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Today's POLITICO Playbook presented by the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates

By ANNA PALMER (anna@politico.com; @apalmerdc), JAKE SHERMAN (sherman@politico.com; @JakeSherman) and DANIEL LIPPMAN (daniel@politico.com; @dlippman)

Listen to today's Audio Briefing | Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Visit the online home of Playbook
Driving the Day
Good Tuesday morning. Hanukkah begins tonight. IT IS ELECTION DAY IN ALABAMA, and voters will choose between Roy Moore and Doug Jones. REPUBLICANS' GOAL: Pass the tax bill before the new senator gets seated. Moore or Jones will be seated after Dec. 20, we hear.

NEW: WE HEAR if everything goes according to plan, the Senate could vote on the negotiated tax plan next Monday or Tuesday, and the House would then vote Tuesday or Wednesday. The negotiated House-Senate tax plan is scheduled to be filed this Friday. This timeframe is designed to give adequate time to deal with government funding, which expires next Friday, and a deal to boost spending caps. Of course, a million things can go wrong between now and then. But this is what's being discussed at the top levels of Republican leadership.

GAME DAY IN ALABAMA -- "Moore, wife blast Washington establishment and media in final appeal," by Alex Isenstadt and Gabe Debenedetti in Midland City, Alabama: "A defiant Roy Moore returned to the campaign trail Monday evening, delivering a thundering speech at an election eve rally in which he implored Alabamians to ignore outsiders who he said were bent on stopping him in the Senate special election. 'We dare to defend our rights and we will defend our rights,' Moore, who has been abandoned by much of the Republican Party establishment, told an audience of several hundred packed into a barn. 'We're up to our neck in people that don't want change in Washington, D.C., they want to keep
their power, keep it the same, keep their positions, and we've got to change that.'

"The 24-minute speech served as the capstone of a campaign that has thrust the special election into a spiraling national dialogue over sexual harassment. Moore, a twice-removed controversial former state Supreme Court justice, has faced allegations that he preyed on teenage girls as a man in his 30s. As he has done in the past, Moore denied the allegations against him -- this time, calling them 'disgusting' and reiterating his belief that they emerged just weeks before the election in an attempt to defeat him. He cast the accusations as part of a broader, establishment-led effort to destroy him and to undermine his character. Neither Republicans nor Democrats, he argued, wanted him in the
Senate.

"Moore also pointed out that both parties had spent millions against him, first in the Republican primary and then in Tuesday's general election, when he faces Democrat Doug Jones. Yet the 'verdict' of the race, he said, wasn't up to the Washington political class or the members of the national media who were also in attendance. 'If you don't believe in my character,' he added, 'don't vote for me.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d29f493fc9b383c4ac48af0548fbe2b25a307f71586807b0cbbd515e4b2db46257f6f560f869706181

DANIEL STRAUSS: "Alabama Senate election: 5 things to watch": http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d236c8b3ae953a85a4ae4e1a831be23d621559441b2cda64d4171645cdedec2b7b3923d8372f18cff4

-- LESSONS LEARNED: "Pollsters dodge Alabama prediction game," by Steven Shepard: "Who's leading in Tuesday's special Senate election in Alabama? The race is so peculiar and has so many variables that some pollsters are reluctant to say. Rather than put out a single result that could be viewed as a projection in the race between Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore, several polling outfits have simply released a number of different turnout models that explain how the composition of the electorate could swing the election. It's an approach that they say best reflects the tremendous uncertainty surrounding a historically unusual, off-year, mid-December special election in a racially
polarized state - where one candidate is an accused child molester." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d294bcaed7bde184203e02e45afce135ab03334907799f346f39627d3f1d20dee84052aa8e8a76bc87

ON THE GROUND -- @daveweigel: "Roy Moore's wife Kayla: 'Fake news will tell you that we don't care for Jews. One of our attorneys is a Jew!' #ALsen". 36-second video http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2b50e47c172b090593c4f52681921f2d211ef197aea851873392652bf4c1dd305654c4325b10c700c ... @Bencjacobs: "Among those spotted at the Roy Moore event tonight: Steve Bannon sipping Red Bull, Louie Gohmert, Paul Nehlen and Sheriff David Clarke".

-- MYSTERY SOLVED: "Secret super PAC backing Jones in Alabama exposed," by Gabe Debenedetti in Birmingham, Alabama: "A mystery super PAC backing Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama is controlled by a pair of groups closely aligned with the national Democratic Party, even as the candidate strives to dissociate himself from Washington interests. Highway 31, which dropped more than $4.1 million in support of Jones and against Roy Moore ahead of Tuesday's Senate special election, is a joint project of two of the largest national Democratic super PACs - Senate Majority PAC and Priorities USA Action - along with a group of Alabama Democrats, multiple senior officials familiar with the arrangement told
POLITICO. Highway 31 was created in November, [FEC] filings show. ...

"The groups have collected checks from a gamut of top Democratic donors, led by longtime party contributors like George Soros, Jim Simons, Haim Saban and Fred Eychaner. While both Jones and Moore have gotten support from other outside groups in recent weeks, Highway 31 is by far the biggest-spending." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2c05d195edec219ef905368e2f33abaf8362404616a99f7364e9603a3322475b1775f1ec0127cdae5

FOR THOSE SEEKING STEVE BANNON'S BACKING, from Bloomberg's Josh Green: "Bannon worked to create a counter-narrative that ultimately would change many Republicans' perception of the [Roy Moore] scandal. A former filmmaker, he's long been captivated by the propaganda films of Leni Riefenstahl, the Nazi filmmaker, and the Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein for their power to shape public sentiment. Earlier this year, Bannon told the New Yorker's Jane Mayer his 2012 anti-Obama film 'The Hope and the Change,' had consciously mimicked Riefenstahl's infamous, 'Triumph of the Will.' Her film, he added, 'seared into me' that unhappy voters could be influenced if they felt they were being conned.

"'Riefenstahl and Eisenstein both created an image of their nation that coalesced in the minds of citizens and shaped public opinion through narratives, which is essentially what Bannon is doing in politics,' says Nadia Szold, a filmmaker and documentarian who has studied Bannon's films and discussed his influences with him. 'They all evoke emotions like nostalgia, patriotism or paranoia that strengthen a collective sentiment.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2ed5258f88b00d80be3f4b514738b5780771718da52e1f7d169a51d93122385f23c070443bf47c565

CRUNCH TIME ON TAXES -- "GOP lawmakers struggle to close gaps in tax plan," by Bernie Becker, Aaron Lorenzo and Seung Min Kim: "Top congressional Republicans, racing to hammer out a final tax agreement by the end of the week, have yet to make any breakthroughs on a range of key issues. House and Senate negotiators bounced proposals back and forth over the weekend, but said Monday that they still had to find compromises on where to set the corporate tax rate, how to treat millions of businesses that aren't set up as corporations and how much of a deduction to allow for state and local taxes.

"'We speak of little else these days,' said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas). On the House side, Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) deflected questions about a slew of potential trouble spots, also including the estate tax, the Alternative Minimum Tax and the fate of an existing law barring churches and other tax-exempt groups from openly politicking. Asked Monday what differences the House and Senate had resolved, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) responded: 'Well, nothing really.

"'I don't think you can say at this point anything is really nailed down,' added Thune, a member of GOP leadership and the tax conference committee working to settle the chambers' differences. 'But I think the way it's shaping up right now, I feel like we're getting pretty close, and every time that we have an exchange of offers the differences are narrowing.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2ea5f2cabbb24f12920e43800f17a8b9a74d7b40ad26f3d383850da64c2ba60e4d4b8b3ac9a76b9b7

-- THEIR GOAL is to have a tax bill on the president's desk by Dec. 20, but time is quickly slipping away.

COMING ATTRACTIONS? -- "Looming pension shortfalls to complicate next shutdown fight," by Elana Schor: "The next potential sleeper cause of a government shutdown? Pensions. Congress barely averted a shutdown last year amid a fight over miners' health care. Now the looming collapse of pension plans for the miners - as well as thousands of Teamster truck drivers and food service workers - is fueling another, even more expensive, round of brinkmanship.

"Key Democrats are vowing to fight for a fix as part of any forthcoming deal to fund the government. And they warn that if Congress doesn't step in soon to forestall the insolvency of several key pension plans - including the massive Central States plan, which covers an estimated 400,000 union workers and retirees - taxpayers risk ending up on the hook for an even bigger multi-billion-dollar rescue for the government's pension guarantee agency. But it's far from clear the workers will get their rescue. Conservative Republicans will be loath to provide anything that looks like a bailout, particularly for union workers. And one of the Senate's leading Democratic advocates for relief, Sherrod
Brown of Ohio, is one of the GOP's top targets ahead of his reelection next year." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2f798a49045e18cd7d568c038f283e569245f2b55ea128d6976ddc9d0929b4ef6a5b6f038a5a6fb20


****** A message from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates: UAE airlines bought $42 billion in US-made commercial aircraft at the 2017 Dubai Airshow. That's economic growth and jobs for Americans. The UAE-US commercial aviation relationship is a win-win deal. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2621ae55a1fa5fde10e9decc199ac1dc1571cee030a93bdfe3dbfe7ea740b19301f472e19cf3de5c2 ******

INSIDE BLAKE FARENTHOLD'S OFFICE -- "Texas Congressman Runs What Former Aides Call a Hostile Workplace," by NYT's Sheryl Gay Stolberg: "Throughout the Capitol, House aides have described office cultures where sexually explicit conversations are routine, pickup lines are part of daily life, hiring can be based on looks, tolerance is expected and intolerance of such behavior is career-ending. In Farenthold's case, legal documents and interviews with former aides suggest an atmosphere in which the congressman set the tone for off-color jokes and inappropriate banter, which flourished among his underlings. ... [Elizabeth] Peace and another former aide to Mr. Farenthold, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity for fear of harming that aide's reputation, described an atmosphere in his Washington office that was freewheeling, yet also filled with anxiety. The congressman, they said, was volatile.

"When he was angry, they added, Mr. Farenthold would berate them, sometimes sweeping his arm across his desk, knocking its contents to the floor, and threatening to fire people. ... The refrigerator in the 'bullpen' - the open area where aides worked - was filled with beer, and sometimes happy hour would begin at 4:30 p.m., which his aides called 'beer-thirty.' Ms. Peace said women would discuss which male lobbyists had texted them pictures of their genitals, and both men and women would talk about strip clubs and whether certain Fox News anchors had breast implants." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d27369399415a69e16da8f7727813308bb19c766e4b94e9e378a2039c56be92619cafd4a5f1c78a013

-- "#MeToo spotlight increasingly pointed at past Trump conduct," by AP's Jonathan Lemire: "The president's advisers were stunned Sunday when one of the highest-ranking women in the Trump administration [Nikki Haley] broke with the White House line and said the accusers' voices 'should be heard.' ... Haley's comments infuriated the president, according to two people who are familiar with his views but who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to speak publicly about private conversations." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d29be2f87d8f3c241c60f4e0d34d94d162879926302b429292f3cf3583a9f03d5f969e08ec4059c9da

HAPPENING TOMORROW -- HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI is hosting a meeting tomorrow to "discuss sexual harassment prevention policies and the ME TOO Congress Act legislation." California Rep. Jackie Speier and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Charlotte Burrows and Chai Feldman will speak.

WAR REPORT -- "White House hides troop numbers in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan," by Yahoo News' Olivier Knox: "The White House left out the number of U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria from a semi-annual accounting it provided to Congress on Monday. In a previous report, sent to Congress in June, the administration had said how many Americans are in those war zones.

"The omissions reflect President Trump's eagerness to keep secret the size of U.S. deployments in some global hot spots under the theory that the numbers, no matter how vague, might give extremists and other enemies a strategic advantage, a senior administration official told Yahoo News. Military, congressional and even some other administration officials privately dispute that notion and say some transparency is necessary for informed debate about America's use of force. It is unclear whether the administration detailed the figures to Congress in a classified addendum to the letter." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d27a4674fd317284cf10c202d95b63d97a6150104fb85ed4bddcc8f2917a913ffaad12a0ff5b1458e2

-- "DOJ seeks emergency halt to transgender troop deadline," by Jacqueline Klimas: "The Trump administration on Monday night requested an emergency stay to a court decision that would require the Defense Department to begin accepting transgender recruits on Jan. 1. The action came hours after the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the military must begin accepting transgender recruits on New Year's Day - the latest action to stall President Donald Trump's proposed ban. The Justice Department then turned to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying the Pentagon will still be reviewing the policy until February but needs a stay now."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2d818b5649b981dc18a8be666a79f43715199f7c6245a7354180fbb33d5dee455f08d464dc80f59d7

IN THE MIDDLE EAST -- "Hezbollah Leader Calls for Arab Countries to Stop Seeking New Ties With Israel," by NYT's Nada Homsi in Beirut: "The leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah called on Monday for Arab countries to support the Palestinian cause and abandon their pursuit of normalizing relations with Israel.

"Speaking via a video feed at a rally in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, that was organized to protest President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, called on Arab and Muslim countries to evict Israeli embassies and cut diplomatic ties with Israel.

"'Today we are witnessing a true intifada,' or uprising, Mr. Nasrallah told the crowd, speaking of protests that have spread throughout the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza. 'Muslims and Christians are all united to defend their holy sites in Jerusalem.' The rally drew thousands of protesters and was the largest yet in Lebanon in response to Mr. Trump's Jerusalem declaration last week, which upset a decades-old diplomatic status quo." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2f72bc35eb507288c93839af80ec7f93377b3f0e93289618d04dfd4b7a6490bcf7eed1deb85ee44cc

PUTIN'S MIDDLE EAST PLAY, by NYT's Neil MacFarquhar in Moscow and Anne Bernard in Beirut: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia undertook a whirlwind tour to his new allies in the Middle East on Monday, underscoring the extension of Russia's influence in the region and the continuing shrinkage of the United States' role.

"Mr. Putin touched down in rapid succession in Syria and Egypt, where he met briefly with their leaders, and landed in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, later in the day. His excursion came as anger at the United States was running high over President Trump's unilateral decision to recognize Jerusalem, the third holiest city in Islam, as the capital of Israel. That decision has helped isolate the United States and Israel, angering allies in Europe and the Arab world while helping to convince the Arab public that the United States is solidly anti-Muslim." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d24df7b419ec48bbc8e009dc38cc36cc2517321ef87e8e7d4a3268da210e9c75c4e6cc7a82ab8a8638

SPICER RETURNS -- "Spicer writing book about White House tenure," by Brent D. Griffiths: "Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer announced Monday night that he is writing a book about his brief run behind the podium, taking readers 'behind the scenes of his turbulent tenure.' 'I've decided that it is incumbent on me to set the record straight,' Spicer told Fox News' Sean Hannity on Monday night.

"'I looked back at the coverage of the campaign, the transition and the first six, seven months of this White House and realized that the stories that are being told are not an accurate represent[ation] of what President Trump went through to get the nomination, to transition to the White House and then his first six months in office.' His book titled 'The Briefing' will be published by Regnery Publishing, which calls itself 'the leader in conservative books,' in July." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d29ad62e9ff857f75b7cb4d73f5e2429012651a17f4702c1465854b7b71ea3ad4a7ac9ddabbe6fbf6b

TRUMP'S TUESDAY -- The president will sign the National Defense Authorization Act. He will also meet with Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and U.S. Ambassador to Japan William Hagerty. VP MIKE PENCE speaks to the Values Action Team on Capitol Hill, and has lunch with Senate Republicans.

THE JUICE ...

-- SNEAK PEEK: REP. PATRICK MCHENRY (R-N.C.), the party's chief deputy whip, will announce a $1 million transfer to the NRCC at this morning's House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club, according to a source familiar with his plans. McHenry has transferred nearly $1.85 million to the party committee this year. McHenry has raised roughly $5 million for his House GOP colleagues and roughly $7.5 million overall.

-- JEH JOHNSON, former DHS secretary and current partner at Paul Weiss, is joining the board of directors of Lockheed Martin. Directors make roughly $300,000 in equity and cash.

-- SENATE LEADERSHIP FUND, a super-PAC closely aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, held a private political discussion and appreciation reception Monday night. SLF President and CEO Steven Law noted in his remarks that 2017 was a record fundraising year for the group. SPOTTED: McConnell, Karl Rove, NRSC Chairman Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Republican Sens. Steve Daines (Mont.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Todd Young (Ind.) and Tim Scott (S.C.).

-- OUT AND ABOUT IN NYC -- Last night in TriBeCa Dan Senor hosted a private screening for the premiere of the second season of the Israeli thriller "Fauda," followed by a panel discussion with co-creator Avi Issacharoff and lead members of the cast, including Lior Raz (Doron) and Shadi Mari (Walid). Trailer for the second season http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d29f3fc6fd4be6ea1185bf342ec0335a6749f212c90205f19a8614f889b1aefc700fd8eed800ef4b0c

SPOTTED: Alexandra Pelosi, Bret Stephens, Jon Lerner, Bari Weiss, Cy Vance, Ben Wallace, Jamie Gangel, Dan Silva, Gabe Sherman, Campbell Brown, Michael Aronov, Greg Zuckerman, Abe Greenwald, Noah Rothman, Banks Tarver, Dan Selig, David Bushman, Jay Lefkowitz, Ethan Bronner, Josh Block, Matthew Hiltzik, Mosheh Oinounou, Reihan and Kathryn Salam, Rich Lowry, Richard Cohen, Sewell Chan, Sohrab Ahmari, Stu Loeser and Roger Bennett. (NOTE from Jake: If you don't watch Fauda, you should. It's one of the best shows on television. Season one is on Netflix.)

LATE NIGHT BEST -- After taking last week off because of his son Billy's second open heart surgery, which was successful, JIMMY KIMMEL made a tearful return to his show last night and made the case for CHIP funding. 5-min. video http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2b54376b5aa8bbd53bb0518914eaf137c07da72fbf2b8a172bf1e8c85bd19203adcfba2e6307ab218


Playbook Reads


PHOTO DU JOUR: President Donald Trump holds an astronaut toy after a signing ceremony for Space Policy Directive 1, with the aim of returning Americans to the moon, at the White House on Dec. 11. | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

ISAAC DOVERE talks with DAVID PETRAEUS for the latest OFF MESSAGE podcast -- "David Petraeus Would Still Work for Trump, Under 'Certain Conditions': Life is good for the former CIA director and four-star general. But he's keeping his options open": Isaac talks to retired four star general and CIA director, who offers his battlefield advice in response to Trump's saying he's winning the war against ISIS and that previous administrations weren't letting troops win: "Be first with the truth." "There are other presidents who have also made some declarations that they undoubtedly wished that they hadn't made," he said.

He's not on Twitter, but he sees the tweets. "What you should follow more is the troops, the money and the substance of policies, which we can overlook if we get too mesmerized by reading tweets," he says. What he sees: "more continuity than you might have expected," though he worries about Trump's "occasional ambivalence about what does 'America First' mean relative to the traditional role of the United States in the post-World War II era and particularly, in the post-Cold War era." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2bb3526dfff61e8a3a589e06fb80486aee32eed79beba79314be52fd328c56e6bbc2361bfb474cde1

BLAKE HOUNSHELL in POLITICO Magazine, "Paul Manafort's Dirty Secret: He's a Terrible Propagandist: If bad editing's a crime, lock him up": "We must first indict Manafort for letting [Oleg] Voloshin's proposed headline [in the Kyiv Post] stand. Typically, authors don't write their own, but sometimes an editor will accept a suggestion out of sheer inertia or a lack of creativity. (It's fine to offer a good one when you file your draft -- just don't insist on it or editors will consider you gauche and difficult to work with.)

"In this case, Voloshin had come up with a real stinker: 'European integration unknown soldier.' A bad headline can be fatal even to a good piece of writing. Manafort should have proposed his own. In this age of social media-fueled narcissism, it's usually best to go with a first-person hed when you have the opportunity. I might have suggested something a bit more web-friendly, such as, 'I Know Paul Manafort. He's No Russian Stooge.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2c9b81ef658dff82c45e67c191ba41e13e83e295239e30dbccee1aaf2da8deef2c0a37a42137506b5

FOR YOUR RADAR -- "Fearing the Worst, China Plans Refugee Camps on North Korean Border," by NYT's Jane Perlez in Beijing: "A Chinese county along the border with North Korea is constructing refugee camps intended to house thousands of migrants fleeing a possible crisis on the Korean Peninsula, according to an internal document that appears to have been leaked from China's main state-owned telecommunications company. Three villages in Changbai County and two cities in the northeastern border province of Jilin, have been designated for the camps, according to the document from China Mobile. ... The camps are an unusual, albeit tacit, admission by China that instability in North Korea is
increasingly likely, and that refugees could swarm across the Tumen River, a narrow ribbon of water that divides the two countries." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2fca3fca0649275098322da45aca82853d6770b6c802f9282475752932a97cac586add0af9fdac35e

-- "North Korea's prisons are as bad as Nazi camps, says judge who survived Auschwitz," by WaPo's Anna Fifield in Tokyo: "North Korea's political prisons are just as bad as - and perhaps even worse than - the Nazi concentration camps of the Holocaust, a renowned judge and Auschwitz survivor has concluded after hearing from former North Korean prisoners and guards. Thomas Buergenthal, who served on the International Court of Justice, is one of three jurists who have concluded that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un should be tried for crimes against humanity for the way his regime uses brutal political prisons to control the population." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d242e08a9ee52e133ce2478c0321749d94ea8001da2b978202d102d3204e641f9f921bedd06932f303


****** A message from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates: Boeing is the preferred supplier for UAE commercial aviation requirements. Over the past 10 years, UAE customers have ordered $150 billion in Boeing planes, supporting 781,000 jobs in the US and injecting billions of dollars into the US economy. In 2016, the US had a $19 billion trade surplus with the UAE, America's third largest trade surplus globally. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2621ae55a1fa5fde10e9decc199ac1dc1571cee030a93bdfe3dbfe7ea740b19301f472e19cf3de5c2 ******

MEDIAWATCH -- "New Yorker fires Ryan Lizza over alleged 'improper sexual conduct,'" by Michael Calderone: "The New Yorker magazine announced Monday it had fired Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza following an allegation of sexual misconduct. ... In a statement, Lizza said the magazine made 'a terrible mistake' and rejected its characterization of his relationship. 'I am dismayed that The New Yorker has decided to characterize a respectful relationship with a woman I dated as somehow inappropriate,' he said. ... Douglas Wigdor, an attorney representing the unnamed woman who accused Lizza of misconduct, disputed that characterization. ... Lizza also is an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown
University, where he taught this past fall. A university spokesperson said that classes had already concluded for the fall semester and that Lizza was not previously scheduled to teach in the spring." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d27653fc143c25a5482da760bc391f3416feecbb681b827c2f07fba883ab927bf5050c407fac8372b4

-- "Comcast Says No Longer Reviewing Deal for 21st Century Fox Assets," by WSJ's Joe Flint: "Comcast Corp. said it is no longer pursuing an acquisition of several key media and entertainment assets from 21st Century Fox, leaving Rupert Murdoch's media empire in position to finalize a deal with Walt Disney Co. The Philadelphia-based cable and programming giant had approached 21st Century Fox about assets that included its international properties, movie and television studios, and some U.S. cable networks, The Wall Street Journal had previously reported, citing people familiar with the matter." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2bb1299567f9e0bc55a9c15ce8dadaf93435234598a05f3bb7e01a47de0eb2b229b28bc5aeca8395a

-- Rebecca Pilar Buckwalter-Poza is joining Daily Kos as its first-ever judicial affairs editor. She previously was a fellow at the Center for American Progress and is currently a contributor to the Pacific Standard.

Playbookers
SPOTTED: on the 2 p.m. Acela from New York Penn Station to D.C.: Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and John Thune (R-S.D.) and Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) ... Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) waiting to catch a flight on Monday to Phoenix from DCA, where he "stopped to have a word with former Rep. Sue Myrick [R-N.C.] on the concourse," per our tipster. ... Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) in first class on the 3:17 p.m. Delta flight from Atlanta to DCA. Reps. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) and Tom Graves (R-Ga.) were in coach.

HOLIDAY PARTY CIRCUIT -- SPOTTED at AEI's annual holiday party last night: Arthur Brooks, Danielle Pletka, Michael Barone, Tim Carney, Ramesh Ponnuru, Jonah Goldberg, Paul Wolfowitz, Paul Teller, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, Andrew Bremberg, Reps. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), and Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.), Scott Parkinson, Kristen Soltis Anderson, Leigh Ann Caldwell, Carl Cannon, Mona Charen, Daniel Halper, Julia Ioffe, Greg Ip, Chris Isham, Eliana Johnson, Matt Lewis, Shawn McCoy, John Parkinson, Abby Phillip, Josh and Ali Rogin, Phil Rucker, Meridith McGraw, Margy Slattery, Byron York, Mike Stone, Elias Groll, Halley Toosi, Mallory Shelbourne, Ryan Nabil, Maddy Weast, Steve
Guest, Jenna Lifhits, Marcus Weisgerber and Oriana Pawlyk.

-- HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP STEVE SCALISE (R-La.) held a Cajun Christmas party in Eastern Market last night. Pool report: "Guests dined on traditional Cajun cuisine as the Capitol Hillbillies played. Scalise joined them to play his washboard, known as the 'Zydeco Lightning.'" Pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2e5e17583c7f4043531622f7e38d527c2514c822c31cafadb731029c250686a247acf97f695b7542d

SPOTTED: Speaker Paul Ryan, Brett Horton, Chris Bond, Lauren Fine, Kelley Hudak, Bill Hughes, Matt Bravo, Ben Napier, Bart Reising, Drew Ferguson, Reps. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.), Andy Barr (R-Ky.), Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.), David Valadao (R-Calif.), Bob Latta (R-Ohio), Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.), John Faso (R-N.Y.), Scott Taylor (R-Va.), Randy Weber (R-Texas), Brian Babin (R-Texas), Will Hurd (R-Texas), John Shimkus (R-Ill.), Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), Jason Lewis (R-Minn.), Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), and members of Scalise's medical team, including Dr. Jack Sava and Dr. Rob Golden.

-- Pool report: German "Ambassador Peter Wittig, Huberta von Voss-Wittig, and Liz Mohn ... hosted the fourth annual Neue Stimmen concert Monday evening at the Ambassador's Residence. Four soloists from the Neue Stimmen competition performed pieces from Faust and The Barber of Seville, among others, along with a medley of Christmas standards."

SPOTTED: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Samuel Alito and Martha-Ann Alito, national security adviser HR McMaster and Kathleen McMaster, DNI Dan Coats and Marsha Coats, Jane Harman, Barbara Allbritton, Alexandra de Borchgrave, Calvin Cafritz and Jane Cafritz, Amb. Rafat Mahmood and Shaista Mahmood, Sally Quinn, David Ignatius, Ben Chang, John Arundel, Sandra Pandit, Lee Merritt and Julie Folger, Annie Totah, John and JoAnn Mason, Karl Matthias Klause.

TRANSITION -- KELLEY MCCORMICK has been hired as SVP of corporate communications at Under Armour, where she will start on Jan 8. She most recently has been a managing director at SKDKnickerbocker.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Lanny Davis, co-founder and partner of Trident DMG and co-founder and partner of Davis Goldberg & Galper PLLC, is 72. How he got his start in politics: "In the Vietnam War era in the mid-1960s, I realized that politics meant life or death unless America elected someone to get America out of Vietnam. So I knocked on doors for Sen. Gene McCarthy in the 1968 New Hampshire primary - and haven't missed knocking on doors in a Democratic New Hampshire presidential primary since then." Read his Playbook Plus Q&A: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2f279d189f38a37a305e37ff57d6304761e24838da93895c926baeb798fe74757faf94c6a4f33f349

BIRTHDAYS: Jesse Ferguson is 37 ... David Pasch, HHS digital director and Mets fanatic, is 29 (hat tips: Charmaine Yoest and Brian Jack) ... Allan Karl (h/t little bro Jonathan) ... Maggie Rodriguez ... Broderick Johnson, partner at Bryan Cave and Obama alum (h/t Jon Haber) ... Jeff Goldstein, MBA/MPA concurrent degree candidate at Dartmouth Tuck and Harvard Kennedy School (h/t Katie Glueck) ... Politico's Taylor Miller Thomas ... Andrew Platt, Maryland State Delegate ... Katy Bachman ... ABC News' Becky Perlow ... Nora Boustany ... Peter Fenn ... former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) is 66 ... former Rep. Steve Kagen (D-Wis.) is 68 ... AP science writer Seth Borenstein ... Bret Wincup, director
at Hewlett Packard Enterprise ... Jeff Burton, founder of Burton Strategy Group and Cantor/NRCC alum, is 43 ... Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) is 56 ... Liz Brim ... Alexander Levine ...

... Sarah Horowitz, senior media strategist at Raffetto Herman Strategic Communications ... Jenna Kruse, VP of research at EMILY's List ... BBC's Reeta Chakrabarti ... Politico Europe's Esther King ... Nick Pearson of Google (h/t Riva Sciuto) ... David Mays ... Bush WH alum Rebecca Neale, now at the Paulson Institute ... Jamie Brown Hantman ... Danny Russel, diplomat in residence and senior fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute ... Dwight Fettig ... Jen Richer ... Bob Wood ... Ed Espinoza ... Caroline Whitehouse, senior account executive at Edelman ... Carolyn Castore ... Dawn Laguens ... Tina Henry ... Tanner Hishta ... Bush 43 alum Angela Hernandez ... Kelly O'Brien ... Maren Hesla ...
Peter Bock ...Diane Welsh ... David Sandretti, Obama USDA alum ... Dan Schooff ... Dawn Laguens ... Madeline Sasse ... Tony Winnicker (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

****** A message from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates: UAE airlines have received or have on order more than 800 Boeing aircraft. Emirates is the world's largest operator of Boeing 777s and has 40 Boeing 787-10s currently on order. Flydubai operates an all-Boeing fleet of planes and has a total of 361 Boeing 737s on order. Etihad operates 24 Boeing 777s with 25 more on order, and has an additional $8.7 billion order for Boeing 787-10s. UAE airlines now serve 11 US gateway cities from Dubai and Abu Dhabi with more than 250 weekly nonstop flights. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=61aa0d1f079f26d2621ae55a1fa5fde10e9decc199ac1dc1571cee030a93bdfe3dbfe7ea740b19301f472e19cf3de5c2 ******

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