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January 05, 2012 | | INSURGENT With Iowa behind them, Republican candidates swept into New Hampshire yesterday. Rick Santorum was riding high on the strength of his surprise showing in the caucuses—a campaign source told CNN that the candidate had raised more than $1 million overnight. But can Santorum outmuscle Mitt Romney, who has a vacation home and a 30-point lead in the Granite State? The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz talks to Republican strategists and Michele Bachmann’s former campaign chief about whether the ex-senator will flame out. DOWNSIZING Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and President Obama will announce the new military budget today, and it will be far smaller than the last ones. Officials say the administration is aiming to shrink the Army even below current targets, cutting troops by 10 to 15 percent. Part of the $450 billion in cuts also includes the delay of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet, one of the most expensive weapons programs in history. One area that won't be cut, however, is the aircraft-carrier fleet. Obama is reportedly opposed to cutting carriers because he wants to maintain a strong enough presence in the Pacific to counter China. NOT HAPPY Mitt Romney obviously has his sights set on the presidency, but more specifically the president. The Iowa caucus winner attacked President Obama’s move to make a recess appointment of former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a statement, Romney slammed the choice as a representation of "Chicago-style politics and is precisely what then–Senator Obama claimed would be the ‘wrong thing to do.’” The Washington Post explains that the current congressional Republicans have purposely been turning breaks into “pro forma” sessions so as to stop the president from making recess appointments. While Obama technically could have appointed Cordray—or anyone—during the few minutes that lapsed between congressional sessions, White House lawyers instead have deemed the Republican “pro forma” tactic irrelevant and nonbinding, so didn’t bother rushing during the small break. Romney argues that “instead of working with Congress to fix the flaws in this new bureaucracy, the President is declaring that he ‘refuses to take no for an answer’ and circumventing Congress to appoint a new administrator.” HE’S BACK Did you miss him? Herman Cain is taking a leaf out of Sarah Palin's book and starting a national bus tour. Cain will travel the country touting his 9-9-9 tax plan, a tour he is calling “Cain's Solutions Revolution.” It will start sometime next month, he told Fox's Sean Hannity last night. Cain also said he would endorse the eventual Republican nominee, but would stand back from the primary. TERRORISM Another wave of deadly bombings in Iraq raised the specter of civil war. Four bombs killed at least 29 people and wounded dozens more in Shiite areas of Baghdad. Sectarian tensions have been high since Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki removed two senior Sunni politicians from power shortly after the U.S. withdrew. | | 
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