​Obama, Boehner sought secret amnesty deal . . . Two days after his party’s midterm romp, House Speaker John Boehner became the second leading Republican to warn that unilateral action by President Barack Obama on immigration would “poison the well” for any cooperation with the new GOP Congress.

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White House: No big reshuffle planned . . . White House press secretary Josh Earnest ruled out any type of reshuffling or firing of White House staff two days after Democrats took a drubbing in the midterm elections. Examiner

Why would Obama reshuffle when he thinks he's doing everything right?

Obama advisor: Dems myst learn to talk to whites . . .  Bill Burton, a Democratic operative close to President Obama who served as deputy press secretary during the president’s first term, said the takeaway from the midterms is that Democrats don’t know how to “talk to white voters.” White House Dossier

Obama's Latino gambit backfires . . . Obama gambled that delaying executive action on immigration reform would preserve Democratic control of the Senate. He lost. And he may have lost even more than the upper chamber, further eroding Democrats' standing with Hispanics who have grown increasingly disillusioned with his presidency. Polling data from a number of states show that Latinos widely stayed home on Election Day. Examiner

Issa: Docs put Holder in middle of Fast and Furious . . . House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa told Fox News on Thursday that a massive trove of emails handed to his office on the eve of the elections indicates Attorney General Eric Holder was “at the heart” of deliberations over the Operation Fast and Furious scandal. Fox News

GOP targets EPA . . . House Republicans plan to pass three bills later this month that would rein in an Environmental Protection Agency they say is imposing costly new regulations on American companies without justification. The Blaze

Obama's press conference, translated . . . Sometimes, politicians can be a little difficult to understand. For example, they don’t alway say why they mean. I know this comes as a shock. Having spent, as a Washington reporter, endless spans of unrecoverable, precious time listening to politicians, I can be of help. I’m fluent in their language, and I can translate for you. As a public service, here is an English language version for you of President Obama’s press conference Wednesday. White House Dossier



Boehner to push Obamacare repeal, immigration . . .  House Speaker John Boehner said at a press conference today that “it is just time to deal with” the issue of immigration reform, indicating he hopes to enact an immigration law in the coming year. Republicans will also use their new dominance of Congress to repeal or cut back Obamacare, approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline and trim the nation's debt. Reuters

Has the Tea Party been tamed? . . . Establishment Republicans are crowing that their resounding wins Tuesday night repudiated the Tea Party’s insistence that ideological purity is key to electoral success. But don’t tell that to conservatives, who aren’t admitting defeat. The Hill

Krauthammer: GOP must push an agenda . . . "America spoke. But it was a negative judgment, not an endorsement of the GOP. The prize for winning is nothing but the opportunity for Republicans to show that they can govern — the opportunity to seize the national agenda. Five weeks ago, I suggested a series of initiatives that would be like the 1994 “Contract with America,” but this time post facto. It needs to be urgent, determined, and relentless — say, a bill a week for the first ten weeks." National Review 

This could help salvage an election that was won by the GOP with little in the way of an agenda, but I don't think McConnell and Boehner will push conservative ideas aggressively, because they're McConnell and Boehner. 

Reid plots final days in power . . . Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hopes to confirm 50 of President Obama’s nominees and move an omnibus spending bill in a last hurrah before Democrats give up power in the Senate. The nominees are part of a packed lame-duck schedule that Reid is furiously planning, and that will be a topic at Friday’s White House lunch meeting between Obama and congressional leaders. The Hill

Get ready for some exciting abuses of power amid Reid's political death throes!

Latino Leader demands Obama legalize 5-8 million . . . "Success on immigration means a full approach to reform, which to me means expanding protections to 5-8 million undocumented people currently living in this country. Go big, President Obama." Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.

Dems bail on Landrieu . . . The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has canceled its advertising reservations for Sen. Mary Landrieu ahead of the December runoff in Louisiana. Politico

Polls failed again . . . Tuesday's midterm elections were supposed to be a night of nail-biters, from Sen. Mitch McConnell's re-election race in Kentucky to veteran Sen. Pat Roberts' battle in Kansas. The too-close-to-call refrain was expected to be heard throughout the night. Instead, when the dust settled, Republicans rumbled to one of their biggest victories in decades. Fox News

Pelosi: Lefty message was good . . . House Minority Leader Pelosi said during a 75-minute call with caucus members that the reason Democrats lost had nothing to do with party message and everything to do with voter turnout — and that if more Democrats had turned up at the polls, more Democratic candidates would have won. Washington Times

Perry slams abuse of power charge . . . Texas Governor Rick Perry made his first court appearance on Thursday to answer felony abuse of power charges and afterward criticized a special prosecution that has cast a shadow over his possible Republican presidential run in 2016. Reuters

With documentary, Carson appears to be running . . . Yes, the 2016 race for the White House has already gotten started -- and it looks like Dr. Ben Carson is first in the ring. Carson, a famous pediatric neurosurgeon and conservative political star, will air a nearly 40 minute-long ad introducing himself to the American people this weekend, an aide to Carson confirms to ABC News.

Obama secretly wrote to Khamenei . . . President Barack Obama secretly wrote to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the middle of last month and described a shared interest in fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, according to people briefed on the correspondence. Wall Street Journal 

All this ties the nuclear deal into other issues, making it more likely Iran can get what it wants: an agreement that will allow it to obtain nuclear weapons.

Hundreds exposed to Iraq chemical weapons . . . More than 600 American service members since 2003 have reported to military medical staff members that they believe they were exposed to chemical warfare agents in Iraq, but the Pentagon failed to recognize the scope of the reported cases or offer adequate tracking and treatment to those who may have been injured, defense officials say. New York Times

Iran giving lethal aid to the Taliban . . . Iran continues to provide “calibrated lethal aide to the Taliban” in Afghanistan to help the group conduct attacks on U.S. and Western security forces operating in the country, even as Obama seeks a quasi-alliance against ISIS and a nuke deal. Free Beacon

Bolton: Obama caving to Iran on nukes . . . Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton told Fox News' Megyn Kelly that he’s worried the Obama administration will ink a deal this month that will allow Iran to maintain some uranium enrichment capabilities, a move Bolton characterized as "an open path to nuclear weapons." Newsmax

McCain to press interventionist agenda . . . The likely new head of Senate Armed Services will have a ‘bully pulpit’ to push his muscular foreign policy agenda. Yahoo News

Dempsey: Ebola mission could last 18 months . . . In a Pentagon news release, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reiterated the assertion that troops deployed to Liberia and Senegal aren't providing direct care, but rather are "stabilizing the environment and giving confidence to the health care workers that if they do come down with the disease, they'll be cared for." Newsmax

Epidemic fading, Liberia comes back to life . . . now, ever so slowly, signs of normalcy are returning to the capital. With the rate of new Ebola infections down, traffic is up. Boys play soccer and girls play kickball, less afraid of skin-to-skin contact than they were a few short weeks ago. Businesses are welcoming back a few workers—not many, and not all at once, but some. Washington Post​



Appeals court upholds gay marriage bans . . . A federal appeals court on Thursday bucked a recent trend of pro-gay marriage decisions by upholding state bans or restrictions in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, pressuring the Supreme Court to take up the issue. Reuters

Beckel flips Fox guest the bird . . . Bob Beckel, the one liberal co-host of “The Five,” got so frustrated with Fox News correspondent Jesse Watters that he actually flipped him off live on the air Thursday. The Blaze​