WASHINGTON—Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama called Friday for a return to negotiations to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, a day after talks cratered in a very public fashion when Republicans abandoned House Speaker John Boehner's backup plan. 
 
 In truth, talks to secure a big deficit-reduction deal had already broken down Monday afternoon in the office of Mr. Boehner (R., Ohio), a Wall Street Journal reconstruction shows. Mr. Boehner had been negotiating a deal with the White House to let tax rates rise for upper-income people. 
 
 Mr. Boehner, irritated with the White House, was finding it hard to keep his troops in line as details of his negotiations with Mr. Obama leaked out. In the speaker's office just off the Capitol's majestic rotunda that afternoon, he told his top lieutenants that he was already thinking about a pared-down backup plan. "In the absence of an agreement, 'Plan B' is the plan," he told his deputies, according to a script he read them that afternoon. 
 
 Enlarge Image Close Charles Dharapak/Associated Press President Barack Obama, pictured, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor failed to see eye to eye on talks to resolve the looming fiscal deficit, which broke down this week amid growing acrimony on both sides 
 
 Enlarge Image Close AP Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor 
 
 Enlarge Image Close J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press Eric Cantor 
 
 One by one, they came out in favor of Plan B and against the broader deal. 
 
 House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R., Mich.) said the new tax revenue the broader plan called for was too high. Then Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), whom Mr. Boehner had spent weeks wooing, said he couldn't sign on because it didn't make structural changes in entitlements. 
 
 The speaker went ahead with Plan B, which collapsed Thursday night before he could even bring it to a vote, leaving talks at a perilous standstill just days before the year-end fiscal-cliff deadline. Even if an agreement can be reached by then, both sides expect it to be a small package doing little to tackle the long-term budget woes and deferring the battle until next year. 
 
 A review of the negotiations, based on interviews with a dozen aides and lawmakers, suggests the problems lay in Mr. Boehner's inability to coax his rank-and-file to support a deal that raises taxes on higher-income Americans. Another factor was what Republicans saw as President Obama's unwillingness to bend when a deal was in sight, jamming the speaker with a deal his party couldn't swallow. 
 
 The negotiations offer little evidence November's election brought the president and House Republicans closer together. If anything, the talks poisoned an already distrustful relationship. 
 
 Mr. Boehner could soon face a decision whether to call for a vote on some sort of plan that could avert the cliff's spending cuts and tax increases but might imperil his position if he had to rely on Democrats to pass it. 
 
 Mr. Obama repeatedly lost patience with the speaker as negotiations faltered. In an Oval Office meeting last week, he told Mr. Boehner that if the sides didn't reach agreement, he would use his inaugural address and his State of the Union speech to tell the country the Republicans were at fault. 
 
 Falling Over the Fiscal Cliff See some scenarios for how different groups of people may be affected by the tax changes that will take place if the fiscal cliff isn't resolved by the Jan. 1., 2013, deadline. View Interactive Tracking Dividends Investors are seeing a jump in the number of companies making big one-time payouts to stem a possible increase to the dividend-tax rate. See which companies have announced special dividends. View Interactive More photos and interactive graphics 
 
 At one point, according to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, "I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?" 
 
 "You get nothing," the president said. "I get that for free." 
 
 After the election, Boehner aides tried to shape the debate by offering early concessions, including that the GOP would agree to raise new tax revenue. A speech Mr. Boehner planned to give was rewritten 18 times and included input from top Republican leaders. 
 
 He and Mr. Obama didn't sit down together for another 10 days. The session began genially. But tension quickly emerged over the president's call to include increasing the U.S.'s borrowing limit in any final package. 
 
 Responded Mr. Boehner: "I've found in my life that everything I've ever wanted has come with price." 
 
 Mr. Obama told the speaker he wasn't willing to play games with the debt ceiling. 
 
 Staffs got to work on the outline of a deal. In their first offer, Republicans wanted to essentially preserve Bush-era rates set to expire Dec. 31 while raising some new revenue through a tax overhaul in 2013. The White House made clear it wouldn't agree to a plan that didn't raise some tax rates immediately. 
 
 Brett Loper, the speaker's top policy aide, prodded White House officials to look for tax revenue elsewhere. In phone calls and meetings, he steered them to tax shelters and suggested limiting deductions for tax-exempt municipal bonds. 
 
 National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling told Mr. Loper it was impossible to hit revenue targets without raising tax rates. 
 
 At one point, Mr. Loper said, "I'm asking you for help. Are you going to help me or not?" 
 
 Last August, President Obama and Congress put the U.S. economy on course to go over a "fiscal cliff." WSJ's David Wessel tells you everything you need to know about the "cliff" but were afraid to ask. 
 
 Stocks sank as investors confronted a new level of budget disarray in Washington, but the market was on pace to notch gains for the last full trading week of the year. Brendan Conway has details on The News Hub. Photo: Associated Press. 
 
 Political analyst Charlie Cook looks back on the year in politics. WSJ reporters assess the state of the fiscal cliff talks and discuss the chances of gun control legislation in the wake of the school shootings in Connecticut. 
 
 The quest to avert the fiscal cliff is as uncertain as ever after rival plans were rejected. WSJ reporters break down how the negotiations will play out from this point on. 
 
 Paul Vigna discusses the market fallout from the collapse of a fiscal-cliff deal in Washington with Damian Paletta and Steven Russolillo. Photo: Getty Images. 
 
 Clemency Burton-Hill discusses the latest on the fiscal-cliff negotiations with Andrew Ackerman, and Jack Nicas looks at the millions of mental-health records missing from gun-dealer databases. Photo: AP. 
 
 Shortly after, aides to Mr. Boehner suggested he call the president. 
 
 Columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady on the failure of Boehner's Plan B. Photo: Pool 
 
 Mr. Obama insisted on raising tax rates for those with household income above $250,000. The House GOP wanted significant spending cuts and fundamental changes to Medicare and other entitlement programs in exchange for new tax revenue. 
 
 The president repeatedly reminded Mr. Boehner of the election results: "You're asking me to accept Mitt Romney's tax plan. Why would I do that?" At another point, the speaker noted his GOP majority would also return next year. 
 
 The White House's first formal offer, presented Nov. 29 left Mr. Boehner incredulous. It included a request for $1.6 trillion in additional tax revenue over 10 years, a permanent increase in the debt ceiling and money for road projects and other year-end priorities. In return it offered spending cuts of $400 billion—25 cents for each dollar in new revenue. 
 
 Taking a drag on his cigarette, Mr. Boehner asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who had presented the plan, a number of questions but didn't fully engage him. Across the Capitol, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky) said he laughed at the offer. 
 
 The same sticking points kept rearing up—the White House insisting on more tax revenue than Republicans could stomach, and the Republicans demanding deeper cuts than the White House would accept. 
 
 During one session in the Capitol with White House's legislative liaison Rob Nabors, Mr. Loper from the Boehner camp asked, referring to a near-deal during last year's debt-ceiling fight: "Can you get back into the zone of where you were in July 2011?" 
 
 "No," Mr. Nabors replied. "We were probably overextended then, and there's no way we would do it now." 
 
 Mr. Nabors said if they couldn't reach a deal, they should keep lines of communication alive. The typically serious Mr. Loper asked, "So, you're breaking up with us?" 
 
 On Dec. 13, Mr. Boehner went to the White House at the president's request, joking he was going to the woodshed. 
 
 The president told him he could choose one of two doors. The first represented a big deal. If Mr. Boehner chose it, the president said, the country and financial markets would cheer. Door No. 2 represented a spike in interest rates and a global recession. 
 
 Mr. Boehner said he wanted a deal along the lines of what the two men had negotiated in the summer of 2011 in a fight over raising the debt ceiling. "You missed your opportunity on that," the president told him. 
 
 That night, the speaker and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) decided to make the biggest concession so far. 
 
 As the country the next day digested news of a brutal school shooting in Connecticut, Mr. Boehner called the president and for the first time offered to let tax rates rise—on income above $1 million. The president acknowledged the concession but said Mr. Boehner's plan wasn't raising enough revenue. 
 
 News broke the next night both about the concession and that the speaker was willing to extend the borrowing limit. On Sunday, the White House sent a plane to fly Mr. Boehner back to Washington for a morning appointment with the president on Monday, the day it now appears the deal fell apart. 
 
 In that session, the president held firm for $1.2 trillion in additional tax revenue, a second step down from his original offer. Mr. Boehner asked for another $100 billion in spending cuts but couldn't get a commitment. 
 
 Finally, the speaker said, "Well, you and I can sit here and stare at each other," or he could leave and they would talk later. 
 
 Back in the Capitol, Mr. Boehner told Mr. Cantor the president wasn't moving. They agreed to call him. On the call, Mr. Boehner restated he needed $1 in spending cuts for every $1 in revenue raised. He dropped a prior demand to increase the Medicare eligibility age. 
 
 The president told Mr. Boehner that he was willing to make some concessions on taxes and spending, but cautioned that they needed to retain Democratic votes for the bill to pass. 
 
 The speaker raised the prospect of moving a backup bill. White House officials said Mr. Boehner didn't reveal what Plan B comprised. Administration officials expected a few more days of back-and-forth, but the speaker thought the prospects were dim for a big deal. 
 
 Meeting with his leadership team in the afternoon, Mr. Boehner read from a script prepared by his staff, telling lawmakers he still wanted a big deal but the rank and file needed to know the plan by a 9 a.m. conference meeting the next morning, Tuesday. He encouraged his colleagues to accept the backup plan. 
 
 "I'm going to keep the proposal on the table," he said of the broader deal. "As I told the president, I'm not making an ultimatum. The offer stays on the table, even if we move on Plan B." 
 
 His lieutenants made clear they preferred Plan B to the one Mr. Boehner was trying to broker. 
 
 The speaker called the president with news the House would move ahead with the backup bill, which would preserve Bush-era rates for all income below $1 million. The president was incensed. 
 
 As the week progressed, support didn't materialize, with some GOP members complaining that the bill raised taxes and others that it didn't have enough spending cuts. Mr. Boehner pulled it Thursday night and read the Serenity Prayer to members, whom he then dismissed. 
 
 On Friday afternoon, the president spoke to both Mr. Boehner and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid in a bid to resurrect a deal. Soon afterward he left the White House for his annual family vacation in Hawaii. 
 
 Write to Peter Nicholas at peter.nicholas@wsj.com 
 
 A version of this article appeared December 22, 2012, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: How 'Cliff' Talks Hit the Wall. ||||| The juiciest passage in the Wall Street Journal’s behind-the-scenes report on the fiscal cliff negotiations comes when House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) asks President Obama whether he can have the deal he rejected in 2011. “You missed your opportunity on that,” the president replies. 
 
 Ouch. 
 
 But the most important insight into the White House’s strategic thinking comes when Boehner says to the president, ”I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?” Obama’s response is cold and telling. ”You get nothing,” the president said. “I get that for free.” 
 
 That, right there, is the central fact of negotiations for the Democrats and the central problem for the Republicans. At the end of this year, more than $5 trillion in scheduled tax increases begin. But the White House doesn’t believe that’s real revenue. Democrats in Congress won’t permit that kind of a tax increase on ordinary Americans. The White House won’t permit that kind of a tax increase on ordinary Americans. 
 
 But they’re certain they can hold onto almost $800 billion of it. The Senate already passed a bill letting the Bush tax cuts lapse for income over $250,000. That bill is very, very popular. The White House expects that if we go over the cliff, the House will have to pass that bill, too, and the president would have little choice but to sign it. That bill raises taxes by a bit more than $700 billion, which is less than the $1.6 trillion the White House wants. But that $700 billion, to the White House, is the baseline: If they get nothing else, they will certainly get that. 
 
 And that’s why Boehner’s offer of $800 billion doesn’t impress. The White House already has some $700 billion in the bank, as they see it. The reason to negotiate with Boehner is that an agreement with him could, in theory, push that number well above $1 trillion while stabilizing the debt and avoiding the economic pain of falling off the fiscal cliff. But there’s no reason to cut a deal with Boehner in which the White House gives up spending cuts in order to get a tax increase they can have anyway. 
 
 The talk in Washington now is about a “small deal.” That would likely include the Senate tax bill, some policy to turn off at least the defense side of the sequester and a handful of other policies to blunt or delay various parts of the fiscal cliff. 
 
 That’s not a very good deal for the short-term health of the economy. Depending on how much of the fiscal cliff gets delayed, we could tip into recession anyway. But it could lead, in the end, to much more revenue than a “big deal” now. 
 
 Here’s how it would go. Some time in the next month or so, the small deal would pass and the White House would pocket that $700-plus billion in tax revenue. They really would get that for free, just as the president told Boehner. 
 
 But pressure would quickly mount to strike a larger deal, both because there would be another fiscal cliff coming and because the debt ceiling would need to be raised. (The White House swears they won’t negotiate over the debt ceiling, but it’s not exactly clear what that will mean in practice.) 
 
 The White House would insist that the next deal includes a 1:1 ratio of tax increases — all of which could come through Republican-friendly tax reform — to spending cuts. So a subsequent deal that included $600 billion or $700 billion in spending cuts would also include $600 billion or $700 billion in tax increases, leading to total new revenue in the range of $1.2 trillion to $1.4 trillion. 
 
 There’s precedent for this. After the 2010 midterms, Republicans forced the passage of the Budget Control Act, which included more than a trillion dollars in spending cuts and no offsetting tax increases. They’ve subsequently refused to count those cuts toward any future deals. If the president, after winning the 2012 election, pocketed $700 billion in tax increases and insisted that revenue was unrelated to the next negotiation, he’d simply be following Boehner’s lead. 
 
 All of which is to say, if Boehner had taken the White House’s deal in 2011, he could’ve stopped the tax increase at $800 billion. If he took their most recent deal, he could stop it at $1.2 trillion. But if he insists on adding another round to the negotiations — one that will likely come after the White House pockets $700 billion in tax increases — then any deal in which gets the entitlement cuts he wants is going to mean a deal in which he accepts even more tax increases than the White House is currently demanding. 
 
 Today, Boehner wishes he’d taken the deal the president offered him in 2011. A year from now, he might wish he’d taken the deal the president offered him in 2012. ||||| 9 days to cliff, 30 days to inauguration -- OBAMA TO BOEHNER: 'I get that for free' -- KERRY to be 'Mr. Secretary' -- Leibo goes to NFL game with Rubio, Alex - Diane Sawyer, Ted Cruz bday Presented by 
 
 SEN. BOB CORKER (R-Tenn.), to Peter Cook on tomorrow’s Bloomberg TV “Capitol Gains”: “It's time for us to get specific and not create another fiscal cliff, which is really what's being proposed -- creating another fiscal cliff to deal with this fiscal cliff.” 
 
 PRESIDENT OBAMA, in the Brady Press Briefing Room before he left for Hawaii: “In the next few days, I've asked leaders of Congress to work towards a package that prevents a tax hike on middle-class Americans, protects unemployment insurance for 2 million Americans, and lays the groundwork for further work on both growth and deficit reduction. That's an achievable goal. That can get done in 10 days. … I want to wish every American a merry Christmas. And because we didn’t get this done, I will see you next week.” 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 PALACE INTRIGUE – “How 'Cliff' Talks Hit the Wall: Behind Scenes, Boehner Failed to Sell Republicans on Taxes, While Obama's Spending Plans Rankled,” by Patrick O’Connor and Peter Nicholas: “[A]ccording to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, ‘I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?’ ‘You get nothing,’ the president said. ‘I get that for free.’ … Responded Mr. Boehner: ‘I've found in my life that everything I've ever wanted has come with price.’ … Brett Loper, the speaker's top policy aide, prodded White House officials to look for tax revenue elsewhere. In phone calls and meetings, he steered them to tax shelters and suggested limiting deductions for tax-exempt municipal bonds. … Loper said, ‘I'm asking you for help. Are you going to help me or not?’ … 
 
 “ During one session in the Capitol with White House's legislative liaison Rob Nabors, Mr. Loper … asked, referring to a near-deal during last year's debt-ceiling fight: ‘Can you get back into the zone of where you were in July 2011?’ ‘No,’ Mr. Nabors replied. ‘We were probably overextended then, and there's no way we would do it now.’ Mr. Nabors said if they couldn't reach a deal, they should keep lines of communication alive. … Loper asked, ‘So, you're breaking up with us?’ 
 
 “On Dec. 13, Mr. Boehner went to the White House at the president's request, joking he was going to the woodshed. The president told him he could choose one of two doors. The first represented a big deal. If Mr. Boehner chose it, the president said, the country and financial markets would cheer. Door No. 2 represented a spike in interest rates and a global recession. Mr. Boehner said he wanted a deal along the lines of what the two men had negotiated in the summer of 2011 in a fight over raising the debt ceiling. ‘You missed your opportunity on that,’ the president told him.” 
 
 --PLAYBOOK BACKSTORY, from someone familiar with the negotiations: “A few weeks ago, the WSJ asked the White House and the Speaker’s office to participate in a Newsweek-book-style project where they shared information about the talks on an embargoed basis to reporters who were taken off the daily story to avoid conflicts. The Speaker’s office agreed. Dan Pfeiffer and the White House refused to participate because they felt it had the potential to hamper the ability to get a deal in the short term, and was bad for the working relationship in the long term. After the Speaker’s Plan B blew up in his face on Thursday night, the WSJ decided to go ahead and publish the story, including private conversations between the leaders, … even though we don't yet have a deal, poisoning the water going forward.” 
 
 --JERRY SEIB, Washington Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, emails: “We set out to provide the most accurate account of the deficit deliberations possible, and reached out to all sides along the way. Nobody involved was surprised by the appearance of our story today.” 
 
 --PLAYBOOK TRUTH BOMB: Except for the few quotes above, the story is rehash – used news, as they say. We liked the “I get that for free” quote, but the Journal didn’t get the context. We checked, and Obama was referring to public concessions by Rep. Tom Cole and Senate Rs on the need to raise rates. So the White House didn’t have to trade anything for that. 
 
 TOP TALKER – WSJ A1, “Google Labors To Build A Phone … ran into difficulties … using a bendable screen,” by Amir Efrati: “Engineers at Motorola [acquired by Google in May] are hard at work on a sophisticated [Android] handset—known internally as the ‘X phone’— … [for release next year, an] effort to provide more potent competition for Apple … Motorola wanted … better color saturation and the ability to take panoramic shots … But some … features were found to drain battery life … Motorola also ran into difficulties when it looked into using a bendable screen and materials such as ceramics that would allow the company to make the X Phone more stress resistant, use more colors and mold into different shapes.” 
 
 SURE BETS FOR THE SUNDAY SHOWS – The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre is the cover pic of both N.Y.C. tabs: N.Y. Post wood, “GUN NUT! NRA loon in bizarre rant over Newtown” … N.Y. Daily News wood, “CRAZIEST MAN ON EARTH: Just 90 MINUTES after moment of silence for Newtown victims, vile NRA nut blames everyone and everything EXCEPT the guns.” 
 
 --JOHN DICKERSON of Slate, “Two Debacles in 12 Hours: Why today was a very bad day to be Republican”: “The NRA’s top lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre … was characteristically defiant, calling for security officers to be stationed at every school. He spoke with an edge, his voice straining … The night before, a committed band of Republicans defeated House Speaker John Boehner. … These two events—a defiant NRA and an incompetent leadership—cannot be the face of confrontation the GOP wants to show the public on high-profile issues. Tea Party activists and gun owners are a key part of the party base. But these public acts are out of sync with the moment and completely at odds with party's need to widen its membership. … 
 
 “The message of both of these acts … is: We don’t care about the wider audience. … [I]t's not the message that its putative leaders want to send. Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, and Paul Ryan are all trying to send various messages of inclusion. … Holding more firmly to your views despite new circumstances can offer stability, but it also opens you up to looking remote, unconcerned, and out of touch. To those who might think you hail from another planet, it helps to speak to them in their language. That language requires a conversation, not an argument.” http://slate.me/VYeYkW 
 
 TOP STORY – Boston Globe banner, “Kerry tapped to lead State Department: Jockeying begins now to succeed 5-term senator,” by Bryan Bender and Glen Johnson: “President Obama nominated Massachusetts Senator John Forbes Kerry as the next secretary of state Friday, turning to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of his earliest political allies to guide American diplomacy in an ‘uncertain world’ during the next four years. The selection of the 69-year-old Kerry … was heralded across the political divide as a wise choice of a fully tested player on the international stage who can dive into some of the world’s most challenging problems … If Kerry is confirmed, … Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick would name a temporary replacement to fill his seat and a special election would be held later next year to complete his term, which is up in 2014. 
 
 “The nomination to replace Hillary Clinton is the capstone of a three-decade political career that began when Kerry, the son of a Foreign Service officer, returned from the Vietnam War a decorated veteran to become a leading voice of the antiwar movement. ‘In a sense, John’s entire life has prepared him for this role,’ Obama said during a joint appearance with Kerry, his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, and Vice President Joe Biden in the Roosevelt Room … [Obama] noted that it was Kerry who invited him, as an Illinois state senator, to address the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. That speech catapulted Obama to national prominence.” 
 
 --N.Y. Times A1, “Kerry, in Role of a Lifetime, Is Pick to Lead the State Dept.,” by Mark Landler: “Kerry has been a loyal supporter of the Obama administration, guiding an arms-reduction treaty with Russia to ratification in the Senate and playing diplomatic troubleshooter for the White House in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan. … In early 2008, Mr. Kerry endorsed [Obama] over Mrs. Clinton, and this fall he played the role of Mitt Romney in mock debates — sessions that by some accounts put the president’s teeth on edge. … 
 
 “Although Mr. Kerry is not a global celebrity like Mrs. Clinton, his background as a presidential nominee and his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee have made him well known abroad, accustomed to meeting monarchs and presidents. In October 2009, he was viewed as instrumental in persuading President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan to accept the need for a runoff election. Mr. Kerry spent 20 hours over five days with Mr. Karzai.” http://nyti.ms/12wkLVg 
 
 --PRESIDENT OBAMA, in the Roosevelt Room: “As the son of a Foreign Service officer, he has a deep respect for the men and women of the State Department … John has played a central role in every major foreign policy debate for nearly 30 years. As we turn the page on a decade of war, he understands that we’ve got to harness all elements of American power and ensure that they’re working together -- diplomatic and development, economic and political, military and intelligence … John, I’m looking forward to working with you instead of debating you.” 
 
 --“Israeli PM hails Kerry nomination” – AFP/Jerusalem: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday welcomed the nomination of Senator John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as US secretary of state … I congratulate John Kerry on his nomination to the post of American secretary of state. Kerry, who has great experience, is a well-known defender of the security of Israel,’ he said in a statement issued by his office. … Netanyahu also said he greatly appreciated that six months ago, after his father died, Kerry visited him during the shiva.” 
 
 ** A message from the American Hospital Association: Will Congress Jeopardize Patients' Access to Care? As it works to reduce the deficit, Congress should not cut funding to hospitals and hurt patient care. Oppose Hospital Cuts. Protect Patient Care. Visit www.aha.org/preparedtocare to learn more. ** 
 
 2016 WATCH – Alex Conant gets two photo credit in NYT print edition -- SportsSaturday lead, “Football, And It’s Not Political: When Senator Marco Rubio attends a Miami Dolphins game, … [t]he subject is the N.F.L., period,” by Mark Leibovich in Miami Gardens, Fla.: “Rubio, the rookie Republican senator from Florida, is standing on the sideline at Sun Life Stadium 30 minutes before a Dolphins game against the New England Patriots in early December. … ‘You want to meet Coach [Don] Shula?’ Rubio asks me. I demur, fearful of looking directly at the Supreme Being without sunglasses. (I am also a Patriots fan.) ‘Well, I’m going to say hi to Coach Shula,’ Rubio says with hushed reverence. … As a child, Rubio wore braces on his legs to correct a knee problem; he hated the braces, so his father would call home from work claiming to be Coach Shula and saying that Marco needed to wear them if he ever wanted to play for the Dolphins. … Rubio, 41, is legitimate, a serious fan who not only can name the Dolphins’ long snapper (John Denny) but can also tell you that an N.F.L. long-snapper must get the ball to the holder in seven-tenths of a second. … 
 
 “[O]nly so much escape is possible for a politician in a packed football stadium, especially with a reporter along and, also, his two young sons, Dominick (5) and Anthony (7). Rubio coaches Anthony in youth football. We rode to the stadium from Rubio’s West Miami home in a rental car driven by the senator’s spokesman, Alex Conant. … [T]he former Florida Gator has not refrained at all from taunting Florida State fans via Twitter. ‘I was mocking them just last week,’ he says, boasting that one particular anti-F.S.U. posting — something about the fat lady singing — was ‘one of my most retweeted tweets ever.’ Rubio has an unusual familiarity with his own Twitter activity. After the Patriots signed the free-agent wide receiver Donte Stallworth on Dec. 4, Rubio mentioned to me that Stallworth followed him on Twitter. How did he know this? ‘Because he once retweeted something of mine,’ Rubio said. … 
 
 “Which is his least favorite N.F.L. team? ‘Jets,’ he says without hesitation. [Sorry, Rhoades!] ‘That’s the team I hate to lose to the most. They could be 1-15, and if they beat the Dolphins, their fans get obnoxious.’ … It is worth noting that the Jets’ owner, Woody Johnson, is a major Republican donor. (It’s also worth noting that I later receive an e-mail from Conant, the spokesman, emphasizing that the senator and Johnson ‘have a good relationship.’) … Conant … inches the rental car through the parking lot, fans zigzagging in front of him, not all of them sober. … Conant succeeds, heroically, and is on the highway a few minutes later with Dominick now fast asleep in the back.” See Alex’s pics. http://nyti.ms/UZz3HO 
 
 THE PRESIDENT ARRIVES IN HAWAII – Pool reports by NYT’s Jeremy Peters: “Potus arrived at Andrews via Marine One at promptly 7:30 p.m. local time. He, the first lady and their two daughters didn't linger long before boarding Air Force One, with the official temperature on your pooler's iPhone reading 39 degrees. Traveling with the president were Alyssa Mastromonaco, acting chief of staff, and Jay Carney, press secretary, and Bo the dog. We were taxiing on the runway at 7:35. … 
 
 “Honolulu Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam … Potus was wheels down in Honolulu at 12:06 a.m. local time, following a bumpy but very quiet 10-hour flight. No gaggling. … Potus quickly deplaned, having shed the leather jacket he was sporting in Washington for more climate-appropriate attire: a dress shirt, sleeves rolled up. At 12:26 a.m. we were on the move toward the vacation residence. … 12:54 a.m. Potus arrived at his vacation residence in Kailua, a quiet town on a crescent stretch of beach on the east end of Oahu. The bus carrying the press was not able to get close enough to the property to see it, or to see the Obamas. A light drizzle fell as the motorcade traveled around the eastern edge of Pearl Harbor, then up and over the mountains to Kailua. … We have a lid.” 
 
 --THE V.P.’S WEEKEND: “The Vice President will be in Wilmington, Delaware. There are no public events scheduled.” 
 
 BUSINESS BURST – “Wal-Mart Turns to Condé Nast for Beauty Magazine,” by Women’s Wear Daily’s Erik Maza: “Buried within Wal-Mart’s Web site … is a magazine called BeautyScoop. Thousands of stores also carry it, and it was mailed to millions of the store’s customers. … It has a model on the cover … Its own logo — the name in a large type underneath a smaller Wal-Mart tag. Though wafer-thin — it runs just 12 pages — and produced on glossy stock, it is as close as a store catalogue can come to a magazine. And there are editorial features. … Glamour, for instance, answered questions from its Twitter followers about ‘pretty girl problems,’ like thinning eyebrows. … The entire magazine was made by Condé, sources said. … This marriage of convenience takes the old-hat practice of custom publishing to a whole other, and more lucrative, level and advances publishers’ attempts at selling their marketing savvy. … The collaboration is secret. … 
 
 “Custom publishing is not a new bag. … Time Inc. … publishes My Ford magazine. … [P]ublishers have also increasingly moved to offer big-scale marketers the creative services they would normally get from ad agencies. … The initial [Wal-Mart] plan called for five issues … with 500,000 copies in-store, and direct-mail run sent to 2.5 million Wal-Mart customers … The cost of the project is in the millions … The final product was made to Wal-Mart’s orders — nothing too ostentatious, none of Glamour’s sometimes suggestive headlines. More importantly, while it would borrow the aesthetic of Condé magazines — flashy typeface and attractive models — as well as light editorial features, like beauty advice and Q&As, the name Condé Nast appears nowhere … Though the fate of the magazine in 2013 is unclear, sources say the two companies are already working on another joint project.” http://wwd.us/TKdxI8 
 
 --“Australian DJs could face prosecution for royal hoax,” by AFP’s Danny Kemp in London: “British prosecutors will decide whether to charge two Australian DJs after a nurse who took a hoax call to a hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Catherine apparently killed herself, police said Saturday. Scotland Yard said officers had this week sent a file to the Crown Prosecution Service over the prank earlier this month by presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian, from Sydney's 2Day FM radio station. Indian-born nurse Jacintha Saldanha, 46, was found hanged in her lodgings at King Edward VII's hospital in central London, where Kate was being treated for acute morning sickness.” 
 
 ENGAGED: Josh Gold, political director for New York's Hotel & Motel Trades Council, popped the question to Courtney Zaktzer on Tuesday night at the Mandarin Oriental in Manhattan. (hat tip: Ken Vogel) 
 
 MILESTONE BIRTHDAY: Reid Phillip “Reido” Kellam, a junior at Penn State double-majoring in P.R./advertising and political science, rang in 21 with a beer at Martin's. His first, no doubt. Reid once summered at the Glover Park Group. (hat tip: Mom, Susan Kellam, and Dad, Dick Keil of Purple Strategies, plus Edgar, the pug) 
 
 BIRTHDAYS: Piper Adams is 1 (bonnet tip: Adams Family Community Group) … Diane Sawyer is ageless … Sen.-elect Ted Cruz of Texas is 42 (10-gallon hat tip: Stephen Cox) … former House Speaker Jim Wright is 90 … Adam Verdugo, senior producer for "Meet the Press," celebrating by preparing for tomorrow’s show (hat tips: Betsy, Erika) … WaPo's Valerie Strauss ... Jim Wright ... Paul Wolfowitz is 69 (hat tips: Patrick Gavin)... Matt Manda (comms director for Rep. Kevin Yoder) turns the big 3-0, celebrating his birthday by scoping out the Easternshore sailing town Oxford, MD followed by a dinner at the Barlett Pear Inn (tip: Elise) … Rich Ward (h/t Stuart Siciliano) … Rachel Manfredi, Director of Strategic Initiatives at the American Enterprise Institute (h/t husband Stephen Manfredi) …. Chris Austin, legislative director for Rep. John Garamendi, will celebrate his birthday weekend with his girlfriend, Mary, a civilian employee at Walter Reed Bethesda, and friend Charles “Chuck” Galbraith, in New York City. He thanks his legislative team for covering for him if the House is in session. (h/t Matthew Kravitz) …. Steve Carlton is 68 … Steve Garvey is 64 (h/ts AP) 
 
 BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): John P. Coale, who celebrated with a quiet dinner with Greta and a GREAT bottle of wine at home. (hat tip: Tammy) 
 
 BIRTHDAYS TOMORROW: Chris Peacock , a Debate Commission spin-alley monitor, and former communications aide to Lloyd Bentsen, Donna Shalala, and Nancy Ann DeParle, is 52 … John Russell IV, Senior Managing Director at SNR Denton, is 38 (hat tip: his much better half) … MONDAY: Dorinda Moss, NRSC Finance Director (h/t Ben Ginsberg) … Jonathan Murphy, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress … WEDNESDAY: Jill Cooper Udall … Matthew Verghese, the Political/Communications Director of the Maryland Democratic Party, has his 26th birthday on Dec. 26 th (h/t Betsy Dudley) … DEC. 29: Andrew Malcolm, Rep. Greg Walden's press secretary (h/t Greg Meiselbach and Laura Reed) … DEC. 30: Lauren Claffey, press secretary for Sen. Saxby Chambliss (h/ts Bronwyn Lance Chester) 
 
 THE SHOWS, from @MattMackowiak: 
 
 -- NBC’s “Meet the Press”: NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre; Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); roundtable with Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN), NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and NBC’s Chuck Todd 
 
 -- ABC’s “This Week”: Former DEA administrator and NRA Director of the National School Shield Program former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR); the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s Sarah Brady; Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA); Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); roundtable with Mayor Cory Booker (D-Newark), Americans for Tax Reform president and NRA Board Member Grover Norquist, ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan and The Nation Magazine’s Katrina vanden Heuvel 
 
 -- CBS’s “Face the Nation”: NRA president David Keene; Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA); Sen.-designee Tim Scott (R-SC); actor/director and Eastern Congo Initiative founder Ben Affleck; roundtable with Major Garrett, Margaret Brennan and Mike Allen 
 
 -- “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY); Saddleback Church founder and senior pastor Rick Warren; roundtable with The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol, Daily Beast columnist Kirsten Powers, radio host Laura Ingraham and Fox News’ Juan Williams 
 
 -- CNN’s “State of the Union” (9 a.m. and noon): Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) and Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH); Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT); former DEA administrator and NRA Director of the National School Shield Program former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR); roundtable with National Journal’s Ron Brownstein, TIME Magazine’s Michael Duffy and USA Today’s Susan Page 
 
 -- CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”: (SUN 10am ET / 1pm ET): Economic roundtable with The Economist’s Zanny Minton Beddoes, Thomson Reuters’ Chrystia Freeland, former Bush administration chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and Columbia University’s Glenn Hubbard and former Obama administration OMB director Peter Orszag; Washington Post columnist and Legatum Institute’s Anne Applebaum; author and former Obama administration “car czar” and Willett Advisors, LLC chairman Steven Rattner (“Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry”) 
 
 -- C-SPAN: “The Communicators” (SAT 6:30pm ET): Author and Wired Magazine’s Andrew Blum (“Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet”) … “Newsmakers” (SUN 10am ET / 6pm ET): Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), questioned by POLITICO’s Tim Mak and Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin … “Q&A” (SUN 8pm ET / 11pm ET): 90 minute interview with c-author Paul Reid, who co-authored with William Manchester, the third and final volume of the historical trilogy, “The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965) 
 
 -- NBC’s “The Chris Matthews Show”: Roundtable with BBC’s Katty Kay, TIME magazine’s Michael Duffy, The New York Times’ Helene Cooper and ABC News’ Sam Donaldson 
 
 --ABC7’s “Inside Washington”: (SAT 7pm ET on NewsChannel 8 / SUN 9am ET on ABC7 WJLA): Roundtable with Washington Post columnist Colbert King; NPR’s Nina Totenberg and syndicated columnists Mark Shields and Charles Krauthammer 
 
 -- Bloomberg’s “Political Capital” with Al Hunt (SUN 8am ET / 1pm ET): Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) 
 
 -- Bloomberg’s “Capitol Gains” (Bloomberg TV SUN 12pm ET / 5pm ET): Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) 
 
 -- PBS’s “To the Contrary”: Roundtable with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Center for Equal Opportunity’s Linda Chavez, Democratic commentator Jennifer Rajkumar and the Heritage Foundation’s Genevieve Wood 
 
 -- TV One’s “Washington Watch with Roland Martin”: (SUN 9am ET): Psychologist Dr. Jeffery Gardere; National Medical Association president and Meharry Medical College (Nashville, TN) forensic psychiatrist Dr. Rahn Bailey; Drexel University adolescent psychotherapist Dr. Chuck Williams; ProPublica’s Dafna Linzer; writer and image activist Michaela Angela Davis; journalist / commentator panel with The Bernard Center for Women’s Michelle Bernard, JC Watts Companies co-founder and CEO Elroy Sailor, The Advancement Project’s Leila McDowell and Sirius/XM Radio’s Joe Madison 
 
 --SiriusXM's “Polioptics” with Josh King and Adam Belmar (SUN noon ET / 6 pm ET): Historian Michael Beschloss and Mark Updegrove, executive director of the LBJ Presidential Library, on a $10 million renovation. On SiriusXM's POTUS Ch. 124; also available for download on iTunes and at http://www.polioptics.com. 
 
 ** A message from the American Hospital Association: Will Congress Jeopardize Patients' Access to Care? America's hospitals are always open, serving our communities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Even as hospitals face new challenges to provide high-quality care to everyone who needs it, Congress is debating additional cuts to hospital funding which would cost jobs and hurt access to care. Because hospitals care for everyone who comes to the ER, we provide billions in uncompensated care, including $39.3 billion in 2010. During the last decade, uncompensated care rose 82%. Now Congress could further cut hospital funding to reduce the deficit. These cuts will have serious implications for our patients, and could jeopardize access to quality health care. Oppose Hospital Cuts. Protect Patient Care. 
 
 Visit www.aha.org/preparedtocare to learn more. ** 
 
 Follow us on Twitter Anna Palmer @apalmerdc 
 
 
 
 Jake Sherman @JakeSherman 
 
 
 
 Daniel Lippman @dlippman
– The Wall Street Journal has what it bills as a "behind scenes" look at how the fiscal cliff talks went sour this week—on Monday, to be precise—and a few passages stand out to suggest relations between the president and House Republicans may have actually gotten worse since the election: Boehner to Obama: "I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?' Obama to Boehner: "You get nothing. I get that for free." At another point, Boehner told the president he wanted a deal similar to the one he rejected during their debt ceiling talks of 2011. "You missed your opportunity on that," replied the president. Eventually, an "irritated" Boehner decided to move ahead with his Plan B even while keeping the broader deal on the table. It was a decision that "incensed" the president. (Boehner eventually had to call off the vote anyway.) Read the full Journal story here. At Politico, Mike Allen says it's mostly a "rehash" of old news. But Ezra Klein at the Washington Post thinks the "I get that for free" exchange is "the central fact of negotiations for the Democrats and the central problem for the Republicans." Read his full explanation here of why Democrats think the $800 billion figure isn't what it seems. The talks, meanwhile, remain in limbo until after Christmas, when the best hope will be that the two sides can agree on a scaled-down, temporary plan.