SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:22 P.M. ET: 

CHRISTIE SURVIVING – New polls show Chris Christie's approval rating as governor of New Jersey remains high, though dented, despite the recent Bridgegate scandal.  From the Monmouth University poll:  "Gov. Christie’s job rating currently stands at 59% approve to 32% disapprove among New Jersey residents and 58% to 35% among registered voters. His job approval stood at 65% approve just one month ago. This is the first time since Superstorm Sandy struck the state over 14 months ago that the governor’s approval rating has dipped below 60%. Christie’s current job rating is still higher than any poll ratings he had in his term prior to Sandy.  Republicans are sticking by Christie, giving him an 89% approval rating which is in line with the 85% GOP support he received last month. Approval has dropped among independents from 73% in December to 62% now and among Democrats from 47% in December to 38% now."  If nothing more comes out, Christie can rebuild.  Also, Dems can overplay their hand by expensive "investigations" that go nowhere.

SICKENING – It is simply incredible the way the Iranians spit in our faces while Obama assures us that he has talks with Tehran under control.  From The Times of Israel:  "The White House reproached Iran’s foreign minister on Tuesday for honoring a former Hezbollah commander responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans.  'The United States condemns the decision taken by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Khonsari to place a wreath at the grave of Imad Mughniyeh, a former leader of Lebanese Hezbollah responsible for heinous acts of terrorism that killed hundreds of innocent people, including Americans,' National Security Council Spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.  Mughniyeh was a key military commander of Hezbollah’s paramilitary and intelligence arms. American officials have said he was a planner of the 1983 bombings of the US Marines barracks and US Embassy in Lebanon that killed over 300 Americans, a handful of French troops and dozens of Lebanese citizens."  Yeah, I really trust these boys.

TOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS – From National Journal:  "Senate Democrats pledging to get more aggressive on climate change will soon pressure the major TV networks to give the topic far greater attention on the Sunday talking-head shows.  Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, are gathering colleagues' signatures on a letter to the networks asserting that they're ignoring global warming.  'It is beyond my comprehension that you have ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, that their Sunday shows have discussed climate change in 2012, collectively, for all of eight minutes,' Sanders said, citing analysis by the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America.  Sanders mentioned the letter during a press conference with most other members of Senate Democrats' new, 19-member Climate Action Task Force, and he elaborated on it in a brief interview afterward."   Sanders is the only member of Congress who is an avowed socialist, although I have suspicions about several others.  I don't think he can do much harm.  Besides, in rushing to a network's headquarters to deliver his protest on global warming he'll probably be caught in a blizzard.

AND THIS ROMANTIC BULLETIN JUST IN – From The Hill:  "Embattled French President François Hollande vowed Tuesday to pick between his partner and his mistress in time for next month's state dinner with President Obama.  Hollande told reporters in Paris he would clarify who the first lady of France is in time for the Feb. 11 state visit. His live-in partner, former political reporter Valérie Trierweiler, was hospitalized for reported shock and exhaustion over the weekend following a magazine report that Hollande had been seeing film actress Julie Gayet."  Whoever it is, I hope they don't put her between Barack and Michelle. 

January 14,  2014