Obama presses Boehner on tax impasse

• "In a 10-minute phone call with the Ohio Republican, Mr. Obama urged the House to approve a two-month extension of the current, lower tax rate, and promised to negotiate a longer extension in the new year, according to administration and congressional officials. Mr. Boehner reiterated House GOP complaints that two months is too short for a tax-cut extension, and asked the president to lean on Senate Democrats to enter into another round of negotiations before year's end." - WSJ ($)
• "President Obama and his aides seemed to be brimming with confidence on Wednesday." - The Hill

Senate Republican frustration mounting with House GOP

"Multiple Senate GOP sources told CNN that frustration with their counterparts in the House is mounting. "The House Republicans have painted themselves into a corner. They are on their own," a Senate GOP leadership aide told CNN. "This is a lose – lose situation for us. They've let the Democrats get the messaging advantage and more specifically we've turned one of our key issues on its head. The Republicans look like they are the ones blocking tax relief," said the Senate GOP leadership aide" - CNN

• GOP freshmen dig in hard - Politico

2012ers missing from House-Senate spending debate

"The latest example: far from rushing to steer the party away from a potentially disastrous showdown over the payroll tax holiday with President Barack Obama, the top Republican candidates are doing what they can to make themselves scarce." - Politico

• "Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who is seeking the party’s presidential nomination, warned that the showdown could end badly for Republicans, citing his own experience in losing the political battle to President Bill Clinton during the 1996 government shutdown." - Washington Post

Romney says Gingrich can't take the heat, so Gingrich challenges him to a one-on-one debate

"Mitt Romney says if Newt Gingrich can't stand the heat coming from his allies, then just wait until President Obama starts coming after him." - USA Today

• "A look of utter disbelief crossed Newt Gingrich’s face Wednesday when a reporter told him that Mitt Romney had suggested earlier that Mr. Gingrich could not stand the heat of a presidential campaign. Mr. Gingrich stared at the reporter for several seconds, speechless." - New York Times

Newt responds: "Newt Gingrich threw down a “debate me in Iowa’’ challenge to his chief Republican rival, Mitt Romney, on Wednesday night, hours after Mr. Romney said in a television interview that Mr. Gingrich should stop complaining about negative advertising." - New York Times

The perils of not being organized: Newt has to take time out of Iowa campaign to get on Virginia ballot

"Gingrich will campaign in the state Wednesday and Thursday, even though its GOP presidential primary isn’t until March. And therein lies the problem. The former House speaker has been struggling to amass enough signatures to get on the Virginia ballot before Thursday’s deadline. He needs 10,000—and at least 400 from every congressional district." - LA Times

George Will: Newt is an anti-conservative

"Gingrich’s unsurprising descent into sinister radicalism — intimidation of courts — is redundant evidence that he is not merely the least conservative candidate, he is thoroughly anti-conservative. He disdains the central conservative virtue, prudence, and exemplifies progressivism’s defining attribute — impatience with impediments to the political branches’ wielding of untrammeled power. ... Atop the Republican ticket, Gingrich would guarantee Barack Obama’s reelection, would probably doom Republicans’ hopes of capturing the Senate and might cost them control of the House. If so, Gingrich would at last have achieved something — wreckage, but something — proportional to his swollen sense of himself." - George Will for the Washington Post

Ron Paul defends controversial newsletters

"When asked... whether he looked at them when they were published and decided they did not represent him accurately, he said "not all the time." Pressed on whether he read them he said, "Not all the time. Well, on occasion, yes." ... Paul, who had left Congress at the time and was practicing medicine, has repeatedly disavowed the controversial remarks in the newsletters. "I've never read that stuff. I've never read - I came - I was probably aware of it 10 years after it was written"" - CNN

• "However, in a 1995 C-SPAN interview Paul seemed to take full responsibility for their content." - PoliticalWire

Dorothy Rabinowitz: Ron Paul is a propagandist for our chief enemies in the world -  WSJ

Bachmann fans in Iowa have a dilemma: they love her, but don't think she's a credible candidate - Politico

New Hampshire observers find Huntsman's campaign confusing - Daily Caller

Karl Rove: How Obama will run in 2012

"Lacking a popular record or constructive agenda, Mr. Obama will resort to ad hominem attacks on Republicans. The president, who in 2008 spoke constantly about healing divisions, seems to relish being an attack dog. So he'll say Republicans don't just disagree with him; they want to harm the nation. He'll label any dissent as unpatriotic. ... Dividing Americans along class lines and pretending the last three years are someone else's responsibility may be therapeutic for the president and his liberal followers. But it's hard to see it working." - Karl Rove for the WSJ ($)

• RNC chairman promises to make Fast and Furious a 2012 election theme - Daily Caller

Philip Klein: Blame Bush if you don't like the GOP 2012 field

"Though Bush inherited a GOP-controlled Congress in 2001, eight years later his party had lost the presidency as well as both chambers of Congress -- and the Senate soon became filibuster-proof for Democrats. But it also had the detrimental effect by weakening the bench of potential conservative presidential candidates. Between 2001 and 2009, Republicans who were in the typical grooming positions for the presidency got coaxed into supporting Bush's big government policies -- all of which makes them less appealing to today's Tea Party electorate." - Philip Klein for the Washington Examiner

National Journal's 2012 Senate race rankings, Christmas edition - National Journal

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback implements real fiscal restraint

"In the past year, three state agencies have been abolished and 2,050 jobs have been cut. Funding for schools, social services and the arts have been slashed. The new Republican governor rejected a $31.5 million federal grant for a new health-insurance exchange because he opposes President Obama’s health-care law. And that’s just the small stuff. A new “Office of the Repealer” has been created to reduce the number of laws and regulations, and the Repealer is canvassing the state for more cut suggestions." - Washington Post

NRSC Outraises Democratic committee in November - Roll Call

Obama is achieving his goal of higher energy costs - Washington Examiner editorial

Jimmy Carter sends condolences to Kim Jong-un

"Former President Jimmy Carter has sent North Korea a message of condolence over the death of Kim Jong-il and wished "every success" to the man expected to take over as dictator, according to the communist country's state-run news agency." - Washington Times

> CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO CONSERVATIVEHOME'S DAILY EMAIL AND GET ALL THE MOST IMPORTANT GOP NEWS BY 7:00AM EST EVERY WEEKDAY.