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By Blake Hounshell and Daniel Lippman

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DRIVING THE DAY
WHO WANTS TO BE TRUMP'S SECDEF? The chatter among people familiar with the selection process, our colleague ELIANA JOHNSON tells us, is that few outside the administration want the job of replacing JIM MATTIS as defense secretary, given the president's decision to yank American troops out of Syria and other recent moves. (Among some administration officials, there are bitter jokes about SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY.) as the real national security adviser.)

-- THE TOUCH, THE FEEL OF COTTON? White House intimate SEN. TOM COTTON (R-ARK.), a former Army captain and Iraq War veteran, doesn't want to run the Pentagon, we're told. Neither does retired Gen. JACK KEANE. So PATRICK SHANAHAN may be running the E Ring indefinitely as the incoming acting secretary, unless intel chief DAN COATS, or someone else, catches Trump's fancy.

-- REMEMBER, it was Coats who said "that's gonna be special" when told in July that the president was planning to meet Russian leader VLADIMIR PUTIN. Not exactly a MAGA loyalist.

Good Sunday morning. It's Day 9 of the partial government shutdown, with no end in sight. POLITICO Magazine editor Blake Hounshell here (giving Jake and Anna a well-earned break), and Daniel filing from Los Angeles. Tips: bhounshell@politico.com. Complaints: daniel@politico.com.

ANOTHER SHUTDOWN VICTIM: NANCY PELOSI'S political team announced Saturday night that she is postponing her "Speaker's Dessert Reception" in honor of the members of the 116th Congress on Thursday at the National Building Museum. Idina Menzel and the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart, along with his "116th House Band," were expected to perform for more than 900 attendees.

-- THE PRESIDENT still hasn't reached out to Pelosi since their in-person meeting at the White House, we're told. Pelosi remains committed to putting a bill on the floor to reopen the government as soon as possible on Thursday when she (presumably) takes over as speaker. (hat tip: Anna, filing from Mexico)

THE BUZZ IN PALM BEACH: Will Trump escape D.C. and show up at Mar-a-Lago for his annual New Year's Eve bash? Price of entry: $1,000. The Palm Beach Post

JUICY EXCLUSY -- Molly O'Toole of the L.A. Times scored a feisty TWO-HOUR exit interview with outgoing chief of staff JOHN KELLY. LAT

MONEY QUOTES ...

-- On White House chaos: "When I first took over, he was inclined to want to withdraw from Afghanistan. ... He was frustrated. It was a huge decision to make ... and frankly there was no system at all for a lot of reasons -- palace intrigue and the rest of it -- when I got there."

-- On how he saw the job: "I told the president the last thing in my view that you need in the chief of staff is someone that looks at every issue through a political lens."

-- On the wall: "To be honest, it's not a wall."

-- On family separations: "What happened was Jeff Sessions, he was the one that instituted the zero-tolerance process on the border that resulted in both people being detained and the family separation. He surprised us."

-- On why he stayed so long: "Military people don't walk away."

TIMES SUED -- Gwynn Kinsey, a Justice Department attorney, is suing the NYT for defamation over a March article that claims he made "unwelcome" sexual advances against a colleague. He's asking for over $75,000 in damages. NYT spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told us: "Kinsey's complaint is baseless. We reported what he has now acknowledged was true, that he engaged in sexual conduct with a workplace subordinate." The original NYT article ... PDF of the suit (h/t Josh Gerstein)

NICE CATCH -- ZACH EVERSON (@Z_Everson): "Elizabeth Warren just renamed her Twitter account, dropping the Mass reference. She's running?" Pic

THE INVESTIGATIONS -- "New Jersey AG has obtained evidence of possible crimes at Trump's golf club - and Mueller, FBI are involved in probe," by N.Y. Daily News' Chris Sommerfeldt: "New Jersey prosecutors have collected evidence that supervisors at President Trump's Garden State golf club may have committed federal immigration crimes - and the FBI as well as special counsel Robert Mueller have played part in the inquiry, the Daily News has learned." N.Y. Daily News

-- "A Holiday Mystery: Why Did John Roberts Intervene in the Mueller Probe?" by Nelson Cunningham in POLITICO Magazine: "A mysterious grand jury subpoena case has been working itself through the D.C. courts since August. ... Speculation heightened two weeks ago when the D.C. Circuit cleared an entire floor of reporters assembled for the oral argument, in order to protect the identity of the litigants. ... And then ... on the Sunday before Christmas, Chief Justice John Roberts personally intervened in this matter." POLITICO Magazine

MANAFORT LATEST -- TIME'S SIMON SHUSTER in Rhodes, Greece: "Exclusive: Russian Ex-Spy Pressured Manafort Over Debts to an Oligarch": "A months-long investigation by TIME ... found that [Victor] Boyarkin, a former arms dealer with a high forehead and a very low profile, was a key link between a senior member of the Trump campaign and a powerful ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin." Time

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COMING ATTRACTIONS? ... PAGE SIX: "Michael Cohen's story may get the Hollywood treatment," by Ian Mohr and Emily Smith: "Sources told Page Six that Cohen was spotted at a recent power breakfast meeting with 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Inglourious Basterds' producer Lawrence Bender. Cohen's attorney David Schwartz told Page Six: 'There is a lot of interest in Michael's story, but he isn't open to doing anything at the moment because of continuing investigations.'" Page Six

SUNDAY BEST ... SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) floated a government funding deal proposal on CNN'S "STATE OF THE UNION" with DANA BASH: "Here's what I think might work: $5 billion for the wall/border security -- Democrats have voted for more than that in the past -- married up with the BRIDGE Act, which Sen. [Dick] Durbin and I wrote, a three-year, one-time renewable work permit for the DACA population, about 700,000. We have about 400,000 TPS [Temporary Protected Status] people who came here from natural disasters and war-torn countries decades ago, their visas running out.

"So basically $5 billion for the wall, plus the BRIDGE Act, TPS and some legal changes to do away with some of the magnets to illegal immigration might save the day in the Senate." More from David Cohen

GRAHAM, who's set to chair the Judiciary Committee, also said he will hold hearings on the deaths of migrant children in government custody at the border. And he is having lunch today with TRUMP, where he said he'll try to change the president's mind on Syria.

-- MARTHA RADDATZ spoke with CBP COMMISSIONER KEVIN MCALEENAN on ABC'S "THIS WEEK." MCALEENAN: "Our agents did everything they could as soon as these children manifested symptoms of illness to save their lives." More from Quint Forgey

-- KELLYANNE CONWAY MAKING THE ROUNDS ... DAVID COHEN: "Conway deflects questions about Trump's response on migrant deaths" ... QUINT FORGEY: "Conway: Border wall debate 'a silly semantic argument'"

-- RADDATZ also spoke with REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-N.Y.) about the shutdown. JEFFRIES: "What Donald Trump and the Republicans want to do is waste $5 billion in taxpayer money on an ineffective, medieval border wall that is a 5th-century solution to a 21st-century problem. Yes we need comprehensive immigration reform, yes we need to enhance border security, but we are not willing to pay $2.5 billion or $5 billion and wasting taxpayer dollars on a ransom note because Donald Trump decided that he was going to shut down the government and hold the American people hostage. That's unreasonable."

-- "MEET THE PRESS" aired a special program devoted entirely to the climate crisis. QUINT FORGEY: "California governor says he didn't convince Trump on climate change": "California Gov. Jerry Brown said he was unsuccessful in attempting to explain the perils of climate change to President Donald Trump during his November visit to the state to survey damage from devastating wildfires.

"'No, I don't think I did,' Brown, a Democrat, told host Chuck Todd during a pre-taped interview airing Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' noting that he was grateful for the president's trip and authorization of emergency disaster assistance." POLITICO

-- MARGARET BRENNAN spoke with SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-ALA.) on CBS' "FACE THE NATION." SHELBY: "I don't believe blaming the Federal Reserve for this or that, whoever the president or a congressman or senator is, helps matters. The president cannot fire the chairman of the Federal Reserve, except for cause. I think Chairman [Jerome] Powell, myself, is doing a good job."

MEDIAWATCH -- "Cyberattack from outside the U.S. hits newspapers across the country, preventing distribution, source says," by L.A. Times' Tony Barboza, Meg James and Emily Alpert Reyes: "A cyberattack that appears to have originated from outside the United States caused major printing and delivery disruptions at several newspapers across the country on Saturday including the Los Angeles Times, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

"The attack led to distribution delays in the Saturday edition of The Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and several other major newspapers that operate on a shared production platform. It also stymied distribution of the West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, which are all printed at the Los Angeles Times' Olympic printing plant in downtown Los Angeles." LAT

OOPS -- "Letter suggesting furloughed workers do chores to cover rent was posted by accident, OPM says," by WaPo's Michael Brice-Saddler: "The agency that oversees the government's civilian workforce is facing scrutiny after suggesting federal employees affected by the partial government shutdown barter with their landlords if they can't make rent payments, advice that it later said was posted 'inadvertently.'" WaPo


ICYMI -- EBOLA SCOOP from DAN DIAMOND: "Doctor brought to United States after Ebola exposure": "A U.S. physician who was exposed to Ebola while treating patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo arrived in the United States today and was taken to a secure area at the Nebraska Medical Center. The 39-year-old physician, who isn't exhibiting symptoms of the deadly virus. ... will be kept under observation in a secure area for up to two weeks." POLITICO

-- FLASHBACK: "Stop the EBOLA patients from entering the U.S." Trump tweeted in 2014. "Treat them, at the highest level, over there. THE UNITED STATES HAS ENOUGH PROBLEMS!"
PLAYBOOK READS


PHOTO DU JOUR: Mourners on Saturday lift the casket of 2-year-old Abdullah Hassan, whose Yemeni mother sued the Trump administration - eventually successfully - to earn a waiver from the travel ban to see her son in California before his death. | Autumn Payne/The Sacramento Bee via AP Photo

ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES -- "'You Control Nothing': House Republicans Brace for Life in the Minority," by NYT's Carl Hulse: "Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma and a veteran of stints in both the minority and the majority, groaned when asked what advice he had for his House brethren who had tasted only life on top. 'Oh. Sheesh,' Mr. Cole said, hemming and hawing before advising, only half-jokingly, 'Smoke a lot; drink a lot.'" NYT

KNOWING KAMALA HARRIS -- "U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris's classmates from her Canadian high school cheer her potential run for president," by the Toronto Star's Daniel Dale: "It is now possible that Westmount, the 145-year-old public school [near Montreal] where singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen and hockey legend Art Ross also studied, will produce a U.S. president before it produces a Canadian prime minister. Harris returned to her native U.S. for university, and she long ago lost touch with most or all of her Westmount acquaintances.

"But some of them have traded delighted texts and Facebook posts about her ascent. And they are generally not all that surprised. They remember the California senator, now 54, as an assured, cheery teenager who thrived both in school and on the dance floor. They say she maintained an easy popularity across the subtle divides of a racially and economically diverse student body that drew from both wealthy and lower-income neighbourhoods." The Star

FOR YOUR RADAR -- "Son of Yemeni Mother Dies Soon After She Won Visa Battle With U.S. to See Him," by NYT's Christina Caron: "A Yemeni mother [Shaima Swileh] who fought to obtain a visa waiver to travel to California to see her terminally ill 2-year-old son was finally reunited with her only child just over a week ago. On Friday night her son, Abdullah, died at the U.C.S.F. Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland, where he was being treated for hypomyelination, a genetic degenerative brain condition, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group known as CAIR, said on Saturday." NYT

TOP-ED -- WHAT JEROME POWELL IS READING -- "Life Is Getting Harder for Central Banks," by Mohamed El-Erian in Bloomberg: "[T]he spotlight will shine even more brightly on the Fed next year. This will become most apparent at the news conferences, now to be held after each Federal Open Market Committee meeting, where Chairman Jerome Powell is asked to opine on inherently tricky and uncertain policy decisions, options and outlooks." Bloomberg View

WHAT'S COOKING IN LOUISIANA: "The Harahan Police Department is asking people who might have crystal meth to come down to the station and have it tested for the Zika Virus." WAFB


POLITICO MAGAZINE -- "The Deaths That Shook Politics in 2018: Remembering 27 politicos who died in 2018-and why they mattered."

CLICKERS -- DATA DU JOUR -- Hart Research: "100% Hart: A Summary of 2018 Polling Conducted for Our Clients"

-- "2018: A very Wuerker year: A look back at 2018's political cartoons from the desk of Matt Wuerker." 34 keepers

BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from Los Angeles:

-- "The Story of Dyngo, a War Dog Brought Home from Combat," by Rebecca Frankel in Smithsonian Magazine's January issue: "As we made our way down the hall from my apartment to the front door of the building, he would drop his nose down to the seam of each door we passed and give it a swift but thorough sniff-Dyngo was still hunting for bombs." Smithsonian (h/t Longreads.com)

-- "Is Francis Mallmann the Most Interesting Chef in the World?" by Esquire's Jeff Gordinier: "Yes, he's a famous chef, but not for any of his nine restaurants around the globe. Francis Mallmann is famous for being Francis Mallmann, an elusive, complex, honest man who does his own thing-in the kitchen and in life. And nowhere does his primal style of hospitality burn brighter than on his private island in the heart of Patagonia." Esquire (h/t TheBrowser.com)

-- "What Is Glitter?: A strange journey to the glitter factory," by Caity Weaver in the NYT: "Each December, surrounded by wonderlands of white paper snowflakes, bright red winterberries, and forests of green conifers reclaiming their ancestral territory from inside the nation's living rooms and hotel lobbies, children and adults delight to see the true harbinger of the holidays: aluminum metalized polyethylene terephthalate." NYT

-- "Deadly Hepatitis A Outbreaks Are Exposing Crumbling U.S. Public Health Infrastructure," by HuffPost's Lauren Weber: "Over 10,000 people in the U.S. have contracted the preventable disease this year." HuffPost

-- "The 17th-Century Astronomer Who Made the First Atlas of the Moon," by Elizabeth Landau in Smithsonian -- per ALDaily.com's description: "In 1647, Johannes Hevelius's lunar atlas made him a celebrity. It featured continents, seas, bays, swamps, and marshes." Smithsonian

-- "The Duke in His Domain," by Truman Capote in The New Yorker in November 1957 - per Longform.org's description: "A profile of Marlon Brando, 33, holed up in a hotel suite in Kyoto where he was filming Sayonara." New Yorker

-- "Alex Jones' Lawyer Violated Legal Ethics By Soliciting Porn Bribes. Just How Dirty Is Marc Randazza?" by Luke O'Brien in HuffPost: "America's foremost attorney for far-right extremists wanted 'a little gravy,' then lied to cover it up. That's just part of his twisted journey through a lax legal system." HuffPost

-- "He Drew His School Mascot - and ICE Labeled Him a Gang Member," by Hannah Dreier in ProPublica and the NYT Magazine: "How high schools have embraced the Trump administration's crackdown on MS-13, and destroyed immigrant students' American dreams." ProPublica

-- "Time Lords," by Elena Goukassian in Lapham's Quarterly -- per TheBrowser.com's description: "When Japan invaded Malaysia in 1942, Malaysian clocks were reset to Tokyo time. In 1880 Britain created a time zone for Ireland 25 minutes behind GMT - then abolished it in 1916, after the Easter rising. Mao Zedong put all China on Beijing time. Hugo Chavez set back Venezuela's clocks by 30 minutes in 2007; Kim Jong-Un did the same for North Korea in 2015, then reversed himself in 2018. Russia has eleven time zones - but only one for the railway system." Lapham's Quarterly

-- "The World Through the Eyes of the U.S.," by Russell Goldenberg in The Pudding: "This is a chart about the world through the eyes of the U.S. There is always that one country on our collective conscious, and I wanted to know how that has changed over time. ... After looking at 741,576 [NYT] section front headlines, I found out which countries around the world have preoccupied Americans the most each month since 1900." The Pudding

-- "Google - Year In Search 2018" -- YouTube: "In a year of ups and downs, the world searched for 'good' more than ever before - according to Google Trends. From the epic headlines to the everyday moments, here's to all the good that people discovered in 2018." 2-min. video: YouTube
PLAYBOOKERS
SPOTTED: Kevin Spacey in a balaclava, seen in public for the first time in months. With a pic: People Magazine

SPORTS BLINK -- "A once-proud franchise, the Redskins are showing signs of foundational cracks," by WaPo's Liz Clarke, Les Carpenter and Mark Maske

HAPPENING MONDAY NIGHT -- Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, which are organizing the Times Square New Year's Eve, have announced the journalists representing the Committee to Protect Journalists who will push the button that indicates the Waterford Crystal ball is dropping: Karen Attiah, Rebecca Blumenstein, Alisyn Camerota, Vladimir Duthiers, Edward Felsenthal, Lester Holt, Matt Murray, Martha Raddatz, Maria Ressa, Jon Scott and Karen Toulon.

IF YOU WERE HOPING to catch Peter Jackson's amazing footage of World War I soldiers in his new film, "They Shall Not Grow Old," on the IMAX screen at the Smithsonian starting Jan. 10, you're probably out of luck for now: The museums are closing beginning Wednesday. Trailer

WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- TRUMP ALUMNI: "Bronwyn Haltom, Thomas Midanek" -- NYT: "The bride, 27, and groom, 29, own THM Consulting, a political and marketing consulting firm based in Kalamazoo, for which she specializes in digital consulting, client management, copy writing and creative design, and he in general consulting and advertising. ... The bride and groom met while working at the White House in March 2017. At the time, they were both regional political directors in the office of political affairs. 'It's our understanding that we will be the first couple to get married after meeting in President Trump's White House,' Ms. Haltom said." With a pic: NYT

-- OBAMA ALUMNI: "Katherine Duceman, Bryan Plummer" -- NYT: "The bride, 29, is a senior associate at the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship in Chestnut Hill, Mass. From 2011 to 2013 she worked in the Obama White House as a staff assistant in the Office of Public Engagement. ... The groom, 35, is a senior education coordinator for the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian organization based in New York." With a pic: NYT

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Laura Friedel, staff director on the Senate Approps Labor-HHS subcommittee (hat tip: Katie Boyd)

BIRTHDAYS: Tammy Haddad, celebrating by driving down the California coast on Highway 1 (h/t Hilary Rosen) ... Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is 55 ... Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson is 58 (h/t Laura Schlapp) ... Lauren Claffey, managing director at Hamilton Place Strategies ... Reed Dickens ... Susan Kellam (h/ts Dick Keil and Reid Kellam) ... Sean Hannity is 57 ... Meredith Vieira is 65 ... Jack Deschauer is 68 ... POLITICO's Jennifer Scholtes ... Nick Schmit is 38 (hubby tip: Jonathan Capehart) ... Hari Sevugan, partner at 270 Strategies ... Morgan Stanley's Brendan Corrigan is 3-0 ... Byron Hulsey ... Philippa Martinez-Berrier ... Walter Recher (h/t Jeff Grappone) ... Laurie
DuMouchelle ... Kevin Smith ... Leif Babin ... Marcia Kramer of WCBS ... DNC's Heather Reid ... Hanna Hope, director of external relations and operations for the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service (h/ts Ben Chang, Jon Haber and Jeff Solnet, filing from Ireland) ... Cecilia MacArthur ... Heather Cronk ... Jill Jorgensen ...

... Matt Latimer, partner at Javelin (h/t Keith Urbahn) ... Jim Billimoria, associate administrator in the office of communications and public liaison at SBA (h/t Amos Snead) ... filmmaker Michael Rekola (h/t wife Kaitlin) ... Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.) is 58 ... former Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) is 62 ... Annabelle Cheney ... Jud Meter Lounsbury ... Katie Hays ... Shannon Gilson, director of public affairs at American Airlines (h/t Stephen Johnson) ... Justin Thomas Russell is 48 ... Natalie Kennedy ... Anne Lyons ... Daniel Scarpinato, COS for Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ... Bill Thorne, SVP of communications and public affairs at NRF ... Pat Bell ... Maria Elena Salinas ... Josh Harris ...
Kana Ervin ... Kelly Curran ... Caroline Little ... Noelle Straub ... Bob Cochran is 62 ... Barkley Jenny ... Touré Burgess ... Lilly Sasse ... Jason Berkenfeld ... Udai Rohatgi (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

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