Updated 4:40 p.m. — CHARLOTTE, N.C.  — After being easily re-elected to head the Republican National Committee for another term, Chairman Reince Priebus urged his party to leave behind traditional notions of which states are winnable for the party.

"At the RNC we are dropping ‘red’ and ‘blue’ analysis," he said in remarks shortly after being elected almost unanimously. "We must be a party concerned about every American in every neighborhood."

The chairman called for more outreach to minority communities, a greater focus on digital outreach and jettisoning the party's image as obstructionist.

"We will be a Republican Party that people will want to join," he said of the next presidential election. "A party that inspires again. Not a party that just says 'no'…but a party that says “follow us to a brighter future.”

For Priebus, that future could include an embrace of the plans of some GOP-led state legislatures who hope to reapportion their electoral votes by congressional district rather than the winner-take-all system currently espoused by almost all the states.

"I think it's a state issue but personally I'm pretty intrigued by it," Priebus told reporters after his election.

The idea of changing the electoral vote apportionment — which would reflect the concentrated political sensitivities of carefully drawn congressional districts — has prompted outcry from Democrats who accuse the GOP of changing the rules of a game they proved unable to win in 2008 and 2012.

And not all Republicans are crazy about the idea.

In a statement, a spokesman for Republican VIrginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said he doesn't back the legislation.  "He believes Virginia's existing system works just fine as it is. He does not  believe there is any need for a change," said McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin.

Priebus disputed the notion that a reapportionment would run counter to the idea that Republicans should compete in "every neighborhood."

"It's a state issue," he said. "State legislatures decide it, governors decide it, but as far as our presence in those states — you still have to compete" 

President Barack Obama formally introduced Denis McDonough as his chief of staff on Friday, describing his deputy national security adviser as not only a straight-shooter, but also a close friend.

Obama debuted McDonough, whom the president had been widely expected to select, at the White House, saying he had been "counting on Denis for nearly a decade."

McDonough, a longtime adviser to Obama who has advised the president largely on matters of national security, succeeds outgoing chief of staff Jack Lew. The president has nominated Lew to become the next secretary of the treasury.

"He's the consummate public servant who plays it straight," the president said. "And that's the kind of teamwork that I want in the White House."

Of McDonough's national security advice, Obama said: "Denis has played a key role in every major national security decision in my presidency."

McDonough's ascension coincides with a broader staff overhaul at the White House. Among the changes included elevating White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer to a senior adviser role; Jennifer Palmieri, Pfieffer's deputy, takes over that role. Rob Nabors, the director of legislative affairs, was promoted to a deputy chief of staff position. Miguel Rodriguez takes over that role.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

President Barack Obama, with current White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew, right, announces that he will name current Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough,left, as his next chief of staff, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013, in the East Room of the White House in Washington.

Obama also singled out his longtime political adviser, David Plouffe, whose last day at the White House is on Friday, for praise.

"David has been with me from the start of this enterprise, running for president," Obama said, adding: "If it were not for him, we would not have been as effective as a White House, and I probably wouldn't be here."

During his inaugural address earlier this week, President Obama raised eyebrows by making a call for new action on climate change.  

“We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” he said.

But given the tricky politics of climate change in Washington – Democrats were unable to pass cap-and-trade legislation when they controlled both the White House and Congress – environmental groups are urging the Obama administration to avoid Congress and pursue executive action.

“Congress has proved to be the place where good ideas go to die, and clearly the climate bill’s failure back in 2009 is an example of that,” said Melinda Pierce, legislative director for the Sierra Club.

Obama acknowledged the difficulty of getting climate legislation passed when he was asked about it during a Nov. 14 press conference. “I don't know what either Democrats or Republicans are prepared to do at this point,” he said.

But environmental activists say the president has already taken steps outside Congress, pointing to the work done on fuel efficiency standards that the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation adopted in 2012.

To build on that, green groups are urging the president to use the EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act to put emission restrictions on existing power plants.

“He’s already tackled cars,” said Bob Keefe, senior press secretary for the National Resource Defense Council. “Now we need to go after this other big source of carbon pollution.” 

This isn’t a new proposal – it’s been an option ever since the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the E.P.A. had an obligation, under the Clean Air Act, to regulate greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change unless it could find a scientific reason for not regulating them. 

And while the EPA is already working on carbon restrictions for new power plants (final proposals for which are due in April 2013), environmental groups have used the milestone of President Obama’s second term to stage a new campaign urging him to make existing plants subject to emissions caps as well.

“That’s probably our number one issue right now,” Keefe said.

The NRDC held a press conference in December to refocus attention on existing power plants and was one of 70 environmental groups that signed a January 7^th letter congratulating the president on his re-election and urging him to propose standards for existing plants.

“Use your executive authority,” they wrote, telling him that “most significantly, you can set standards that cut carbon pollution from America’s aging power plant fleet.”

According to the NRDC, imposing restrictions on existing plants would cut carbon pollution from existing plants by 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

And the Sierra Club is also staging a push that coincides with the beginning of Obama’s second term. Earlier this month, it launched a 100-day campaign to raise awareness for what its branded his “Climate and Clean Energy Legacy,” which includes action on emissions standards on refineries and heavy-duty trucks, stopping the Keystone XL pipeline and limiting expansion of drilling and mining on public lands.

Action on any of these fronts would likely be met with serious resistance from the private sector.

The National Association of Manufacturers – one of the largest manufacturing trade groups in the U.S. – is already lobbying against the proposed EPA restrictions on new power plants. Those efforts would extend to regulations on existing plants, said Ross Eisenberg, NAM’S vice president of energy and resources policy.

“I have a feeling that this will be very, very high priority for us if it does happen,” he said, noting that it’s difficult for the group to forecast exactly what kind of caps the administration would seek to impose. “When you have regulations under the Clean Air Act that almost certainly will impact the economy, we’re going to have a problem with that.”

President Obama also will have several empty cabinet positions to fill that deal with the environment, including the EPA, the Department of Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Green groups are already working to get their favored candidates considered; an early favorite for Interior is Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), former chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.

In a December letter to President Obama, a coalition of 238 environmental groups also appealed to the president’s sense of legacy, urging him to “seize this historic opportunity” to appoint a leader “who grasps both the urgency of this crisis and the practical paths towards real-world solutions.” 

But while environmental groups are encouraging the president to pursue action through the myriad departments and cabinet offices that make up his administration, one thing is certain: going through Congress is no longer part of the conversation.

“Obviously it would be better to do it with the help of Congress, but he doesn’t have to,” Keene said.

Handing a huge legal victory to Republicans, a federal appeals court in Washington has ruled that a president can make recess appointments only during a congressional recess when the vacancies arise.

The ruling came Friday from a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.  Business groups challenged last year's recess appointments to the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board, and the court ruled today in their favor.

"The filling up of a vacancy that happens during a recess must be done during the same recess in which the vacancy arose," the court said.

Last January, President Barack Obama infuriated Senate Republicans by naming Richard Cordray to be director of the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and by putting three new members on the NLRB. (Obama re-nominated Cordray to a full appointment at the same position on Thursday.)

"It's clear the president would rather trample our system of separation of powers than work with Republicans to move the country forward," House Speaker John Boehner said at the time.  "I expect the courts will find the appointment to be illegitimate."

The court ruled today on a challenge to the appointments brought by a Pacific Northwest soft drink bottler who lost a union dispute before the NLRB. The company claimed that the president had no power to appoint the new NLRB members, and that the subsequent action by the board therefore lacked legitimacy.

At the core of the dispute is Article II of the Constitution, setting out the president's duties and authorities. They include "the power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate."

During the nation's first century, Congress was in session less than half a year. The recess appointment power allowed the president to keep the government functioning by filling important jobs when the Senate was not around to act on nominations.

"There is no reason the Framers would have permitted the President to wait until some future intersession recess to make a recess appointment, for the Senate would have been sitting in session during the intervening period and available to consider nominations," the court said today.

In modern times, presidents of both parties have used the power to make appointments during much shorter congressional recesses in the summer and around holidays. 

But during the George H.W. Bush administration, Democrats came up with the idea of pro forma sessions, in which the body was gaveled to order then immediately adjourned for another few days. They claimed that the Senate remained in session and recess appointments could not be made. Senate Republicans have since continued the pro forma practice. 

"Such short intra-session breaks are not recesses," the bottling company argued.  "Otherwise, every weekend, night, or lunch break would be a 'recess' too."

Senate Republicans joined the lawsuit. They argued that by declaring the Senate incapable of performing its functions during the pro-forma sessions, "the President usurped the Senate's control of its own procedures. And by appointing officers without the Senate's consent, he took away its right to review and reject his nominations."

The Obama Justice Department argued that the pro-forma procedures, each lasting less than a minute, are a sham and do not mean the Senate was actually in session.  "It could not provide advice or consent on presidential nominations during that 20-day period," government lawyers argue.

In agreeing to its holiday break, Justice Department lawyers note, the Senate "provided by order that 'no business' would be conducted."

The government lawyers said there's nothing mysterious about the meaning of the word recess -- "a break by the Senate from its usual business, such as periods in which the Framers anticipated that senators would return to their respective states."
 
"The pro forma sessions were not designed to permit the Senate to do business, but rather to ensure that no business was done," the Justice Department claimed.

President Obama invoked the recess appointment power 32 times during his first term to fill vacancies in full-time government positions, though he has not made any since last January's controversy. President Clinton made 95 recess appointments during his administration.  President George W. Bush used the power 99 times. 

If, as seems likely, the issue gets to the Supreme Court, the justices could settle a passionate debate over a presidential power used hundreds of times, stirring controversy since the beginning.

Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R, will not seek re-election in 2014, a Republican official told NBC News on Friday.

The two-term senator is the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee and has joined in some bipartisan efforts on fiscal issues, making him a prospective target for conservative primary challengers next year.

A number of Republican lawmakers in the state might now seek the Senate seat, and Democrats are vowing to play offense in the typically GOP-leaning state, too.

"Georgia will now offer Democrats one of our best pick-up opportunities of the cycle," said Guy Cecil, the executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

NBC's Michael O'Brien contributed.

Republicans in MI, OH, PA, VA are looking to change the Electoral College rules, not their party… The changes would give the GOP a HUGE advantage in presidential contests… But it would also present this dilemma for Republicans: It would speed up efforts to have the popular vote decide presidential elections… The Republican 2016ers: the insiders vs. the outsiders… Obama and Hillary to hold joint “60 Minutes” interview… Biden to talk gun violence in Richmond, VA at 11:00 am ET… And abortion opponents hold “March for Life” in DC.

*** Changing the rules, not the party: As the Republican National Committee concludes its three-day meeting in Charlotte, N.C., you’ve by now heard all the different ways Republicans are looking to improve their standing in time for the next presidential election. They want to do a better job reaching out to Latinos (see Jeb Bush’s WSJ op-ed), they want to soften their tone when it comes to social issues, and they want to narrow their technological and get-out-the-vote operation gap with Democrats. But here’s another way you might not have heard: Some Republicans are looking to change the Electoral College system in battleground states that Democrats have won in the last two cycles. As the Washington Post reports, Republicans in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia -- all controlled at the state level (in some form or fashion) by the GOP -- have proposed awarding their Electoral College votes by congressional district instead of the winner-take-all approach used by every state except for two (Maine and Nebraska). “No state is moving quicker than Virginia, where state senators are likely to vote on the plan as soon as next week,” the Post says.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks as (L-R) Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), John Barrasso (R-WY), and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) listen during a news briefing after the weekly Senate Republican Policy Luncheon January 22, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

*** That would give the GOP a HUGE advantage: The Republicans advocating these changes say they would give smaller communities more of a voice in presidential battleground states. But there’s a bigger story here: The moves would give the GOP a significant advantage due to the fact that redistricting has concentrated the Democratic vote to just a handful of congressional districts in these states. Take Virginia, for example: Obama won the state in 2012 by four percentage points and by about 150,000 votes -- and he took all of the state’s 13 electoral votes. But under the proposed changes, Mitt Romney would have won nine of the state’s electoral votes to Obama’s four. Put another way, if every electoral vote in the country was awarded by congressional district (plus two votes to the statewide winner), Romney would have defeated Obama, 276 to 262 in electoral votes (instead of Obama winning 332 to 206), according to Emory University’s Alan Abramowitz. And if only the states of Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin were changed to this system, Obama would have BARELY won, 271-267, Abramowitz adds.

*** The GOP’s dilemma: The current system vs. the popular vote: And this isn’t just coming from state-level Republicans. In an interview earlier this month with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus -- who’s expected to win re-election as RNC chair today in Charlotte -- appeared to bless these changes to the Electoral College system. "I think it's something that a lot of states that have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red ought to be looking at," Priebus said, but he also added: "It's not my decision that can come from the RNC, that's for sure." But these proposed changes are shortsighted for two reasons. One, the Republicans pushing them are all but acknowledging that their party problems heading into 2016 are so significant that they have to change the rules in order to win. In other words, they are throwing in the towel and trying to rig the system. Two, the proposed changes would only speed up efforts to have the popular vote -- and not the Electoral College -- decide presidential contests, because many would see that as a fairer system. So Republicans need to ask themselves this question: Do they want the current Electoral College system, or do they want the popular vote? And a final question here: Where are the big leaders of the party on this issue? Haley Barbour? Jeb Bush? George W. Bush?

*** The insiders vs. the outsiders: Speaking of the RNC confab in Charlotte, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal delivered a speech last night arguing, “We must stop being the stupid party. It's time for a new Republican party that talks like adults.” His main contention, per NBC’s Carrie Dann: Republicans need to get away from the budget battles of Washington, D.C. "We as Republicans have to accept that government number crunching -- even conservative number crunching -- is not the answer to our nation's problems." This highlights a striking split among the possible 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls. Some of them, because they’re governors, are pursuing an outside game. (See Jindal and also see Chris Christie’s criticism of congressional Republicans on the Hurricane Sandy relief.) And others, because they currently serve in Congress, are playing the inside game. (See Marco Rubio, who is pushing immigration reform, and Paul Ryan, who is now arguing that Republicans need to wisely pick their budget battles.) So your Invisible Primary bracket has already begun -- the insider’s bracket vs. the outsider’s bracket.

*** Obama, Hillary to conduct joint interview: And speaking of 2016, President Obama and Hillary Clinton are today taping a joint interview for “60 Minutes,” which will air on Sunday, NBC’s Kristen Welker confirms. This interview is only going to fuel speculation about Clinton’s possible presidential bid in ’16, and it looks like Obama is giving her a VERY BIG embrace. Moreover, you have to wonder what Vice President Biden is thinking about this interview.

*** Biden to talk about gun violence in Virginia: Biden, meanwhile, is heading to Richmond, Va., where he’s holding a roundtable discussion on gun violence Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Sen. Tim Kaine, and U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott. The roundtable discussion takes place at 11:00 am ET.

*** Abortion opponents hold “March for Life” in DC: Finally today, coinciding with this week’s 40^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the “March for Life” in Washington takes place from noon ET to 1:30 pm ET. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), ex-Sen./ex-presidential candidate Rick Santorum, and others will speak.

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*** Friday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ryan Grim and Susan Page; Washington Post’s Jim Tankersley looks at Tim Geithner’s legacy; John Brabender and Gov. Ed Rendell on the RNC meeting fireworks;  and the National Journal’s Matthew Cooper on Secretary Hillary Clinton being impervious to ‘scandals’.

*** Friday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts will discuss the GOP’s Electoral College Plan and the Filibuster deal with MSNBC Host Ed Schultz.  He’ll be joined by the first African-American female pilot in the Marine Corp. to discuss women in combat.  Pat Davis of ProgressNow New Mexico will discuss a new  bill in NM that would criminalize post-rape abortion.  Today’s Power Panel includes:  TheGrio.com’s Perry Bacon, Democratic Strategist Keith Boykin and Republican Strategist Robert Traynham.

*** Friday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include Bloomberg’s Hans Nichols, the Washington Post’s Nia-Malika Henderson, TheGrio’s Joy Reid, Buzzfeed’s Ben Smith, the Brady Campaign’s Colin Goddard, and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.

*** Friday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews NBC’s David Gregory, former State Department Spokesman PJ Crowley, Politico’s John Harris, The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, The New York Times’ Elisabeth Bumiller and National Journal’s Chris Frates.

*** Friday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: Guests include Politico’s Anna Palmer , Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis, The Advancement Project’s Judith Browne Dianis, Rhode Island St. Rep Frank Ferri, CNBC Contributor Zachary Karabell, and MSNBC Contributor Michael Smerconish.

*** Saturday’s and Sunday’s “Weekends with Alex Witt” line-up: As part of her weekly “Office Politics” segment, MSNBC’s Alex Witt interviews Chris Matthews.

*** Saturday’s “MSNBC Live Weekends” line-up: Craig Melvin’s guests include Rep. James Langevin (D-RI), MSNBC Political Analyst Karen Finney, Fmr. Pres. George W. Bush aide Matt Schlapp, Iraq War vet Kayla Williams, Radiance Foundation’s Ryan Bomberger, Fmr. VP Biden Adviser Jared Bernstein, Politico’s Manu Raju and Jonathan Allen, The Atlantic’s Molly Ball, WBAI-FM host Esther Armah, Tom Diaz author of “The Last Gun”, and Amy Holmes, former speechwriter for Sen. Maj. Leader Bill Frist.

*** Sunday’s “MSNBC Live Weekends” line-up: Craig Melvin’s guests include Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), National Review’s Robert Costa, Center for American Progress’ Aisha Moodie-Mills, The Grio’s Perry Bacon, Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet, Bill Schneider of The Third Way, and sports writer Dave Zirin.

USA Today: “Presidents current and future? Speculation about Hillary Rodham Clinton's political future is only going to intensify as she holds a joint interview with President Obama on CBS' 60 Minutes. The interview will be taped Friday, and broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday at 7 p.m., ET.”

“Biden plans a roundtable discussion Friday in Richmond with experts who worked on gun safety following the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech,” AP writes.

Flashback: March 2, 2008: “There’s nothing to base that on… as far as I know.” – Candidate Hillary Clinton, responding to 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft when asked if she believed President Obama was a Muslim.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Biden will be joined at the 11 a.m. roundtable by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius; Deputy U.S. Attorney General Jim Cole; Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va.; and Rep. Robert C. ‘Bobby’ Scott, D-3rd. The roundtable discussion at the VCU Student Commons will include experts who have worked on gun-safety issues after the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting that left 32 students and faculty members dead in addition to the shooter.”

The Boston Globe: “More than four decades after he testified before the panel as a Vietnam War veteran-turned protestor, Senator John F. Kerry on Thursday returned to the witness chair before the Foreign Relations Committee for his nomination to be secretary of state. Kerry’s prepared statement opening the hearing focused on his view that foreign policy is increasingly geared toward global economics. He also touched on Iran - sure to be a hotbed of international diplomacy given its advancing nuclear program - saying, ‘our policy is containment, not prevention.’”

The Senate’s expected to vote Tuesday to confirm Kerry. If Kerry steps down from his Senate seat on Tuesday, the primary to replace him would have to take place between Sunday, May 12 and Monday, May 27. And the general would be between Sunday, June 23 and Monday, July 8. State law requires the general to take place 145 to 160 days after a vacancy is created. The primary is required to occur six weeks before that.

President Obama will be in Vegas next week.

Flashback: Feb. 2, 2010, Obama: "When times are tough, you tighten your belts. You don't go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college."

“The Rhode Island House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly passed legislation to allow gays and lesbians to marry in the only New England state where they can't,” USA Today writes. “The House voted 51-19 after an often emotional debate that touched on civil rights, religion and the nature of marriage. The bill now moves to the Senate, where both supporters and opponents of gay marriage say it is difficult to predict the bill's fate.”

Providence Journal front-page headline: “In historic vote, House approves gay marriage.”

From the story: “The vote followed a debate that lasted roughly an hour and a half, with supporters and opponents giving often impassioned, emotional speeches explaining their positions. Until Tuesday, the issue -- introduced annually for the last 11 years -- had never made it beyond committee hearings. This year, the outcome in the House was never really in doubt.”

“A U.N. expert on Thursday launched a special investigation into drone warfare and targeted killings, which the United States relies on as a front-line weapon in its global war against al-Qaida,” the New York Daily News writes. “One of the three countries requesting the investigation was Pakistan, which officially opposes the use of U.S. drones on its territory as an infringement on its sovereignty but is believed to have tacitly approved some strikes in the past.”

“The Senate approved changes to the filibuster Thursday night, adopting modest limits on the partisan obstruction that has ground action in the chamber to a near standstill,” the L.A. Times writes. “But the deal reached between the Senate's two leaders — Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — fell far short of sweeping reforms sought by liberal senators and their allies. Left out was the requirement that senators who want to filibuster must remain on the Senate floor, talking the whole time, as Jimmy Stewart's character famously did in Frank Capra's movie ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.’”

The Washington Post: “The Senate approved a deal Thursday that will keep the chamber’s long-standing 60-vote threshold for halting a filibuster but streamline some of the chamber’s more cumbersome procedures. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), largely accepting the recommendations from a bipartisan team of senior senators, won broad bipartisan support for a package of reforms that will streamline operations but leave intact rules that give the minority more rights than any other legislative body in the world.”

The New York Times: “Senators will still be able to talk and talk and talk, though for not quite as long as they have grown accustomed to. Legislation will still be mired in mucky procedural delays, though there will be fewer of them to exploit. And there is a glimmer of hope that rank-and-file senators will actually be able to do what they were elected to do: shape legislation. Under new rules approved overwhelmingly by the Senate on Thursday, Democrats and Republicans agreed to take some modest steps to limit the filibuster and help break the gridlock that has rendered the modern Congress ineffective and inefficient. The measures passed in two separate votes, one 78 to 16, the other 86 to 9.”

“Congressional Democrats, led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, have reintroduced a bill that would ban assault weapons despite opposition in the Republican-led House and the reluctance of some Senate Democrats,” USA Today writes.

AP headline: “Jindal: GOP should change 'just about everything.'”

Still, Jindal’s not advocating changing policy or the party moderating its views. “We do not need to change what we believe as conservatives — our principles are timeless,” he said.

So he’s NOT thinking about running then? "Any Republican that's thinking about talking about running for president is 2016 needs to get his head examined," Jindal said, per NBC’s Carrie Dann. "We've got a lot of work to do. We've got to get the Republican Party back on track."

More from Dann: For RNC members assembling in Charlotte for their post-mortem meeting on the election, the mood feels kind of like the punchiness of a long-pummeled team coming back to training camp after a particularly bruising season. Members are candid about the reasons for the tough loss -- including everything from the party's "tone" in addressing minority voters to being trounced in the technology arms race. But for now, there's not much talk about specific policy prescriptions; the group's election review panel is more focused on candidate recruitment, message strategy and making sure the primary process doesn't clobber their eventual nominee. But it's worth noting that their full recommendations won't be out until March of this year.

Beth Reinhard notes that for all the attention Jindal’s speech got in DC, the audience didn’t seem that into it: “Jindal's delivery resembled that of a nervous student rushing through an oral recitation of a term paper. The audience was as distracted as a room of high school classmates. Which raises the question: Can a fast-talking, brainy policy wonk be elected president?”

Rand Paul is not Ron Paul. Could you ever see Ron saying this: “Well absolutely we stand with Israel, but what I think we should do is announce to the world – and I think it is pretty well known — that any attack on Israel will be treated as an attack on the United States.”

Jeb Bush pens an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal advocating for “comprehensive” immigration reform: “The nation's capital is awash with ideas about how to fix America's immigration policy. The sudden ferment on this issue, which was largely dormant since efforts at comprehensive reform were torpedoed five years ago, is as welcome as it is overdue. The growing consensus on both sides of the political aisle that something needs to be done should not be squandered, for such opportunities are rare and fleeting.”

More: “In some conservative circles, the word ‘comprehensive’ in the context of immigration reform is an epithet—a code word for amnesty. People who oppose such reform declare that securing the United States border must come before moving toward broader reform. Such an approach is shortsighted and self-defeating. Border security is inextricably intertwined with other aspects of immigration policy. The best way to prevent illegal immigration is to make sure that we have a fair and workable system of legal immigration. The current immigration system is neither.”

NEW YORK: What does changing the rules to get you three terms? Your potential successors trashing you at their first forum. The New York Daily News: “Six major mayoral candidates squared off for the first time Thursday night, and all went on the attack — not against each other, but against Mayor Bloomberg. At a forum on housing, co-sponsored by the Daily News, the four Democrats and two Republicans ripped the three-term mayor on his approach to building affordable housing, his handling of the embattled Housing Authority, and especially his response to communities ravaged by Hurricane Sandy.”

NEW JERSEY: Frank Lautenberg, a day after saying Cory Booker deserved a “spanking” for so openly coveting his seat, is now criticizing how Booker’s done his job as mayor of Newark. There’s “a lot of work that should have been done and hasn’t been done,” Lautenberg told National Journal, calling Newark a “city in desperate need of attention.” 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Gov. Bobby Jindal, often discussed as a potential 2016 presidential candidate, said Thursday that any GOP hopeful already talking about a run in four years should consider a visit to a neurologist.

"Any Republican that's thinking about talking about running for president is 2016 needs to get his head examined," he told reporters after an address to the Republican National Committee's Winter Meeting in Charlotte. "We've got a lot of work to do. We've got to get the Republican Party back on track."

Jindal's comments came after he delivered the keynote speech to the RNC's post-election meeting Thursday night. In his remarks, the Louisiana governor bluntly recommended that the GOP "stop being the stupid party."

"It's time for a new Republican party that talks like adults," he said. "It's time for us to articulate our plans and visions for America in real terms. We had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. We’ve had enough of that." 

Another high-profile GOP governor, Bob McDonnell of Virginia, will address the RNC meeting tomorrow afternoon. 

Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday downplayed the importance of passing an assault weapons ban, even as Senate Democrats began a formal push to revive restrictions on those firearms.

"I'm much less concerned quite frankly about what you call an assault weapon than I am about magazines and the number of rounds that can be held in a magazine," said Biden, who discussed gun violence during a Google hangout Thursday afternoon. 

With the chat, the vice president looked to sustain public pressure for national action on gun control in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre of 20 elementary school children and 6 adults. President Barack Obama is pushing a comprehensive set of actions to reduce gun violence, including universal background checks for gun buyers, a ban on high-capacity magazines, and a ban on actual assault weapons. 

In the wake of Newtown, a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed that 56 percent of Americans believe gun laws should be more strict. The survey showed just 7 percent believe gun restrictions should be less strict.

Still, Biden's comments and careful language -- "I don't view it as gun control, I view it as gun safety," he said -- underscored the political reality: Getting an outright ban through a divided Congress in the face of opposition from the National Rifle Association and other groups is unlikely, and the fight is likely to focus on other measures, like the background checks and limits on magazine size.

Biden's comments came hours after Senate Democrats, led by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, displayed various assault weapons at a Capitol Hill press conference. Feinstein introduced legislation Thursday to ban 158 specific types of those guns. 

The bill would also ban magazines that can fire more than 10 rounds of ammunition at a time. Both are similar to proposals included in the White House recommendations.

Shooting victims and uniformed police officers were on Capitol Hill Thursday to endorse Feinstein's bill.

"If the slaughter of 20 babies does not capture and hold your attention, then I give up. Because I don't know what else will," said Charles Ramsey, the Philadelphia police commissioner and head of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. "We have to pass legislation."

But Feinstein herself openly acknowledged that getting Congress to pass a weapons ban similar to the one that expired in 2004 will be difficult, if not impossible.

RELATED: Sen. Feinstein introduces stringent assault weapons ban, foresees 'uphill' battle

"Getting this bill signed into law will be an uphill battle, and I recognize that -- but it is a battle worth having,'' Feinstein said.

Biden pointed out Thursday that crimes with assault weapons aren't as widespread than gun violence perpetrated with other types of guns that have been equipped to fire dozens of rounds at a time.

Assault weapons "account for a small percentage of the gun crimes in American," said Biden, who led the White House task force on gun safety after Newtown.

"More people out there get shot with a Glock that has … cartridges that you can have magazines that can put two, 10, 8, 12, 15, 30 shells in it, then from any assault weapon you see,” Biden said.

He said  that limiting magazines could have saved lives in Tucson, where former Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot and a 9-year-old girl was killed, and in Newtown, where shooter Adam Lanza might have had to stop 10 or more times to reload his gun.

The vice president did say that banning assault weapons would help make people safer.

The NRA dismissed Feinstein's bill, insisting gun bans "do not work."

"We are confident Congress will reject Sen. Feinstein's wrong-headed approach," the group said in a statement.

“In fact I've often felt that if we want a real get-tough policy with the Castro brothers, we should force them to deal with Spring Break once or twice.” 

-- Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake joking during the confirmation hearing for Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) to become Secretary of State.

Flake is an advocate of lifting the Cuba travel embargo.

His comment offended acting committee Chairman New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez (D), who is Cuban and very much against lifting the embargo. "To suggest that Spring Break is a form of torture to the Castro regime. Unfortunately, they are experts in torture," Menendez said.

Video edited by NBC's Domenico Montanaro.

Seeking to fill two of his administration’s most powerful financial regulatory posts, President Obama announced his nomination of former prosecutor Mary Jo White to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission and re-nomination of Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

White, who spent nearly a decade as Manhattan’s U.S. attorney, is expected to bring regulatory heft to the SEC, whose mission is to “protect investors [and] maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets.”

As the first prosecutor nominated to the post, White is seen by the Obama administration as someone who can forcefully implement President Obama’s Wall Street-reform plan.

"You don't want to mess with Mary Jo," President Obama said of White during his announcement Thursday. "As one former SEC chairman said, 'Mary Jo does not intimidate easily."

Not only did she win hundreds of millions of dollars in white-collar crime cases, she successfully convicted the masterminds behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and indicted Osama bin Laden for the 1998 bombing of two embassies in Africa.

Underscoring her wide portfolio, she was also the lead prosecutor on the team that convicted mob boss John Gotti of murder and racketeering.

Appointed to her post by President Bill Clinton in 1993, she later was pegged to investigate Clinton’s 177 pardons and commutations he granted during his presidency. She began the investigation as her office began the probe into billionaire Marc Rich, the recipient of Clinton’s most controversial pardon.

Cordray, the former attorney general of Ohio, took the CFPB post in a January 2012 recess appointment, which drew the ire of Senate Republicans who had placed a hold on Cordray’s nomination. At the time, some senators made clear that their resistance to his nomination had more to do with their desire to make changes to the CFPB than it did personal dislike of Cordray.

The former Attorney General of Ohio, Cordray lost his 2010 re-election bid to Republican Mike DeWine, but said at the time that he would soon re-enter politics, telling the New York Times at the time that “I do expect to be running for office in the next cycle.”

He is seen by many Ohio Democrats as a top 2014 Senate or gubernatorial candidate. 

The House of Representatives yesterday passed a Republican debt-ceiling proposal providing that if either chamber of Congress hasn't passed a budget resolution for the upcoming fiscal year by April 15, the congressional payroll office must withhold the paychecks for the members of that body.

In other words, they wouldn't get paid until they act or until the current session of Congress ends in 2015.

But is that provision constitutional?

The 27th Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1992, is intended to prevent members of Congress from giving themselves a raise. But it doesn't merely say that any raise can't take effect until the next Congress. It says members cannot vary their own pay.

Here's the entire text of the amendment: "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the senators and representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened."

The debt limit bill, said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, "was carefully crafted to comply with the requirements of the 27th Amendment."

"The amount that members are paid will not be reduced nor will it be raised," Camp said during Wednesday's House debate. "There is no requirement in the 27th Amendment which states that members have to be paid weekly, biweekly, monthly, or bimonthly, or what have you, only that the pay that they receive will not vary."

Not so, said Rep. Robert Brady, a Pennsylvania Democrat, who believes putting the money in escrow, as the House bill provides, doesn't solve the issue. "If you aren't getting a paycheck in a month and you're going to wait for 18 months, that's varying. So it could be -- and, in my opinion, it is -- a constitutional problem," he said.

Who's right? Does holding the checks, but ultimately giving members their money, avoid a constitutional defect?

Professor Michael Froomkin of the University of Miami School of Law doesn't believe it's constitutional.

"I don't think this is even a close question: In my view, the escrow provision clearly does not [avoid the constitutional defect]," Froomkin said.

"The prohibition on varying the compensation seems pretty clear to me. It means no changes in amount and no changes in time of payment, because there is a time value to money. Anyone who gets a salary would think it a very material change in the terms if the money were escrowed for more than a year and a half instead of being made available to pay the mortgage," he added.

The opposite view came in a statement released by the House Ways and Means Committee, written by conservative lawyers David Rivkin and Lee Casey. "It is creative, it is fiscally responsible, and it is attentive to the text and structure of the Constitution," they said.

Some consideration was given to putting the deferred paychecks into an interest-bearing account, but Republicans rejected that idea, concluding that it would increase members' pay in clear violation of the 27th Amendment.

The Supreme Court has never interpreted the amendment, and no member of Congress has yet come forward to suggest suing over the escrow provision. Given the Supreme Court’s narrow view of who has legal authority to sue, it’s likely only a member of Congress who had a paycheck withheld would have the proper standing to challenge it.

Video edited by NBC's Natalie Cucchiara.

Updated at 2:20p.m. ET: President Barack Obama’s choice to be secretary of state, Sen. John Kerry, D- Mass, testified Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, one day after the same committee conducted a fractious hearing with current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over last September's attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Unlike Wednesday’s sometimes-contentious hearings, Republicans welcomed Kerry, who is currently the chairman of the same committee, warmly at the outset.

Sen. John McCain R-Ariz. joined Clinton and Sen. Elizabeth Warren D-Mass. in introducing the nominee, with McCain praising him for “exemplary statesmanship” in his work on an accord to allow opening of normal diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1995.

But while the hearing remained cordial, Kerry came under bipartisan pressure on the question of the civil war in Syria in which more than 60,000 have been killed.

Kerry has met several times over the years with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

Recommended: Hillary's honeymoon with GOP ends

McCain, part of a bipartisan group of senators which just got back from a trip to the Mideast and visited camps where Syrian refugees are living, told Kerry they feel “an anger and frustration” and believe that the United States is indifferent to their suffering.

One Syrian teacher told McCain and the other senators, “This next generation of children will take revenge on those that that did not help them.” McCain added, “We are sowing the wind in Syria and we are going to reap the whirlwind.”

He said “We can do a lot more, without putting boots on the ground” – such as a no-fly zone – and he complained that “all I get, frankly, from the (Obama) administration is the fall of Assad is, quote, ‘inevitable.’ I agree, but what about what happens in the meantime?”

Another member of the delegation that toured the Middle East, Sen. Chris Coons, D- Del., complained to Kerry that U.S. humanitarian aid intended for Syrian refugees “has not reached the people on the ground.”

In response to both Coons and McCain, Kerry said “if you have a complete implosion of the state” in Syria after Assad’s fall, it would greatly increase the risk that Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal would fall into the wrong hands.

Kerry also said that “we need to change Bashar Assad’s calculation. Right now President Assad doesn’t think he’s losing -- and the opposition thinks it is winning.” Kerry said the goal of U.S. policy is a peaceful transition to a new government. He said he hoped to confer with the Russian government, a major supporter of Assad, and with others and “increase the readiness of President Assad to see that the die is cast, the handwriting is on the wall….”

Coons told Kerry, “We frankly face a very narrow window to make a difference on the ground in support of the opposition.”  

“I get it,” Kerry answered, saying he did not want to “wind up with them (members of the anti-Saddam Syrian opposition) blaming you” for not doing more to remove Assad from power. But Kerry voiced worry about who would control the country if Assad were forced out of power.

Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

Senator John Kerry, D-Mass., President Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of State, speaks with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., before he testifies at the Senate Foreign Relations committee during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Jan. 24, 2013.

The committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, asked Kerry about Obama’s nominee to be defense secretary, former Sen. Chuck Hagel and his support for Global Zero, a group which calls for the total abolition of nuclear weapons.

Kerry said Hagel would be “a strong secretary of defense secretary” and that Hagel would not weaken the U.S. nuclear arsenal which serves as a deterrent to an attack on the United States.

A world without any nuclear weapons, Kerry said, was a goal “worth aspiring to,” but “we’re not talking about today’s world” and it might take “many centuries” to achieve abolition of nuclear weapons.

Recommended: Jindal to warn fellow Republicans of 'obsession' with D.C. battles

Kerry also addressed Iran's nuclear program.

“The president has made it definitive--we will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” he said in his opening statement to the committee. “I repeat here today: our policy is not containment. It is prevention and the clock is ticking on our efforts to secure responsible compliance.”

He added, “No one should mistake our resolve to reduce the nuclear threat.”

He said Obama “knows that American foreign policy is not defined by drones and deployments alone. We cannot allow the extraordinary good we do to save and change lives to be eclipsed entirely by the role we have had to play since September 11th, a role that was thrust upon us.”

Referring to the impasse over reducing budget deficits and the growing national debt, Kerry said to the committee members that “the first priority of business which will affect my credibility as a diplomat – and our credibility as nation – as we work to help other countries create order, is whether America at last puts its own fiscal house in order.”

In his opening statement, Kerry showed one brief moment of emotion. His voice shook when he referred to his father, who was a Foreign Service officer. Kerry said he was proud that “the Senate is in my blood – but equally proud that so too is the Foreign Service. My father’s work under presidents both Democrat and Republican took me and my siblings around the world for a personal journey that brought home the sacrifices” that American diplomats abroad make or their country.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- As Republicans gather in Charlotte to take stock of their party's brand this week, one of their potential standard-bearers is advising them to turn their attention away from an "obsession with government bookkeeping" in Washington D.C.

"Today’s conservatism is completely wrapped up in solving the hideous mess that is the federal budget, the burgeoning deficits, the mammoth federal debt, the shortfall in our entitlement programs,"  Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will say at tonight's keynote dinner at the Republican National Committee's Winter Meeting, according to an advance copy of remarks obtained by NBC News.

"We as Republicans have to accept that government number crunching – even conservative number crunching – is not the answer to our nation’s problems,” he will say.

Recommended: Hillary's honeymoon with GOP ends

Jindal, frequently discussed as a possible 2016 presidential nominee for the GOP, will make the argument that Republican concern about constraining a bulging federal government -- signified to their base by President Barack Obama -- misses the point of growing the economy outside the Beltway.

"The Republican Party must become the party of growth, the party of a prosperous future that is based in our economic growth and opportunity that is based in every community in this great country and that is not based in Washington, DC," he will say.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana addresses activists from America's political right at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in this file photo.

The Louisiana governor's remarks come as Republicans in Congress have been struggling to out-manuever Obama on tactical measures related to spending, taxes and the debt ceiling. While the party has extracted some concessions from the White House as a result of the wrangling, consultants and elected officials alike fret that a focus on fighting the president looks more like stubborn obstruction than conservative valor to a weary public.

Jindal -- who is Indian-American, Catholic and just 41 years old -- has gained national fame in part by defying stereotypes about how a southern Republican governor looks and sounds. The party's efforts to expand its appeal beyond white men and the south top the Charlotte agenda.

Jindal is expected to speak tonight at around 7 p.m. ET. 

Hillary’s “honeymoon” with GOP ends… Yet she departs her job stronger today than she was four years ago… Kerry gets his Senate confirmation hearing at 10:00 am ET… Boehner: Obama wants to “annihilate” the GOP… Pentagon to allow women to serve in direct combat… DiFi introduces her assault-weapons ban… And Jindal addresses the RNC meeting in Charlotte, NC.

*** Hillary’s honeymoon with the GOP ends: Say what you will about yesterday’s theatrics at the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees, about the testy exchanges, and about the questions asked and questions dodged. But politically, what struck us about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s appearance was that it marked the end of her four-year honeymoon with Republicans, especially as we begin to turn to 2016. Yes, the word “honeymoon” might be a stretch. But consider how Republicans have either embraced her -- or been indifferent to her -- over the past four years as they’ve focused their energies on President Obama. In fact, Republicans praising her (or her husband) has been a way to criticize Obama. “I just wanted to say that I wish you’d have won the Democratic primary in 2008,” freshman GOP Rep. Tom Cotton said yesterday to Clinton. Just look at our most recent NBC/WSJ poll: 41% of Republicans approve of Clinton’s job as secretary of state (compared with just 10% who approve of Obama’s job as president). Yet whether it was the tough questions from conservatives or how Matt Drudge covered the hearings, Republicans treated Clinton as a partisan Democrat yesterday. And that was something we hadn’t seen these past four years. Madame Secretary, hope you enjoyed the Republican honeymoon while it lasted, because the bipartisan overtures are now over, assuming you do decide run in 2016. 

Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the Sept.11, 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Jan. 23, 2013.

*** But she’s stronger today than she was four years ago: Speaking of Clinton’s performance, all of her political strengths were on display. She was prepared. She was tough when she needed to be. She was deferential when she wanted to be. And she displayed both raw emotion and a sense of humor. It’s also worth noting that she’s stronger today -- politically -- than she was four years ago. Part of it, as we said above, is that Republicans have embraced her. But another part is that, since becoming secretary of state, she no longer owns some of her husband’s baggage. She is her own political entity now, which wasn’t always the case during her 2008 presidential bid; she was still “Mrs. Clinton” in 2008. But here’s one additional point to make: When the Clintons leave office, there’s always some kind of drama. As Bill Clinton departed the White House in 2001, there was the Marc Rich pardon. And as Hillary leaves her post as secretary of state, it ended with her testimony on Benghazi. But politically, her performance yesterday is enough to quiet any nervous nellies in the Democratic Party that she isn’t ready for what will inevitably be a rough and tumble campaign should she embark on it.  

*** Kerry gets his confirmation hearing: Hillary Clinton makes another appearance on Capitol Hill today -- but it’s to introduce John Kerry at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to succeed Clinton as secretary of state. The hearing takes place at 10:00 am ET. Here’s some trivia via the Boston Globe: If confirmed, Kerry would become the eighth secretary of state from Massachusetts, but only the second in the past 100 years. He also would be the fifth chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee to be appointed, but the only sitting chairman. And if Kerry steps down from his Senate seat on Monday, the primary to replace him would have to take place between Saturday, May 11 and Sunday, May 26. And the general would be between Saturday, June 22 and Sunday, July 7. State law requires the general to take place 145 to 160 days after a vacancy is created. The primary is required to occur six weeks before that.

*** Boehner: Obama wants to “annihilate” the GOP: Outside of Capitol Hill, House Speaker John Boehner made news after the Ripon Society, a moderate GOP organization, released a transcript of the speaker’s address to the group on Tuesday. In his remarks, Boehner charged that the Obama administration wants to “annihilate” the Republican Party and “shove” it “into the dustbin of history.” Said Boehner: “[G]iven what we heard [Monday] about the president's vision for his second term, it's pretty clear to me that he knows he can't do any of that as long as the House is controlled by Republicans. So we're expecting over the next 22 months to be the focus of this administration as they attempt to annihilate the Republican Party. And let me just tell you, I do believe that is their goal - to just shove us into the dustbin of history.” It’s interesting what Boehner said – but also where he said it. The Ripon Society is a group where moderate GOPers are allowed to flourish. Was Boehner sending a message to Democrats? Or to his own base? And don’t miss Paul Ryan’s statement to the Wall Street Journal: “I think we need to do a better job of applying our principles to the problems of today, to show solutions to the country's biggest problems and how they relate in people's everyday lives.”

*** Pentagon to allow women to serve in direct combat: Perhaps the biggest news of the day is the Pentagon’s announcement of ending the U.S. military’s exclusion of women as combat soldiers on the ground. Per NBC’s Courtney Kube, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will announce today he’s eliminating the direct ground combat exclusion for women. The current DoD policy is that women are to be excluded from assignment to units below the brigade level if they would be engaging in direct combat. "We are moving in the direction of women as infantry soldiers," one senior defense official to NBC’s Kube. Panetta's decision mandates that the studies and reviews on women as infantry soldiers must be completed by Oct. 2015 -- women soldiers will NOT be permanently assigned to infantry any sooner than that, the official explained. In the meantime, officials will examine whether any changes are necessary for physical requirements for women to serve as infantry soldiers. This announcement, Kube adds, will open approximately 237,000 positions to women across the services (positions being individual jobs, not job categories). This will include 5,000 positions for female marines in ground combat elements (this includes female corpsmen or medics serving at the battalion or company level). Our take: Intellectually, this shouldn’t be a big deal; women are already serving in combat (see Tammy Duckworth). But the real test is where public opinion might be, especially if more and more women come home in flag-draped coffins.

*** DiFi introduces her assault-weapons ban: Also today, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduces her assault-weapons ban in Congress. There’s also a Senate hearing on mental health and gun violence at 10:00 am ET before the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. And yesterday, the White House announced that Vice President Biden and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) will travel to Richmond, VA to discuss gun violence.

*** Jindal addresses the RNC: Finally today, the real action at the RNC’s winter meeting in Charlotte, NC begins. And today’s highlight there is Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s speech at an evening dinner. Per the Washington Post’s Cillizza, Jindal’s speech will call for Republicans to focus less on the political battles in Washington, DC. “A debate about which party can better manage the federal government is a very small and short-sighted debate,” he is expected to say. “If our vision is not bigger than that, we do not deserve to win.” More Jindal: “Instead of worrying about managing government, it’s time for us to address how we can lead America… to a place where it can once again become the land of opportunity, where it can once again become a place of growth and opportunity.  We should put all our eggs in that basket.” If you take the recent comments by Boehner, Ryan, and Jindal together, you’re seeing a pragmatic argument from these three Republicans. They are trying to defend conservative principles, but remain a modern party. It’s no longer about stopping Obama; it’s becoming a governing party after Obama. And speaking of Jindal, maybe no Republican has done a better job -- right now -- of positioning his voice for 2016 than the Louisiana governor has.  

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*** Thursday’s Daily Rundown’s line-up: Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) on the three-month debt ceiling deal and what’s next in the fiscal fights… RNC National Committeeman Morton Blackwell on his push to undo rule changes at last summer’s convention that some see as pitting the establishment against the grassroots in presidential primary fights… Plus the Chicago Tribune’s Clarence Page, Roll Call’s Shira Toeplitz and GOP ad maker Mike Hudome in the Gaggle. 

*** Thursday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: Chris Jansing interviews Rep. Debbie Wassserman Schultz, Ron Fournier & Michael Crowley.  John Feehery & Angela Rye debate the debt ceiling postponement and upcoming budget battles; the National Journal’s Matthew Cooper on Secreatry Hillary Clinton being impervious to ‘scandals’; and Col. Jack Jacobs on women on the front lines of battle.

*** Thursday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts interviews Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) about women in combat and gun violence, Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) about the debt crisis and Rhode Island State Rep. Arthur Handy, author of his state’s marriage equality bill.  Actor George Takei also joins the show.  Today’s Power Panel includes:  TheGrio.com’s Joy-Ann Reid, MSNBC Contributor Ron Reagan, Republican Strategist Susan Del Percio and Fmr. U.S. Amb. Marc Ginsberg.

*** Thursday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, Fortune’s Leigh Gallahger, the New Republic’s Franklin Foer, and the New York Times’ Frank Bruni.

*** Thursday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY), Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, NBC’s Richard Engel and Kelly O’Donnell and USA Today’s Susan Page.

*** Thursday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall interviews Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Col. Jack Jacobs on the Pentagon’s announcement on women in combat, Former HilPAC communications director Ann Lewis and Bryan Bender from the Boston Globe on the Kerry confirmation hearings, NJ Rep. Bill Pascrell and AFL-CIO chief economist Bill Spriggs.

President Obama’s gun policies are viewed favorably by majorities in both a new Washington Post/ABC poll (52%/41%) and Gallup, which asked about specific recommendations rather than the plan as a whole. 

Gallup: “The two least-broadly supported proposals, but ones majorities of Americans still favor, are reinstating and strengthening the 1994-2004 ban on assault weapons (60%), and limiting the sale of ammunition magazines to those with 10 rounds or less (54%). The 60% saying they would vote "for" the assault weapons proposal is higher than the 44% support Gallup found with a similar measure in December that described assault weapons as ‘semi-automatic guns known as assault rifles.’ Also, the current wording reminds respondents that this would be a renewal of a law that existed previously." 

It’s not all good news for Obama. Despite pledges of post-partisanship in 2008, Gallup writes, “Obama's Fourth Year in Office Ties as Most Polarized Ever.” From the poll: “During his fourth year in office, an average of 86% of Democrats and 10% of Republicans approved of the job Barack Obama did as president. That 76-percentage-point gap ties George W. Bush's fourth year as the most polarized years in Gallup records.”

“Hillary wasn’t about to be pilloried,” the New York Post writes. “An enraged Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday fired back at congressional Republicans who charged she failed to heed warnings about lax security at a Libyan consulate where four Americans died in a terroristic attack last Sept. 11.”

Clinton rapped Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), mostly ignored and smirked at Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who said he would have fired her, disagreed with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). And that was just the Senate session. In the afternoon, over at the House hearing, the Post writes that she “fenced” with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX). Here was the exchange: 

CLINTON: “A million cables a year come to the State Department. They’re not all addressed to me.
MCCAUL: “This cable went unnoticed by your office. That’s the bottom line.”

There were a couple of Democrats – Sens. Menendez (D-NJ) and Boxer (D-CA) – who hinted at a potential 2016 run. But a Republican did, too – Rep. Steve Chabot: "I wish you the best in your future endeavors...mostly." (H/T: Political Wire.)

“Senator John F. Kerry and his wife have agreed that should he become secretary of state they will divest nearly 100 separate investments in the United States and abroad -- ranging from oil companies to weapons makers and a Chinese food company -- in an effort to avoid conflicts of interest, according to a copy of his so-called ethics agreement,” the Boston Globe reports, adding, “The divestitures of Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry, the heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune, include Cenovus Energy Inc., the Canadian company that would benefit from the proposed Keystone XL pipeline; Waltham-based Raytheon Co.; Exxon Mobil Corp.; drug maker Pfizer; communications giant Qualcomm Inc. and AT&T; American Express; Microsoft; a number of international private equity firms; and dozens of others.”

John McCain on Kerry’s hearings: “We will bring back for the only time waterboarding to get the truth out of him.”

Expect Syria to be something McCain brings up. 

More: “McCain is not expected to go so easy on another Vietnam veteran and former senator, Chuck Hagel, who goes before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday for his conformation hearing to be secretary of defense.” 

Some trivia from the Boston Globe: Kerry will be the eighth secretary of state from Massachusetts, but only the second in the past 100 years. He would also be the fifth chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee to be appointed, but the only sitting chairman.

As we’ve previously written: “The special general election is required by state law to take place 145 to 160 days after a vacancy occurs. … The primary is required to be six weeks before the general.” 

That means if Kerry were to step down Monday, Jan. 28^th, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) would have to set the date between Saturday, June 22 and Sunday, July 7. A primary would have to take place between Saturday, May 11 and Sunday, May 26.

“Senior defense officials say Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the military's ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war,” the New York Daily News writes.

For winning the NBA championship last year, “The Miami Heat will be in suits and ties when they visit the White House on Monday. Unless, of course, someone invites them to play some ball,” AP writes. “After all, President Barack Obama does enjoy some pickup games. ‘Everybody will bring their shoes — just in case,’ Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.” 

Flashback: LeBron James is, of course, now the star of the Heat, but in 2004, he was a phenom between his rookie and second year in the NBA playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Backstage at the Democratic National Convention -- as told to author David Mendell in the book about Obama, “From Promise to Power” -- then state-Sen. Barack Obama, about to go on stage to deliver the address that would launch his meteoric rise was asked if he was nervous. His reply? “I’m LeBron, baby. I can play on this level. I got some game." 

Politico looks at what President Obama could do on climate change through executive action. And apparently Derek Jeter talked in support of action at Davos.

Al Gore’s richer than Mitt Romney now? 

“Republican soul-searching begins in earnest this week as GOP officials from every state in the nation come together for the first time since their party’s November shellacking,” AP writes. “There is broad agreement that the Republican Party needs to undergo fundamental changes to remain competitive as surging minority populations re-shape the American electorate. But there is no clear path forward. And even as they gather in a Charlotte, N.C., hotel this week — just days after President Barack Obama began his second term — Republicans are in some ways as divided as ever.”

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal delivers the keynote tonight. Political Wire: “Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) ‘will deliver a forceful denunciation of his party's Washington-centric focus in a speech to the Republican National Committee on Thursday evening, arguing that the GOP is fighting the wrong fight as it seeks to rebuild from losses at the ballot box last November,’ the Washington Post reports.”

Beth Reinhard: “With President Obama’s second inauguration still ringing in their ears, Republican national party leaders are hunkering down for three days of soul-searching. The presidential election was the toughest, but not the last indignity. Congressional Republicans were backed into a corner during the negotiations to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff and forced to accept tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans. Still seeking leverage, GOP leaders are backing off a showdown over the debt ceiling. At Monday’s swearing-in, President Obama stuck it to the opposition party by laying out an unapologetically liberal agenda for the next four years.”