Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A tourist takes cover underneath an umbrella while snapping a photo of the U.S. Capitol as snow and rain falls on March 6, 2013.

First it’s dinner with Republican senators at a Washington hotel.

That’s on President Barack Obama’s calendar this evening.

Then it’s meetings at the Capitol with members of both parties.

That’s on the calendar for next week.

“The President will travel to Capitol Hill and meet separately with the Democratic and Republican caucuses in both the House and Senate,” White House press secretary Jay Carney announced this afternoon, after word of the venture already had gotten out around the Capitol. “The President asked for the opportunity to speak to the caucuses about the priorities on his legislative agenda.”

One more event like this, and it’s going to sound like a new attempt at outreach by a president accused of too little of that.

House Speaker John Boehner, for his part, can’t help but noting that Obama won’t be the only visitor to the Capitol next week. While the White House suspends public tours of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because of the budget sequestration, the speaker wants people to know that his place is open for tourism:

The @uscapitol will continue welcoming visitors for public tours: j.mp/XWy8tb Go to visitthecapitol.gov to schedule yours

— Speaker John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) March 6, 2013

Original post is Obama Heading to the Hill Next Week by Political Capital.

It is time to synchronize the watches, it appears.

In Washington, where the White House and Congress cannot agree on how to avert $85 billion in across-the-board budget cuts scheduled to start March 1, they also are having trouble agreeing on when that “sequestration” starts.

The White House today is saying 11:59 pm Friday night.

That helps serve a narrative that the administration is trying to do something about it with a meeting among the president and congressional leaders of both parties scheduled at the White House on Friday.

On Capitol Hill, they’re saying the clock runs out on finding an alternative at midnight Thursday. The Senate, House Speaker John Boehner claims, is sitting on their “asses.” It’s the House, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid maintains, that’s sitting on its “posterior.”

And March 1, after all, starts at 12:01 am Friday, on anyone’s clock.

Still, this is what the law says: “On March 1, 2013, the President shall order a sequestration for fiscal year 2013 pursuant to section 251A of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.”

That  allows the president to release that order as late as he likes Friday.

Remember, this is the government that runs Amtrak.

Lisa Lerer and Kathy Rizzo contributed.

Original post is Sequestration Starts… Uh, When White House is Good and Ready by Political Capital.

Photographer: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner makes a statement to the media at the U.S. Capitol.

For anyone interested in how the fiscal cliff talks are going to unfold on a given day, here’s some free advice: Stake-out Speaker John Boehner’s Capitol Hill apartment right around dawn.

First, bring a coat, and introduce yourself to his security detail.

Then wait and watch.

If Boehner leaves in casual clothes for his breakfast departure, it’s a sign that serious budget negotiations aren’t taking place, according a financial services lobbyist.

If the Speaker is wearing a suit and tie (and self-iron shirt) it’s an indication that talks — either with President Barack Obama or members of Boehner’s leadership team — are at a more formal level, says the lobbyist, who asked to remain anonymous.

In that case, it’s time to notify clients up in New York: The principals are marching towards a deal. Markets will respond. Alert the trading desks.

Last week, we tested the lobbyist’s theory on three different mornings. Sure enough, when Boehner left his apartment in his trusty red baseball hat, negotiations with the president deteriorated. One can spot that hat from 60 yards, right outside a local gym that’s popular with lobbyist who got their start as congressional staffers.

Washington is a city of symbols. When the Marines are stationed outside the West Wing, it indicates that the president is in that building, not the residence. When the light is on atop the Capitol dome, one of the chambers is in session.

So we present the Boehner red hat omen. Sell on a red hat. Buy on a suit.

Original post is Boehner’s Wardrobe Predicts Fiscal Cliff Progress by Political Capital.

In recent days, Norquist has wandered from The Nutcracker ballet to a crime scene investigation, to a Catholic schoolboy in the confessional, to a GOP lawmaker’s matrimonial vows — all in search of the right denunciatory images for the growing number of Republicans who say they’d consider raising taxes.

Those who would entertain a tax hikes have “sugar plum fairies dancing in their head,” Norquist, who is president of Americans for Tax Reform, told the Huffington Post Wednesday.

Backing a tax increase means Republicans would  “have their fingerprints on the murder weapon,” he said at a Politico breakfast on Wednesday.

Those talking about renouncing the anti-tax pledge are beset by “impure thoughts”, Norquist told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien on Monday.

In the same interview, Norquist said the idea that Democrats will agree to a fiscal-cliff forestalling package with enough entitlement cuts to offset a tax increase is like imagining “a pink unicorn.” He was talking about that unicorn on National Public Radio, too.

Also on Monday, Norquist took a swipe at Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican, who said he’d consider repudiating the pledge he signed more than a decade ago because circumstances have changed.

“I hope his wife understands the commitments last a little longer than two years or something,” Norquist told CNN’s Piers Morgan.

Norquist is a “lowlife,” and his wife will “knock (Norquist’s) head off,” King subsequently fired back in Politico, proving, perhaps, that Norquist does not yet have the market on over-top-commentary cornered.

Norquist’s colorful defense of the pledge should not surprise anyone.

The vow itself is a yawner, but the animating statement underlying it is anything but.

“I don’t want to abolish government,” Norquist said on NPR in 2001. “I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

If enough Republicans stray from their vows and taxes are raised, it may be because lapsed pledgers agree with another recent much-publicized observation by Norquist, originally meant to apply to Mitt Romney.

They may decide, however, that it’s Norquist who is the “poopy head.”

Norquist’s facility with words does not extend to spelling them.

The ATR web page describing the pledge and how it has become mandatory for Republicans seeking office misspells “de rigueur” two different ways.

Original post is Norquist’s Brash Managerie: Pledge-Breakers Beware the `Sugar Plums’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jim Lo Scalzo/Bloomberg

Construction continues on the platform being built on the west front of the U.S. Capitol in preparation for the inauguration ceremony of incoming President Barack Obama on Dec. 4, 2008.

From the Jefferson Bible to the candy desk to the bean soup served in the cafeteria, Congress loves its traditions. Today, leaders from both the House and Senate take part in an especially appropriate one with less than seven weeks to go before election day: The First Nail Ceremony.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Rules and Administration Chairman Chuck Schumer, Senator Lamar Alexander, House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will join together to symbolically hammer in a nail, signifying the start of construction of the 2013 Inaugural Platform on the West Front Lower Terrace of the U.S. Capitol at 10:45 a.m.

Of course, who will be standing on the platform on January 20 remains to be decided. President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney both make appearances in Florida today. Voters in Florida and 11 other key swing states that could decide the election are now significantly more enthusiastic about voting this fall. Six in 10 are either “extremely” or “very” enthusiastic, up from 46 percent in June, according to USA Today and Gallup polls out today.

Voters are getting excited in Virginia too, with Virginia Democratic candidate for Senate and former Governor Tim Kaine facing off against Republican candidate and former Governor George Allen in a debate in McLean today, sponsored by the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce and NBC4 at noon.

There’s no debate about the mounting concern over automatic budget cuts set to take effect in January. The House Armed Services and House Small Business committees will hold hearings today on impact of the cuts, known as sequestration. Mayors of Philadelphia, Sacramento, Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Minneapolis hold news conference in D.C. to express their opposition to cuts.

The House also considers a resolution of disapproval of an Obama administration policy on welfare work requirements, an issue that Romney has hit on the campaign trail. The Chamber also takes up a measure that would reallocate as many as 55,000 green cards annually to foreign graduates who studied in the U.S. in selected field. Meanwhile, the Senate has scheduled a procedural vote on continuing resolution to keep the government funded.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper hold closed briefings with House members and senators on recent events in the Middle East, and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds a hearing on Operation Fast and Furious, one day after the U.S. Justice Department’s inspector general found management failures and flawed strategy in the federal law enforcement operation designed to track guns illegally flowing to Mexican drug cartels.

Original post is Washington Daybook: First Nail by Political Capital.

Photograph by James Berglie/Zuma Press

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Hearing.

The White House has agreed not to issue recess appointments to any of President Barack Obama’s nominees between now and Sept. 10 while Congress is out of session, according to an aide to the Senate’s top Republican.

“They agreed not to recess appoint,” Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said today in an e-mail.

The Senate today canceled a series of planned pro forma sessions after the House adopted an adjournment resolution. House Democrats blocked the adjournment resolution last week to try to force action on a measure renewing farm programs and other legislation.

Without an adjournment resolution, both chambers must meet every few days in pro forma sessions. In the Senate, those sessions preclude Obama from making recess appointments.

Republicans protested in January when Obama issued recess appointments to three National Labor Relations Board nominees and to Richard Cordray, who he’d tapped to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created by the Dodd-Frank legislation, while the Senate was in pro forma sessions.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

From Bloomberg Government’s Congress Tracker
Richard Rubin and Roger Runningen contributed to this post.

Original post is White House Stands Down — No Recess App’ts While Congress Out by Political Capital.