| | | | |  | | By POLITICO MAGAZINE | Happy Friday! Before we get to the newsletter, we have a question for you: How are we doing? Take our POLITICO Weekend survey to let us know what you like about the newsletter — and what's missing.
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U.S. Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) stands for a portrait in his office in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 13, 2022. | Caroline Gutman for POLITICO | Let's flash back to November 2021: It's a year before the midterms, a bitterly cold night in Washington, and despite Democrats' triumvirate of power, the future of the party is looking bleak. President Joe Biden's agenda is all but dead, and the Virginia governor's mansion has just turned into a bright red cherry on top of a spoiled sundae for Democrats. Hakeem Jeffries, a senior party leader from New York, and other leaders of the Black Caucus are eager for a legislative win. If only they could pass the president's infrastructure package. But where to find the votes? That's where Josh Gottheimer comes into play — a "very New Jersey" Democrat who irked Speaker Nancy Pelosi and was often loathed by progressives. He promised Jeffries he could deliver enough GOP votes to pass the measure — and the very next day, he did. The measure passed with 13 Republicans on board. Gottheimer and his "Problem Solvers Caucus," a group of 50 or so lawmakers from both major parties, were frequently derided for solving no problems at all — but that ability to eke out a bipartisan consensus could turn them into power players, particularly as a battered Kevin McCarthy takes the speakership to preside over another closely divided House. In this richly detailed profile of Gottheimer, POLITICO senior congressional reporter Sarah Ferris reveals an ambitious (if abrasive) politician, who went from studying at Oxford and working at Ben & Jerry's to writing speeches for President Bill Clinton at the ripe old age of 23. Now — whether you think he's a Clintonian zombie or a grounded realist, as Joe Manchin has it — Gottheimer could be a key dealmaker in the new Congress. Read the story. | | | | 
| "Does the president know you're here, laughing it up with the enemies of the American people? It's OK, Mr. Vice President; people here can keep a secret. This isn't the White House." Can you guess who said this about then-Vice President Mike Pence? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**
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A group of Crimean Tatars, an indigenous people of Ukraine, repair a roadway during the Crimean war in 1855. | Roger Fenton via the Library of Congress | Crimea or Bust … As Russia's war on Ukraine rages on, some pundits (and at least one social media CEO) have suggested that Kyiv sacrifice Crimea, the region that Russia annexed back in 2014, like a pawn in a broader chess game. But history isn't on their side, writes Rory Finnin, an associate professor of Ukrainian studies at Cambridge. In fact, he argues, if Zelenskyy backs down on Crimea, he'd be backing down on any hope for lasting peace and stability.
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| 67 percent … of baby boomers either somewhat (19 percent) or strongly (48 percent) support banning Chinese-based social media platforms in the United States. Gen Z doesn't think so: Forty percent are either somewhat or strongly opposed, with 31 percent in favor of a ban.
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POLITICO illustration/Photo by iStock | We'll Always Have #Covfefe … We can't say what's in Twitter's future, but thanks to the loose thumbs of politicians (and those of the terminally online peanut gallery orbiting around them in the digital ether), we can say what's in its past: a groundbreaking, hilarious, inspiring, deeply cringe record of American history — and more than that, a tool that has shaped American history itself. #MeToo. Delete your account. Bigfoot erotica. Covfefe. Behold, dear readers: our brief, bizarre review of Politics Twitter, 2006-2023.
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| Now that the chaos of the speaker election is over, and with their legislative agenda largely stalled amid divided government, House Republicans are teeing up an expansive list of investigations, each aimed squarely at President Joe Biden, the administration and members of his family. If you're just tuning in (or having trouble keeping up with the quickly expanding web of investigative threads), we've got you covered so that you sound like you've been tracking the GOP's plans for weeks. (From POLITICO's Jordain Carney.) - One of the concessions defectors got from Kevin McCarthy is the "select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government." Its name is long, but the list of topics you can safely wax poetic about and still fall within the panel's purview is longer: the FBI, DOJ, the intelligence community, ongoing Trump-focused probes, etc. (If you're talking to a Republican, the phrase you want to drop in is "Church-style investigation," in reference to the 1970s-era committee chaired by Sen. Frank Church that uncovered vast intelligence abuses.) - The GOP's newest investigative target? Biden's handling of classified documents from his time as vice president. Feel free to name drop Robert Hur (the newly appointed special counsel) but you should also know that congressional Republicans are already asking their own questions. - If you find that the conversation is lagging, just mention Hunter Biden — basically everyone has an opinion. And if you are asked to contribute again, just mention Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, who is spearheading the probe of the president's son's business dealings, or the "Twitter files." The Kentucky Republican is eyeing a hearing in early February with three former Twitter employees. After that you are probably good to not talk again until you can safely exit the conversation. - The House GOP's second biggest i-word (the first is investigations): impeachment. We'd avoid leaning too far into the uphill prospect of a Biden impeachment. Instead, if you want to show you've been paying attention, mention that the first impeachment articles since Republicans took control of the House were filed this week, against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
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Arnold Sachs/Getty Images | Back in 1963 , a 16-year-old Bill Clinton visited the White House as a delegate of the American Legion Boys Nation, a prestigious educational program started in 1946 that selects two male students per state (except Hawaii, which is not currently part of the program) to learn about the legislative process at a week-long event in Washington D.C., where they act as senators in their own legislative body — organizing committees, conducting hearings and handling bills. In his 2004 autobiography, My Life , Clinton recalls the memory: "After accepting a Boys Nation T-shirt, Kennedy walked down the steps and began shaking hands," he writes. "I was in the front, and being bigger and a bigger supporter of the president's than most of the others, I made sure I'd get to shake his hand even if he shook only two or three. It was an amazing moment for me. …" But was it the start of Clinton's political ambitions? According to the book, the handshake was nothing more than a brief encounter that people blew out of proportion: "My mother said she knew when I came home that I was determined to go into politics, and after I became the Democratic nominee in 1992, the film was widely pointed to as the beginning of my presidential aspirations," he writes, referring to a film of the handshake from the Kennedy Library. "I'm not sure about that." In 1998, Clinton once again attended a White House meeting with Boys Nation delegates — only this time, he was the president. Who knows — maybe one of the 16-year-olds he shook hands with is another future Commander in Chief.
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| **Who Dissed answer: That would be Nancy Pelosi, taking digs at Donald Trump's attacks on journalists and his administration's trouble with leaks, at the Gridiron Dinner in 2017. Pence was in attendance, but Pelosi noted Trump's absence: "I am sorry the president couldn't join us. I understand that he is in the Situation Room, monitoring an urgent matter that demands his full attention: Saturday Night Live." politicoweekend@email.politico.com | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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