And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...
Going Negative
A new book by journalist David Corn says President Obama slammed corporate executives for attacking him after he had saved them.
Politico obtained a copy of "Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party".
The president is quoted as telling an adviser in 2010 -- quote -- "I saved these guys when the economy was falling off a cliff. Now I get nothing but their venom."
Corn also writes President Obama blamed this network for his midterm political woes.
He told labor leaders -- he was quote -- "losing white males" -- because in part -- "Fed by Fox News, they hear Obama is a Muslim 24/7, and it begins to seep in."
For the record, we found no examples of a host saying President Obama is a Muslim.
Clouds Rolling In
New e-mails show the White House had enough concern about now bankrupt solar-energy firm Solyndra to dismiss talk of inviting the company's executives to President Obama's State of the Union box in January of last year.
A White House staffer nixed the invite on January 5th writing -- quote -- "Can't do Solyndra...they've run into some issues recently." And then included a sad face.
Politico points out the conversation came up around the same time the Energy Department was preparing a controversial change to Solyndra's $535 million loan guarantee which wound up increasing the risk to taxpayers.
In what has become a pattern the documents were released late on Friday. This is at least the sixth document dump since September.
Blast from the Past
A blast from the past now of Attorney General Eric Holder's time as a federal prosecutor here in D.C. is getting attention. The comments from 1995 about guns were posted over the weekend on breitbart.com.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that's not cool, that it's not acceptable, it's not hip to carry a gun anymore...We just have to be repetitive about this. It's not enough to simply to have a catchy ad on a Monday and then only do it every Monday. We need to do this every day of the week and just really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Handgun ownership was illegal in Washington at the time.
Making a Switch?
Finally, airline passengers may be one step closer to not having to switch off all electronic devices during take-off and landing.
Over the weekend, the Federal Aviation Authority reportedly said it was taking a fresh look at the policy, though today tamped down expectations saying its goal is to facilitate discussion on this issue.
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