Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, among the coffee guests. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

This is a day of new beginnings.

On the morning that President Barack Obama stands to deliver the inaugural address for his second term, he has some guests in at the White House this morning:

Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia among them — the Republican majority leader of the House that gave Obama fits in the second half of his first term.

“Headed to the @WhiteHouse with my wife Diana for coffee with the President, Vice President and their lovely wives,” Cantor wrote on his Twitter account this morning.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, also joined the coffee klatch.

Original post is Cantor at White House: ‘Lovely Wives’ by Political Capital.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, wrote on Twitter that Democrats should “keep faith with the people who elected you.”

“Its time for Dems to reject the Rep hostage-taking & present an ultimatum of their own – Pres Obama’s plan. Working people stand behind it.  No more tax cuts for 2% or millionaire estates.”

Adam Green, co-founder of the Democratic-aligned advocacy group Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said the White House should insist on its original proposal to raise taxes on annual income exceeding $250,000.

“Any deal must raise taxes on those making $250,000 at least to the Clinton rates — and no cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits,” Green said. “Raising the threshold to $400,000 means billions of dollars of pain will be transferred to the working poor and our grandparents, and that is not acceptable.”

Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, warned that a chunk of the caucus may vote against such a package. “There’s just no question about it,” he said in an interview.

Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, said in a speech on the floor that no deal would be preferable to a bad deal.

“We’re going to lock in forever the idea that $450,000 a year is middle class in America?” Harkin said. “Need I remind people that at $250,000 a year, that’s the top 2 percent income earners in America?”

Original post is For Some Democrats and Activists, No Deal Better Than Bad Deal by Political Capital.

Photograph by Harry Hamburg/AP Photo

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid whispers to House Speaker John Boehner with Mitch McConnell left, and Nancy Pelosi in the House Speaker's office on July 23, 2011.

President Obama, seeking to gain the upper hand on economic issues, hosts a luncheon at the White House to talk about job creation with House Speaker John Boehner and Mitch McConnell at one side of the table, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi on the other. The fun starts at 11:30 a.m.

While we can’t listen in on those talks, as much as we’d like to, we can learn what Fed monetary officials talked about at their most recent discussions on the state of the economy when minutes of their April 24-25 meeting are released at 2 p.m.

And one day after JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon told shareholders there’s no justification for “egregious mistakes” that led to a $2 billion loss by the biggest U.S. bank, officials from the Fed and Treasury Dept. come together for a grilling over what they knew and when they knew it when the House Financial Services panel gets together to discuss the impact of regulatory reform. 10am

Original post is Washington Daybook: Power Lunch, or Food Fight? by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who’s leading his party’s effort to win a majority of Senate seats this November, is getting early help for his 2014 re-election campaign from a super-PAC.

The group, Bluegrass Votes Super PAC, “plans to make independent expenditures to support Senator Mitch McConnell’s upcoming re-election campaign next cycle,” Justin Brasell, a Republican strategist who’s aiding the effort, said in an e-mail message. Super-PACs, which grew out of a series of court rulings and regulatory decisions in 2010, can accept donations in unlimited amounts.

Brasell managed McConnell’s 2008 re-election campaign, which he won by 53 percent to 47 percent over Democrat Bruce Lunsford. McConnell spent $21.3 million in 2007 and 2008, more than any other Senate candidate.

Democrats control 53 of the 100 Senate seats, though their majority is in jeopardy because Democrats are the defending party in 23 of the 33 Senate races. McConnell, 70, would be in line to become Majority Leader if Republicans made a net gain of four seats.

Republicans are hoping to win Democratic-held seats in states including North Dakota, where Democrat Kent Conrad is retiring. Brasell is raising money for another super-PAC, Freedom Pioneers Action Network, that supports the likely Republican nominee, Representative Rick Berg.

Democrats also are defending more Senate seats than Republicans in the 2014 election cycle, when McConnell would seek a sixth term.

Original post is McConnell Gets Super-PAC Support in Kentucky by Political Capital.