Krauthammer: Benghazi "Won"t Even Be An Issue" For Hillary In 2016 Nomination Fight

SHANNON BREAM: Charles, do you think that Benghazi will factor in at all — in the primary or the general should Hillary Clinton be the Democratic nominee?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: It won’t in the primary. It won’t even be an issue. I think the status she enjoys among Democrats is semi-divine. It’s not going to be a coronation. It’s going to be a worship service. And it will go on for about six or eight months. I don’t think there is any serious challenger. There might be noise, but I don’t even think that the left that we’ve talked about is that the significant. It’s a noisy left. But, I don’t see any impediment on the way to her nomination. But I think she is going to be rather weak if she decides to run, which I think she likely is. She will be a relatively weak opponent. And Republicans, I think, are going to have a really good shot at the White House.

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Krauthammer: Benghazi "Won"t Even Be An Issue" For Hillary In 2016 Nomination Fight

VIDEO: Senate votes in historic rule change

After Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed a change, the Senate struck down traditional filibuster rules for most presidential nominations.

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VIDEO: Senate votes in historic rule change

VIDEO: Senate votes in historic rule change

After Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed a change, the Senate struck down traditional filibuster rules for most presidential nominations.

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To stay in the loop, bookmark our homepage.

VIDEO: Senate votes in historic rule change

VIDEO: McConnell frames rule change as distraction from Obamacare

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Thursday of “trying to change the subject” with a proposed rule change.

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VIDEO: McConnell frames rule change as distraction from Obamacare

For Yellen, nomination may be the easy part

It may be Yellen’s job to devise a plan to draw down the stimulus as growth stays sluggish. | AP Photo

President Barack Obama will likely nominate Janet Yellen soon as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. Yellen, the current vice chairman of the central bank, should enjoy uniform Democratic support and will almost certainly pick up enough Republican votes to win confirmation, according to Hill aides and political operatives on both sides.

Then her real problems will begin.

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Warren: Yellen would be ‘terrific’

Bernanke on political environment

Yellen, should she get the job, would take over at a uniquely difficult time for the nation’s central bank. Since the financial crisis, the Fed has been among the few constant sources of economic stewardship in Washington, pumping money into the struggling economy as Congress and the White House lurched from near-default to the first credit downgrade in the nation’s history to a series of high-stakes spending battles.

(Also on POLITICO: Liberal wrath doomed Summers)

The familiar cycle of dysfunction is now repeating itself as Washington hurtles toward a possible government shutdown and a fresh debt ceiling crisis. And this time the Fed has credibility problems of its own.

Over the summer, outgoing Chairman Ben Bernanke told investors to expect the central bank to soon begin winding down its unprecedented program of printing money to boost the economy. Investors responded by driving up interest rates, expecting the Fed to announce that the so-called “taper” of asset purchases would begin in September.

Then last week the Fed did the exact opposite, saying it would keep pumping in cash. Bernanke cited the very financial conditions he himself created over the summer as a reason to delay the taper. Investors were left to wonder whether they could still believe the Fed’s guidance.

(Also on POLITICO: Source: White House pushing Yellen nod)

“I think they did undermine their credibility. They confused people. Now we don’t know how to read the tea leaves and the signals, and that’s a real problem,” said Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds in New York. “Forward guidance, as Chairman Bernanke said, is one of the Fed’s two main policy tools and maybe the most effective one. But now, who is going to believe the forward guidance?”

It will now be up to Yellen — assuming she gets the job — to both clean up the Fed’s communications mess and figure out how and when to draw down the stimulus as growth stays sluggish, unemployment remains over 7 percent and inflation runs below the central bank’s 2 percent target.

The Bernanke Fed in its final months may begin the process of cutting down on asset purchases, perhaps in December. This could leave Yellen, who has expressed grave concerns about the level of persistent unemployment, in the awkward position of trying to convince fellow Fed governors to reverse Bernanke’s position.

(WATCH: Bernanke: ‘I don’t have anything for you on my personal plans’)

And she would have to do so with the clear knowledge — both on her part and among fellow governors — that she was the president’s second choice. Larry Summers, the former Treasury secretary and favored White House candidate, withdrew from consideration after drawing opposition from several Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee, which must first approve any Fed nominee.

“It’s worse than that,” said James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute, noting the brief White House flirtation with the idea that former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner could return as Fed chair. “Yellen may have been third choice after Geithner and Summers. But her influence will depend far less on her Obama short-list ranking than her ability as Fed chair to reach consensus among Fed policymakers, clearly and persuasively communicate Fed policy and show independence from Congress and the White House.”

Market analysts do not doubt Yellen’s ability to lead the Fed under all of these circumstances. But they also note that they would be far from ideal conditions for anyone to take over at the central bank.

POLITICO – TOP Stories

For Yellen, nomination may be the easy part

Senate nomination pact averts meltdown _ for now

Senate majority leader Harry Reid gestures as he speaks to the media as lawmakers moved toward resolving their feud over filibusters of White House appointees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Senate majority leader Harry Reid gestures as he speaks to the media as lawmakers moved toward resolving their feud over filibusters of White House appointees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and GOP leaders talk to reporters after the Senate stepped back from the brink of a political meltdown, clearing the way for confirmation of one of President Barack Obama’s long-stalled nominations, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. At far left is Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Republican senators, from left, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., walk from the floor to a closed-door caucus after a compromise between the Democratic majority and the GOP minority on filibuster rules, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid credited Sen. McCain, with helping broker a breakthrough.The Senate just voted 71-29 to end a two-year Republican blockade that was preventing Richard Cordray from winning confirmation as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, speaks with reporters just off the Senate floor as lawmakers moved toward resolving their feud over Republican filibusters of White House appointees, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. The Senate just voted 71-29 to end a two-year Republican blockade that was preventing Richard Cordray from winning confirmation as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan Senate pact has smoothed the confirmation path for a batch of President Barack Obama’s nominations and removed, for now, a Democratic threat to impose procedural changes weakening minority Republicans’ clout. Yet there are no guarantees that the conflict won’t flare anew the next time a White House appointment stirs controversy.

A day after both parties celebrated an agreement averting a bitter fight over Senate rules, the chamber planned to vote Wednesday on one of Obama’s picks, Fred Hochberg to be president of the Export-Import Bank.

Also possible this week are roll calls on Labor Secretary-designate Tom Perez and Gina McCarthy, Obama’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

On Tuesday, Republicans agreed to allow quick votes on seven Obama selections by simple majority margins, rather than forcing Democrats to garner 60 votes to succeed. Hours later, the Senate by 66-34 approved the first of those appointments, confirming Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — after Republicans had blocked him for nearly two years as they demanded changes in the agency’s structure and financing.

In a written statement, Obama thanked Senate leaders for working out their dispute but criticized his opponents for using “purely political reasons” to stall the nominations.

“In the weeks ahead, I hope the Congress will build on this spirit of cooperation to advance other urgent middle-class priorities” like revamping immigration laws and keeping student loan interest rates from rising, Obama said.

In exchange for the GOP concessions on the nominations, Democrats agreed to drop their effort to change the chamber’s rules. Obama also submitted two new nominees for a pair of labor posts after Republicans adamantly opposed his initial picks.

“Does that mean it will last forever? I don’t know about that,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said of the accord. But he added, “We have a new start for this body, and I feel very comfortable with it.”

Democrats had been threatening to muscle through a rules change preventing opponents from forcing top agency nominees to win 60 votes from the 100-member Senate.

That would have diminished the chamber’s filibuster rule that minority parties, Republicans as well as Democrats, have long cherished as a tool that prevents them from becoming virtually irrelevant. Changing the Senate’s rules by majority vote — instead of the two-thirds margin usually required when the plan is controversial — is unusual and considered likely to invite such harsh retaliation that it is called the nuclear option.

“I think it’s a step in the right direction that the majority has chosen not to exercise the nuclear option,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “We feel good about that. I think they feel good about it. So I think that crisis has been averted.”

The standoff was resolved following an exceptional closed-door meeting in the Capitol’s old Senate chamber Monday night, attended by nearly every senator. For the previous several days, senators had met and made phone calls in an effort to head off a clash, with several lawmakers crediting Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for helping bring the sides together.

As part of the resulting agreement, Obama withdrew his nominations of two nominees to the National Labor Relations Board, Richard Griffin and Sharon Clark. Obama installed Griffin and Clark onto the board in 2011, bypassing the Senate but triggering a legal challenge in which an appeals court has said the two appointments were invalid. Republicans were insistent that those selections be replaced.

In their places, Obama nominated Nancy Schiffer, a former top lawyer for the AFL-CIO, and Kent Hirozawa, counsel to NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce. Reid said he was planning for the Senate to confirm both next week.

The seventh Obama appointment involved in the bipartisan deal is Pearce, whose pick is relatively uncontroversial. The NLRB appointments, if confirmed as expected, would prevent the virtual shutdown of the agency because of a lack of confirmed board members to rule on collective bargaining disputes between unions and companies.

___

Associated Press writer David Espo contributed to this report.

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Senate nomination pact averts meltdown _ for now

Senate Votes to Close Debate on Hagel Nomination

Obama suggests we keep “Washington” out of the arguments against his health-care plan.

The Senate voted for cloture on the dbeate over the nomination of former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel for defense secretary Tuesday afternoon. Seventy-one senators, including 18 Republicans, voted to end the debate and move to an up or down vote on Hagel. Carl Levin, the chairman of the armed services committee, said he expects a vote on the nomination later on Tuesday afternoon.

The Weekly Standard

Senate Votes to Close Debate on Hagel Nomination

Shelby’s Endorsement Gives Hagel Enough Votes for Confirmation

Former Sen. Chuck Hagel has lined up the necessary votes in the Senate to be confirmed next week as Secretary of Defense — as a senior Republican lawmaker said on Thursday that he would support him and 15 GOP senators called on President Barack Obama to withdraw his name.

“He’s probably as good as we’re going to get,” five-term Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama told The Decatur Daily Herald about Hagel.

Unless any new, damaging information on Hagel emerges before an expected Senate vote on Tuesday, Hagel has Shelby’s vote, spokesman Jonathan Graffeo told the Associated Press.

Shelby is the third Republican to announce his support for Hagel, joining Sens. Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Mike Johanns of Nebraska.

If confirmed, Hagel, the former two-term Nebraska senator, would succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Panetta is returning to California after four years as CIA director and then as head of the Pentagon.

Last week, Senate Republicans filibustered a vote on Hagel’s nomination last week, forcing Democrats to take up the issue after senators return from recess next week.

Meanwhile, the 15 GOP senators called on Obama to withdraw Hagel’s nomination, saying it would be “unprecedented,” since so many Republicans opposed it. The letter came after Shelby’s announcement.

“Over the last half-century, no secretary of defense has been confirmed and taken office with more than three senators voting against him,” the senators wrote in a letter that was quoted by The New York Times. “The occupant of this critical office should be someone whose candidacy is neither controversial or divisive.”

Joining Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas in signing the letter were Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina; Roger Wicker of Mississippi; David Vitter of Louisiana; Ted Cruz of Texas; Mike Lee of Utah; Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania; Marco Rubio of Florida; Dan Coats of Indiana; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; James E. Risch of Idaho; John Barrasso of Wyoming; and Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

“Senator Hagel’s performance at his confirmation hearing was deeply concerning, leading to serious doubts about his basic competence to meet the substantial demands of the office,” they said in the letter.

But Sen. John McCain of Arizona did not sign the letter. While he opposes Hagel’s nomination — calling him unqualified for the position — the former GOP presidential candidate has said he would allow a final vote on the nomination.

Graham also has said he would back a vote on Hagel’s nomination.

White House spokesman Jay Carney on Thursday complained that the letter demonstrated that Republicans had put politics ahead of national security. He pointed out that the administration wants Hagel to be part of decisions on the size of the U.S. force in Afghanistan as American and coalition forces wind down combat operations.

“This waste of time is not just meaningless political posturing because we firmly believe that Sen. Hagel will be confirmed. The waste of time is of consequence,” Carney said, the Associated Press reports.

The Senate also is holding up the nomination of John Brennan to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, as both Republicans and Democrats seek more information about the U.S. policy on the use of drones.

Hagel and Brennan would join Secretary of State John Kerry in Obama’s new national security team.

Hagel is expected to get all 55 Democratic votes and the backing of the three Republicans. Two other GOP members, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted last week to allow the nomination to proceed.

They are expected to do the same next week, giving Hagel the requisite 60 votes out of 100 necessary to end a filibuster, the Associated Press reports.

A vote on confirmation, with only a majority necessary, could occur as early as Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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Shelby’s Endorsement Gives Hagel Enough Votes for Confirmation