RSC fires executive director  —  The conservative Republican Study Committee, the bastion of right-wing strategy on Capitol Hill, has fired its longtime executive director Paul Teller, accusing him of leaking conversations with lawmakers.  —  Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the chairman of the RSC …

Greenwald Attacks Time For Person Of The Year Selection: ‘A Meaningless Award From A Meaningless Magazine’  —  Glenn Greenwald ridiculed Time on Wednesday for the magazine's decision to name Pope Francis — and not Edward Snowden — its “person of the year” for 2013.

‘Fake’ sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela memorial provokes anger  —  Nelson Mandela's body is to lie in state for three days in Pretoria.  NBC News' Ron Allen reports on the thousands lining up to view Mandela's body and on a sign language interpreter at the Mandela memorial.

Kathleen Sebelius pushes back against GOP critics  —  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius touted a vastly improved Obamacare enrollment website Wednesday morning as she sought to reassure skeptical lawmakers that people who want health insurance coverage starting Jan. 1 will have it.

Republicans plan 30-hour talkathon to protest ‘nuclear option’ use in Senate  —  Senate Republicans will stage a more than 30-hour talkathon on the Senate floor to protest Democrats' triggering of the “nuclear option” last month.  —  The GOP protest, which could extend into the weekend …

The media's Michelle Obama problem: What a selfie says about our biases  —  The overanalysis of the first lady's expression speaks volumes about America's expectations of black women  —  Not even President Obama is above taking a selfie in the least appropriate selfie-taking venue possible.

GOP dislikes sitting congressman, eyes DWI pol with secret family  —  Republicans are so nervous about Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm's re-election chances that they've quietly reached out to former GOP Congressman Vito Fossella — who quit five years ago after confessing to having a secret second family …

GOP could shake up 2016 campaign  —  Washington (CNN) — A handful of Republican Party officials is quietly advancing a new batch of rules aimed at streamlining a chaotic presidential nominating process that many party insiders viewed as damaging to the their campaign for the White House in 2012, multiple GOP sources told CNN.

Obama's Orwellian Image Control  —  THE Internet has been abuzz over the spectacle of President Obama and the prime ministers of Britain and Denmark snapping a photo of themselves — a “selfie,” to use the mot du jour — with a smartphone at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in South Africa on Tuesday.

NBC/WSJ poll: Obama ends year on low note  —  President Barak Obama attends Nelson Mandela's public memorial in Johannesburg, South Africa.  —  By Mark Murray, Senior Political Editor, NBC News  —  A year that began with President Barack Obama riding high after his re-election victory …

Republicans will face intense pressure over unemployment benefits  —  On the morning after lawmakers reached a budget deal that doesn't include an extension in unemployment benefits, chief GOP budget architect Paul Ryan awoke to a raft of home-state headlines that were all about the nearly 100,000 Wisconsinites who stand to get cut off.

Hill staffers warned not to rely on info from ObamaCare exchange  —  Capitol Hill staffers who signed up for ObamaCare through the Washington, D.C., healthcare exchange, called DC Health Link (DCHL), are being told to confirm their enrollments in person, and not to rely on data provided by the website.

Landrieu TV ad distances her from ACA  —  Sen. Mary Landrieu, the vulnerable Louisiana Democrat, tried Wednesday to distance herself even further from both Obamacare and President Barack Obama in the first television commercial of her reelection campaign.  —  The $250,000 buy continues …