Issa: Document dump shows Holder ‘at the heart’ of Fast and Furious debate

House oversight committee Chairman Darrell Issa told Fox News on Thursday that a massive trove of emails handed to his office on the eve of the elections indicates Attorney General Eric Holder was “at the heart” of deliberations over the Operation Fast and Furious scandal.
More than 64,000 pages of documents were given to the committee Monday night, a move Issa, R-Calif., said was a ploy to make sure they didn’t sway the election. But he said his staff is starting to go through them – already, one email exchange has surfaced in which Holder in 2011 blasted Issa “and his idiot cronies” looking into the botched anti-gun trafficking operation.
In that email, published by The Wall Street Journal, Holder claimed Issa and others “never gave a damn about” the program “when all that was happening was that thousands of Mexicans were being killed with guns from our country.” He accused them of trying only to “cripple ATF and suck up to the gun lobby.”
Issa rejected the charges, saying on Fox News the culpability lies with higher-ups, not the ATF, anyway.
“This was an undercover activity that specifically cut out our allies in Mexico … so if there’s culpability, I think it really belongs with the attorney general,” he said.
The now-halted operation allowed firearms to be trafficked into Mexico so U.S. agents could track them. But many guns ended up in the hands of criminals and at multiple crime scenes, including the murder of U.S. border agent Brian Terry.
Issa said that while Holder has suggested before Congress that he didn’t know much about the program, “it looks very much like he’s CC’d on everything.”
“This is an example of where the attorney general is at the heart of this,” he said.
The documents were released to the committee in response to a court order. Issa’s office claimed the turn-over is proof the department never had grounds to withhold them in the first place through so-called executive privilege.
Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon, though, said the department has been willing to cooperate.
“We have long been willing to provide many of these materials voluntarily in order to resolve this matter outside of court, and believe that producing them now should bring us a big step closer to concluding this litigation once and for all,” he said.
According to the department, the latest delivery includes about 10,000 documents, bringing the total provided so far to 18,000. Some documents still withheld were deemed “deliberative,” and exempt.  
A DOJ official said nothing in the materials contradicts what the department has said before about the “flawed” operation, and said they affirm the finding that Holder was not aware of the tactics until February 2011.

Election results looked nothing like the polls -- what gives?

WASHINGTON –  Tuesday's midterm elections were supposed to be a night of nail-biters, from Sen. Mitch McConnell's re-election race in Kentucky to veteran Sen. Pat Roberts' battle in Kansas. The too-close-to-call refrain was expected to be heard throughout the night. 
Instead, when the dust settled, Republicans rumbled to one of their biggest victories in decades. 
How could so many polls get so many races so wrong? 
"I want an investigation of the polls in Virginia," University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato told Fox News. "They were completely wrong, just as they were in Georgia. They were also way off in Illinois. And I could go on and on." 
Virginia played host to one of the biggest surprises of the night, for anyone who had been basing their election predictions on the polls. In the same state where pollsters failed to predict then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's loss to economics professor Dave Brat in the primaries, they also misjudged the race between incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Warner and Republican Ed Gillespie. 
Many polls had Warner with a double-digit lead over Gillespie. Warner is currently clinging to a 1-point lead, with the ballot count ongoing. 
It's not just that candidates thought to be dark horses ended up winning, or coming close. A flood of polls also showed several races to be tight in the closing weeks -- but on election night, Republicans soundly defeated Democrats in those contests. Exhibit A is the race between Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky. Polls showed Grimes within single digits -- one even showed her within a point -- of McConnell. The powerful senator ended up winning by 15 points. 
The results have led to some self-reflection, as well as recriminations, over the state and accuracy of political polling. 
Sabato, who said the polling industry "needs some housecleaning," clarified to FoxNews.com on Thursday that he wants the polling business -- not the government -- to conduct an internal review of its practices and procedures. 
"The government is the last group you'd want conducting any inquiry. Not only would it become partisan, inevitably, but the best polling professionals are well capable of organizing this themselves," he told FoxNews.com in an email.
In Kansas, number-crunchers at FiveThirtyEight had forecast a big loss for Gov. Sam Brownback, but he won by a 4-point margin. Data from FiveThirtyEight also predicted Roberts would be defeated in Kansas -- and many polls showed him virtually tied -- but he won by more than 10 percentage points against independent candidate Greg Orman. Likewise, in Georgia, Republican David Perdue beat Michelle Nunn for an open Senate seat by 8 points, despite polls showing a much closer race. 
Sabato, who heads up the Center for Politics' Crystal Ball website, had his own share of misses Tuesday night. Sabato had nine races leaning Democrat. Of those, seven were won by Republicans including the gubernatorial races in Maryland, Maine and Illinois. Maryland was a huge upset, as most polls showed Democrat Anthony Brown well ahead, yet Republican Larry Hogan won comfortably. 
Real Clear Politics, an online site that compiles polls from various resources, posted polling averages that largely did not square with the results. In almost every contested Senate race, Republican candidates beat the Real Clear Politics polling data. 
Sabato believes that in many cases, pollsters failed to factor in how heavily Republican and conservative the electorate in a low-turnout midterm was going to be. 
"After the experience of 2012, when they undercounted Hispanics and young people, they were concerned about the same phenomenon happening again," he said. "Perhaps they over-compensated. I want them to tell us." 
Rasmussen Reports defended its polling data on its website, saying in a written statement that they got it right "most of the time." 
"It's interesting to note that in the races in which the spread was really off for us (and the Real Clear Politics average of all pollsters), most of the time we were spot-on for the Democratic number but wrong on the Republican number," the message stated. 
Rasmussen pointed to a number of unknowns. "If you add the percentage of voters 'not sure' to the GOP side, you will come very close to the final Republican number," the statement said. 
Rasmussen believes that the data "suggests the last-minute swing vote went to the Republicans, and while it did not necessarily change the game in terms of the winner, it very much changed the spread between the candidates." 
This is not the first time some off-base polling has prompted a review of the methods used by polling firms. After Gallup showed Mitt Romney ahead in the 2012 presidential race -- he lost -- the Gallup Poll reviewed its own methodology of selecting voters. 
"It's becoming a much more difficult, nerve-wracking business," Geoff Garin, the president of Hart Research Associates and a leading Democratic pollster, told Bloomberg News at the time.

Speculation swirls over timing, pick for Holder replacement

WASHINGTON –  Tuesday’s elections have thrown President Obama a potential curveball when it comes to replacing outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder -- forcing him to decide whether to introduce a nominee during the lame duck session or take his chances with a more hostile Senate majority after January.
“(Obama) seemed pretty unapologetic yesterday, he didn’t seem to be extending an olive branch at all,” said Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal analyst at the Heritage Foundation. “I think if he has someone in mind who might be at all controversial, he won’t have any trouble getting (Democratic Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid to push it through the lame duck session.”
But reports this week indicate that while there’s still time to announce a nominee and have him or her vetted and voted on by the Senate Judiciary Committee and full Senate before the holiday break, the White House is sending out signals it might wait until 2015.
Last week, Holder, who announced his retirement in September, told a reporter that he expects to stay on until early February.
A short list of nominees is making the media rounds. Missing from it are the more colorful and familiar faces, like outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. The three who appear to be in the running, according to unnamed White House sources: Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, and current Labor Secretary Thomas Perez.
“I don’t know if there are any (nominees) that Republicans would speedily or readily confirm,” said Sarah Binder, congressional expert at the Brookings Institution, who believes the two-month lame duck session may be too crowded with budget and spending priorities to properly vet and channel a nominee through the dangerous shoals of a Senate confirmation.
So it’s possible, she said, that these restraints will lead to “the White House saying we’ll just have to find a nominee come January, and that it will be a hard road but we’ll find a nominee who will be a bit more acceptable to Republicans.”
That might not include Perez, a former assistant attorney general at DOJ, who was opposed by Republicans when he was confirmed as Labor Secretary in a party line vote on July 18, 2013. He was called a “crusading ideologue” by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is poised to take over Reid’s position in January. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a judiciary committee member who voted against Perez, said the nominee showed “a lack of respect for the rule of law.” Critics pointed to his work on voting rights and immigration as “radical.”
Meanwhile, Lynch is being called an under-the-radar contender for Holder’s job. She is a 55-year-old Harvard grad with no particular ties to Obama – which could either help or hurt her in the process. She is close to Holder, however, serving on his AG’s Advisory Committee in Washington. 
During her tenure as U.S. Attorney, she convicted potential terrorists in a thwarted Al Qaeda attack on New York subways, and a Mexican drug kingpin, and she brought tax evasion charges against Republican Rep. Michael Grimm.
In addition, seeing Lynch become the first African-American woman to hold the AG position would “be inspiring to millions of people, especially children, to know what they could become,” said former federal prosecutor Andrew Weisman, who worked closely with Lynch.
As solicitor general, Verrilli has the confidence of the president, but like Perez, might have some difficulties getting past Senate critics. Republicans don’t like the fact that he is the administration’s top lawyer on every issue they have fought against at the Supreme Court level, including the Affordable Health Care Act. Others say he has a mixed record on winning cases.
Other names also have been floated. The National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) has asked the president to nominate the number two at the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, for the job.
In a letter to Obama dated Oct. 31, FOP president Chuck Canterbury wrote that his “reverence for the law, his respect for people of all persuasions and backgrounds and ready willingness to give a fair hearing to opposing views make him an extraordinary candidate.”
Whoever the nominee is, he or she will have to face Holder’s baggage with Senate Republicans, which will no doubt include questions on the ongoing IRS scandal, and any executive orders the president issues to protect undocumented workers in the U.S. from deportation. “Anyone who is not cooperative and who is not willing to answer questions is going to have a hard time,” said von Spakovsky.
That means the nominee will not only have to fulfill the myriad requirements of the job, but be able to keep his or her cool under fire in the hearing room.
“They will need to know their way around Capitol Hill, in congressional offices and in hearing rooms, and be able to work with both sides of the aisle," said Michele Jawanda, legal expert at the Center for American Progress. "The attorney general operates under the spotlight, which is why the position requires a savvy and calm, but an aggressive pursuer of injustice anywhere.”

2016 Cartoon

Reid to remain as Dem leader in GOP takeover

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will seek to lead the Democrats in the next Congress as they hand over the majority to Republicans.
Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Reid, said Wednesday that the five-term Nevada Democrat plans to remain leader and other Democrats indicated that he is unlikely to face a challenge.
Democrats suffered a drubbing in Tuesday's elections, losing their majority as Republicans picked up seven seats. The GOP majority could grow with possible wins in Alaska and Louisiana.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is in line to become Majority Leader in the new Congress in January.
Reid is up for re-election in 2016.

Israeli foreign minister berates right-wing politicians for exploiting Jerusalem tensions

JERUSALEM –  Israel's foreign minister on Thursday berated right-wing politicians for exploiting tensions in Jerusalem, underscoring concerns that an increasingly violent dispute over a major holy site may be spinning out of control.
The comments by Avigdor Lieberman came a day after a Hamas militant slammed a minivan into a crowd waiting for a train in Jerusalem, killing one person and wounding 13, and a Palestinian motorist drove into a group of soldiers in the West Bank, injuring three.
The wife of the first attacker said he had been angered by a confrontation earlier in the day between police and Palestinians at the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
Perennial tensions in the area have spiked in recent weeks as hard-line Israeli politicians have stepped up demands for the removal of restrictions preventing Jews from praying at the holy site. The clashes on Wednesday erupted as Palestinians threw stones and firecrackers in response to a demonstration by Israeli activists.
Last month, a Palestinian rammed his vehicle into a crowded train stop in east Jerusalem, killing a 3-month-old Israeli-American girl and a 22-year-old Ecuadorean woman. Days later, police shot and killed the suspected gunman behind a separate drive-by attack on Yehuda Glick, a rabbi and activist who has pushed for greater Jewish access to the sacred hilltop compound. Glick remains hospitalized.
In his comments Thursday, Lieberman said that Israeli politicians pushing for greater Jewish access to the site were behaving irresponsibly.
"I think these are people seeking cheap headlines in this very sensitive atmosphere, trying to cynically exploit a very complex situation," he told Israel Radio. Lieberman himself is a secular ultra-nationalist who in the past has made incendiary remarks about Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, but he has moderated his tone in recent months.
Right-wing Israelis have been pushing for lifting the restrictions on Jewish prayer at the site almost from the day they were first imposed by the government in the immediate wake of the 1967 Middle East war.
That conflict saw Israel seize east Jerusalem -- which includes the holy site -- as well as the West Bank and Gaza, territories where the Palestinians want to establish an independent state.
The durability of the restrictions reflect a longstanding Israeli desire not to inflame Muslim sensitivities and a formal rabbinical ban on praying in an area that tradition holds is the site of Judaism's ancient holy temples.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly come out in favor of maintaining the status quo at the site. Israeli security officials said earlier this week that changing that status quo could inflame an already tense situation.
Reacting to the comments from the security officials, Moshe Feiglin, a lawmaker from Netanyahu's Likud Party, said on Thursday that the struggle over the site was directly related to Israeli efforts to achieve overall security throughout the country.
"Any pullback from the Temple Mount will not end just at its gates," he said. "This society has to decide whether it is willing to pay the price to maintain its control, not only at the site, but in Israel as a whole."

Dow, S&P 500 Hit Fresh Highs On GOP Wave Election

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, with both the S&P 500 and Dow advancing to records, after Republicans took control of the Senate, allaying fears of drawn-out runoffs and raising investor hopes for more business- and energy-friendly policies.
A stronger-than-expected report on the labor market also helped lift stocks, but some weak tech sector earnings weighed on the Nasdaq.
The beaten-down energy sector rallied on hopes that a Republican majority could pass legislation that includes approval of oil and gas pipelines and reforms of crude and natural gas export laws. The S&P energy index <.SPNY> was up 1.8 percent.
"For now, the market generally likes the results. If we had uncertainty around the result, that would have been a cause for concern," said John Canally, chief economic strategist at LPL Financial.
"A little bit less business unfriendliness coming out of Washington is a clear plus," he added, noting that 88 percent of the time, stocks rise in the fourth quarter of midterm election years, regardless of the outcome.
U.S. private employers added 230,000 jobs in October, the most since June, according to the ADP National Employment report. The data could raise hopes for Friday's closely-watched payroll report. On the downside, the pace of growth in the U.S. services sector slowed more than expected in October.
Time Warner Inc rose 4 percent to $77.99 after it reported revenue growth of 3 percent. Activision Blizzard Inc late Tuesday raised its full-year forecast, sending shares up 4.4 percent to $20.83.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 100.69 points, or 0.58 percent, to 17,484.53, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 11.47 points, or 0.57 percent, to 2,023.57 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dipped 2.92 points, or 0.06 percent, to 4,620.72.
Weighing on the Nasdaq, TripAdvisor Inc dropped 14.1 percent to $71.95, a day after weaker-than-expected earnings. FireEye Inc fell 15 percent to $29.12 a day after the cybersecurity company's revenue outlook was largely below expectations.
After the market closed, Tesla Motors shares gained 5.2 percent following results.
About 6.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the 7.3 billion average for the last five sessions.
NYSE advancing issues outnumbered decliners 1,799 to 1,258, for a 1.43-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,408 issues rose and 1,278 fell for a 1.10-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 92 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite showed 113 new highs and 55 new lows.

2016 Tryouts? Good, bad midterm nights for possible White House hopefuls

WASHINGTON –  So long midterms, hello 2016.
The winners and losers of Tuesday’s midterm elections are already starting to re-frame the conversation about which candidates may be considering a 2016 run for the White House.  
Voters sent a strong message to party leaders as the GOP took back control of the Senate and won governorships in states such as Maryland that previously had been deeply blue.
Experts and party watchers are combing through Tuesday night's winners and losers to determine which candidates – or those stumping for them - could translate into a big win when Republicans, Democrats and Independents battle it out to determine who will make their home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January of 2017.
Tuesday’s midterms also gave party leaders a look at polarizing issues and candidates heading into the next presidential race.
“The Republican senatorial committee, who I also think was a very big winner, went out and recruited candidates that could go out and fill that void of appealing to voters across a wide swath from the landscape,” GOP strategist Philip Stutts told FoxNews.com.  “Middle of the road voters, conservative voters. They did a really good job. “

FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON:
It was a mixed bag for Hillary Clinton Tuesday night.
Though Clinton has not officially said whether she’ll run in 2016, she has hinted at it multiple times in interviews. But would the midterm election results help or harm Clinton?
“She’s got a situation where Democrats are going to have a knee jerk reaction immediately, which is to consolidate, go to your comfort zone, sort of go lick their wounds and get behind a name you know,” Democratic strategist Joe Lestingi told FoxNews.com. “She’s going to be able to exploit that.”
GOP strategist Philip Stutts sees it differently.
“Bill and Hillary were the number one surrogates for Democrats all across the country,” Stutts told FoxNews.com.
Stutts said the Clintons stumped for candidates in states that saw big GOP gains including governorships in Illinois, Massachusetts and Maryland.
“Hillary lost many, many, many states she went into,” Stutts said. “And how that portends in 2016 is going to be very interesting.”

NEW JERSEY GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE:
Even though New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was not on the ballot this year, he lent his popularity and political clout when he helped raise a record $102 million to defend 22 GOP-held governorships. He also he stumped for Republican governors in 37 states.
Christie also is chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association.
“If you look at the gains they made in big Democratic states like Illinois, Massachusetts and Maryland, the Republican Governor’s Association had a great night,” Stutts said.
Other wins Christie helped achieve were those of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Maine Gov. Paul Lepage, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Some political watchers say Christie will most likely use the races he stumped -and helped win - as leverage should he run in 2016. The New Jersey governor told the Wall Street Journal that Tuesday's win has the added benefit of helping his political goals.
"It's a political venture, so I'm hoping it helps me politically," the Republican governor said. "Everything that I'm doing helps to give me more information for when I ultimately decide."

MASSACHUSETTS SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN:
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was among the more successful Democrats stumping for their party ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections.  Of the 11 candidates Warren campaigned or fundraised for, six won.
While there had been whispers of Warren as a possible 2016 Democratic candidate for the White House, she repeatedly has said she wasn’t interested.

WISCONSIN GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker secured his spot at the 2016 table on Tuesday by trouncing Democratic challenger Mary Burke. Walker, the golden boy of the GOP’s conservative base, outperformed expectations and easily beat out a push to oust him from the governor’s mansion.  
Walker, who was elected in 2010 and fought off a recall two years later in 2012, showed voters he had the political stamina to win a presidential race.
Although he hasn’t said he would run for president, Tuesday’s win was vital if he decides to give it a shot.

FLORIDA GOV. RICK SCOTT:
Although he was largely seen as one of the most vulnerable Republicans up for re-election, Florida Gov. Rick Scott was able to win re-election against former Gov. Charlie Crist.
Scott squeezed out the win against Crist, a one-time Republican-turned Independent-turned-Democrat.  Although he’s been consistently rated unfavorably among Floridians, according to The Associated Press, Scott is just one of two GOP governors in the state's history to win re-election, proving he can bring in the vote..
In the days leading up to Tuesday’s election, Scott and his wife put $13 million of their own money into his campaign coffers, turning a pricey campaign into one of the most expensive in the country. 

OHIO GOV.  JOHN KASICH
While many had predicted a win for Kasich, political analysts they were surprised by his political landslide. Kasich had 64 percent of the vote, compared with 33 percent for his Democratic challenger Ed FitzGerald. 
Several strategists say Kasich's big win puts him front and center should he decide to run for president in 2016. 
Kasich cheered as he took the stage at the Renaissance Downtown Columbus Hotel.
"This is just not another election, another political campaign," Kasich told his supporters Tuesday night. "This is a movement to restore the hope in our state, and maybe it can even become contagious with hope being restored all across the United States of America."