HUFFPOST HILL - Jobs Bill Sacked.. Cainmentum, Baby!.. Christie Endorses Romney, Nation Struggles Not To Make Lame 'Throws Weight Behind' Jokes

HuffPost Hill
By Eliot Nelson, Ryan Grim & Arthur Delaney
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Even though Sarah Palin isn't running for president, one Republican candidate is stepping into the void and asking a religious figure to pls refudiate something. After tonight's Republican debate, America's long national nightmare of not knowing Michele Bachmann's thoughts on Slovakian politics will be over. And because retiring senators can't get back at the president by ripping out the "o"s from their office keyboards and gluing shut the desk drawers, Jim Webb instead chose to vote against the American Jobs Act. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Tuesday, October 11th, 2011:

JOBS BILL STRUGGLING IN SENATE - The American Jobs Act, paid for with a tax on millionaires, is tanking harder than Slovakia's government tonight, thanks in large part to opposition to moderate-to-conservative Democratic senators. The White House, meanwhile, spent the day tweeting about people'll who'll be hurt by the failure to pass this bill. The Senate does know how to pass a bill wagging its finger at China for currency manipulation, a bill the White House opposes. The House will resume its fantasy war against the environment this evening, as well as move forward on three trade deals that are billed as job creators. Yet the pacts come along with assistance for workers whose jobs will lost. But, anyway, yeah, Occupy Wall Street. What a bunch of idiots, amirite?

SEN. SHAHEEN NEARLY MISSES JOBS VOTE TO RECEIVE MEANINGLESS AWARD - A cheap faux gold plaque affixed to a wood-plastic composite base caused a lot of trouble today. New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen nearly missed tonight's vote on the American Jobs Act so she could receive the "New Englander of the Year" award from the New England Council. The organization recognized Shaheen for her work on behalf of New England's economy (Jeanne Shaheen invented the pink Red Sox hat???). Harry Reid held the jobs bill until Shaheen returned to Washington. [HuffPost's Elise Foley]

REPUBLICAN DEBATE TONIGHT - All eyes will be on Herman Cain, who has surged to second place nationally and who polls indicate is leading in Iowa and South Carolina. To date, Cain's apparently winning debate strategy has mostly involved shooting off snazzy one-liners and aggressively promoting his 9-9-9 tax plan. So expect him to mention 9-9-9 so much that it will make Rudy Giuliani's interest with 9-11 seem tepid (if Cain resorts to some kind of subliminal strategy wherein all his answers are three sentences long, each consisting of nine words, don't be surprised). The debate is ostensibly about economic issues, but given the recent flare up over the anti-Mormon bigotry of the pastor who introduced Perry at Values Voters, count on hearing about that. The debate is taking place in New Hampshire, so we expect fewer boos for gay soldiers and more boos for ... uh ... gay seat belts and gay sales taxes?

PARANOID SELF-LOATHING GOP LOBBYIST ACTUALLY MAKES A COHERENT POINT - You've probably grown accustomed to PSLGOPL's unfocused ramblings. Usually, his entries come from truly dark places and barely make any sense (rough approximation: "AHHHH!!!! SOMEONE STOLE MY PODESTA OATMEAL WITH THEIR PLATYPUS AIR BLIMP........MELANIE SLOAN!!!"). Well, PSLGOPL sent over a well-researched, articulate point about the Occupy protests. Really! "Unsolicited advice for the Occupy Wall Street crowd," PSLGOPL wrote. "Bill Burton and his billion-dollar, soft-money, non-disclosing, no-transparency re-election campaign are gonna use you guys like props. A partial list of Obama top campaign donors and bundlers follows. I guess the lists below represent 'patriotic billionaires.' Anyway, if you're pissed, start a third party: Goldman Sachs $1,013,091, Harvard University $864,654, Microsoft Corp $852,167, Google Inc $814,540, JPMorgan Chase & Co $808,799, Citigroup Inc $736,771, Time Warner $624,618, Sidley Austin LLP $600,298, National Amusements Inc $563,798 (I wonder what these guys do?), Wilmerhale Llp $550,168, Skadden, Arps et al $543,539, Columbia University $541,002, UBS AG $532,674, IBM Corp $532,372, General Electric $529,855, US Government $517,908, Morgan Stanley$512,232, Latham & Watkins $503,295." Thanks, PSLGOPL!

DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - A coalition of 25 civil rights and labor advocacy groups petitioned one of the nation's largest credit-monitoring firms on Tuesday to quit selling consumer credit info to employers. Using credit histories to screen job applicants, the groups said, can trap the jobless and disproportionately burden black and Latino candidates. They want TransUnion, one of the Big Three credit companies alongside Equifax and Experian, to stop making credit reports available. "As the only privately-held company of the big three, TransUnion has the ability to stop this practice overnight without worrying about stockholder reaction," said UniteHere spokeswoman Anne Marie Strassel. DDD asked TransUnion if it would voluntarily halt its credit report sales. It said no.

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WHITE HOUSE OKS SPLITTING UP JOBS BILL - Jen Bendery: "[White House] officials highlighted several provisions they could envision gaining bipartisan traction on as standalone items, including a payroll tax cut extension, a renewal of unemployment compensation for another year, funding to prevent teacher layoffs and resources to help veterans find work. Republicans have also signaled some support for infrastructure investment; the second official noted that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) lent support to that idea during August negotiations on the debt package. White House officials said that after Tuesday night's expected failed vote, there could be more votes relating to the jobs bill as soon as the end of this week. But a Senate Democratic aide later clarified that the Senate isn't going to start breaking out pieces of the bill for votes until after the next congressional recess. That means those votes won't happen until at least the week of Oct. 24." [HuffPost]

CHRIS CHRISTIE ENDORSES ROMNEY - Chris Christie endorsed Mitt Romeny today, the SUREST sign yet that the New Jersey governor will throw his hat into the ring. Really! Republican sources are telling us some truly interesting things! "I want to support Gov. Romney because I believe he's the best person to be able to articulate Republican values and defeat Barack Obama in November 2012," Christie said at the endorsement ceremony in New Hampshire. [HuffPost's Howard Fineman and Jon Ward]

Romney's not a fan of Rick Perry's anti-Mormon pastor, go figure: "Gov. Perry selected an individual to introduce him who then used religion as a basis for which he said he would endorse Gov. Perry and a reason to not support me. Gov. Perry then said that introduction just hit it out of the park," he said after the endorsement ceremony. [HuffPost's Jon Ward]

ROMNEY ADVISERS HELPED DRAFT OBAMACARE - Documents obtained by NBC News shed light on the extent to which the Obama administration based the Affordable Care Act on the health care law passed in Massachusetts while Mitt Romney was governor. Three aides who advised Romney on healthcare met with White House officials -- including once with President Obama himself -- on twelve separate occasions in 2009. "The White House wanted to lean a lot on what we'd done in Massachusetts," MIT economist Jon Gruber, who advised Governor Romney on health care and met with White House officials and President Obama in 2009, said. "They really wanted to know how we can take that same approach we used in Massachusetts and turn that into a national model." The whole Romneycare/Obamacare thing probably can't get any more embarrassing for Mitt, unless of course someone uncovers a bejeweled pink diary featuring Romney's hand-written, "i"s-dotted-with-hearts tributes to a single-payer system. That would be worse. And hilarious. [NBC News]

CAIN OUT FRONT IN IOWA - Hey, do you think that if Herman Cain doesn't deliver major policy reforms in thirty minutes or less, that the taxpayers will get them for free? Now THAT is a platform! Ha! We got jokes! PPP: "Herman Cain has become the first choice of Republican voters in Iowa: he now leads the pack there with 30% to 22% for Mitt Romney, 10% for Ron Paul, 9% for Rick Perry, 8% each for Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich, 5% for Rick Santorum, and 1% each for Jon Huntsman and Gary Johnson. The momentum in Iowa is pretty much completely on Cain's side. Since our last poll there in mid-August he's gained 23 points. The only other gainers are Gingrich and Romney, each of whom are up 3 points." [PPP]

@samsteinhp: DNC starting to actually acknowledge Cain. DWS hits him for "suggesting that racism isn't an issue in American any more."

BILL DALEY LEAVING WHITE HOUSE IN 2013 - "Bill Daley always said he'd head back to Chicago after the 2012 campaign, but the White House chief of staff -- increasingly a lightening rod for criticism -- is now making it clear he'll be gone in January 2013. 'I made a commitment to the president through his reelection, which I'm confident he will do, and then my wife and I will return to Chicago,' Daley said in an interview at the White House with NBC's Chicago affiliate, WMAQ-TV. Daley, who joined the Obama administration in January, has told reporters and associates that he never expected the gig was a long-term commitment, but the former JP Morgan executive and scion of Chicago politics had never been quite as definitive in public about his planned departure. The 63-year-old former commerce secretary -- who has soured some West Wingers by crimping access to President Barack Obama and cutting junior staffers out of planning sessions -- wouldn't say what he'll to do after he leaves the White House but didn't rule out running for office." [Politico]

Daley also said, "All I'm trying to do is get through day-to-day. I have no plans," which is EXACTLY the sort of coping mechanism talk we've come to expect from this clinically depressed White House.

BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Renegade Tea Party candidate Duke Dobbs should be allowed to participate in tonight's GOP debate.

JEREMY'S WEATHER REPORT - Tonight: After a nice weekend, the rains are a-coming. It will range from drizzle to downpour during the evening and into Tomorrow, where it won't be out of the question to hear thunder. Thanks, JB!

COMFORT FOOD

- Someone created an ATM/cathedral organ. This is probably how Karl Lagerfeld gets his money. [http://huff.to/pYJ7Di]

- "Feminist Ryan Gosling" juxtaposes photographs of the Hollywood A-lister with entrities to feminists. [http://huff.to/pf3bfN]

- AMERICA ON THE BRINK: Someone made a fake Ira Glass sex tape (audio only). Act one: Disgusting. Act two: More disgusting. [http://huff.to/p3XcF6]

- a 90-year-old WW2 vet talks about his trumpet and how it got him through some tough times. This man's touching story has probably already been optioned by Steven Spielberg. [http://huff.to/q6jnfU]

- "But if you asked Charles Keating what posed the biggest threat to America's bright future, he'd point you to something else -- porn." [http://huff.to/qEDFon]

- Dance music video featuring America's favorite 90s TV characters boogieing down. [http://huff.to/nAQpJB]

- You know that scene from 2001 when the apes discover tools? This turtle standing on its hind legs is kind of like that. [http://huff.to/qWTfMF]

- The Thing: The Musical is phenomenal [http://bit.ly/rbDcDm]

TWITTERAMA

@mattklewis: Suggested Perry line for tonight: "I can no more disown Pastor Jeffress than I can my white grandmother."

@buddyroemer: You will not hear me in tonight's debate. The "requirements" to get in make it impossible. The rules change as often as Romney's positions.

@someecards: The cancellation of the NBA season may be the closest we'll get to seeing one percenters suffer. some.ly/mWFFiA

ON TAP

TONIGHT

5:30 pm: Can you even begin to fathom all the awkward jokes that Scott Brown will make at his "Self-Guided Museum Tour and Reception" at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment? Not to mention all the shoehorned references to him being tough on crime? Hot damn, someone alert Lee Fang. [National Museum of Crime and Punishment, 575 7th Street NW]

7:00 pm: Mark Warner's teeth attend a fundraiser at the home of wealthy supporters. The body that are attached to the teeth will also be in attendance. The event benefits Tim Kaine's Senate campaign. [Home of Donna and Mack McLarty]

TOMORROW

5:00 pm: THE BATTLE FOR THE MAINE PRIMARY WAGES ON. No it doesn't! It's just Ann Romney attending a Portland-area fundraiser on behalf of her husband, who is probably busy dispatching advisers to help President Obama devise health care policies. [The Marriott at Sable Oaks, 200 Sable Oaks Drive, South Portland]

6:00 pm: Mike Lee passes the hat on behalf of his Constitutional Conservatives Fund. That's right: The front line of the War on the Constitution can be found in a posh Capitol Hill rowhouse filled with service staff and bacon-wrapped figs. [330 Maryland Avenue NE]

6:30 pm: One day, the hosts of Dean Heller's Washington fundraiser will sit their grandkids on their laps and tell them about the time they welcomed the great Dean Heller into their home. No they won't. [The Home of Jeff and Gail MacKinnon]

Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com), Ryan Grim (ryan@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e
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