We sat down with Good for the Playbook Deep Dive podcast this week to try to understand the rebellion brewing against McCarthy. We not only came away convinced that Good is probably never going to back the California Republican for speaker but gained a glimpse at how the opposition has been driven by strategic, ideological and, at times, personal reasons.

Had Republicans flipped the House by a broader margin, as they were expected to, Good would likely be dismissed by his colleagues as a gadfly. But given the unexpectedly slim margin, Good and a handful of like-minded conservatives hold McCarthy’s fate in their hands — and stand ready to wield considerable power next year, no matter who ends up as speaker.

We also learned that Good & Co. are formulating a plan for the Jan. 3 speaker vote. Anti-McCarthy members are currently plotting to back Rep. ANDY BIGGS (R-Ariz.) on the first ballot, he said, to prove McCarthy can’t get the gavel. But once the second ballot is called, they’ll begin coalescing around another, unnamed candidate — a GOP lawmaker most have already agreed upon, Good said, but will not name for fear of hurting this person’s candidacy.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/12/23/jan-6-report-drops-a-mccarthy-foe-speaks-00075404

The chaotic 117th Congress reached its de facto end Friday with the passage of a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill on a 225 to 201 vote in the House. Nine Republicans — including seven who won’t still be in office two weeks from now — voted in favor, while just one Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) voted against, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) voting “present.”

https://politicalwire.com/2022/12/23/its-going-to-be-wild-on-january-3/

A man who carried what appeared to be a hammer at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, got into a standoff Thursday with the FBI for hours before special agents arrested him for his role in the riot, law enforcement officials said.

The FBI arrested Eric Christie on Thursday after several hours in which he refused to cooperate with authorities after they arrived at a home in Sherman Oaks, California. Two law enforcement officials confirmed his arrest.

Online sleuths had identified Christie as a Jan. 6 participant, and images show him on top of a law enforcement vehicle on the east side of the Capitol, wrapped in rainbow flag and with what appears to be a hammer hanging from his belt. The law enforcement activity took place at an address associated with an Eric Christie.

Christie was previously named by a defense attorney in another Jan. 6 case, in which the court filing suggested he was a "suspicious actor" and questioned why he hadn't been arrested yet. He was publicly identified by the anti-fascist activist and security researcher Chad Loder in February 2021.

When a U.S. military aircraft landed on the tarmac in Rzeszow, Poland, on Tuesday, the plane crew thought they were picking up the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and a few high-level Ukrainian officials.

What they didn’t know, until they saw him exit a U.S. vehicle, was that one of those officials was Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who with American help had just completed a dangerous trip from Bakhmut — the site of some of the war’s bloodiest fighting, more than 400 miles from Kyiv — to the Polish border for a covertly planned visit to Washington.

The top-secret planning around Zelensky’s departure underscored the uniquely perilous nature of a visit by a wartime leader who faces daily risks to his life — a top Russian goal, after all, is to destroy the government he heads. But given the astronomical stakes, he and President Biden were eager to meet face-to face, and Zelensky was willing to brave the risks of leaving his country for the first time since the Russian invasion began in February.

The trip came together in a matter of days, with only a tight group of White House and other senior administration officials aware of the plans. To avoid leaks and other security risks, U.S. officials said much of the communication with Zelensky’s team occurred in person, with U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink meeting directly with Zelensky aides in Kyiv.

ALBANY — Gov. Hochul on Thursday nominated Judge Hector LaSalle to serve as the next chief judge of the state’s highest court, rankling progressives who vowed to fight the appointment on the ground that LaSalle is too conservative.

If approved by the Democrat-led Senate, LaSalle would be the first Latino to lead the Court of Appeals and serve as head administrator for the sprawling statewide court system.

LaSalle is a Long Island native and former prosecutor who is currently the presiding justice of the state’s 2nd Appellate Division, which handles appeals from state courts in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island.

As Hochul’s Deadline Nears, Law Professors Urge Against ‘Activist Conservative’ for Chief Judge

As the deadline draws nearer, two camps within New York’s legal profession are dueling over one of the seven shortlisted candidates. A group of 46 law professors are urging Hochul not to tap Hector LaSalle, the head judge of a mid-level appeals court that covers parts of New York City and its suburbs. In a letter to the governor sent Monday, the professors condemn what they call LaSalle’s “activist conservative jurisprudence,” and warn that his leadership would “take our State’s law in the wrong direction.”

The letter highlights decisions that LaSalle signed onto curtailing investigations into whether an anti-abortion organization was engaged in illegal activity, allowing a large corporation to sue labor union leaders, and preventing a criminal defendant from appealing his conviction. LaSalle’s stance on abortion-related issues is particularly relevant in light of the United States Supreme Court overturning the constitutional right to an abortion earlier this year, the letter argues.

https://www.nysfocus.com/2022/12/19/chief-judge-court-of-appeals-hector-lasalle/

dropped by almost 9% on Thursday as analysts grow increasingly uncertain of the company’s outlook. The stock is down nearly 70% year-to-date.

After the bell Wednesday, Canaccord Genuity trimmed its price target for the automaker from $304 to $275, citing “cosmically bad” public sentiment and a “distraught” shareholder base. “Elon Musk is doing Elon Musk things,” Canaccord’s George Gianarikas wrote. “Some of this is Twitter-related drama, much is not.”

Meanwhile, Tesla began to offer $7,500 discounts on some of its high-priced electric vehicles in the U.S. on Thursday, doubling its previous incentives, in an effort to encourage customers to take deliveries. It’s also offering credits in Canada and Mexico. Tesla cut the price of cars in China in October.

The price cuts on Tesla’s Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover are seen as a sign of weakening demand.