Insider Report from Newsmax.com
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Obama's Coattails Surprisingly Short
2. Meg Whitman May Run for Calif. Governor
3. Al-Qaida Seeks New Bases in Africa
4. Obama Pokes Fun at Foul-Mouthed Rahm Emanuel
5. Israel Owes Bush 'Enormous Debt' for Iraq
6. Obama 'Network' Developing Rift
7. We Heard: Chris Matthews, Arlen Specter, Michael Moore
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1. Obama's Coattails Surprisingly Short
While Barack Obama won a resounding electoral vote victory in the presidential race, Democrats did not score the impressive gains nationwide that might have been expected.
Democrats gained five state legislative chambers — the New York Senate, Nevada Senate, Delaware House, Ohio House, and Wisconsin Assembly.
But they lost four others to the GOP — the Tennessee House and Senate, Montana Senate, and Oklahoma Senate, National Journal magazine reported.
According to Tim Storey of the National Conference of State Legislatures, Democrats picked up about 100 state legislative seats, "about half the normal turnover."
Democrats will gain at least 17 seats in the U.S. House and at least five in the Senate, fewer than party insiders had hoped for in recent weeks.
Charlie Cook of National Journal offered several possible reasons for the Democrats' performance on Election Day: A large number of first-time and younger voters went to the polls this year, and it could be that they did not venture past the presidential choice on their ballot. Some voters may have chosen to keep Republican incumbents in place to prevent Democrats from gaining complete control in Washington. Since Democrats had gained so many seats in 2006, they were defending many seats in districts previously held by Republicans.
In any case, Cook concludes, "What happened down-ballot was not proportional to what happened at the top."
Editor's Note:
* President Obama's First Target: Close Down Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, Savage
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2. Meg Whitman May Run for Calif. Governor
Former eBay chief Meg Whitman is mulling a run to replace California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when he leaves office in two years.
Whitman supported Mitt Romney's presidential campaign until he dropped out of the race, then joined John McCain's campaign as a national co-chair. She spoke at this year's GOP convention, and was mentioned by McCain as a possible Treasury secretary.
The 52-year-old Republican was eBay's chief executive officer when she stepped down from the post after 10 years at the online shopping company. She remains an eBay director.
New York-born Whitman, who now lives in Atherton, Calif., has hired a Sacramento public relations firm and retained Steve Schmidt, the GOP strategist who ran McCain's campaign and managed Schwarzenegger's re-election bid in 2006, the Los Angeles Times reports.
She has never held elected office, but with a net worth of at least $1.4 billion, she could finance her own campaign.
Whitman is not alone in eyeing the governor's mansion, however. Other would-be candidates are preparing, either openly or behind the scenes, to run in 2010, according to the Times.
They include Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, former Republican congressman Tom Campbell, and Steve Poizner, the state's insurance commissioner. All four have formed exploratory committees to raise money for a possible campaign.
Former Gov. Jerry Brown, the state's current attorney general, is also said to be considering a run.
The "wild card" is Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is contemplating a run as well, the Times disclosed, observing, "She would vault to the head of the field, analysts say, but may be reluctant to leave the Senate with her party newly dominant in favor of a campaign to run a deficit-plagued state and deal with a polarized legislature."
Asked which potential candidate had the best odds of replacing him, Gov. Schwarzenegger last month named Democrat Brown, speculating that Feinstein would decide not to run.
He said Brown "can reach the Republicans and Democrats and bring different people together."
Editor's Note:
* Omega-3 Is the Only Thing to Cure Election Blues
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3. Al-Qaida Seeks New Bases in Africa
Although hobbled by the killings or arrests of its senior leaders, al-Qaida is actively seeking to establish new bases in Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, and Somalia.
Germany's head of intelligence, Ernst Uhrlau, said the group has entered a new, decentralized phase, with a strategy of exploiting regional conflicts.
He warned that al-Qaida posed a particular threat in North Africa, due in part to its geographic proximity to Europe.
In September, al-Qaida operatives kidnapped and beheaded 11 soldiers and a civilian in Mauritania. Last December, it claimed responsibility for bombings at the U.N. headquarters and a court in Algeria, according to the Center for Strategic & International Studies' Transnational Threats Update.
As Newsmax reported earlier, al-Qaida, which gets its money from the drug trade in Afghanistan and supporters in the oil-rich Gulf states, is likely to escape the effects of the global financial crisis, largely because the organization has been forced to avoid using banks.
The Update also disclosed that the American embassy in London will be relocated due to security concerns. Ambassador to Britain Robert Tuttle said the embassy's central location in Grosvenor Square cannot reasonably accommodate required security upgrades.
Since 2000, more than 60 new embassies and other facilities overseas have been constructed to meet more stringent security requirements.
Editor's Note:
* Terror Chatter Extremely High, Make Sure You Have This Radio
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4. Obama Pokes Fun at Foul-Mouthed Rahm Emanuel
Three-year-old footage has emerged showing Barack Obama poking fun at Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman the president-elect has now chosen as his chief of staff.
The footage of a 2005 celebrity roast of Emanuel — a fundraiser hosted by Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy — was recently rebroadcast by C-SPAN.
At the podium, Obama told the gathering, "It's great that we can all come together and do something that makes everybody feel better, which is to insult Rahm Emanuel."
He went on to say, "Some of you may know that Rahm's brother Ari is the model for the lead character on the big hit on HBO, 'Entourage.' What you may not know is that Rahm himself in the inspiration for that other HBO character, Tony Soprano."
When it was Hillary Clinton's turn to speak, she said, "When was the last time Rahm spoke for more than five minutes without using a curse word?"
And she declared, "Rahm scares us all."
Obama also alluded to Emanuel's penchant for foul language: "He was working at a deli. There was an accident with a meat-slicing machine. He lost part of his middle finger. As a result, this rendered him practically mute
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