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By Alexander Burns (@aburnspolitico, aburns@politico.com)


BREAKING FROM THE RNC - POLITICO's Jonathan Martin reports: "House Speaker John Boehner will hold a reception Wednesday night for RNC members, further putting his weight behind the candidacy of Maria Cino. The invitation, sent to RNC members Tuesday and obtained by POLITICO, doesn't mention Cino's name. But a backer of the longtime operative and party chair hopeful confirmed that she'll be there with the speaker. Boehner has already called RNC members on Cino's behalf, and the reception offers him one final case to make his preference clear before the committee votes Friday on the chairman's race. 'Speaker John Boehner cordially invites Members of the Republican National Committee to a Cocktail Reception,' reads the invitation for the event, held at the suburban Washington hotel where the committee is meeting. It was sent to RNC members by Julie Wadler, a prominent GOP fundraising consultant who is friends with Cino and close to many House members. Boehner's Chief of Staff, Barry Jackson, is a major Cino booster and is widely seen as the force behind the speaker's efforts on her behalf." Cino has 12 votes in POLITICO's tally of RNC commitments, versus 40 for Reince Priebus, 24 for Michael Steele, 15 for Saul Anuzis and 14 for Ann Wagner.


FIRST IN SCORE - PRIEBUS GETS REAL - The Wisconsin GOP chairman is rolling out a video testimonial from one of his state's newest political talents: "Real World" star-turned-prosecutor-turned 7th District Rep. Sean Duffy. "As so many people said Congressman Dave Obey couldn't be beat, Reince Priebus said, 'You know what, I think he can be beat. I think you're the guy and I'm gonna help you out,'" Duffy recalls in the video. Watch it here: http://bit.ly/fHRJou


AND - DEPT. OF FINISHING MOVES - Two former chairmen of the Republican National Committee take to the pages of POLITICO today with a straightforward plea to members of the committee: "Don't repeat [the] error of picking Steele." Frank Fahrenkopf and Jim Nicholson take aim at the central message of Steele's reelection campaign: "While the GOP won tremendous electoral victories in November, they were achieved not because of the RNC but in spite of it. ... In 2012, as a result of uniquely complicated federal election laws, only the RNC can coordinate and provide the required funds for the presidential campaign, the national convention and other campaigns across the country. ... Unfortunately, Steele has not shown he has the ability or will to provide that leadership. He refused to solicit the party's fertile major-donor base while steadfastly defending his own 'personal fundraising' through paid speeches and personal book sales. Similarly, in his self-seeking leadership, he failed or refused to recognize that the biggest job in the party structure is not about the man or woman occupying it." http://politi.co/epLbJU


As Tim Pawlenty meets Jon Stewart, House Republicans plan their weekend and Buddy Cianci gets in his digs, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.


THE 2012 SCORE - SMOKE SIGNALS FROM BARBOUR AND DANIELS: Two governors who are among the biggest wild cards in the 2012 campaign both gave state of the state addresses last night - and what a study in contrasts it was. In Mississippi, Gov. Haley Barbour delivered a speech bound to make exactly one national headline: He announced his support for building a civil rights museum, just weeks after taking criticism over indifferent-sounding comments about Mississippi's recent racial history. The Associated Press: "[T]he Republican said 2011 is a good time to move forward with the museum in Jackson. He said that was because it is the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders' journey that challenged racial segregation and the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. 'The civil rights struggle is an important part of our history, and millions of people are interested in learning more about it,' Barbour said. 'People from around the world would flock to see the museum and learn about the movement.'" Adding to the national resonance of the speech, CNN notes that Barbour repeatedly swatted at the White House's approach to health care and energy, charging that the Obama administration's policies are harming the economy. http://bit.ly/hIUHZ5 and http://bit.ly/hgOwfj


AND COUNTERPOINT: Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels took a different approach, giving a speech destined to make no - or few - national headlines. The most eye-catching line in Daniels's speech may actually have been a shout-out to President Barack Obama, praising the president's "call for major change in our system of education." That was the subject Daniels focused on, the Indianapolis Star reports, proposing to expand charter schools and other school choice programs, and to allow high school students to graduate early and use their senior-year tuition to pay for college. That's an agenda that could burnish Daniels's reputation as a conservative policymaker - but it's not an attention-grabbing national play, like Barbour's. Add to the picture Daniels's comment this week that observers shouldn't "hold [their] breath" for a 2012 announcement from him, and it's not exactly a fired-up-and-ready-to-go approach to the budding presidential cycle. http://bit.ly/e7UgWa and http://bit.ly/fBschj


TODAY IN ARIZONA - From the White House guidance: "In the afternoon, the President and the First Lady will travel to Tucson, Arizona. ... In Tucson, the President and the First Lady will attend the memorial event 'Together We Thrive: Tucson and America' at the University of Arizona Tucson to support and remember victims of the mass shooting in Tucson. Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Justice Anthony Kennedy, Circuit Justice for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, will also attend the memorial event."THE GIFFORDS SEAT - AP explains, very gingerly, that Giffords is expected to serve out her term: "Even if Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords were incapacitated for an extended period, it would be nearly unprecedented for the House to remove her from office before her term expired. Only once has the House declared a lawmaker's seat vacant due to physical or mental impairment. ... If the House were to vacate Giffords' seat, Arizona law provides for a special election _ both a primary and a general. ... In the Senate, lawmakers have convalesced for months, even years, while retaining their seats. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., suffered a brain hemorrhage in December 2006. After nearly eight months of rehabilitation, he returned to the Senate and won re-election in 2008." Giffords's doctors at the University of Arizona Medical Center have said that she is "100 percent" likely to survive the shooting and that early signs of her recovery are encouraging. http://bit.ly/dK4Kjy


PAWLENTY CLARIFIES: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty wants to make it perfectly clear that he wasn't criticizing Sarah Palin, when he told the New York Times he would not have used a crosshairs symbol to mark political targets as Palin did with Giffords. "In one of the interviews I said I wouldn't have done it, it's just not my style. But I didn't try to connect that to the incident or blame anybody for the incident," Pawlenty told Ed Morrissey. "I've been using the day to say people shouldn't try to connect this to Sarah Palin ... So to say somehow this is, you know, the reverse of it, that somehow I've been criticizing her just isn't accurate." http://bit.ly/hhtSWY


PLUS - T-PAW WEEK CONTINUES - SET YOUR DVR: Pawlenty keeps up his national media tour this morning with appearances on "Fox and Friends," "Morning Joe" and CNBC's "Squawk Box," in that order, between 7 and 8:30 a.m. Tonight, he's on the "Daily Show."


2012 MATH - STILL THE ONE - IN IOWA: Public Policy Polling supplies the week's second poll showing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with a lead in Iowa, giving him a double-digit lead over the man he defeated in the state's 2008 caucuses. Huckabee takes 30 percent of Republican votes in the poll, versus 18 percent for Romney, 15 percent for Palin and 13 percent for Newt Gingrich. Tim Pawlenty and John Thune are at 4 and 3 percent, respectively. If Huckabee doesn't run, the pollster writes, "The big winner ... would be Palin- she's the second choice of 26% of his voters followed by 16% for Romney." Many of PPP's numbers are similar to the Neighborhood Research survey released earlier this week, but PPP gives Huckabee a substantially wider, 12-point advantage over Romney. http://bit.ly/gnuwbs


AND IN NEVADA: Romney can tout a 12-point lead of his own in the early primary state of Nevada, where he's ahead of Palin, 31 percent to 19 percent. Gingrich is next at 18 percent in PPP's poll, followed by Huckabee at 14 percent. Romney won Nevada's presidential primary by a huge margin in 2008. http://bit.ly/dLtpT9


GOOD MORNING, BALTIMORE - "2012 presidential hopefuls to address annual House Republican retreat" - The Hill's Molly Hooper: "Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) are among a handful of Republicans set to address House GOP lawmakers at their annual retreat this weekend. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Texas Gov. Rick Perry also are included on the list of speakers scheduled ... Last year, when Democrats were in control of the House, Obama addressed the retreat but, according to a source close to the House GOP Conference, he wasn't invited to do so this year." http://bit.ly/hEZfSv


THE CASE OF THE MISSING MAYOR: Michael Bloomberg may have been in Bermuda in the early hours of the post-Christmas blizzard that buried New York City and much of the mid-Atlantic region. At the very least his plane was there, according to the New York Times: "Mr. Bloomberg and his aides refuse to talk about it. But the residents of Bermuda have taken no such vow of silence. They say that Mr. Bloomberg's plane arrived on the island, where he owns a large waterfront vacation home, sometime after midnight on Christmas morning." Bloomberg's non-denial: "Pressed on Tuesday about the possibility, based on the movement's of his plane, that the mayor might have waited 24 hours to return to New York, Mr. Bloomberg replied simply: 'I don't know where you got that information. I was totally in communications and in charge and accountable all the time.'" http://nyti.ms/hkydUH


CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE - CHRIS CHRISTIE EDITION: New Jersey's Republican governor has approval ratings that are either just slightly in the black or very strongly in positive territory, depending on which poll you believe. On the optimistic side of the ledger is a Fairleigh Dickinson survey, showing 53 percent of voters approve of Christie's performance and just 36 percent disapprove. PPP's numbers aren't as rosy, showing Christie with 48 percent approval, 45 percent disapproval - and 17 points behind President Obama in a prospective presidential match-up in New Jersey. Christie gave his own State of the State speech yesterday afternoon, announcing proudly: "We have turned Trenton upside down." Full text here: http://bit.ly/gOrowE ; FDU poll here: http://bit.ly/i3PA8U ; and PPP numbers here: http://bit.ly/fRU9lc


DYNASTY WATCH: Victoria Kennedy seems to have fully ruled out a run for office - "There's no elective office for me," she told the Boston Globe Tuesday - but a new member of the Kennedy family is attracting attention in Bay State politics. Joseph P. Kennedy III, the 30-year-old grandson of Robert Kennedy, addressed the Massachusetts legislature Tuesday to decry an "atmosphere of hate" throughout the country. The Boston Globe reports that the young prosecutor "demurred about his own political future, saying he is happy with his current job. But his speech was clearly intended to help him join a national conversation in the wake of the recent shooting in Arizona.'" http://bit.ly/es7XcE and http://bit.ly/gmH2lZ


CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "He's a 36 percenter, he doesn't have a party and he's not exactly Demosthenes.' - Former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci, making no secret of his feelings toward incoming Gov. Lincoln Chafee http://bit.ly/eyb1zS

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