Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
from Tales from the Trail:
This time, some Democrats are embracing “Obamacare”
Fierce opposition to President Barack Obama's healthcare bill helped propel Republicans to big victories in the 2010 mid-term elections, when they won a majority of seats in the House of Representatives and cut into the Democratic majority in the Senate.
But this year, at least some Democrats are embracing the healthcare plan - touting their support for its popular provisions and attacking Republicans for opposing measures that polls show big majorities of Americans supporting.
North Dakota's former Democratic attorney general, Heidi Heitkamp, who is running for the Senate, responded to a wave of attack advertisements against her over the healthcare law by creating an emotional advertisement of her own relating her own recovery from breast cancer to her support for the law.
"Twelve years ago I beat breast cancer. When you live through that, political attack ads seem silly," she said in the advertisement, in which she speaks directly to the camera, wearing a soft blue jacket over a simple white top.
from Tales from the Trail:
Outside campaign groups can coordinate – with each other
Super PACs and other outside campaign organizations are barred from coordinating with the candidates they support or political parties, but there is nothing keeping a Super PAC from coordinating with another Super PAC, or several Super PACs. And indeed, some of them do.
Jonathan Collegio, director of public relations for American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, Karl Rove's conservative Super PAC and non-profit, said outside groups on the right work together all the time.
Ag committee chair says new faces mean new dynamic on Capitol Hill
They are new, enthusiastic and changing the environment on Capitol Hill.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas says “do not underestimate the effect” of the large number of freshmen lawmakers on his committee, which will sit down to overhaul U.S. farm subsidies next year. 
“This session of Congress is a little different from the ones I’ve participated in previously. A huge number of new members,” Lucas said at a Reuters Global Food and Agriculture Summit. “I’ve got a very enthusiastic bunch of new faces.”
Unlikely alliance: Congressman Barney Frank and the Tea Party
At first glance it would appear that Congressman Barney Frank and lawmakers backed by the Tea Party movement would have little in common — one is a liberal Democrat, the others are conservative Republicans.
Look again.
Frank said his quest to reduce military spending will probably attract Tea Party lawmakers who campaigned on a platform of fiscal discipline, even to cuts in an area that typically meet strong resistance from Republicans.
Hensarling proud of fiscal conservative creds, embraces Tea Party allies
It is clear that House Financial Services Committee Vice Chairman Jeb Hensarling is proud of his credentials as a fiscal conservative.
He may have more competition for that label after the November election swept in members of the Tea Party. But he sees that as a good thing. 
