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SALEM, N.H. Taking on an incumbent president from your own party is a tough enough job already, but Joe Walsh starts with an even more basic problem.

Who? wonders John Randlett, a selectman from Plymouth, New Hampshire, a tiny town 45 miles north of the state capital Concord, and an active-enough Republican to have come to a $100-a-ticket social to raise money for state House Republican candidates. I never heard of him.

Even during an appearance on conservative talk radio Walshs own most recent job WGIR host Jack Heath feels compelled to introduce Walsh as not the musician, but the former congressman.

If Walsh feels snubbed, he does not show it and instead spends his half-hour doing what he has mainly been doing for the better part of a year, particularly since he announced his longshot campaign to take the 2020 GOP nomination away from President Donald Trump.

He deserves to be impeached, Walsh says on-air, remarks that are apostasy for listeners who later in the day will hear from right-wing media stars Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Trump tried to cheat in the 2020 election.

Bill from Maine calls in to complain: Youre bad-mouthing our president!

While Heath brought him on, Walshs background as one of the original tea party congressmen may not be enough for entree onto the loudest platform for Trump fandom, Fox News thereby hurting his ability to boost his name recognition among the likeliest GOP voters in New Hampshires Feb. 11 primary. As HuffPost followed him around the state this past week, Walsh said he has been banned from appearing on Fox News programs, where so many Republicans get their information, because he refuses to tone down his criticism of Trump and the network wants to protect the president.

(A Fox News spokesperson denied this in a statement: A simple Google search would show there is zero truth in these claims made by Joe Walsh. A cursory Google search, however, appears to corroborate Walshs assertion, with no television appearances on the network since a contentious Aug. 30 interview on Fox Business in which he goaded host Stuart Varney into claiming that Trump does not lie.)

At the same time, Walsh knows he has a tough climb to win over Democrats and liberal independents, who might otherwise be persuaded to cast ballots in open primaries like New Hampshires, because of his lengthy record of bashing former President Barack Obama, both during Walshs single term in Congress and afterward as an AM radio talk show host in Chicago.

In 2015, when a gunman killed four Marines in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Walsh accused Obama of refusing to call the act Islamic terrorism because he claimed Obama is Muslim. In 2017, he contendedthat Americans had lowered the bar for Obama to a lower standard cuz he was black. Two weeks before the 2016 election, Walsh said he would be voting for Trump on Nov. 8 and added, On November 9th, if Trump loses, Im grabbing my musket.

For months now, Walsh has found himself frequently apologizing for his past incendiary and at times racist remarks. His talk show was on a conservative radio network, and such fodder was what the audience wanted to hear, he says by way of explanation.

I went after Obama hard. Sometimes I went after Obama too hard, he says. I engaged in ugly personal attacks. Im done doing that.

The worst, he says, was calling Obama a Muslim not because theres anything wrong with being Muslim, but because since Obama frequently said he was Christian, Walsh was calling Obama a liar without cause.

All I can do is apologize, he says. I am a reformed outlaw.

With his words and ubiquitous tweets, Walsh has publicly turned a page. When Trump declared the city of Baltimore rat-infested this summer and posted that no human being would want to live there, Walsh called him a racist. And when Trump told four congresswomen two Muslim, one Black and one Latina to go back to their countries, Walsh wrote: Its so ugly. Its so un-American.

The shift, while dramatic, may have left Walsh politically homeless.

I feel like a man without a country, he says. There are a lot of people who will never trust me. And I dont have a base anymore.

S.V. Date/HuffPostThe GOP presidential hopeful and his wife, Helene Walsh, sign campaign posters in New Hampshire.

Tea Partier Gone Rogue

Walsh, who will turn 58 later this month, was a former social worker and a former community college history teacher turned conservative think tank fundraiser in suburban Chicago until Obamas election persuaded him to run for Congress.Being the first tea party candidate in the country to win a congressional primary in 2010 won him some fame. So did getting sued by the other Joe Walsh, the former Eagles guitarist, for using the musicians songs at his campaign events.

Walsh says he was driven by Obamas liberal policies and, particularly, his push for the Affordable Care Act. To this day, Walsh says he believes that most tea party voters similarly opposed the first Black president over issues like the national debt, not because of the color of his skin.

Walshs Capitol Hill career, though, was a short one. Illinois lost two congressional seats in the 2010 Census, and the Democrats who controlled the statehouse made sure that Walshs was one of them when they drew the new map. The swing seat he had won by 0.2 percentage points became the one he lost by 9 points two years later.

Walsh slid into AM talk radio in early 2013, starting with a station in Chicago and eventually becoming nationally syndicated through Salem Radio Network. Continuing to attack Obama as he had in Congress was easy, and in 2016 Walsh became a supporter of Trump because of how the reality TV host appeared to take joy in flouting political correctness.

The former congressman asserts now he didnt love or even like Trump, but wound up backing the man because he was not Hillary Clinton, a decadeslong villain in the world of right-wing politics. Soon enough, though, he says he began seeing troubling signs in the new president and started criticizing those actions while still praising Trump for the efforts he agreed with, such as the 2017 tax cut legislation.

That started changing, he says, when Trump began trade wars, started running up increasingly hefty budget deficits despite a strong economy and cozied up to Russian leader Vladimir Putin and other dictators policies once anathema to the Republican Partys platforms all while lying nearly constantly, about just about everything.

But the epiphany came at the Helsinki summit with Putin in the summer of 2018, when Trump told the world that he believed the Russian strongman over his own intelligence services. When he did that, that was the final straw for me. I went on the radio and said I was never going to support him again. Hes a traitor, Walsh says, adding that even more depressing was watching members of his own party fail to offer a word of criticism. Now the party is not a party. Now the party is purely a personality cult for Donald Trump.

Of course, Walsh is not the only Republican, or even the first, to think that Trump needs to be challenged from within his own party. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who previously ran the Justice Departments Criminal Division under President Ronald Reagan, announced his presidential candidacy in April. Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford also entered the GOP primary race, only to drop out after three months when his worry-about-the-debt-but-not-attack-Trump strategy gained little traction.

Yet in the past year, Walsh has been among the relatively small universe of Republicans eager to attack Trump openly and vociferously on any number of topics, from his willingness to profit off his presidency to his trade wars to his temperament to his treatment of women and people of color.

In terms of pure vitriol, Walshs criticism of Trump rivals that of the most outspoken Democrats. He calls Trump unfit for office, divisive, racist, openly corrupt and, in Walshs view worst of all, a serial liar.

We cant as a people accept a president who lies every time he opens his mouth, Walsh tells C-SPAN during a taping at St. Anselms College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

As a conservative Republican, Id rather have a socialist in the White House than a dictator, he tells WMURs Adam Sexton for a segment on Sextons weekend politics show.

This past week was Walshs sixth trip to New Hampshire since getting into the race in late August, with a return visit planned this coming week. He says he has been to Iowa eight times and has also visited Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, California and Pennsylvania.

Every state I go, 70 to 80% of the Republicans I speak with really all do say a variation of the same thing: Joe, I like some of the things Trumps done, but Im sick and tired of all of his bullshit. Im exhausted. I cant imagine going through four more years of Trump. But, Joe, what am I going to do? The Democrats are socialist. What other alternative do I have? Walsh says. Now I hear that, and I think, well, thats an opportunity for somebody.

S.V. Date/HuffPostWalsh appears on WMURs set in Manchester to tape an appearance promoting his Republican primary campaign against President Donald Trump.

A Tough Sell In The Party Of Trump

But given Trumps strong approval numbers within the Republican Party, its unclear whether Walshs message is traveling beyond a relatively small minority of Republicans and independents.

At the New Hampshire House fundraiser in Bedford this past week, Randlett says he is willing to tolerate the aspects of Trump that even he finds offensive. I dont like a lot of the things he says. But I think hes getting the job done, the Plymouth selectman says. Im going to take the 70 or 80% thats good and live with the rest.

The following night, at a Rockingham County Republican Christmas Party (and ugly sweater contest) in Portsmouth, former New Hampshire House Speaker and current U.S. Senate candidate Bill OBrien says he is not likely to invite Walsh to his local Americans for Tax Reform group. Were not very favorable for someone to be running against the president, OBrien explains.

Lindsay Murphy, who stepped away from a human resources career to raise young children, says that she sees both Walshs and Welds bids as running against the wind and that she will support Trump, despite his flaws. Im a Republican. You have to stick up for your team, she adds.

Walsh says those types of views present him with a daunting challenge but adds that what keeps him going is the knowledge that with Trump, pretty much anything can happen.

The facts on the ground could change again, he tells HuffPost as he steers a rented Infinity SUV along a New Hampshire highway. Twenty Republican senators would give their middle finger to Donald Trump in a heartbeat if the facts warranted it because they dont like him. They want him gone. So John Bolton testifies in January and says heres the deal, heres what really happened. Or Lev Parnas has tapes where Trump is saying, Fuck it, I want dirt on Biden or Im not giving him the aid. Who knows what might come out? So its extremely possible that the Senate could convict this guy, or this guy whos a bully and a coward will just say, Im gone.

In either of those cases, with qualifying deadlines passed, a newly elevated President Mike Pence would not be able to get on primary ballots, Walsh points out, but adds that party leaders would likely change rules at the summer convention to make sure Pence got the nomination.

Playing that scenario out, Walsh says hes not sure hed go along, even though his primary objective of getting Trump out of the White House would have been accomplished. I find it hard to believe that Mike Pence wasnt aware of Trumps abuse of power. So he could be tarnished as well, Walsh says. I may run against Pence if Pence is involved in this.

For now, the strategy is simple: Work hard to persuade enough Iowa Republicans and independents to caucus for him on Feb. 3 and win an unexpectedly large showing to take into the New Hampshire primary. That has to be the story coming out of Iowa, he says. Were going to try to accumulate as many delegates as we can in order to force a contested convention.

Brian Snyder/ReutersWalsh, with his wife Helene at his side, files paperwork to appear on the first-in-the-nation primary ballot in Concord, New Hampshire, on No. 14, 2019.

Can I Ask Who That Is?

At Mary Anns Diner in Salem, Walsh drapes his maroon Patagonia jacket over his chair before approaching a young man wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt and sporting a sticker with the Massachusetts state seal on his laptop. Walsh senses a possible Republican and engages, quickly getting deep into the weeds of his views on the drug war and the justice system.

Back at the table where the candidates wife, Helene, and two campaign aides are seated comes a sharp reminder of his biggest difficulty. The waitress approaches and whispers, Can I ask who that is?

As campaigns go, Walshs still has rough edges. Two diner visits advertised in a news release for Thursday were hastily rescheduled for different locations at the last minute. A third was canceled entirely.

Money is a constant concern, with heavyweight Republican donors unwilling to anger the notoriously vindictive Trump by helping Walsh. They dont want to piss him off, he shrugs.

He also acknowledges that he hasnt yet mastered the art of keeping a conversation with potential supporters brief. He spends a good 20 minutes with the young man with the drug war concerns Paul is his name and returns with a phone number. Success. A possible volunteer.

Back at the table, Walsh and his wife agree to split a pastrami sandwich. Then he gets to work on the waitress, Darlene Paradise, eventually asking her: Donald Trump what are the first words that come to your mind?

He stinks, she says. I dont like him.

Walsh gives her a half hug: I love you! Now whats my name?

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Joe Walsh Calls Himself A 'Reformed Outlaw' As He Trains His Attacks On Trump - HuffPost

Green, leafy bamboo stalks and a simple white house covered in cherry blossoms fill the stage, which is lit softly in blue hues. All of a sudden, a white rabbit runs across the stage, and the theater transforms into Wonderland.

Columbia Blue Glaze Theatre presented Jason Pizzarellos Alice in Wonderland on Dec. 2, 7, and 8 in the Glicker-Milstein Theatre. Directed by Kalina Ko, BC 21, and produced by president Crystal Xie, CC 22, and Sylvia Su, BC 22, CGBT brought a beloved tale to life by incorporating aspects of East Asian culture into the production.

Founded in 2014, Columbia Blue Glaze Theatre is a student-run theater group that mainly focuses on highlighting Chinese culture. CGBT is composed of current students as well as artists from all over New York City.

The groups production of Alice in Wonderland will be the first performance since the fall 2018 production of 99 Women. In an effort to increase the diversity of the group, which consisted of predominantly Chinese students, CGBT did not produce a show last semester. It instead dedicated its time to discussing ways to engage more students on campus and advocate more widely for East Asian culture. The group saw some success in its efforts, but it continues to work toward greater inclusivity.

If the club is run by Chinese people, who produce Chinese shows, which are then watched by a solely Chinese audience, we are not really promoting our culture to anyone else, Xie said. The board generally agreed that something must get changed for the club to thrive.

In this recent performance, Katherine Kiki Lee Gonglewski, CC 23, effortlessly assumed the role of Alice, a character who, like a college student, has to navigate the themes of growing up and uncertainty of life. The play featured Gonglewski and her experience as Alice, maneuvering her way through the whimsical chaos of a speedy rabbit, talking flowers, and unusual identical twins. As Alice came to terms with her topsy-turvy surroundings, Gonglewskis soft vocal tone and gentle, disbelieving facial expressions convey her thoughts and feelings to the audience.

Many moments of the show also provided lighthearted humor that invited the audience to be a part of the story.

In her journey through Wonderland, Alice passes through a chaotic kitchen, where food is thrown together carelessly by the Cook, played by Iris Cai, BC 22, before wandering into a mad tea party and over to Humpty Dumptys spot on a narrow wall. The sassy Humpty Dumpty, also played by Cai, received many hearty laughs as she challenged Alices appearance and knowledge.

You look so exactly like other people, Cai said, insulting Alices 10-year-old ego and know-it-all personality, as the audience erupted in laughter.

Many of the cast members played up to four roles, with the exception of Gonglewskis Alice; the White Rabbit, played by Xifan Wang, GSAPP 21; and Second Alice, played by Vivian Lu, BC 22.

Xingron Chen, a recent graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School, consistently received applause and giggles for her role as the Dormouse as her character amusingly fell asleep during the mad tea party and during the King and Queen of Hearts trial.

Alex Ke, Business 21, who played the King of Hearts, and Hailun Zhou, a student at The New School, who played the iconic Queen of Hearts, assumed the roles of leaders obsessed with decapitating their servants. Congxu and Zhou also played Daisies during the garden scene, where they swayed like flowers in the breeze before screaming at each other and storming off stage.

Although the set, designed by Bella Tincher, CC 20, was simple, it enhanced the scenes by keeping the audiences focus on the characters interactions. Notable scenes included the mad tea party, where beautiful arrangements of tea time delectables sat on messily-arranged plaid tablecloths, and bright, flower-covered structures filled the scenes in the flower garden.

For this recent show, the directors and producers chose to incorporate aspects of traditional Chinese culture through the characters costumes. Costume designers Lu and Bie Tu Seah, CC 23, fused familiar costumes with East Asian clothing. Characters wore everyday clothing or traditional Chinese linen dresses and suits, adding finishing touches like papier-mch rabbit and squirrel hats for the White Rabbit and Old Squirrel, flower crowns and feather boas for the flowers, and a wide, toothy grin painted on Wenxi Han, CC 22, to resemble the Cheshire Cats smile.

They are the products of designers who have their own takes on East Asian cultures, who decide when and when not to incorporate certain visual elements, Xie said. The team wants the audience to see the beauty in East Asian cultures in the mise-en-scne, and I personally think what we have on this show is quite digestible for those not familiar with these cultures.

Unlike the ending that so many viewers have come to know, Alice doesnt fully find her way out of Wonderland in this adaptation. Rather, she watches her older sister comfort the Second Alice as she wakes up from a rather frightening dream. Alice observes as her sister and Second Alice run off into the wings, and she puzzles over her identity.

If youre Alice, then who am I? she asks.

Deputy editor Katie Levine can be contacted at katie.levine@columbiaspectator.com. Follow Spectator on Twitter @ColumbiaSpec.

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Who is Alice? Columbia Blue Glaze Theatre provokes thought while promoting East Asian culture in Alice in Wonderland - CU Columbia Spectator

If you have food lovers on your Christmas list this year, whether they live locally or far away, how handy for you that you live in (or near) one of Americas most food-obsessed towns. Portland and environs are filled with good ideas for gifts, several of which we highlight here. Some are edible, some not, but all might suit either as Christmas gifts or hostess gifts for one of those many parties youll be attending.

SILK ROAD SPARKLERSIlluminated Me207-233-4170; illuminatedme.com

Spices are often as beautiful as they are full of flavor. Threads of vibrantly colored saffron, set in resin like an ancient insect suspended in amber, resemble a character from the Chinese alphabet. The tans and browns of cumin seed, when displayed in a necklace, are warming to the eyes. Black sesame, mustard seed, poppy seed, red chili pepper, and even locally sourced seaweed are trapped in time and space, becoming wearable (if no longer edible) art in the hands of jewelry designer Sharon Herrick, who transforms her favorite spices into necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings. (Priced between $40 and $60.)

Like a chef painstakingly plating a course at a fine dining restaurant, Herrick uses tweezers to place the spices exactly where she wants them. Its like painting with spices, she said. Resin has a very short time you can work with it before it completely hardens, so I have to move with intention.

She rubs a bit of mica between her thumb and forefinger and adds it to each piece, like a pinch of sea salt, so it will refract light and illuminate the preserved spice.

Sprinkles the kind that go on cupcakes or birthday cakes are a best seller, and also one of the trickiest materials to handle. (Those things bounce, Herrick said.) But she likes seeing her customers faces light up, whether they are 6 years old or 70, when they spy the tiny, colorful balls in a piece of jewelry.

I dont know if theyre having nostalgia, Herrick said, but I know those colors literally make people squeal.

CHEERSThree of Strong Spirits35B Diamond Street, Portland207-899-4930; threeofstrongspirits.com

Even the name says Lets party! Three of Strong Spirits, a new craft rum distillery in Portland, introduced a spiced rum in November they call Merrymeeting, made by master distiller Graham Hamblett. Dave McConnell, co-owner of the distillery, assured me that Merrymeeting is more than the industry standard vanilla/cinnamon/sugar bomb.

For a spiced rum also its quite dry, almost running toward an amaro as far as the flavor profile, McConnell said.

He wasnt kidding. On a recent chilly late Saturday afternoon, I sampled the rum at the distillery in a straight pour ($10) and in a Mai Pai cocktail ($11). Rather than relying too heavily on vanilla and cinnamon, the rum ($36.99 per bottle) really brings the heat, especially when consumed straight up. Warm flavors of ginger, orange peel and Szechuan peppercorn come through strong. The rum is lightly sweetened with organic raw sugar and beetroot.

It also mixes well. My Mai Pai was tart and citrusy, made with a dash of Falernum and topped with a slice of dried apple and a sprig of mint a perfect, tropical antidote to Maines cold, snowy winters. Another Merrymeeting special offered the rum in a mulled cider ($10). McConnell says its also good in eggnog, and he plans to experiment with it in cranberry sauce.

FRENCH CHOCOLATES (NEED WE SAY MORE?)Chocolats Passion189 Brackett Street, Portland207-536-0496; chocolatspassion.com

Christmas is the time of year many people like to indulge in good chocolate without (too much) guilt. West End chocolatier Catherine Wiersema makes it easy for you to tempt everyone on your gift list, offering boxes of four, nine, 15 and 16 chocolates, shaped in squares and hearts, and five-to-a-box critters, including chocolate frogs, butterflies and bunnies. Wiersema, a native of France, is trained in French chocolate-making techniques and makes regular trips to the Cacao Barry Chocolate Academy in Montreal to hone her skills.

For the holidays this year, Wiersema is making two chocolate yule logs filled with decadence. The smaller log (a couple of ounces) sits in the middle of a holiday platter of 36 chocolates for $68 (a discount of 10 percent over buying the chocolates individually). Choose 72 percent dark chocolate or 41 percent milk chocolate for the shell, and then one of two fillings: citrus nougat or gianduja with hazelnut toffee. (Gianduja is an Italian hazelnut-and-milk-chocolate paste). Select the flavors for the 36 chocolates as well, choosing from ginger caramel, passion vanilla, pistachio raspberry, salted caramel and more.

The larger, 6-ounce Yule Log, filled with gianduja, costs $27 and is sold on its own. Its large enough to slice into individual pieces so fights wont break out over it at the Christmas party.

A 90-piece party tray, with the chocolates presented on a slate, costs $90. It cannot be shipped.

The shipping deadline is Dec. 17. If youre extra busy this season, and dont plan to ship but still need chocolates, Wiersema says you can order your chocolates ahead online and include a note saying youd like to pick them up in person at the shop. Wiersema will refund shipping costs and have the chocolates ready and waiting for you.

SPREAD THE COOKIE LOVEc.love cookie project94 Washington Avenue, Portland[emailprotected]; clovecookieproject.com

Send a little spirit of the season with your food gift this year. The c.love cookie project, which bakes out of the Root Cellars commercial kitchen in Portland, donates 21 percent of its profits to three local organizations that help immigrants: Portland Adult Education, the Root Cellar, and Way of Life Mission. This year, the cookie project, created and run by Katherine Slevin, is offering a $30 holiday box that includes a bakers dozen of hand-decorated (with royal icing and sprinkles) gingerbread, cookies she calls nutmeg dudes (like a snickerdoodle but with nutmeg), winter dope (a milk chocolate chip cookie with figs and pumpkin seeds) and a dark chocolate brownie with a mint ganache swirl. The box comes with a glittery, hand-embossed tag. Your friends will think you worked all day on it.

The last day for shipping before Christmas is Dec. 22. The last day for free pick-up is Dec. 23. Slevin will also deliver your cookies for a small fee.

The best/easiest way to order is on the website, Slevin says. But if youd like to see (or sample) her cookies before you buy a whole box, Slevin will be at a few local holiday pop-ups: 5th Annual Holiday Bike Build, 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 12 at Oxbow Brewing, 49 Washington Avenue, Portland; Annual Holiday Sale, 4 to 8 p.m. Dec. 13 at Running with Scissors Art Studio, 250 Anderson Street, Portland; Makers Market at The Point, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 15 at Brick South, Thompsons Point, Portland.

WARD OFF THE WINTER CHILL

Nellies Tea5 Industry Road, Suite 1A, South Portland207-761-8041; nelliestea.com

Dobr Tea89 Exchange Street, Portland207-210-6566; dobrateame.com

Bar Harbor Tea Co.150 Main Street, Bar Harbor207-288-8322; barharbortea.com

Homegrown Herb and Tea195 Congress Street, Portland207-774-3484; homegrownherbandtea.com

Whenever theres someone on my list who is hard to buy for they have everything they need, for example, or the things they want are not on my budget I like giving the gift of tea, especially here in Maine. You can substitute coffee here, but Ive found that seriouscoffee drinkers can be picky about what they let pass their lips. Tea is safer. Most people like to try different kinds, and no matter what flavor or blend it is, it will keep you warm.

Lets start with one of my favorites, which isnt really a tea at all. My mother loves tea, so one Christmas I gave her caffeine-free Wild Maine Blueberry loose fruit tea from Bar Harbor Tea Co. ($7.95 per pound) The company also makes blueberry green tea and blueberry black tea, but there is something special about the fruit tea, which also includes elderberries, currants, hibiscus and rosehips. The first sip transports you to summertime in Maine. Its like drinking liquid blueberries. I fell in love with it myself, and the next time I visited my mother, she said my niece had gotten hooked on it, too. (So now Im the blueberry tea trafficker, regularly shipping a new supply south.) It also tastes great in the summer over ice.

Recently, for a friends birthday, I wrapped up six sampler packs of loose tea from Nellies in South Portland a black tea, a green tea and so on. Most packs (3 for $13) hold an ounce of tea, and an ounce makes 10 to 12 cups, according to Nellies owner Marianne Russo. We like to let people taste teas, if we can, before they buy them, she said. If you want to upgrade your gift, Nellies offers a wooden tea chest filled with tins of tea. You can choose the tea yourself (each box contains 9 to 12 ounces) or buy a pre-filled chest, starting at $55.

Another option at Nellies is to buy a gift card good for a tea party at the shop so you and your friends can pretend youre the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Sussex enjoying a spot of tea while the boys are out playing polo. The store offers two different services: Tiered afternoon tea includes scones, savories (sandwiches, tartlets, etc.) and several pastries and desserts along with a bottomless cup of tea, of course ($23 per person). Luncheon tea service includes scones, soup or salad, dessert and bottomless tea ($18 per person). Russo also offers tea classes, which cover the history of tea, the basic types of tea, how tea is grown and processed and how to taste tea like a professional ($20 per person).

Dobr Tea also offers gift certificates for its cozy, eclectic tea room in downtown Portland, or you can buy and ship a wide variety of teas directly from its website.

At Homegrown Herb and Tea which looks like a neighborhood bar with mugs and teacups find specially blended teas designed to calm you, stimulate you, knock out that cold, melt away that stress, or balance your dosha. Many of the shops regular teas start around $7 per 2 ounces of loose tea; specialty blends typically start at $12 to 14 for 2 ounces. The owner even has a line of teas for moms and kids, with names like Mama-to-Be-Tea, The Milky Way (to stimulate production of breast milk) and The Tooth Fairy (to ease kids tooth and gum pain).

TAKE A TOUR

Maine Foodie Tours207-233-7485; mainefoodietours.com

Maine Food for Thought Tours207-619-2075; mainefoodforthought.com

Wine Wise Tours207-619-4630; winewiseevents.com

Maine Brew Bus Tours79 Commercial Street, Portland (Old Port Spirits)207-200-9111; themainebrewbus.com

Sure summer and fall are the obvious seasons for walking tours, but some companies run such tours year-round for people who dont mind negotiating a little cold and snow. Maine Foodie Tours, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, runs its Old Port Culinary Walking Tour ($75.95 per person) all winter, for example, along with an Old Port Happy Hour Tour ($74.95) and a newer tour that covers restaurants, bakeries and other hot spots Bon Apptit magazine mentioned when it named Portland its 2018 Restaurant City of the Year. If the person on your gift list doesnt require immediate gratification, try the Lunchtime Lobster Crawl (May-October) or, for pet owners, the $39 Doggy & Me tour (June-October) where dogs get their own treats because they are such good booooys. Or good guuurls. Gift certificates are available online.

Maine Food for Thoughts Land, Sea to Fork Tour takes customers on a $79 three-hour walking tour of the Old Port, stopping at several restaurants along the way for sampling. What makes this tour different is its not just about how much you can stuff in your face; its educational, teaching guests about Maines food system and how food gets from the land and sea to the dinner table. Gift certificates are available online.

If the person on your Christmas list is interested in wine, then try Wine Wises wine and food walks, which also run throughout the winter. Walks focus on a style of wine (pinot noir, for example, or cabernet sauvignon) and wine regions such as Italy, Spain or the Loire Valley. The company, owned by sommelier Erica Archer, also offers wine and oyster walks and bourbon and cocktail walks. If youre buying a tour for a summer guest, consider getting them on board one of Wine Wises wine sails. The windjammer cruises generally run June through October. The walking tours start at $65; the sails start at $79, but most cost $85 and up. Gift certificates available online.

But if beer is your gift getters jam, the Maine Brew Bus offers a mug-full of tours that stop at breweries in Portland and other towns in southern Maine. Tours typically visit three to five breweries or distilleries and run three to five hours. In addition to straight drinking tours, such as Thirsty Thursday or Beerunch, the Maine Brew Bus offers combination tours that blend activities such as curling or bird watching with beer drinking. Most tours start at $70 per person. Gift certificates available online.

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Delight the food lovers on your list with these gift ideas that feed both body and soul - Press Herald

A Whos Who of Anti-LGBTQ Extremists

An assortment of 79 prominent hate group leaders, anti-LGBTQ activists, and far right wing activists representing a swath of the religious right and the establishment GOP have penned a letter praising Mick Mulvaney and urging President Donald Trump to not fire him as acting chief of staff and to make his role permanent.

Its no secret the far right and religious right have not just won a foot in the Oval Office door, but a proverbial key to the White House. They helped get Trump elected and have enjoyed a warm open-door policy with the president ever since.

Now theyre taking advantage of that special relationship to make their desires known, this time, publicly.

Signatories to the letter (which is published at the Conservative Action Project) include the head of the anti-gay hate group Family Research Council, Tony Perkins. Tea Party activist and prominent DC lobbyist Ginni Thomas, who also just happens to be the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. (Both have worked together to achieve their dream of a ban on transgender service members.)

Others who have signed the letter praising Mulvaney as the most successful Chief of Staff in this administration to advance the Trump pro-America agenda, are former Ohio Secretary of StateKen Blackwell, who has served at Perkins Family Research Council as the hate groups Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment.

Washington Times columnist and Tea Party Patriots cofounder Jenny Beth Martin has signed the letter. So has long-term veteran anti-gay activist Cleta Mitchell, an attorney who has represented many far right Republicans, and the NRA.

Also, former U.S. Senator (R-SC) and former Heritage Foundation president, Jim DeMint, an anti-gay activist and right wing religious liberty extremist. Former U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), also an anti-LGBTQ activist and religious extremist. And failed Dont Ask, Dont Tell activist Elaine Donnelly.

As director of the Office of Management and Budget and as acting White House chief of staff, Mulvaney has overseen the office most responsible for implementing the Trump agenda throughout the government, the letter says, according to Politico. His attention, vision, and commitment to the presidents policies have been evident from the beginning of the administration to today. We believe the president should make him permanent in the chief of staff role.

Read more from the original source:
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson Defends His 'Right' to 'Speak Up More Strongly Against Gays in the Military' - The New Civil Rights Movement

"To me, Chicago is a lot like the White House. They both have a large and vibrant Russian community," former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel said at the Gridiron winter dinner. | Scott Olson/Getty Images

A FEW FUNNIES from the GRIDIRON WINTER DINNER: RAHM EMANUEL: Here we are, on December 7, the day the president reminds us that Ukraine bombed Pearl Harbor Some more about me: Im Jewish, so like Elizabeth Warren, Im a member of the tribe. To me, Chicago is a lot like the White House. They both have a large and vibrant Russian community I see cameras are banned from this event, which explains why AOC is not here

HILLARY CLINTON is now saying many, many, many people are now asking her to run. So now lets cut to the chase: are any of those people from Wisconsin, Michigan or Pennsylvania? In fact, are any of them Democrats? Joe [Biden] says he cannot remember when hes had more fun on the campaign trail. Literally: he cannot remember

SEN. ROY BLUNT (R-MO.): Im really known by most of these reporters or at least referred to by most of these reporters as unnamed source Why is it in Washington everytime someone wants to do something nefarious they go incognito, they pick suggestive names like Deep Throat, or Carlos Danger, or Pierre Delecto, or Wolf Blitzer or Carl Leubsdorf. Names you couldnt possibly get any other way besides making them up.

NOT AT THE GRIDIRON THE PRESIDENT, last night in Hollywood, Fla., at the Israeli American Councils national meeting on a Middle East peace deal, via MERIDITH MCGRAW, who was with the president: I love deals and I was told the toughest of all deals is peace with Israel and the Palestinians. But if Jared Kushner can't do it, it can't be done." Meridiths story

-- MIAMI HERALD on the Florida GOP dinner TRUMP attended: He also pulled an unusual move, bringing on stage Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who Trump pardoned last month for cases involving war crimes. Lorance was serving a 19-year sentence for ordering his soldiers shoot at unarmed men in Afghanistan, and Golsteyn was to stand trial for the 2010 extrajudicial killing of a suspected bomb maker. Miami Herald

THE SHOOTING IN PENSACOLA

-- WAPO: Investigation broadened in Pensacola Navy base shooting, by T.S. Strickland in Pensacola, Ellen Nakashima, Joby Warrick and Hannah Knowles: FBI officials broadened their probe Saturday into the deadly shooting rampage at a Navy flight school here amid reports that several of the gunmans Saudi compatriots took video footage as the attack was underway.

Law enforcement officials combed through the shooters belongings and social media accounts on Saturday while questioning six other Saudi nationals, at least some of them fellow students in the same Navy flight training program. Three of the Saudis were said to have taken cellphone video at the scene, according to a U.S. official familiar with investigation. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing probe. WaPo

-- AP/PENSACOLA: Official: Base shooter watched shooting videos before attack: The Saudi student who fatally shot three sailors at a U.S. naval base in Florida hosted a dinner party earlier in the week where he and three others watched videos of mass shootings, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Saturday. AP

-- PENSACOLA NEWS JOURNAL on the victims: Airman Mohammed Sameh Hathaim, 19, from St. Petersburg, Florida. He enlisted July 18 and reported to the Recruit Training Command at Great Lakes, Illinois. He reported to Pensacola on Sept. 21 and had earned the Navy Basic Military Training Honor Graduate Ribbon.

Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson, 23, from Coffee, Alabama. He was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis who was commissioned May 24 and reported for duty in Pensacola on Nov. 15. Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, 21, from Richmond Hill, Georgia. He enlisted Sept. 16 and also reported to the Recruit Training Command at Great Lakes before he reported to Pensacola on Nov. 24. PNJ

-- NYTS DAVID SANGER in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: For Trump, Instinct After Florida Killings Is Simple: Protect Saudis: When a Saudi Air Force officer opened fire on his classmates at a naval base in Pensacola, Fla., on Friday, he killed three, wounded eight and exposed anew the strange dynamic between President Trump and the Saudi leadership: The presidents first instinct was to tamp down any suggestion that the Saudi government needed to be held to account.

Hours later, Mr. Trump announced on Twitter that he had received a condolence call from King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who clearly sought to ensure that the episode did not further fracture their relationship. On Saturday, leaving the White House for a trip here for a Republican fund-raiser and a speech on Israeli-American relations, Mr. Trump told reporters that they are devastated in Saudi Arabia, noting that the king will be involved in taking care of families and loved ones. He never used the word terrorism.

What was missing was any assurance that the Saudis would aid in the investigation, help identify the suspects motives, or answer the many questions about the vetting process for a coveted slot at one of the countrys premier schools for training allied officers. Or, more broadly, why the United States continues to train members of the Saudi military even as that same military faces credible accusations of repeated human rights abuses in Yemen, including the dropping of munitions that maximize civilian casualties.

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SUNDAY BEST NEW SCREENING OF FOREIGNERS ... CHRIS WALLACE spoke to DEFENSE SECRETARY MARK ESPER on FOX NEWS SUNDAY: ESPER: One of the first things I did yesterday, in the wake of this incident, was I spoke to my deputy secretary, the acting Navy secretary and others to say I want to immediately make sure we put out an advisory to all of our bases, installations and facilities and make sure we're taking all necessary precautions appropriate to the particular base to make sure our people are safe and secure. That's number one. Number two, I ask that we begin a review of what our screening procedures are with regard to foreign nationals coming to the United States.

ON THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE KINGDOM GEORGE STEPAHANOPOULOS spoke to REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FLA.) on ABCS THIS WEEK: GAETZ: Of course, what happened in Pensacola has to inform on our ongoing relationship with Saudi Arabia. That is the message I directly delivered to the Saudi ambassador when she called to offer her condolences.

There are Saudis that are currently with us that are being investigated, and I made the point as clearly as I possibly could that we want no interference from the kingdom as it relates to Saudis that we have, and if there are Saudis that we do not have that may have been involved in any way in the planning, inspiration, financing or execution of this, that we expect Saudi intelligence to work with our government to find the people accountable and hold them responsible.

A message from BP:

NOW FOR IMPEACHMENT

-- NEW CHUCK TODD spoke to REP. JERRY NADLER (D-N.Y.) on NBCS MEET THE PRESS. NADLER said articles of impeachment coming THIS WEEK: There will be a lot of consultations, I assume, between members of the committee, with the House leadership, with members of the House. And we'll have to make those decisions. So we'll bring articles of impeachment, presumably, before the committee at some point later in the week.

-- PERHAPS A VOTE LATER, NADLER told DANA BASH on CNNS STATE OF THE UNION: BASH: Is it possible that you are going to vote on articles of impeachment this coming week? NADLER: It's possible. I don't know. BASH: Is that your goal? NADLER: My goal is to vote -- is to do this.... BASH: In terms of the timeline. NADLER: My goal is to do it as expeditiously, but as fairly as possible, depending how long it takes.

KYLE CHENEY and DARREN SAMUELSOHN: House Dems refresh Nixon-era impeachment report for Trump: The staff of the House Judiciary Committee on Saturday issued a historic report laying the groundwork to impeach President Donald Trump, outlining in Constitutional terms what the panel believes amounts to an impeachable offense.

Chairman Jerrold Nadler described the 55-page analysis as the heir to the only similar report produced by the Judiciary Committee, which was released during the impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon. That document was updated during the Bill Clinton impeachment but not fully rewritten. The 55-page report

SCENE SETTER MARK LEIBOVICH and NICK FANDOS on NYT, A1: Behind the Scenes of Impeachment: Crammed Offices, Late Nights, Cold Pizza: In cramped spaces in the Rayburn and Longworth House Office Buildings, as well as the speakers suite, the final articles of impeachment are being incubated in the shadow of the Capitol dome. It is a frantic backstage tableau of Washington anthropology, populated by Judiciary and Intelligence Committee aides, lawmakers and counsels hunched over computer screens and yellow legal pads.

History can get cluttered sometimes. The rooms are littered with empty soda cans, pie leftover from Thanksgiving and boxes pulled from shelves containing files from past impeachments. There are recurrent calls for tech support, caffeine and blankets, because the rooms can get cold, like the pizza. With so much grand talk about constitutional duties and respecting the founders and honoring oaths, there is also the mundane and the workaday. NYT

ALSO FROM MATT GAETZ on THIS WEEK On RUDY GIULIANIS trip to UKRAINE: It is weird that he's over there. REP. MARK MEADOWS said this to DANA BASH on CNNS STATE OF THE UNION: I don't know that any role -- I don't know of any role that Rudy Giuliani is playing on behalf of the president of the United States. I think he's over there as a citizen. I think part of that is probably trying to clear his name.

SNEAK PEEK THE PRESIDENTS WEEK: Monday: PRESIDENT TRUMP will have lunch with VP MIKE PENCE, and will participate in a roundtable on empowering families with education choice Tuesday: THE PRESIDENT will travel to Hershey, Pa., for a political rally. Wednesday: THE PRESIDENT will go to the ceremonial swearing in of Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, and he will host a Hanukkah reception.

Thursday: THE PRESIDENT will speak at the White House Summit on Child Care and Paid Leave: Supporting Americas Working Families, and will attend the Congressional Ball. Friday: The president of PARAGUAY will be at the White House.

A message from BP:

Good Sunday morning. SPOTTED: Hillary Clinton at Politics and Prose on Connecticut Avenue Saturday evening. Photos, via Kate Woodsome

HARTFORD COURANT FRONT PAGE: Low-profile prosecutor leads high-profile hunt: John Durham of Connecticut digs into origin of Trump collusion claims

A DAN DIAMOND CLASSIC: Medicare chief asked taxpayers to cover stolen jewelry: A top Trump health appointee sought to have taxpayers reimburse her for the costs of jewelry, clothing and other possessions, including a $5,900 Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, that were stolen while in her luggage during a work-related trip, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.

Seema Verma, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, filed a $47,000 claim for lost property on Aug. 20, 2018, after her bags were stolen while she was giving a speech in San Francisco the prior month. The property was not insured, Verma wrote in her filing to the Health and Human Services department.

The federal health department ultimately reimbursed Verma $2,852.40 for her claim, a CMS spokesperson said. Vermas claim included $43,065 for about two dozen pieces of jewelry, based off an appraisal she'd received from a jeweler about three weeks after the theft. Among Verma's stolen jewelry was an Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, made of gold, prasiolite and diamonds, that Vermas jeweler valued at $5,900.

Vermas claim also included about $2,000 to cover the cost of her stolen clothes and another $2,000 to cover the cost of other stolen goods, including a $325 claim for moisturizer and a $349 claim for noise-cancelling headphones.

FRONT PAGE OF THE LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER: Bevin mum on contract to investigate Steve Beshear

2020 WATCH

-- WAPOS DAN BALZ: Will impeachment be forgotten by November 2020? Dont be so sure.

-- BOSTON GLOBES JAMES PINDELL: Tiny Dixville Notch may see its midnight tradition disappear: [W]ith the 2020 New Hampshire presidential primary less than 10 weeks away, it is increasingly likely that the Dixville Notch tradition is dead, victim of a shrinking population too small to meet the legal threshold of five residents to be a polling place.

It is what it is, said Tom Tillotson, one of four residents of Dixville Notch, the town moderator and son of the creator of the midnight voting concept in the unincorporated town. This is obviously not what I wanted to see happen.

The probable demise of the Dixville tradition comes as the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary is fading in other ways. The small house parties, face-to-face glad handing, and herculean efforts to secure endorsements from small-town officials have given way to national polls, cable-TV debates, and rock-star candidates who command arenas from day one. Boston Globe Front page PDF

-- WAPO: Mike Bloombergs money buys him a very different kind of campaign. And its a big one, by Isaac-Stanley Becker and Michael Scherer, with an Augusta, Ga., dateline: After two weeks in the presidential race, Mike Bloomberg now employs one of the largest campaign staff rosters, has spent more money on ads than all the top-polling Democrats combined and is simultaneously building out ground operations in 27 states.

But when the former New York mayor showed up to get the endorsement of Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. on Friday, only two of the 10 chairs initially placed before the lectern were occupied. When Bloomberg joked about his college years, saying he was one of the students who made the top half of the class possible, he was met by silence.

Youre supposed to laugh at that, folks, Bloomberg said to a room at the citys African American history museum filled mostly with staff and media. For a normal presidential campaign, such moments would be a worrying sign, a potentially viral metaphor for a struggling effort. But with the Bloomberg campaign, it is not at all clear what established rules apply, if any. Everything he is doing is so unlike what has been done for decades that it is difficult to decipher how voters will react. WaPo

THE PRESIDENTS SUNDAY THE PRESIDENT and first lady are scheduled to attend a Childrens Reception at 12:30 p.m. in the Blue Room.

PHOTO DU JOUR: A U.S. Marine stands in front of the USS Missouri on Saturday, during a ceremony to mark the 78th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. | Caleb Jones/AP Photo

TOP-ED KATIE HILL in the NYT: Its Not Over After All: I overcame the desperation I felt after stepping down from Congress, and Im still in the fight.

BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman (@dlippman):

-- Video Games and Online Chats Are Hunting Grounds for Sexual Predators, by NYTs Nellie Bowles and Michael H. Keller: Criminals are making virtual connections with children through gaming and social media platforms. One popular site warns visitors, Please be careful. NYT

-- Why Mike Posner Walked Across America, by Caitlin Giddings in Outside Magazine: Years after he took that pill in Ibiza, Grammy nominee Mike Posner left behind his life in L.A. to go on a 2,851-mile journey in search of... something. Heres what he learned about grief, motivation, struggle, and authenticity. Outside

-- The Epic Rise and Hard Fall of New Yorks Taxi King, by NYTs Brian M. Rosenthal: A Russian immigrant and a cabdrivers son who got his nickname by building the citys biggest fleet, [Evgeny A.] Freidman was a primary architect of some of the tactics used to build the bubble ... At the height of the market, he had accumulated $525 million in assets. He befriended the filmmaker Spike Lee, the baseball star Mo Vaughn and Mayor Bill de Blasio. His outsize antics and lavish spending often landed him on Page Six, the New York Posts gossip column. NYT

-- The Octopus from Outer Space, by James Ross Gardner in Seattle Met per Longreads.coms description: Gardner explores the Pacific Northwests evolving relationship with the octopus and how theyve gone from dangerous devil-fish bent on drowning unsuspecting sea goers to intensely curious, suction-cupped wonders. With nine brains one in their head and one in each of their eight arms octopuses are thought to be the most intelligent invertebrates on earth, capable of deep connection with humans. Seattle Met

-- The confession, by WaPos Peter Jamison in Bean Blossom, Ind.: Heil Trump and an anti-gay slur were scrawled on an Indiana church right after Trumps election. The investigation led to an unlikely suspect and the discovery of a hate crime hoax. WaPo

-- The New China Scare, by Fareed Zakaria in Foreign Affairs: The United States risks squandering the hard-won gains from four decades of engagement with China, encouraging Beijing to adopt confrontational policies of its own, and leading the worlds two largest economies into a treacherous conflict of unknown scale and scope that will inevitably cause decades of instability and insecurity. A cold war with China is likely to be much longer and more costly than the one with the Soviet Union, with an uncertain outcome. Foreign Affairs (hat tip: TheBrowser.com)

-- An Unbelievable Story of Rape, by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong in ProPublica and the Marshall Project in Dec. 2015: An 18-year-old said she was attacked at knifepoint. Then she said she made it up. Thats where our story begins. ProPublica

-- How Racism Ripples Through Rural Californias Pipes, by NYTs Jose A. Del Real in Teviston, Calif.: In the 20th century, Californias black farmworkers settled in waterless colonies. The history endures underground, through old pipes, dry wells and shoddy septic tanks. NYT

-- Hippie Inc: how the counterculture went corporate, by Nat Segnit in the Dec./Jan. issue of 1843 Magazine: Half a century on from the summer of love, marijuana is big business and mindfulness a workplace routine. Nat Segnit asks how the movement found itself at the heart of capitalism. 1843 (h/t Longform.org)

-- How Ring Went From Shark Tank Reject to Americas Scariest Surveillance Company, by Caroline Haskins in Vice: Amazon's Ring started from humble roots as a smart doorbell company called DoorBot. Now its surveilling the suburbs and partnering with police. Vice

-- The False Promise of Morning Routines, by The Atlantics Marina Koren: Why everyones mornings seem more productive than yours. Atlantic

-- Your Honor, Can I Tell The Whole Story? by Nick Chrastil in The Atavist: To read the transcript of Erin Hunters trial, which runs all of 81 pages and can be digested in half an hour, is to encounter a disregard for human dignity instrumental in producing the most sprawling system of incarceration in the world. Atavist (h/t Longform.org)

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.

SPOTTED at a book party for Tom Rosenstiels book, Oppo: A Novel ($26.64 on Amazon): Ruth Marcus, E.J. Dionne, Luke Albee, John Podesta, Jon Leibowitz, Len Downie, Amanda Bennett, Mike McCurry, J.J. Yore, Alan Miller, John Gomperts, Tamera Luzzatto, David Leiter and Jon Haber.

SPOTTED at Microsofts Suhail Khans 50th birthday party at Union Stage at the Wharf on Saturday night: Grover Norquist, Jim Rowland, Glynda Becker, Wil Gravatt, Ximena Barreto, Susan Benhoff, Travis Korson, David Ferguson, Rebecca Furdek, Tania Mercado, Grace Morgan and Geoff Smith.

TRANSITION -- Anthony Ornato will be deputy chief of staff for operations at the White House. He previously was deputy assistant director for the Secret Service.

ENGAGED -- Kara Voght, a national politics reporter at Mother Jones, and Ben Cushing, a campaign representative at the Sierra Club, got engaged Saturday night at the Line Hotel. The couple, who met on Bumble, have been dating for two years. Pic

BIRTHDAYS: Ann Coulter is 58 Sabrina Siddiqui, WSJ reporter and CNN political analyst Kerri Kupec, director of public affairs at DOJ former World Bank President Jim Yong Kim is 6-0 Aaron Kissel, POLITICOs VP of product, is 45 (h/t Patrick Steel) APs Pablo Martinez Monsivais Debra Saunders, Las Vegas Review-Journal White House correspondent Judd Legum Brooke Lorenz, senior manager for communications at CBS Rachel Sklar Lizzie OLeary (h/ts Ben Chang) Marc Burstein, senior executive producer at ABC News POLITICOs Annie Yu and Danica Stanciu ... Ginny Badanes, director of strategic projects for cybersecurity and democracy at Microsoft ... Brie Sachse, managing director and head of state and local external affairs at Siemens ... Cayman Clevenger Nick Colvin

Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner, NBC News White House producer Jena Baker McNeil Preston Hill Steve Bouchard (h/t Jon Haber) former Rep. Ral Labrador (R-Idaho) is 52 Stephen Spaulding, elections counsel for the House Administration Committee ... Kevin Carski ... BBCs Samantha Granville ... P. Lynn Scarlett Honey Sharp (h/t son Daniel Lippman) Sylvester Okere Courtney Johnson Luis Rosero Karen Keller of FP1 Strategies and PLUS Communications B.R. McConnon of DDC Emily Leaman Solange Uwimana Alison (Matarazzo) Edwards Jen Minton Anna Miller Tom Bush Austin James Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is 66 Jeff Neubauer Jackie Gran Nancy Balz (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) Randy Altschuler is 49

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POLITICO Playbook: Inside the Gridiron - Politico