–Bob Woodward’s upcoming book has leaked and it’s full of every bit of White House palace intrigue one would expect from the Washington Post icon. Also, plenty of intra-administration sniping:
Mr. Biden called Mr. Holbrooke “the most egotistical bastard I’ve ever met.” A variety of administration officials expressed scorn for James L. Jones, the retired Marine general who is national security adviser, while he referred to some of the president’s other aides as “the water bugs” or “the Politburo.”
The White House sounds more than okay with how President Obama was portrayed.
—Some crack reporting from Scherer: Rahm Emanuel may depart the White House as early as next month.
–With word of Larry Summers’s departure by the end of the year, replacement speculation has begun in earnest. Sheryl Gay Stolberg suggests Obama will look to a corporate executive in order to shake that “anti-business” trope. The Journal says Former Xerox Corp. chief Anne Mulcahy is a leading candidate. Felix Salmon floats the return of Laura Tyson, previously an economic adviser to the Clinton administration. Summers’s current deputies Jason Furman and Diana Farrell are also presumed to be in the running. The conventional wisdom is that Obama would select a woman because Christina Romer’s departure turned his economic team into an all-boys club.
–Jonathan Cohn argues liberals will (or at least should) miss Summers.
–New York Governor-in-waiting Andrew Cuomo might not have the cake walk everybody expected. A new Quinnipiac poll finds his colorful Tea-powered Republican challenger Carl Paladino within six points, nothing short of a shock. One possible caveat: The survey didn’t include GOP primary loser Rick Lazio, who says he’ll remain on the ballot as the Conservative Party candidate.
–The Post hears Mayor Bloomberg will endorse Cuomo.
–The White House is trying to put a human face on health reform. They’re up with a new website and Obama is doing a backyard chat today in Virginia to coincide with the six month mark of PPACA’s passage and highlight some measures just now kicking in.
—CNN’s Dana Bash reports the Republican leadership will strip a defiant Lisa Murkowski of her ranking member status on the Senate Energy Committee.
—Henry Olsen and Nate Silver debate the generic ballot.
–Vegetables: OpenSecret analyses political spending by billionaires George Soros and the Koch brothers. (via Kate)
–Side dish: People who became nouns. (There was a Mr. Leotard?)
–Dessert: C’mon, “Who doesn’t regret the ’80s?”
What did I miss?