Before the State of the Union

++The Senate voted again today to pass the Violence Against Women Act with 22 Republican male Senators voting "no". John Cornyn of Texas said the act didn't afford rapists due process before Indian courts.

++In about a minute, the Senate committee is supposed to vote out the Hagel nomination. Senator Imhofe said earlier that that Hagel will be held to the 60 vote standard in the full Senate vote.

++Senator McConnell said he wasn't interested in dealing with Joe Biden to avoid sequestration. The Defense Department faces a $85 billion cut and domestic programs will be gutted.

++President Obama is supposed to announce the withdrawal of 34,000 troops from Afghanistan this year. He is also supposed to talk more about the economy, a subject he avoided in his inauguration speech. The country needs Lift and he should provide it unless he gets bogged down in details.

++Ted Nugent, who said he would either be dead or in jail if Obama won a second term,will be attending the State of the Union address at the invitation of the Republicans.

++Marco Rubio this week was hailed as the Savior of the Republican Party ,which has a big gender gap problem. Today, Rubio voted against the Violence Against Women Act. That should help.

++The North Koreans have tested another nuclear device, which now goes along with its missiles. Maybe we will have to pay them attention.

++Pakistan, which already has nuclear capability, has tested missiles for launching nuclear weapons.

++President Obama is supposed to announce further cuts in our nuclear arsenal.

++Bibi Netanyahu is positively giddy that President Obama is going to visit Israel in March. The agenda includes Iran, Syria, and the negotiations with the Palestinians.

++The Syrian opposition has now seized major airfoils, a dam and now threatens the capital.

++The Treasury has announced that the U.S. actually had a surplus last month because of the increase in social security taxes.

++Thom Hartmann had an excellent show on how the austerity programs in Europe are encouraging the rise of fascist parties again.

++Paul Krugman continues his lonely campaign against austerity in the United States. The Beltway continues its discussion of the deficit, even though this year will be the first time since 2008 that the deficit dipped below $1 trillion. 

++Out of sight, several GOP governors are signing on to the Medicaid elements of Obamacare, even though they opposed it. It happens to be a good deal for states.

++Sam Tannehaus had a long article in the New Republic on how the GOP will remain the white party and how it has embraced the politics of John Calhoun and his vision of nullification.

++On the day Galileo was born, Pope Benedict abdicated his position and will step down from the papacy at the end of the month. Being the first pope to abdicate for 800 years, his gesture is a one man reformation. 

++The drone wars are the new cause celeb in the Beltway. I write more on it as we go along.

++The Gun legislation is still mired by hype and lobbying by the NRA.

++The month long discussion of the GOP re-branding itself so far has yielded very little. If anything, the House GOP is more Tea Party than not. Karl Rove's new effort to stomp out the Tea Party is being met with ferocious reaction and establishment Republicans are getting gun shy.

++Today, as the GOP thought to bring up Benghazi again. The latest rumor is that Obama was selling arms from Libya to Syria and didn't tell the ambassador. This was laughed out by Hillary Clinton. But there is no stopping people who believe this is bigger than Watergate.

++Lindsey Graham has threatened to hold up Hagel and Brennen until he gets answers from Obama about Benghazi. Not to be outdone, Dick Cheney said that all of Obama's national security team were "second-raters". 

++President Obama has less than two years to accomplish anything else in his Presidency. Go for immigration reform.