local Republican committee, the Manchester Union-Leader writes.

“When the fall campaign began, New Hampshire was the bluest of states, the temptation almost irresistible to describe the political environment as being as blue as the skies in the Presidential Range. When it ended earlier this month, red skies of deep atmospheric change were everywhere,” Real Clear Politics writes. “What this means for the national political picture is clear. The New Hampshire primary, for six decades the first in the country, will be conducted in an atmosphere that has been altered substantially.”

SOUTH CAROLINA: Wristbands will be handed out on Wednesday for Sarah Palin’s book-signing stop in Columbia, The State reports.

TEXAS: “Several Texas conservatives are vowing to make Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) pay for her primary challenge to popular Republican Gov. Rick Perry,” The Hill writes. “The four-term senator hasn’t announced whether she’ll run for reelection, but, no matter her decision, Tea Party activists are preparing to run their own candidates.”

From NBC's Shawna Thomas and Luke Russert
When Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, speaks before the GOP Steering Committee later this week to make his case for leading the House Energy and Commerce panel, he will present himself as the General Patton to Presumptive Speaker Boehner's Eisenhower -- ready to do battle against the Obama administration.

Barton's nine-slide PowerPoint presentation, sent to NBC by a Democratic aide and confirmed by Barton's office, reads like a laundry list of accomplishments and GOP priorities -- that is, until the last slide.

That slide, titled "What's in Store for the Obama Administration, states that "Speaker Boehner is our Dwight Eisenhower in the battle against the Obama Administration. Majority Leader Cantor is our Omar Bradley. I want to be George Patton - put anything in my scope and I will shoot it."

With those parallels, Barton aligns himself and congressional Republicans with American military heroes of the Second World War. By that comparison, he could be perceived as likening opponents of congressional Republicans to Germany's Nazi regime.

Barton's office could not be reached for comment. Phone calls and e-mails to several aides on the congressman’s staff were not immediately returned. ***

UPDATE TWO *** Barton's office confirmed the authenticity of the slide but has not responded to a request for further comment but an aide to the congressman said that it is "ludicrous" to suggest the comparison between GOP leaders and World War II generals sets up a parallel between Obama and the enemy regimes of that era.

"It is completely ludicrous to make that leap," said Sean Brown, Barton's press secretary.

While two senior GOP aides see this as a "tone deaf" move by Barton, Republican House leadership declined to comment on the matter on the record.

Patton, the famously outspoken World War II army general, served as a commander of forces in North Africa and Sicily until being removed from the job for slapping a soldier. But the general, renowned as a brilliant tactician, later went on to lead several successful military missions in the European theater.

Eisenhower, who served as the U.S. Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and later as the General of the Army during World War II, was charged with leading the D-Day invasion on the coast of Normandy in 1944. Bradley, like Eisenhower a five-star General, commanded troops landing on Utah and Omaha beaches during the D-Day invasion.

Many Republicans distanced themselves from Barton when he offered an apology to BP Chairman Tony Hayward at a hearing earlier this year. Barton apologized for the White House requiring BP to setup an independent fund to aid Gulf Coast residents and described it as a "$20 billion shakedown."

Msnbc.com's Carrie Dann contributed.

From NBC's Catherine Chomiak and Lauren Selsky
In a speech today to the Detroit Economic Club, Indiana Congressman -- and potential presidential candidate -- Mike Pence outlined his agenda to grow the economy and restore what he called "American exceptionalism."

“To restore American exceptionalism, we must end all this Keynesian spending and get back to the practice of free market economics," he said. "The free market is what made America’s economy the greatest in the world, and we cannot falter in our willingness to defend it.”

In outlining his economic agenda, Pence used the acronym S.T.A.R.T:
S - Sound monetary policy
T - Tax relief and reform
A - Access to American energy
R - Regulatory reform
T - Trade

Answering audience questions after his speech, Pence addressed the possibility of a 2012 presidential run. "Well, let me say my little family and I have been humbled at the encouragement," he said, sidestepping a direct answer. His hope is whoever runs will "embrace the ideas that I have expressed in Detroit."

As opponents of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy prepare a final push for repeal during Congress’s lame duck session, polling shows that they’ve got the wind of public opinion at their backs.

A new survey out Monday from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows that 58 percent of Americans favor allowing gay and lesbian members of the military to serve openly. Less than a third of respondents (27 percent) say that gays and lesbians should not be permitted to serve openly in the Armed Forces.

Democrats and independents favor letting gays serve openly in the military by wide margins, but Republicans remain divided on the question. About 40 percent say that gays should be permitted to serve openly, while 44 percent say they should not.

National approval for openly gay service members is mirrored in almost every religious and age group, according to the poll.

Over half of Catholics and non-evangelical Protestants say that gays should be allowed to serve openly. Only white evangelicals generally oppose that policy (34 percent favor open service; 48 percent oppose.)

Support for allowing gays to serve openly is still highest among young Americans, with almost 70 percent of those 18-29 favoring the proposal. But only 44 percent of Americans over 65 agree with their younger counterparts.

The Pew study’s findings are similar to those in a NBC/WSJ survey earlier this month, which found that support for letting gays serve openly has jumped from 40 percent in 2000 to 50 percent in 2010.

A Pentagon report about the potential effects of repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law will be released Tuesday, and the Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to hold hearings on the issue Thursday and Friday.

Most Republicans are withholding support for repeal until after reviewing the Pentagon findings. But some leading GOP members of the Armed Services panel, including ranking member John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have said that the report is fundamentally flawed in its approach.

NBC’s Ken Strickland contributed to this report.

Reacting to Wikileaks' release of American diplomatic cables, neither liberal nor conservative bloggers were too surprised over the messages’ actual content. But their views were less definite when it came to questions over the value of publicizing such information, the motivations of the leakers and the ease with which the cables were accessed by even low-ranking military officers.

Balloon Juice's John Cole suggested that the United States government shouldn't be too surprised such private information was leaked, given its own recent surveillance history.

This dump will just be viewed by many as an attempt to hurt the United States. I have a hard time getting worked up about it- a government that views none of my personal correspondence as confidential really can’t bitch when this sort of thing happens.

AMERICAblog's Chris in Paris characterized the leaks as a byproduct of the "lack of transparency in politics, which is not just a U.S. issue."

The decisions that our political leaders make could definitely benefit from the public being made more aware of what is going on with tax dollars... If politicians are ready to ask individuals to justify every last cent received by the meager social welfare system in the US, it's fair to ask the same from the government. The information may make many uncomfortable, but that is no reason to keep everyone in the dark.

The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen was not as sure as some other liberal bloggers that the leaks were at all a positive development for the country.

I'm not convinced that the release of these secret materials -- some have begun calling it "Cablegate" -- will be too devastating to international diplomacy, though it certainly makes the State Department's work much more difficult, especially in the short term... I would, however, like to know more about the motivations of the leaker (or leakers). Revealing secrets about crimes, abuses, and corruption obviously serves a larger good -- it shines a light on wrongdoing, leading (hopefully) to accountability, while creating an incentive for officials to play by the rules. Leaking diplomatic cables, however, is harder to understand -- the point seems to be to undermine American foreign policy, just for the sake of undermining American foreign policy. The role of whistleblowers has real value; dumping raw, secret diplomatic correspondence appears to be an exercise in pettiness and spite.

Conservative bloggers like Hot Air's Ed Morrissey were more surprised that the information being leaked was accessible to low-level officers like 22-year-old Pfc. Bradley Manning, who, according to an online conversation between Manning and a fellow hacker, "would come in with music on a CD-RW labelled with something like ‘Lady Gaga’ … erase the music … then write a compressed split file. No one suspected a thing."

Oh, please. Tell me that Manning was an encryption genius that spent years cracking some Pentagon code to access the mainframe while rappelling into an antechamber deep in a basement and into a Situation Room. Do not tell me that a corporal was allowed to carry a rewriteable CD into a secure communications area by labeling it as a pop music mix tape. I’ve been in uncleared defense contractor sites with better security than that.

That’s the real scandal. Rewriteable CDs are an obvious security hole. It’s almost as obvious as tape recorder or camera. And if Manning thought of it, there are probably more who have done similar sorts of thefts, perhaps for other ends, which may be even more problematic. After all, we know what Manning got; it’s being splashed all over the New York Times and other publications around the world. Who knows what China, Russia, or Iran may have learned by now?

Red State's Moe Lane wrote in defense of privacy when it comes to world diplomacy.

While I will happily ding President Obama for both his wrong actions and for not living up to his own side’s previously-established standards of behavior, this line of attack by Wikileaks is made up of pure garbage designed to weaken both my country and my government. The President needs his ambassadors to know what he wants; they need to be able to tell him what he can get. So it’s stupid to not be blunt and forthright in private about matters that require a softer public touch. It’s even more stupid for Wikileaks to keep publicly attacking the USA like this.

From NBC's Athena Jones
In a bid to show his administration is concerned about cutting the nation's massive deficit, President Obama today announced a two-year freeze in pay for federal civilian workers that is expected to save some $28 billion over the next five years.

The move, which must be approved by Congress, would freeze pay for all federal workers in FY 2011 and FY 2012, and would save more than $5 billion over those two years and some $60 billion over the next decade, according to the White House. It would not affect military personnel.

Fiscal issues are expected to be front and center in the coming weeks and months, as a new crop of Republicans -- many of whom ran on a pledge to cut spending -- enter Congress. The pay freeze announcement is a way for the White House to get out in front of those discussions.

"The hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is gonna require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government," Obama said. "After all, small businesses and families are tightening their belts. Their government should, too."

The issue of how to reduce government spending is likely to come up on Tuesday, when the president is set to host a meeting with the bipartisan congressional leadership at the White House to talk about what can get done in this lame-duck session of Congress. Obama said he hoped the meeting would mark "a first step towards a new and productive working relationship" because the two parties had a "shared responsibility" to deliver results for the American people.

In a fact sheet and a conference call with reporters, White House officials sought to highlight other steps the administration has taken to try to rein in spending. The president froze the salaries for all senior White House officials -- and has proposed extending that freeze for senior political appointees throughout the government. He also proposed eliminating bonuses for political appointees, and he set a three-year freeze on non-security discretionary spending in the 2011 budget.

The president's bipartisan deficit commission is set to release a full set of recommendations this week. The president said he hoped the commission's report would spark a "serious and long overdue conversation" in Washington.

"My hope is that starting today we can begin a bipartisan conversation about our future, because we face challenges that will require the cooperation of Democrats, Republicans and independents," Obama said. "We're gonna have to budge on some deeply held positions and compromise for the good of the country."

From NBC's Shawna Thomas
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) implored the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (colloquially known as the House Ethics Committee) this morning to "schedule my hearing before the end of the session or tell me, my constituents, and the American public the real reason for this delay."

She continued, "I have been denied basic due process."

The ethics committee delayed Waters’ adjudicatory hearing indefinitely when they voted to send the matter back to the investigative subcommittee after discovering new materials that could have a bearing on the case.

Waters stood outside the House Administration Committee room where Congressman Charles Rangel's (D-NY) trial ended in a censure recommendation the week before the Thanksgiving break. After reading a prepared statement, she took questions including one about what happens if the committee does not hold an adjudicatory hearing before the 111th Congress adjourns.

Waters admitted not knowing exactly what the next step would be. "We want the hearing held before we end this Congress,” she said. “We don't know what happens after that. We can only speculate. It may or may not be a part of a rule. We just don't know, and nobody is telling us."

The lack of transparency in the ethics committee process was a recurring theme in the short press conference. "We just don't understand a lot about how the committee operates,” she said, “and whether or not there are consistent rules and whether or not they bungled this case and whether or not they're ready to move forward based on whatever evidence they have or they don't have.”

Waters said she hasn't met with any members of the committee since the announcement that the hearing was canceled and that she has no meetings scheduled.

She did say she has spoken to committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) in passing. "I just asked her what was going on, could she tell me what was going on,” Waters said. “She just said she was under a lot of pressure."

She declined to talk about the details of the new evidence of the case, saying she wanted to focus on process. "This is how we get to the adjudicatory hearing,” Waters said. “This is about what has happened up until this point. This is about how we can encourage the Standards Committee to go ahead and hold this hearing."

She would not answer a question about whether her husband still owns stock in the bank that is at the heart of her ethics matter.

The race for head of the Republican National Committee got another candidate this morning.

Former Missouri GOP Chairwoman Ann Wagner announced in a video that she is getting in. Her entry had been widely rumored for the past two weeks.

"2012 is going to be a challenging cycle," she says in the video. "The RNC needs to be funded to its maximum obligations. We must be efficient, relevant, professional, and credible. We must start immediately to erase past debt, and to restore the confidence of our donor base."

She adds, "Fundraising must come first. We also must have greater transparency and accountability when it comes to the RNC's budget and expenditures."

All are thinly veiled references to current RNC Chairman Michael Steele's tenure. Steele has not yet announced whether he will run for reelection.

Wagner, who is also a former RNC co-chair and, most recently, chaired Roy Blunt's successful Senate campaign in Missouri, also says in the video, "We need to get back to basics."

In addition to money, she touts microtargeting, field operations, but also a more personal side.

"Yes I'm a political operative," she says, "but more than that I'm a devoted wife and mother from the middle of America."

She adds, "Like you, I am deeply concerned about the direction our left-wing adversaries are taking this country. Our freedoms and values are under assault. I'm concerned about soaring spending, massive debt, punitive tax increases, and an expansive government that seeks to control our businesses, communities, and families."

President Barack Obama announced a proposal Monday to freeze pay for federal workers over the next two years, one of several "very tough decisions" coming from the administration as it attempts to rein in government spending and address the looming federal deficit.

"In these challenging times. we want the best and brightest to join and make a difference, but these are also times where all of us are called on to make sacrifices," Obama said in a statement at the White House. "And I'm asking civil servants to do what they have always done. Play their part."

The freeze, which requires congressional approval, applies to civilian federal employees -- including non-military personel serving at the Department of Defense. The White House says the move will save $2 billion during the rest of the current fiscal year and $28 billion over the next five years.

Obama noted the difficulty of the decision in his remarks Monday, saying "this is not just a line-item on a federal ledger. These are people's lives."

But solving the problem of the mounting deficit will require many Americans to tighten their belts, he added. "The hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government."

There are just under 2.7 million civilian employees of the executive branch, per the Washington Post. That's about 8.4 federal workers per 1,000 American citizens.

A Washington Post poll in October found that 52 percent of Americans believe federal workers are overpaid. About half of respondents said they believe federal employees work "less hard" than their peers in the private sector.

In a statement, Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland -- who represents a district rich with government workers -- acknowledged that "federal employees must be no different" than other Americans who are making sacrifices during difficult economic times. But Hoyer said that military personnel -- except for those "serving in harm's way" in places like Afghanistan and Iraq -- should also be subject to a pay freeze.

A similar proposal to limit the federal workforce was named by House Republicans in their "Pledge to America" released before the midterm elections. The authors of that document suggested imposing a "net hiring freeze on non-security federal employees" that would "ensure that the public sector no longer grows at the expense of the private sector."

At the beginning of his remarks Monday, Obama joked about the cut lip he received over the Thanksgiving weekend while playing basketball. Obama said that he had received a “clean bill of health” from doctors after receiving 12 stitches.

WikiLeaks leak is more damage control for the Obama White House… Damage control can also describe the administration’s efforts to pass new START in the lame duck… Mark Kirk gets sworn in at 5:30 pm ET… The House’s must-do list for this week… Senate turns its attention to DADT… And the recount in Minnesota (anyone else having déjà vu?) begins at 10:00 am ET.

From NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg
*** Damage control: For the better part of the past two years, “damage control” has been this administration’s middle name -- whether it has been rescuing the financial industry, saving the health-care legislation from defeat, firing Stanley McChrystal, trying to stop the BP spill, and most recently dealing with the TSA pat-down story (which turned out to be more hype than reality over the Thanksgiving holiday). And now comes the Obama administration’s latest damage-control challenge: coping with the WikiLeaks dump of secret State Department cables. Presidential administrations can pick some of their fights (see health care), but most of their fights pick them. As the New York Times, a recipient of the WikiLeaks leaks, writes: “The disclosure of the cables is sending shudders through the diplomatic establishment, and could strain relations with some countries, influencing international affairs in ways that are impossible to predict.” NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports that we can expect to hear from Secretary of State Clinton this morning.

*** I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley: A few other stray thoughts regarding the WikiLeaks leak: Will it change American diplomacy and interaction with other countries, or will this slowly fade over time? We’re already hearing a lot of "there's nothing surprising here" or " there's nothing you folks in the media didn't already know in some form." (And expect those lines to continue to be uttered by folks in the administration all this week as it's right out of the "damage control 101" playbook.) Still, to see this laid out for all to see can’t be dismissed. On Iran, we've known the Saudis were quietly supportive of the saber-rattling, but does the fact so much of the rest of the Arab world is there to translate into more pressure to act? Iran may be more isolated than even they thought. Perhaps that's why Ahmadienjiad had to issue a statement today re: Wikileaks. The most damaging allegation for the U.S. is easily the U.N. spying. How any government official can explain this away is beyond us…

*** I just want to tell you both good luck; we're all counting on you: Damage control can also describe the White House’s efforts to get the new START treaty passed during the lame-duck Congress. On “Meet the Press” yesterday, GOP Sen. Jon Kyl reiterated his opposition to passing the treaty during the lame duck, but he said his opposition was “a matter of reality, not a matter of policy.” Translation: There’s just not enough time during the lame duck to pass it. “Harry Reid … can bring the START treaty up anytime he wants to, but he has a different agenda,” Kyl said. “He wants to do the Dream Act in order to appeal to certain segments of the Hispanic community. The 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy to appeal to the gay and lesbian community. To appeal to the unions, he wants to do the so-called firefighters federal unionization bill. In addition to various political commitments that he's made to do legislation in the lame duck session, we have to fund the government for the remaining 10 months of the fiscal year.” Is this Kyl simply trying to get the Dream Act -- and a few other items -- off the lame-duck calendar?

*** A hospital? What is it? It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now: On Capitol Hill today, Vice President Biden swears in Mark Kirk (R) as Illinois’ next senator at 5:30 pm ET. Consider this: Democrats’ 60-seat Senate is now down to 58 -- thanks to Republicans winning Ted Kennedy's seat (earlier this year) and Kirk winning Obama's old seat (earlier this month). But also remember this: When Obama was inaugurated, Democrats had 58 Senate seats. Arlen Specter’s switch in the spring of ’09 gave them 59, and Al Franken’s swearing in gave them 60.

*** I'm doing everything I can... and stop calling me Shirley! Also on Capitol Hill, there are a few must-do items on the House’s agenda this week, NBC’s Shawna Thomas notes. First, it needs to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government running, since the money that keeps the lights on runs out on Friday. Second, the House will work to pass its Medicare doc-fix, since Medicare rates for doctors are supposed to drop by the end of the month if Congress doesn’t act. (The Senate already passed a one-month extension before the Thanksgiving holiday.) Third, this isn’t technically on the agenda, but it’s worth keeping an eye on whether the House will consider extending unemployment benefits again; the benefits run out on Tuesday. (As Thomas reminds us, House Democrats earlier brought up this extension to the floor as a suspension bill and it didn’t pass.) There’s one other item on the House’s agenda: Charlie Rangel’s possible censure. Per Thomas, it’s expected that the House will vote on Rangel, and if the yeas win, he would then have to stand in the well of the House as the Speaker publicly rebukes him.

*** The life of everyone on board depends upon just one thing: finding someone back there who can not only fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner: Over in the Senate, the debate whether to repeal the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military hits a critical point in that chamber this week, NBC’s Ken Strickland reports. The Pentagon report on repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law will be released Tuesday, and the Senate Armed Services Committee holds hearings on Thursday and Friday. Most Republicans are withholding support for repealing DADT without first having read the Pentagon report and reviewed it in subsequent hearings. They want to ensure it's supported by the troops and doesn't hurt performance, morale, or recruitment. But other Republicans -- led by John McCain and Lindsey Graham -- dispute the intent of the report and are likely to dismiss its findings or conclusions. They claim the report only addresses "how" DADT would be repealed, not whether it "should" be. On Sunday, Graham said DADT "is not going anywhere" in the lame duck session.

*** Nice beaver! (Or gopher!) It’s déjà vu in Minnesota, as another statewide recount begins today at 10:00 am ET. This recount in the Mark Dayton (D)-vs.-Tom Emmer (R) gubernatorial contest “follows on the heels of a 2008 standoff over a U.S. Senate seat for Minnesota that stretched into the following summer,” the AP writes. All sides say they're eager to button up this election sooner. But given the stakes, no one is taking the recount lightly. Dayton hopes the recount validates a nearly 8,800-vote lead he had coming in, giving his party the governor's office for the first time in two decades.” More: “If all goes as planned, every ballot will have had a second look by Dec. 7, and stacks of disputed ballots will have been sent to St. Paul for the state Canvassing Board to rule on. A winner could be certified by Dec. 14, although litigation could follow.”

*** The other things to watch today and this week:
Today: Possible presidential candidate Mike Pence addresses the Detroit Economic Club.
Tuesday: President Obama meets with bipartisan congressional leaders at the White House.
Wednesday: The deadline for Obama’s debt-reduction commission to offer its final recommendations.
Friday: The Labor Department releases its jobs report for November.

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“A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at back-room bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats,” the New York Times writes. “Some of the cables, made available to The New York Times and several other news organizations, were written as recently as late February, revealing the Obama administration’s exchanges over crises and conflicts. The material was originally obtained by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to revealing secret documents. WikiLeaks posted 220 cables, some redacted to protect diplomatic sources, in the first installment of the archive on its Web site on Sunday.”

More: “The disclosure of the cables is sending shudders through the diplomatic establishment, and could strain relations with some countries, influencing international affairs in ways that are impossible to predict.”

“The White House says WikiLeaks' decision to release classified U.S. diplomatic files endangers U.S. diplomats, intelligence agents and democratic activists who seek America's help,” the AP adds.

The New York Post’s cover: “Wik-ed.”

But McClatchy says, “Before Sunday's release, news organizations given access to the documents and WikiLeaks took the greatest care to date to ensure no one would be put in danger. In statements accompanying stories about the documents, several newspapers said they voluntarily withheld information and that they cooperated with the State Department and the Obama administration to ensure nothing released could endanger lives or national security.”

Here’s the photo of President Obama icing his lip after needing 12 stitches from an errant elbow during a basketball game over the weekend. The elbow thrower: Rey Decerega, director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.” Obama was back out on the court Sunday playing with his daughters. And he was sideline at a Howard University game Sunday.

“Laurence H. Tribe, a renowned constitutional scholar and outspoken champion of liberal causes, spent four decades teaching students who occupy some of the most powerful posts in Washington — Barack Obama among them,” the Boston Globe reports. “His own foray into government service, however, has been short-lived and, according to some supporters, too low-key. Tribe, 69, is unexpectedly returning to Harvard Law School after a nine-month stint in the administration of his former research assistant. Tribe said the recurrence of a benign brain tumor, which causes facial seizures, is the sole reason for his return to Massachusetts, where he will be treated at Massachusetts General Hospital and then resume teaching next fall. His speedy exit from Washington and his low-profile post there, however, surprised colleagues.”

“Representative Charles Rangel is ready to make a last stand to salvage his reputation and tell the House that a censure should be reserved for politicians who are crooked,” the AP writes. “He will argue that he is not one of them. The 80-year-old Democrat from New York’s Harlem neighborhood wants his punishment for ethics violations downgraded to a reprimand, according to congressional and nongovernment sources who are in touch with Rangel but are not authorized to be quoted by name… Rangel plans to argue that censure has been imposed for violations including bribery, accepting improper gifts, personal use of campaign funds, and sexual misconduct; none is present in his case.”

Oh, not passing START is Harry Reid’s fault? Here’s John Kyl on Meet the Press, per Roll Call: “’It is more the view of reality rather than policy’ that the treaty will not be ratified in the next month, Kyl said, arguing that if Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) provided him with three weeks to debate the treaty, it could be finished. ‘He has made it clear he has a different agenda in mind,’ Kyl said, pointing to Reid’s decision to pursue other legislation during the lame duck, including a repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay service members and the DREAM Act immigration bill. ‘Harry Reid, the leader of the Senate, can bring up the START treaty any time he wants to. But he has a different agenda.’”

John McCain doubled down on his opposition to repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and he’s making it personal. “We should remember where this all started,” he told CNN, per Roll Call. “There was no uprising in the military. There were no problems in the military with ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ ... It’s called ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ OK? If you don’t ask them, you don’t ask somebody, and they don’t tell. The fact is, this was a political promise made by an inexperienced president or candidate for presidency of the United States. The military is at its highest point in recruitment and retention and professionalism and capability, so to somehow allege that this policy has been damaging the military is simply false.”

Here was another presidential candidate in 2006 -- John McCain: "And I understand the opposition to [DADT], and I‘ve had these debates and discussions, but the day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it, because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to."