SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:19 P.M. ET: 

DOWN AGAIN – After making some tentative gains, President Obama has slipped into the thirties again in the Gallup Poll.  The latest figures show 39% approval of the president versus 53% disapproval.  The last time Obama was in this territory was in mid-2011.

GOOD RIDDANCE – One of the worst members of Congress is leaving.  From USA Today:  "Democratic Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia says he will not seek re-election to Congress after 12 terms.  'It's time to close this chapter of my life and move on to the next challenge,' Moran said in a statement released Wednesday.  Moran is the third Democrat to announce his retirement this week, following California's George Miller and New York's Bill Owens. Virginia's 8th District is in a Democratic stronghold and Moran's retirement will no doubt spark a lively primary since the congressman has been in office since 1991."  Moran is a particularly despicable individual who got into physical fights with people, made bigoted remarks based on religion, and is otherwise thoroughly obnoxious.  However, he represents a blindly Democratic northern Virginia district, so his replacement will probably be another Democratic liberal.

MUST BE SOME GRADUATION PARTY – From The Times of Israel:  "The Hamas government in Gaza celebrated the graduation on Monday of paramilitary camps geared at training high-school children 'to follow in the footsteps of the suicide martyrs.'  The camps, titled 'the pioneers of liberation,' are run by Hamas’s ministries of education and interior. Some 13,000 students in grades 10-12 participated in the one-week training camps this year, compared to 5,000 last year when the program was launched, Israeli sources with knowledge of the program said."  What do you give a graduate?  I'd love to know.  I wouldn't want to make a cultural mistake.

IT'S ABOUT TIME – Republicans are showing some pulse in the fight to replace Obamacare.  From The Hill:  "Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday predicted that House Republicans would unveil — and possibly vote on — a plan to replace the healthcare law in 2014, fulfilling a long-delayed promise to voters.  An alternative to ObamaCare will be 'one of the big issue' the House GOP will discuss at its annual policy retreat at the end of the month, Boehner said."  It's got to be a very solid plan with widespread appeal, and it's got to be a plan that can be explained quickly and simply.  It could win the election.

January 16, 2014