links for 2009-01-09

Sen. John McCain doesn’t want to talk about the presidential campaign, and he certainly doesn’t want to discuss Sarah Palin.

But two months after losing the presidential race, the “old John McCain” is back, hammering away on government reform, earmarks and wasteful government spending.
McCain has been taking a very low-key approach to his Senate job since the presidential election. The Arizona Republican has made clear that he will seek reelection in 2010, and he recently created a leadership PAC to help bolster his fundraising profile. Other than that, McCain has deliberately avoided the limelight.

During a GOP-senators retreat this week at the Library of Congress, McCain told his colleagues that Republicans need to reach out more to diverse groups, rather than just relying on Christian conservatives, if they want to regain majority status, according to sources who attended the event.
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McCain will soon be badmouthing Palin – just give him a few months.

President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to scrap the way President Bush oversaw domestic security in the White House and name a former Central Intelligence Agency official to coordinate counterterrorism, people close to the transition said Wednesday.
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The ONe wants John O. Brennan and makes a position available for him.

The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon President Bush's doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say.

The move to open contacts with Hamas – which could be initiated through the US intelligence services – would represent a definitive break with the Bush presidency's ostracising of the group.
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american Jews ain't going to be too happy, now will they?

CA Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has reached beyond the California political sphere to hire a pair of national political veterans to guide his run for governor in 2010.

Poizner today announced the hiring of Stuart Stevens and Russ Schriefer, veterans of President Bush's campaigns and those of more than a half-dozen GOP governors, as his lead strategists and media consultants.

Poizner former top political adviser, Wayne Johnson, will remain as a senior strategist.