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December 05, 2011 | | SMACKDOWN Pull up a chair: it’s on between two seasoned lawmakers. Newt Gingrich is firing back at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s claim that she has dirt on him. Pelosi told Talking Points Memo that she served on a House committee that investigated him, and she has “a thousand pages of his stuff.” Gingrich responded Monday afternoon: “I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard as an early Christmas gift,” he said. “If she suggested that she's going to use material that she developed when she was on the ethics committee, that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House and I would hope that members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it… See what a tainted political ethics operation Pelosi was engaged in.” And to think that the two were chummy in a 2008 ad together when the two urged action on…global warming. HELP The world is on the hook to help Afghanistan until 2030, according to comments from President Hamid Karzai at an international conference Monday dedicated to planning the country’s future. “We will need your steadfast support for at least another decade,” said Karzai—long past the 2014 date on which American troops are scheduled to pull out. He also called for money to help pay for security forces until 2030. The conference, in Bonn, Germany, was a bit of a letdown given that Pakistan refused to show up, more fallout from a deadly NATO raid on its soldiers last week. NOW President Obama delivered a statement Monday urging Congress to immediately pass a payroll-tax-cut extension before the measure expires by year’s end. After he wrapped up his remarks, the White House unveiled a “If Congress Doesn’t Act” countdown clock on its website to accompany its “How It Affects You” calculator, where the public can see how much money they can save if the cuts are extended. Obama blamed Senate Republicans for punting the plan, which he said would harm the economy. “It’s the right thing to do,” Obama said. He also urged lawmakers to approve long-term unemployment insurance before they go on their holiday break. PLAN B Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy of France are calling for a new European Union treaty to try to keep the euro intact. The continent’s debt crisis has put the common currency in jeopardy, and the two leaders want to ensure that it never happens again. Merkel and Sarkozy, who are meeting in Paris Monday, want all 27 members to agree on automatic sanctions for countries that fail to keep their deficits in check. Credit rating service Standard and Poor's is expected to announce today that it's putting the entire euro zone on "credit watch negative," which signifies 50-50 odds for a downgrade within 90 days. Other European leaders will join them in Brussels this week for a crucial summit to find a way out of the crisis. Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden, who’s in Greece, said Europe could emerge stronger within a year. EXCLUSIVE Ginger White dealt a death blow to Herman Cain’s campaign by alleging a 13-year affair. As Cain officially bows out of the race, White tells The Daily Beast’s Leslie Bennetts how Cain’s arrogance persuaded her to go public and how she sees him as a sexist who thought “the man was always right”—and provides new details on his alleged financial support of her family. In the extensive interview, White rebukes Cain’s claim that he never had sex with her. “One time we were having sex,” she said. “And I was looking up at the ceiling, thinking about, ‘What am I going to buy at the grocery store tomorrow?’” She also dishes on why she thinks Cain’s wife engaged in willful self-denial. | | 
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