SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:21 P.M. ET: 

NEW GAME IN TOWN – From AP:  "WASHINGTON — Congress' approval rating hovers around 15 percent, but there's one group of people excited about the institution: the newly elected lawmakers who are about to join its ranks.  The House will welcome 58 freshmen this coming week, including 43 Republicans and 15 Democrats, pushing the GOP majority to 246 members, the most since the Great Depression.  In the Senate, 13 new lawmakers, all but one of them Republican, will be sworn in, flipping control of the chamber to the GOP with a 54-vote majority."  Republicans must chart their own program and present it to the American people.  The 2016 campaign is already starting.  On election night 2016 I want to see GOP control of everything, including North Korea and Yemen.

ANOTHER NY FUNERAL – From WaPo:  "The frustration and defiance of the nation’s police officers were on display again Sunday in New York City, where tens of thousands of them gathered for the funeral of the second of two officers who were slain at the height of the ongoing protests and scrutiny after several high-profile deaths of unarmed black males.  A large number of the officers who stood under gray skies in their formal blue uniforms to honor Officer Wenjian Liu staged their own protest, turning their backs when Mayor Bill de Blasio rose to speak at the funeral.  Even some out-of-town officers joined NYPD members in the show of disrespect toward de Blasio (D), an outspoken critic of some policing tactics who has come to represent what many in law enforcement see as a lack of support, if not outright hostility, for the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to keep the streets safe."  This isn't going away.  Another incident could set off a new spark.  New York is tense.

AFGHAN MESS – From The Hill:  "Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani said in a interview broadcast late Sunday that President Obama may need to 'reexamine' his deadline for the U.S. troop withdrawal from the country.  'If both parties, or, in this case, multiple partners, have done their best to achieve the objectives and progress is very real, then there should be willingness to reexamine a deadline,' Ghani told CBS's '60 Minutes.'  'Did you tell President Obama that?' Lara Logan asked.  'President Obama knows me. We don't need … to tell each other,' Ghani said during his first U.S. televised interview since becoming the country's president.  Obama had announced plan to withdraw troops from the country by the end of 2016. There are currently about 10,000 troops remaining."  Looks like we'll have pressure on us to stay.  John McCain has also asked Obama to give up the president's "calendar" deadline.  Hasn't Obama learned the lessons of premature removal of troops from our experience in Iraq?  Probably not.

January 4,  2015