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.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, in 2011. Photograph by Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Updated at 10:15 am EST

“A picture is worth 1,000 words,” Nancy Pelosi said today, standing alongside several women elected anew to the House of Representatives. This picture, she said, is worth millions of votes.

“I come here with my sisters,” Pelosi said. “When I came to Congress 25 years ago, there were 23 members who were women….. Today we have over 60 House Democratic women… Very good, not enough — we want more.”

The California congresswoman, former speaker of the House when Democrats ruled and minority leader since Republicans took charge, told her party’s caucus today that she will continue to seek their support as leader.

Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings reports big applause inside the closed-door caucus room when Pelosi reported that she intends to remain as Democratic leader. Her actual re-election by the caucus will come after Thanksgiving.

“I am delighted Nancy Pelosi decided to stay,” California Democrat Henry Waxman told reporters. He called her “the most effective speaker” he had served under.

Pelosi, deposed as speaker after the 2010 mid-term elections delivered House control to Republicans, had refused to reveal her plans until she met today with fellow House Democrats. She held a morning news conference to make her announcement.

Her decision to remain as minority leader follows the second consecutive election in which Democrats won a minority of seats in the 435-seat House. In January, the House will seat as many as 200 Democrats, with the number uncertain in contests still unsettled.

Pelosi also announced that New York Rep. Steve Israel will seek another term as chair of the House Democratic campaign effort.

“Why is it important for us to make this statement about the importance of women?” Pelosi said at her appearance — because they represent the hopes of American families. “The point is, that if America is going to reach its fulfillment as a nation, we must have the full empowerment of women.”

Original post is Pelosi Holds on to House Democrats by Political Capital.

Photograph by Todd Heisler/The New York Times via Redux

Supporters in Charlotte at the DNC.

President Barack Obama is right to run for re-election with rhetoric against the Congress, according to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

“He should be running against Congress,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Charlotte today. “It’s fine. I want him to win more than anything.”

Public approval of Congress’s performance fell to 10 percent, tying a record low set in February, in a Gallup poll released August 14.

Pelosi said it’s “essential” for Obama to win. While she doesn’t take issue with Obama’s criticism of Congress, Pelosi said that the president needs to make it “clear” that the U.S. is  “better off” than it was on Sept. 18, 2008.

Pelosi cited that date to reveal that two weeks after Obama won his party’s nomination in Denver, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, told her and other congressional leaders that “we will not have an economy by Monday.”

Bernanke described a scenario that was taking the U.S. economy to the “depth of hell,” Pelosi said. Congress consequently voted for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, a vote she called  “a bad tattoo.”

Original post is Pelosi: Obama Right Hitting Congress 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 David Handschuh/Pool

At the Manhattan City Clerk's office in New York.

No sooner did President Obama endorse same-sex marriage than Senate Democrats sent out a fundraising e-mail cheering him on and asking for donations.

“Polls show that the public is on our side,” wrote Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. The Empire State recently voted to allow same-sex marriage.

“President Obama is too. But you can be sure there are some who will attack him for taking this stance. We must keep up the fight. Marriage equality depends on it.”

Democrats hold a 53-47 edge in the Senate, thanks to two independents who caucus with them, though are defending 23 seats to 10 for the Republicans in November. The primary defeat Tuesday of Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, who otherwise would have been a shoo-in for re-election, gives the Democrats a chance to pick up a Republican-held seat with their nominee, Representative Joe Donnelly.

The Senate Democrats’ fundraising arm has raised $59.7 million through March 31 and had $23.7 million in the bank. The National Republican Senatorial Committee had taken in $56.3 million and had $19.6 million to spend.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California also weighed in on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“Obama joins many of us who have long-supported marriage equality because of what it tells our country — and the entire world — that all of America’s families deserve the benefits of equal protection under the law,” she wrote.

“At this historic moment, we must show that the American people support extending the rights and responsibilities of marriage to LGBT citizens.”

While not asking for money, she did ask supporters to add their emails and zip codes (names optional) to a petition supporting Obama’s position. That will give the DCCC and Democratic candidates access to potential donors and voters in the coming weeks ahead.

Original post is Senate Dems Use Obama’s Gay Marriage Stand to Woo Donors by Political Capital.

Pool Photo

Rep Gabrielle Giffords, right, tours the Gabrielle Giffords Family Assistance Center, one of her favorite charities, with her staffer Ron Barber, on Jan. 23, 2012, in Tucson.

Ron Barber, a longtime former aide to Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords who’s seeking to succeed her in the U.S. House, raised $549,000 in less than two months with her help.

Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, each gave the maximum $5,000 contribution, according to a filing Barber’s campaign made with the Federal Election Commission today. Giffords’ campaign committee donated $4,000. Richard Carmona, a former U.S. Surgeon General and the likely Democratic nominee for the Senate seat of retiring Republican Jon Kyl, donated $500.

House Democratic leaders including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida backed Barber with donations from political committees they control.

Giffords resigned in January to concentrate on her recovery from a gunshot wound to the head 15 months ago. Barber was hurt in the same Tucson shooting. The winner of a special primary election on April 17 and a special general election on June 12 will serve the remainder of Giffords’ unexpired term. Barber is the only Democrat seeking the seat.

The Tucson-area district formerly held by Giffords is one of three vacant districts in the House, which Republicans control by a 242-190 margin. There are also vacancies in Democratic districts in Washington state and New Jersey.

Original post is Former Giffords Aide Raises $549,000 for House Seat by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jed Kirschbaum/Baltimore Sun/MCT via Getty Images

Sen. Barbara Mikulski's memorabilia in her regional office in Baltimore, Maryland.

With more than 35 years of service in the House and Senate, Barbara Mikulski is reaching a milestone: the longest-serving woman in the history of Congress.

Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, hits the mark tomorrow, when she will pass Edith Nourse Rogers, a Republican from Massachusetts who was in the House from 1925 to 1960.

Mikulski, 75, was first elected to the House in 1976 and to the Senate in 1986. She won a fourth six-year term in 2010.

Among those honoring Mikulski’s achievement today was House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, whose 25 years of congressional service makes her the 10^th longest-serving woman in history.

Four other women on the top 10 list continue to serve in Congress. Senator Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican who is not seeking re-election this year, ranks third; Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, and Representative Marcy Kaptur, an Ohio Democrat, are tied for fifth; and Louise Slaughter, a New York Democrat, is ninth.

There are 74 women in the 435-member House and 17 women in the 100-member Senate. There have been 277 women who have served in one or both chambers.

Original post is A Major Milestone for Maryland’s Mikulski by Political Capital.