Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Obama To Meet with Business, Labor and Civic Leaders Today on Deficit - the White House released a list of two dozen executives who are meeting with the President today.

Expected at the meeting on Tuesday were four labor leaders - Mary Kay Henry of the Service Employees International Union, Lee Saunders of the public employees union AFSCME, Dennis Van Roekel of the National Education Association and Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization for U.S. labor.

Also at the session on Tuesday would be leaders of civic and politically progressive groups. They were John Podesta and Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress, Robert Greenstein of the think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Laura Burton Capps of Common Purpose Project, Max Richtman of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security, Justin Ruben of MoveOn and Deepak Bhargava of Center for Community Change.

Business executives invited to meet the president on Wednesday were Mark Bertolini of Aetna Inc, Ursula Burns of Xerox Corp, Kenneth Chenault of American Express Co, David Cote of Honeywell International Inc, Michael Duke of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric Co, Andrew Liveris of  Dow Chemical Co, Robert McDonald of Procter & Gamble Co, Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Co, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo Inc, Ginni Rometty of IBM, and John Watson of Chevron Corp.  Reuters.com has more here.

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More Details Surface in Petraeus Affair Investigation - in a story of spies and sex, it is not surprising there is more to come as details continuing to emerge.

It turns out the F.B.I. agent who launched the investigation of the affair has been barred from the case due to his sending shirtless photos of himself to Jill Kelly, the woman who complained of harassing emails.  This agent, who also tipped off Republican Congressmen, is now under investigation.

Broadwell, the woman who allegedly had the affair with General Petraeus, sent harassing emails to Jill Kelley about inappropriate relationships with members of the high military command. General John Allen, who replaced Petraeus as the commander in Afghanistan is now also under investigation.  TPM.com has more here.

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Kerry, Rice Under Consideration for Defense Secretary and Secretary of State - The Washington Post is saying that U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) is being considered for Defense Secretary although he has always expressed interest in becoming Secretary of State.  Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. is being considered for secretary of State.  The Washington Post has more here.

However, don't look for either to be nominated by President Obama.  Kerry, although he helped Obama prepared for the presidential debates by playing Mitt Romney, has too much baggage and Democratic leaders will not want to risk losing his Senate seat in a special election where a Democratic candidate would likely face Republican Scott Brown, who just lost his seat to Elizabeth Warren.

With the Benghazi investigation still unfolding and the scrutiny over statements made by Susan Rice immediately following the death of U.S. Ambassador Stevens, it is unlikely she would receive confirmation.

Instead, it is likely both names were leaked to media so they would receive apprpriate recognition in the press and to also receive immediate feedback.

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Plouffe, Axelrod Among Advisers To Obama Set To Leave - the campaign team and senior advisers to President Obama; David Axelrod and David Ploufee and campaign manager Jim Messina are all expected to resign to pursue other interests.  Axelrod will be opening up a new politics institute at University of Chicago.

Chief of Staff Jack Lew, is he is not selected to replace Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, is also expected to step down.

Only Valarie Jarret, a close personal friend and adviser to President Obama has expressed a desire to continue.

TheHill.com has more here.

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Pelosi To Meet With Democratic Caucus Wednesday - after, the 2008 election, there was some dissention among House Democrats as to the leadership structure, with Nancy Pelosi (D-Calf.) beating out Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) for Minority Leader and a new leadership position created for James Clyburn (D-S.C.).

If, Pelosi says she wants to cintinue as Minority Leader, it is expected she will have unanimous support with Hoyer remaining as Minority Whip.  Politico.com has more here.

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5 House Seats Remain Undecided - a week after the election, two seats in California, one in Arizona, one in Florida and one in North Carolina remain too close to call.  Democratic candidates are leading in all five contests.  RollCall.com has more here. 

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