What We’re Reading – Jan. 9, 2013

Gabrielle Giffords, Husband Mark Kelly Launch Anti-Gun-Violence Group: “Kelly said he and Giffords, both gun owners and Westerners supportive of the Second Amendment, would push for ambitious legislative changes in American’s gun laws: an assault weapons ban, universal background checks to close the “gun show loophole,” and a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines like the one used to kill six people and wound Giffords and 13 others in Tucson.”
[The Washington Post]

Welcome to Another Golden Era of Liberal Senators : “With the addition of Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Baldwin, Tim Kaine and Chris Murphy, and the possibility of Barney Frank joining them for a few key months and being followed by Ed Markey, the Senate has seen an infusion of liberal talent.” [The New Republic]

Cuomo Pushes Storm Measures and Gun Control in Annual Address: “Forget the extremists — it’s simple,” the governor said, to a crescendo of applause near the end of his nearly 80-minute speech. “No one hunts with an assault rifle. No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer. End the madness now.” [The New York Times]

What Obama’s Senate Mafia Means for America: “With Chuck Hagel’s likely nomination for Defense secretary and John Kerry’s at State, the president is gathering his old Senate ‘Team of Mentors’ back together.” [National Journal]

Group Pushing Deficit Cuts Has Deep Business Ties: “Mr. McCrery did not mention his day job: a lobbyist with Capitol Counsel L.L.C.” [The New York Times]

Lobbyists Who Profit From Senate Dysfunction Fight Filibuster Reform: “A more comprehensive reading of the filibuster’s history would show that when it comes to civil rights for oppressed minority groups, the filibuster has actually served as a great obstacle for justice.”
[The Nation]

Call Time For Congress Shows How Fundraising Dominates Bleak Work Life: “Welcome to town, new members of Congress. Now hit the phones.” [Huffington Post]

Obama’s Failure To Nominate Women For Two Top Cabinet Posts Questioned: “President Obama brought his top Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency chiefs together Monday with their potential replacements, and some critics noticed one thing that stood out: Each of them was a white man.” [The Washington Post]

In Step on ‘Light Footprint,’ Nominees Reflect a Shift: “Gone for the second term are the powerful personalities, and more hawkish voices, that pressed Mr. Obama to pursue the surge in Afghanistan in 2009, a gamble championed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Robert M. Gates, the former secretary of defense. Gone from the C.I.A. is the man who urged Mr. Obama to keep troops there longer, David H. Petraeus.” [The New York Times]