Stevenson’s army, December 9

– Arizona Senator Sinema announced she is switching from Democrat to Independent. She says she won’t attend weekly caucus lunches but expects to keep her committee assignments. This sounds like the arrangement Bernie Sanders and Angus King have, which means there will still be a 51-49 vote for Democrats to organize the Senate.

– Punchbowl has best account of discussions over an omnibus appropriations instead of a year-long CR.

– Some in House GOP foresee multiple ballots for Speaker, first since 1923.

– WSJ says US plans new Magnitsky sanctions on Russia & China.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I republish here, with occasional videos of my choice. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).