Jan 7, 2015 5 min read

Wake Up To Politics - January 7, 2015

To read today's edition of Wake Up To Politics in a PDF format, click here. Continue reading to find the text of the Wake Up in the body of the email!

Wednesday, January 7, 2015
672 Days Until Election Day 2016It's Wednesday, January 7, 2015, I'm Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!
To send me questions, comments, tips, new subscribers, and more: email me at wakeuptopolitics@gmail.com. To learn more about WUTP or subscribe, visit the site: wakeuptopolitics.com, or read my tweets and follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/Wakeup2Politics.NOTE: There are a lot of stories I didn't get to cover today - look for them in tomorrow's Wake Up!

Capitol Hill News

Boehner Elected Speaker The U.S. House elected Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) as Speaker on Tuesday, meaning Boehner will serve in the chamber’s top post for at least another two years.
While he did receive 216 votes out of the 408 cast, more than the simple majority required to win, the news Tuesday was the 25 Republicans who didn’t vote for Boehner, instead throwing their support to a number of different candidates.
While 25 may seem like a small number, and was far from forcing a second voting round (as they hoped), the more-than-expected dissenters sent a strong message to Boehner, and all through Washington: that his powers were limited inside his own party.
But voting against Boehner did not come without its retributions. In one of his first moves as Speaker in the 114^th Congress, Boehner promptly kicked Reps. Daniel Webster (R-FL), who received the most anti-Boehner votes, and Richard Nugent (R-FL), who supported Webster, off the House Rules Committee. The prestigious Rules Committee is a coveted assignment (appointed by the Speaker) given only to the leadership’s most loyal members.
Breaking Down the Vote All of Boehner’s 216 votes were Republican. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), received 164 votes (all Democratic), and will continue to serve as House Minority Leader. 12 Republicans voted for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL), and 3 voted for Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX). Reps. Ted Yoho (R-FL) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) each received two Republican votes, while Reps. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Trey Gowdy (R-SC), and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA),the House Majority Leader, all received a single GOP vote. Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), who are not members of the House (but could still serve as Speaker if elected), also received one vote each. One Republican voted “present,” meaning he did not vote for a candidate, but does not count as absent for the vote.
Meanwhile, 4 present Democrats did not vote for Pelosi (their caucus’ candidate). From these 4, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Reps. Jim Cooper (D-TN), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), and John Lewis (D-GA) received one vote each. 25 members of the House did not vote Tuesday, many of them Democrats attending former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo’s funeral.
Show Stealer: Joe Biden Swears In Senators, Hilarity Ensues Yesterday may have been a shining moment for Republicans, as the party took control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 2006 and the biggest GOP congressional majority since the Great Depression was sworn in …but Joe Biden stole the show. Just by Being Biden.
Basically, as he administers the oath of office to new senators, Vice President Joe Biden, in his capacity as President of the Senate, did exactly what we’ve come to expect from him: took selfies, kissed heads, talked up grandmas, endorsed babies for president, and made hilarious faces, comments, and gestures throughout.
You have probably been asked before which period of history you would most like to live in. I never hesitate with my answer: this one. Besides the many commodities of modern medicine, I cannot imagine being a political junkie in any era but the Internet Age.
I cannot imagine living in a time when there was no such thing as the Joe Biden Random Compliment Generator (Washington Post); there were no Biden Swearing-In GIFs (CNN); no one could make compilations of the Best of Biden moments from yesterday (PostTV, CBS); there was no existing count of how many times Biden flubbed a Senator’s name, called a grandma, took a selfie, and called the ceremonies “boring” (ABC); no analyses of why Biden is such a good oath-giver (CNN, Politico). Quite simply, I just do not know how I could live if the Vice President himself didn’t release his own video of his best moments (White House on YouTube).
In the parentheses, are various articles and videos on the Best of Biden (114^th Congress Swearing-In Edition). Enjoy them. (but do not spend the whole night watching them when you should be doing your homework like one Editor-in-Chief may or may not have done last night)White House Watch
The President’s Schedule At 10 AM Eastern Time, President Obama receives the Presidential Daily Briefing.
At 1:20 PM, the President will leave the White House, arriving in Detroit, Michigan at 3 PM (still Eastern Time).
At 3:45 PM, Obama will speak at the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan before departing Michigan at 4:55 PM.
At the plant, President Obama will speak about jobs and “highlight the workers in the resurgent American automotive and manufacturing sector,” according to the White House.
The trip to Detroit is the first of a three-day tour Obama is taking to promote themes of the State of the Union address he will deliver on January 20. President Bill Clinton began the tradition of traveling around the country after the State of the Union, but ever since the annual speech was conceived, Presidents have not revealed parts of their State of the Union speech before it is delivered. By doing this, the White House hopes to bring their agenda to the American people earlier, to continue momentum from the executive actions announced at the end of last year, and to distract from the agenda of the newly-installed Republican Congress.
At 6:55 PM Mountain Time, the President will arrive in Arizona, where he will spend the night. Obama will speak in Phoenix tomorrow, continuing his pre-State of the Union tour.
---LINK: More on the Ford plant Obama will be speaking from today, from the Detroit news