Comment on Iowa vote doesn't resolve GOP search for identity

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) was hospitalized after being bucked off a horse he was riding on Sunday, the Lincoln Journal Star reports.

New data from the progressive group Navigator Research shows that “even voters who previously backed Democrats cast the party as weak and overly focused on diversity and elites,” Politico reports. “When asked to compare the Democratic Party to an animal, one participant compared the party to an ostrich because ‘they’ve got their heads in the sand and are absolutely committed to their own ideas, even when they’re failing.’” “Democrats, another said, are ‘not a friend of the working class anymore.’”

“Everyone keeps asking me if I’m pregnant. Actually, a member, a Republican, came to me on the floor this week and asked me if I was pregnant… I’m not pregnant guys. I had a lot of food at Thanksgiving, OK? It happens.” — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), quoted by the Daily Beast.

Rachel Bade: “After the House passed a shutdown-averting spending bill Friday, a very relieved Speaker Mike Johnson proclaimed to reporters that President-elect Donald Trump was ‘certainly happy about this outcome.’” “Not by a long shot.” “Amid the chaos in Washington, I was in Palm Beach talking to people close to the past and future president and called up other confidants afterward.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was found by congressional ethics investigators to have paid numerous women — including a 17-year-old girl — for sex, and to have purchased and used illegal drugs, including from his Capitol Hill office, according to a final draft of a comprehensive investigative report obtained by CBS News. From the report: “The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.” More: “The record overwhelmingly suggests that Representative Gaetz had sex with multiple women at a 2017 Florida party, including the then-17-year-old, for which they were paid… Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex.

“President Biden, citing moral and policy objections to capital punishment, said he was commuting the death sentences of 37 inmates Monday, a move that prevents President-elect Donald Trump from executing most men on federal death row,” the Wall Street Journal reports. Said Biden: “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss.” But, citing his early experience as a public defender as well as decades in federal office: “I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.