Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Hagel, Brennan To be Nominated By Obama Today - former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who was expected to be nominated for Defense Secretary and counterterrorism adviser John Brennan for director of the C.I.A. will be announced today by the President at 1:05 PM ET.

Both, will receive srutiny in the Senate confirmation process.  Hagel, even before being nominated, has faced tough criticism from congressional lawmakers who say the former GOP senator is anti-Israel and soft on Iran. And Brennan, a 25-year CIA veteran, withdrew from consideration for the spy agency's top job in 2008 amid questions about his connection to harsh interrogation techniques used during the George W. Bush administration.  You can read more here.

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Clinton Returns To Work - Today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton returns to work after being sidelined for a month due to illness which led to a fall and concussion.  The concussion caused Clinton to be hospitalized after a blood clot was discovered.  Clinton is scheduled to meet with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai latre this week.  You can read more here.

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New U.S. Iran Sanctions Target Industry - With Iran’s economy already reeling from previous sanctions, the new measures passed by Congress and signed by President Obama last week are intended to deliver powerful blows against key industries ranging from shipping and ports-management to the government-controlled news media, congressional officials and economic experts say.

The tightening of the economic noose comes amid new signs that Iran may be ready to resume negotiations with the United States and other world powers on possible limits to its nuclear program. Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said on Friday that his government had agreed to new talks that would likely take place this month, although the date and location remained unclear. The Washington Post has more here.

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Democrats Want New Revenue to Equal Proposed Spending Cuts - as the debate continues on deficit reduction. The emerging consensus, is that the next installment of deficit reduction should reach $2 trillion and about half of it should come from higher taxes.

The White House also supports a 1:1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases as Congress seeks to finish the fiscal work left unresolved by the recently completed 112th Congress.

White House officials point to last week’s fiscal-cliff agreement to “buy down” the sequester for two months. The deal delayed the implementation of automatic across-the-board spending cuts to domestic and defense programs and paid for it with $12 billion in revenues and $12 billion in spending cuts — evenly divided between defense and non-defense spending.  TheHill.com has more here.

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10 Banks To Pay $8.5 Billion To Settle To Settle Foreclosure Missteps - Ten of the largest U.S. mortgage servicers will pay a combined $8.5 billion under an agreement that will end case-by-case reviews of foreclosure-abuse claims stemming from a 2011 deal with regulators.  Bloomberg.com has more and a list of the ten banks here.

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