CR-ash and Burn?

Today’s notice: We’re talking about Mike Johnson and continuing resolutions — we promise the House Republican takes are worth your time. Speaking of time, John Dean is one of the Nixon-era vets telling us Trump’s DOJ plans feel like their own personal “Back to the Future.”

Saving Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson’s proposed timeline for a stopgap spending bill through March would creep into Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office — and senior appropriators have no appetite for it. Take Rep. Steve Womack, who shared his exasperation with NOTUS’ Reese Gorman.

“Quit finding more reasons why we can’t get our work done,” Womack said. “I’m just completely tired of this ongoing kick-the-can-down-the-road mentality that we operate under.”

Womack isn’t alone in his frustration. Rep. Andy Barr, who is running to be chair of the Financial Services Committee, called a CR “bad for national security” and said that “it would be best if we had cleared the decks and were able to move on our 100-day agenda and not be fighting last year’s battle.” (Barr’s office later clarified that the congressman will support the CR.)

But privately, Republicans think they have an explanation for Johnson’s move. A senior GOP aide and a House Republican told Reese that avoiding a massive December omnibus to pacify conservatives might be the only way Johnson clings onto the speaker’s gavel.

“It’s very clear this is to protect the speaker, to keep his seat, because of a promise he made to never pass an end-of-the-year package,” the GOP lawmaker said. “That’s all and that’s it.”

Johnson, for his part, pushed back on the idea that he’s doing a short-term CR because he’s worried about his speakership.

“If you do a CR to September, you put too much of that burden into the new administration,” Johnson said. “Even though the deadline will be set, I’m sure, in March, there’s a hope and an expectation we will get done much sooner.”

Read the story here.

The End of the Post-Nixon Order at DOJ?

Since Watergate, Justice Department leaders have maintained strict guardrails to prevent political leaders from ordering the DOJ to target specific people. But NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery and Claire Heddles report on expected efforts from the Trump administration to take those guardrails down. “My guess is it’ll change,” a source told them. “[Trump] is a negotiator. He believes he can persuade people to do what he wants, what he thinks is the right thing to do.”

Veterans of the investigations into Richard Nixon told NOTUS they’re having déjà vu. Ending the formal guidelines that have governed DOJ prosecutors’ interactions with political leaders essentially since 1978 “would be signaling that, in fact, the administration is formally approving the weaponization of the justice system so that it can be used at the direction of the White House against perceived political enemies,” said Philip Lacovara, one of the lawyers on the Watergate special prosecutor team.

John Dean suggested reporters look into getting liability insurance. “It’s a very problematic situation. If a president calls a prosecutor and says, ‘Go get this reporter or this witness,’ I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “A grand jury is not a bulwark against abuse of the system.”

Read the story here.

Front Page

• Senators Say There’s Urgency to Find Missing American Journalist Austin Tice in Syria: “They have personnel in the region using every source they can to try to get as much information,” Sen. Ben Cardin said.
• House Task Force Wants to Look at Removing the Secret Service From the Department of Homeland Security: Among the panel’s 37 recommendations following the assassination attempt on President-elect Trump is to review whether the Secret Service should be an independent agency.
• California Republicans Want to Claw Back Funding for Their Own State on High-Speed Rail: A high-speed rail project between Los Angeles and San Francisco is over budget, behind schedule and in the crosshairs of Republicans.

Gabbing With Gabbard

GOP senators continue to meet, or plan to meet, with Trump’s nominees, including those who don’t have the clearest pathway to a Senate confirmation. Those who haven’t met with DNI pick Tulsi Gabbard, the once-Democrat turned Trump ally, have questions — and optimism.

“I plan to ask her questions about how she’s gonna run the department, how she’s gonna advise the president,” Sen. Pete Ricketts told NOTUS. “So there’s a whole vetting process out there. By the way, I might point out that she’s been elected and served in the military.”

Sen. John Kennedy actually has a list of topics he wants to ask her about.

“I’m interested in talking with her about what’s going on in Syria, I’m interested in her views about Ukraine, I’m interested in her views about the South China Sea, I’m interested in her views about giving away a military base to militias,” Kennedy said, giving NOTUS the rundown of topics he hoped to ask Gabbard about.

Thanks to an internal and external pressure campaign, momentum appears to have shifted over the weekend on embattled SecDef nominee Pete Hegseth. This week, Trump’s Senate allies arrived back in Washington even more assertive about giving the president-elect the team he wants.

Even Kennedy, with his lengthy list, was optimistic about Gabbard, and all of Trump’s nominees.

“We all ought to be mindful of the fact that these folks are nominees of the president, and what really counts at the end of the day is the president’s point of view,” Kennedy said.

—Ben T.N. Mause

I Choo-Choo-Choose Not to Build This

In 2008, voters in California approved billions in spending on a massive high-speed train system to connect some of the state’s largest cities by 2020. Even now, that has not come close to happening, and the program has become the government boondoggle mascot for those tracking such things. Like for example Elon Musk, who NOTUS’ Mark Alfred reports didn’t like this train project even before he became a DOGE man in Washington.

In his new role, Musk may give a boost to House Republicans from California who have been trying to cut off federal funding to the project for years and are happy to share their takes on it.

“It’s crap,” Darrell Issa told Mark.

“It’s just pathetic,” Kevin Kiley said.

In today’s understatement, train supporter Ro Khanna told Mark continued federal funding for it is “going to be a challenge” when the trifecta takes over.

Read the story here.

Number You Should Know

7,309

That’s the number of votes that decided the House majority, according to Dave Wasserman of The Cook Political Report. Three districts (IA-01, CO-08 and PA-07) decided control of the chamber out of 148 million votes cast.

Not Us

We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.

• President Emmanuel Macron Has Plunged France into Chaos by Lauren Collins at The New Yorker
• Inside the effort to market Russia and Putin to Africans by Rachel Chason at The Washington Post
• How Trump allies brought Hegseth back from the brink by Meridith McGraw and Natalie Allison at Politico

Be Social

NOTUS’ Ben T.N. Mause would like to second that motion.

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