Lotta deadlines today, but news cycle finally getting beyond post-election GOP gloating!

Here are some midday news/views items from the steam table:

* Rand Paul hires away digital guru Vincent Harris from Ted Cruz, whose 2012 campaign made Harris a very big deal. Interesting.

* Leahy bill ending the NSA’s bulk collections surveillance program to come to Senate floor where Mitch McConnell is threatening to kill it.

* Read the coded tweets Republican and “independent” groups used to coordinate information.

* Despite mostly-anoynmous grumbling, Pelosi re-elected leader of House Democrats on voice vote with no one opposing her.

* Michigan Republican legislators back to their games of trying to create split-electoral-vote system for 2016.

And in non-political news:

* Massive snow storm hits upstate New York.

As we break for lunch, here’s a song from the first Sleater-Kinney album I bought (All Hands On the Bad One), “You’re No Rock-N-Roll Fun.” Whisky drinks and chocolate bars!

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.