Politico

The Hollywood mogul, who famously dissed "Clinton Inc" to Maureen Dowd early in the primary process, now returns to MoDo’s column to offer his endorsement of HRC for SecState:

“She’s smart and tough, a lot better than any of the old hacks like Holbrooke, Albright, etc.,” says David Geffen. “Barack Obama is going to run policy, and Hillary will be an effective communicator. It also takes Bill out of the game. It completely turns him into an ally — and probably a help to both of them. I think Obama is very smart to get as many smart people into the room as he can, to bring in Rahm and keep Lieberman and get Hillary into the cabinet. It brings an enormous amount of good will his way, and he’s going to need every ounce of it, given the wars and financial catastrophe America is facing. It’s getting bleaker every day. There are many, many, many more bubbles to burst.”

On the other hand, another prominent David doesn’t think it’s a great idea

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That is the question raised in a Mike Glover piece sure to stir up conversation in the 515.

Two prominent Romney backers and one top McCain supporter wonder out loud if the caucuses may be diminished by the dominance of social conservatives in the process.

If Palin, Huckabee and Romney all run in 2012, it seems likely Romney may not compete in Iowa.   After all, McCain was off and on there, only parachuting in for the final few days to effectively tie Fred Thompson for third place.    And he still won the nomination.

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A great scene-setter from the Hill today by AP’s Laurie Kellman:

The red-and-blue Senate trolley rolled up to the Capitol basement Tuesday, a lone senator in the front seat checking a piece of paper before slipping it back into his jacket pocket.

Welcome back, Sen. McCain, someone called out.

"Thank you, good to see ya," came the well-practiced reply as he stepped to the ground.

Then, a more familiar greeting from another senator who had been riding in back.

"John, wait up," called Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., clapping a big hand on John McCain’s shoulder. The pair conferred quietly as they rode up an escalator toward lunch with their colleagues.

Two failed presidential nominees, minus Secret Service detail or much suspense about their futures, back to the Senate - same as it ever was.

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A key early endorsement for the Louisiana governor?

From the Tufts student paper:

Q: The Republican Party was dealt another devastating blow [on Nov. 4]. In your opinion, what do you feel the party needs to do in order to successfully regain control of the government? Also, what should disappointed conservatives like yourself do following the election? 

A: The party should remember that they are conservative Republicans — that has been forgotten. They no longer hold to their ideals. They blow with the wind on just about every public opinion poll. So they are not right-wing; they are trying to show that they’re middle or even left-of-middle sometimes. You have to remember two years ago, the Democrats loved John McCain. That is not what this is about. If you’re a party, you have to stick to your ideals. The frontrunners in the Republican Party have definitely seem to forgotten that. Governor [Bobby] Jindal of Louisiana seems to have the right idea. We have got to get back to the grassroots of the Republican Party and not apologize for being conservative 

In other news, JTheP won’t be pursuing a country music career.

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The former top Hillary strategist turned part-time blogger lists the ways — and includes the links.

Taxes, speeches, the foundation, most everything that is public.

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John Judis makes the case in the post-election TNR that the country has been moving away from conservatism for years, and that 9/11 only interrupted that shift.

He offers a wealth of demographic data –  hello "Ideopolises" — but the below movement on cultural issues was perhaps most striking:

Attitudes on social issues have also changed dramatically. The Pew poll from March 2007 found that the percentage of Americans who believe that school boards should have the right to fire gay teachers fell from 51 percent in 1987 to 28 percent. Those who want to make it "more difficult" for women to obtain abortions dropped from 47 to 35 percent. Those who think that "it’s all right for blacks and whites to date each other" rose from 48 to 83 percent. The poll also found that 62 percent of the general population–and 83 percent of college graduates– disagreed with the notion that "science is going too far and hurting society."

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A group dedicated to pushing Sarah Palin into the 2012 presidential race was formed last week and is already emailing Iowa Republicans.

The "2012 Draft Sarah Committee" has a rudimentary website up showing the Alaska governor dishing out moose chili and appears to be composed of rank-and-file conservative activists.

They’ve already found their way into the in-boxes of some of the opinion-makers in early primary and caucus states.

David L. Kelly, apparently the group’s Treasurer and Colorado coordinator, sent a mass email today that hit at least one Iowa GOP vet.

"Since forming our committee last week, we now have State Organizers in ten states and thousands from across the nation who have signed on as supporters," writes Kelly.   "We feel that for Conservatives to be successful again, we must get back to the core principles of Conservatism. Sarah Palin’s popularity and her Conservative values that she embodies will be the catalyst that will resurrect the Conservative base and reform the Republican Party of the near future."

The group’s leader, Paul Streitz, is a Connecticut resident who is best known there as an outspoken foe of illegal immigration.   He founded the group "Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control."

During the campaign, Palin took a more moderate tack on the issue.   

In an interview with Univision, she said she supported a pathway to citzenship for illegal immigratnts.  

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The senior senator from Arizona returns to the Capitol, where Republicans are mulling an expulsion resolution for Ted Stevens and awaiting the final results from Alaska to see if it’s even necessary:

John McCain, who had called for Stevens to step down during the campaign, brushed wordlessly past reporters as he entered the meeting.

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My colleague Glenn Thrush makes a great point over in The Crypt on the Great Lieberman Compromise of 2008.

Some Democrats have sniped at Joe Lieberman for not grilling the Bush administration hard enough as head of the homeland security committee.

He gets to keep this job.

Democrats have (mostly) offered praise for his positions on the Environment and Public Works Committee, where he has criticized the Bush administration’s global warming policies.

He loses that job. 

Funny, it was the "McCain-Lieberman" global warming legislation — along with McCain-Feingold and McCain-Kennedy – that Mitt Romney held up to question the Republican credentials of the eventual GOP nominee in the closing days of the decisive Florida primary.

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The AFL-CIO is going to play hard in the Georgia ahead of the December 2nd Senate run-off between Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin.

They’re dropping the above to about 80,000 union members there and moving staff from Washington and other parts of the country into the state to hit doors, phones and worksites.

AFL spokesman Steve Smith said it would be their largest effort ever undertaken in a run-off.

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