Sunday Breakfast Menu, Dec. 1

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

The pressure is on and expectations are high as the Obama administration’s Dec. 1 deadline to fix the problems with the Healthcare.gov website arrives. The Sunday news shows this week will delve into that topic, plus the emerging details of an interim deal to halt Iran’s nuclear program.

“Fox News Sunday” will feature James C. Capretta of the Ethics & Public Policy Center and Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress, discussing the health care deadline and concerns that users could again overwhelm the site. Michael V. Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency, will give his take on the pros and cons of the agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.

Tom Donilon, former national security adviser for President Obama, stops by ABC’s “This Week” to discuss Iran, the future of United States troops in Afghanistan and China’s newly declared air defense zone.

Representatives Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland and member of the Budget Committee, will appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to evaluate the Iran nuclear deal and potential trouble in Congress for Mr. Obama over the health care site’s problems. Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York will discuss the effect of the Affordable Care Act on the Catholic Church.

Those subjects will be explored further on CBS’s “Face the Nation” by Senators Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, and Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, both members of the Foreign Relations Committee. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin will also be interviewed.

Howard Dean, former Vermont governor, and Rick Santorum, former senator from Pennsylvania, will be on CNN’s “State of the Union” to discuss the Supreme Court’s decision to hear an appeal concerning mandated contraception coverage under the new health care law. Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Representative Rogers will talk about the threat of terrorism at home and abroad.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, will discuss her proposal to change the way sexual assault cases in the military are handled on Univision’s “Al Punto.”

Ben Nelson, former senator from Nebraska and chief executive of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, will be on C-Span’s “Newsmakers” to weigh in on how the nation’s insurance commissioners are adapting to the changes in health care laws around the country.

A White House Menu, Heavy on the Pies

President Obama and his family will have a traditional Thanksgiving meal this holiday, enjoying a menu that will look familiar to many American families: Turkey, ham, stuffing and plenty on the side. What’s remarkable is the dessert menu: the number of pies rivals the number of dishes in the dinner menu itself.

There are the Thanksgiving favorites, pecan pie and pumpkin pie. Perhaps to indulge Michelle Obama, there are the ostensibly healthier peach, apple and sweet potato pies. Cream pies are represented by banana, coconut and chocolate. Huckleberry caps the nine-pie lineup.

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Obama and his family helped dish up out food at the Capital Area Food Bank in northeast Washington. As people passed the Obama family’s station at the food bank warehouse, the president handed out small bags of onions, and Mrs. Obama gave out carrots. Their daughters, Sasha, 12, and Malia, 15, were responsible for the apples and M&M’s (the latter in boxes bearing a presidential seal).

Marian Robinson, Mrs. Obama’s mother, gave out recipes for a sweet potato curry. Earlier in the day, during the traditional turkey pardoning, Mr. Obama said his family would bring “bring a couple less fortunate turkeys” to the food bank.

It should be noted that the pardoned turkeys, Popcorn and Carmel, may only be slightly more fortunate than their brethren. The blog Obama Foodorama reported last week that seven of the eight birds that Mr. Obama has pardoned only lived for a few months after the ceremony, and just one lived to see another Thanksgiving.

For those keeping track at home, here is the full White House Thanksgiving menu:

Dinner
Turkey
Honey-baked ham
Corn bread stuffing
Oyster stuffing
Greens
Macaroni and cheese
Sweet potatoes
Mashed potatoes
Green bean casserole
Dinner rolls

Dessert
Huckleberry pie
Pecan pie
Chocolate cream pie
Sweet potato pie
Peach pie
Apple pie
Pumpkin pie
Banana cream pie
Coconut cream pie

Kerry Defends Nuclear Pact With Iran

Secretary of State John Kerry offered a robust defense of the interim nuclear agreement with Iran on Sunday, rejecting comparisons to North Korea and insisting that the deal would make Israel and Persian Gulf allies of the United States more secure, not less so.

Speaking on three Sunday news programs, Mr. Kerry said the deal, signed early Sunday morning in Geneva, would lock in place nuclear activities that bring Iran closer to having a bomb and subject its nuclear facilities to unprecedented international inspections.

“From this day, for the next six months, Israel is in fact safer than it was,” Mr. Kerry said on the CNN program “State of the Union.” “We’re now going to expand the time by which they can break out, rather than narrow it.”

Mr. Kerry acknowledged that Israel, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region had a right to be skeptical of Iran’s intentions. But he said the United States and its negotiating partners had taken steps to address that by insisting on strict monitoring and verifications.

“You don’t trust,” he said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.” “It’s not based on trust. It’s based on verification. It’s based on your ability to know what is happening.”

But there were already indications that Iran and the West were interpreting crucial parts of the six-month agreement differently. Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has asserted that the agreement explicitly recognizes Iran’s right to enrich uranium. He also said the agreement effectively removed the threat of an American military strike.

Mr. Kerry rejected both of those contentions. “The fact is, the president maintains” the option to use force “as commander in chief, and he has said specifically, he has not taken that threat off the table,” he said on CBS.

Administration officials reaffirmed on Saturday night that the United States has not yet recognized a right to enrich uranium by Iran. But in the interim agreement, the language is more ambiguous, saying that a “comprehensive solution would involve a mutually defined enrichment program with practical limits.”

The treatment of this question is likely to be a major focus of the next six months of negotiation. Israel and other countries have flatly opposed Iran’s right to enrich uranium because of its violation of several resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.

Ray Takeyh, an Iran expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that in his reading of the interim deal, enrichment is “respected in practice but not acknowledged just yet.”

Sunday Breakfast Menu, Nov. 24

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Two stories are vying for the top slot on the Sunday news shows this week - one about the so-called “nuclear option” in the Senate that would limit filibusters, and the other the nuclear talks between Iran and Western nations. The potential fallout for both issues is equally dominating on the political panels this week, with in-depth discussion from experts on which sides may come out on top.

“Fox News Sunday” will feature Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, and Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland - both members of the Foreign Relations Committee - discussing how a potential diplomatic agreement could restrict Iran’s nuclear program as world leaders inch closer to a deal. Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska will appear on the program as well, arguing that any change to Senate filibuster rules is an attempt to distract the public from the struggles of the new health care law.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, will sit alongside Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, on CNN’s “State of the Union” to discuss progress in fighting terrorism and potential vulnerabilities. They will also weigh in on Secretary of State John Kerry’s trip to Geneva for the Iran talks. A roundtable of political experts will take on the filibuster rule changes.

ABC’s “This Week” will cover Mr. Kerry’s trip as well, with Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia and vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, debating Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia and Foreign Relations Committee member, over how to best confront the issue. They will also talk about the “nuclear option” on filibusters. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, will be on to discuss his new push for immigration reform.

Talk of immigration reform will continue on Telemundo’s “Enfoque” as Representatives Xavier Becerra, Democrat of California, and Mario Díaz-Balart, Republican of Florida, evaluate the practicality of passing legislation in the House.

Representative Juan Vargas, Democrat of California, will also be discussing immigration on Univison’s “Al Punto.” Plus, Anibal de Castro, ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the United States, will talk about a recent controversial decision by the highest court in his nation to strip anyone who was born after 1929 to an undocumented immigrant of his or her citizenship.

Along with a conversation on filibuster rules with Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, and Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, CBS’s “Face the Nation” will have more coverage of the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent assigned to Jacqueline Kennedy, will shed light on the historic event from his perspective.

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, will be on Bloomberg’s “Political Capital” to talk about the health care rollout and the future of the Republican Party.

Representative Mac Thornberry, Republican of Texas and the House Armed Services Committee vice chairman, is leading an effort to revamp the defense acquisitions process. He will be on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” to discuss.

NBC’s “Meet the Press” will not air this week.

Breslin and Son of Kennedy Gravedigger Recall the Famous Job

“Clifton Pollard was pretty sure he was going to be working on Sunday,” is the way that Jimmy Breslin’s famous gravedigger column begins, kicking off a poignant account of Mr. Pollard digging President Kennedy’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery shortly after the assassination in 1963.

And it is similar to how Mr. Pollard’s stepson, Johnnie Edward Jones, 66, begins his own recollection of the day Mr. Pollard dug the president’s grave.

“My father didn’t work weekends, but he knew he was going to be called in for this,” Mr. Jones recalled when reached by phone on Friday. “They wanted him to prepare a grave for the president, so my mother got up early and fixed him breakfast, and he come home late that night.”

Breakfast was bacon and eggs, noted Mr. Breslin’s column, which also quoted the supervisor telling Mr. Pollard on the phone, “I guess you know what it’s for.”

Mr. Breslin, now 85, said the idea to visit Kennedy’s grave occurred to him shortly after hearing about the assassination, while working in Selma, Ala.

“First thing I thought was, ‘Where will they bury him?’ ” he said, reached by phone at his home in Manhattan on Friday. He said he contacted Arlington and was told Mr. Pollard would be called in to dig the grave. He rushed that morning to the Pollard house on Corcoran Street in the Northeast section of Washington, where, as the column noted, Mr. Pollard put on khaki overalls and ate his breakfast. Then he and the columnist traveled to the cemetery, which would result in Mr. Breslin’s now-famous column for The New York Herald Tribune.

“By then, I knew I was in good shape, because there were a thousand reporters at the funeral, so no way I was going there,” Mr. Breslin recalled. “I knew it was going to be a good piece. I didn’t get excited. I just wanted to do it and get out, and hit the bar.”

When President Kennedy’s body was moved several years later, to its current spot nearby, Mr. Pollard was called upon to dig that second grave.

“He dug the president’s grave twice,” said Mr. Jones, of New Carrollton, Md., who was 16 at the time and remembers it vividly. He now works as a courier at Federal Express and as a desk clerk at a condominium complex.

“He was very upset when he heard about the assassination, but when he got the call from Arlington that Sunday, he found it within himself to put his sorrow behind him and do what he had to do, for his country,” Mr. Jones said. “It was a big part of his life.”

Mr. Pollard, a World War II veteran, worked at Arlington for more than 30 years, before retiring around 1980. He died two years later and was buried a few hundred feet from where President Kennedy now rests.

“My father and mother both liked Kennedy when he first came on the scene, and they mostly voted Democratic, so there was a lot of pride involved in digging his grave,” Mr. Jones said. “He wasn’t looking for special recognition. He considered it his duty to his country, and he took as a great honor.”

Mr. Breslin said that he wrote the column in Washington in a couple of hours before a 5 p.m. deadline - “I could write a column in a half an hour, if it was life and death” - and then hopped a train to New York and another one to Queens and went straight to Pep McGuire’s bar and began drinking.

Mr. Jones said that Mr. Breslin sent copies of the column to the Pollards, which they distributed to friends. On Friday, Mr. Breslin said he himself never even read the column once he filed it.

“To this day, I haven’t read the thing,” he said. “You just go on to the next one. What, am I going to read it and extol myself? I worked for a living. It’s ‘Where’s the bar?’ and you keep going.”

Obama Campaign Veterans Start New Advertising Venture

A few months after members of President Obama’s 2012 advertising and data teams came together to start a new firm called AMG that would bring some of his campaign’s technical savvy to corporate America, a rival faction of advertising and data strategists say they are starting a competing effort.

On Thursday the ad firm of Jim Margolis, GMMB, and the big data firm of Dan Wagner, Civis Analytics, announced the formation of a partnership that will replicate the Obama campaign’s high-tech system for placing ads on television at the right time and on the right programs for political and business clients.

The campaign’s system - called “The Optimizer “ â€" essentially figured out the minute-to-minute viewing habits of specific individual voters by tracking the activity of their cable or satellite television set-top boxes.

Mr. Margolis was Mr. Obama’s senior advertising strategist, and his firm was in charge of placing all of the campaign’s commercial time buys. Mr. Wagner was the data mastermind who oversaw the campaign’s secret analytics department, which set out to specifically identify every individual voter the campaign needed to sway in critical swing states.

The new firm says it will work not only for political clients but also for businesses and nonprofit organizations.

As such, it will be in direct competition with AMG. That firm was started by another senior Obama advertising strategist, Larry Grisolano, of the firm AKPD, formerly run by Mr. Obama’s former adviser David Axelrod; the Obama communications strategist Erik Smith; and several younger techies led by the former Democratic Party strategist Chauncey McLean.

Despite the new rivalry, Mr. Margolis said: “We work closely with AKPD on a variety of projects every day. Sometimes we also compete.”

Both new advertising firms are operating without the benefit of the vast - and valuable â€" trove of voter data the Obama campaign has collected over the years. Most of that is not being transferred to the Democratic Party, Politico reported Wednesday.

The formation of the new firm further highlights the decision by many of the most technologically sophisticated members of Mr. Obama’s data team to head into business for themselves rather than to enlist with the administration for a second term. Those decisions have stood out in recent weeks as attention has focused on the failed start of the health care website.

Food Stamp Spending and Caseload Are Declining, Report Says

The money spent on food stamps and the number of people who receive them are declining as the economy has improved, according to a report released Wednesday, even as the program remains a source of contention in congressional negotiations to complete a five-year farm bill.

The report, by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research group, said that spending and the program’s caseload leveled off in 2011 and 2012 and had remained essentially flat for the past year.

The center said the number of people on food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, was declining month to month in about half the states and increasing incrementally in the other half. About a third of the states had fewer people participating in the food stamp program in August, the most recent month for which there is available data, than a year earlier, the group said.

The program is under fire in the Republican-led House, where a proposed bill would cut food stamps by nearly $40 billion over 10 years. A Senate bill would decrease spending by $4 billion over 10 years. Republicans lawmakers have said the program, which costs about $78 billion a year, has grown out of control.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said Utah and North Dakota had the biggest declines, about 6 percent.

Some of the caseload decline can be attributed to the fact that stimulus funding for the program, which had temporarily increased benefits, expired Nov. 1. That cut benefits by about 7 percent on average, for a total of about $5 billion, the center found.

The Congressional Budget Office expects that the number of food stamp recipients will fall by 2 to 5 percent each year over the next decade â€" from 47.7 million to 34.3 million by 2023 â€" if the economy continues to improve.

“Further large SNAP cuts, at a time when unemployment remains above 7 percent and the economy struggles to create enough jobs, would make life harder for tens of millions of Americans who are already struggling to put food on their tables each day,” Dorothy Rosenbaum, a senior policy analyst at the center, said in the report.

In an Attack Ad, an Alaskan Voter Is Really an Actress From Maryland

WASHINGTON - In a tough new advertisement from the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, an unnamed woman looks directly into the camera and upbraids Senator Mark Begich, Democrat of Alaska.

“Senator Begich didn’t listen. How can I ever trust him again?” she asks in criticizing Senator Begich’s support for President Obama’s health care law. “It just isn’t fair. Alaska deserves better.”

But there is a slight problem with the commercial. The woman is not from Alaska. She is actually an actress who lives in Maryland. And to some, the elegant kitchen she is standing in, done in French country style with granite countertops, might seem out of place somewhere as rugged and frontierlike as Alaska.

The commercial, which was scheduled to start running on Wednesday, never explicitly claims that the woman is a real Alaskan voter. And actresses are used routinely in political commercials. But as far as Mr. Begich is concerned, it is an illegitimate attack from outsiders who have no business getting involved in Alaska politics.

“Today’s misleading ad from the Koch brothers is just more evidence that even billions of dollars can’t buy integrity,” said Rachel Barinbaum, a spokeswoman for Mr. Begich.

Aides to Mr. Begich, who is up for re-election next year and is expected to face a tough fight in a state where Mr. Obama lost handily in 2012, also took issue with the commercial’s claims, which attempt to tie the senator to the problems that millions of people are having in keeping their current health plans.

In a sign of how politically perilous the health care law’s problematic implementation has been, Mr. Begich’s office put out a fact sheet highlighting his support for a Senate plan that would allow people to maintain their current insurance through 2015. It also points to his impatience with the president’s claims that the problems are being addressed.

As for the actress, a woman named Connie Bowman who does voice-overs, commercials and print ads, she said she was just doing her job. “I’m just an actress,” she said Wednesday when reached by phone.

Koch Brothers’ Group Uses Health Care Law to Attack Democrats

WASHINGTON â€" Americans for Prosperity, the political group backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, is targeting three of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats who are up for re-election next year. The group’s efforts are part of a new $3.5 million attack advertising campaign that hammers lawmakers for supporting President Obama’s health care law.

The senators â€" Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana â€" are all from conservative-leaning states that voted to elect Mitt Romney in 2012. The ads will start running in those states on Wednesday.

Americans for Prosperity is also targeting three Democratic members of the House who are in danger of losing next year: Ron Barber of Arizona, Joe Garcia of Florida and Patrick Murphy, also of Florida.

With the health care law’s flaws now front and center, Republicans and their allies have been trying to ratchet up the pressure on Democrats, especially where voters are most likely to respond negatively to the Affordable Care Act.

Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, said that reminding voters about problems with the way the law had been carried out so far was part of a much larger strategy.

“We want to make sure Obamacare is the No. 1 issue they’re thinking about,” he said. “We believe repealing Obamacare is a long-term effort, and a key part of that effort is keeping it in front of the American people night and day.”

The ads are specifically aimed at women because the group’s research has shown that they are not only more undecided than men about the merits of the Affordable Care Act, but that they also tend to make the decisions about their family’s health care.

Women are featured as narrators in the ads.

“Health care isn’t about politics,” one of those narrators says in an ad that will be broadcast in North Carolina. “It’s not about a website that doesn’t work. It’s not about poll numbers or approval ratings. It’s about people. And millions of people have lost their health insurance.”

In the commercial that will run in Alaska, a woman talks about the unfulfilled promises made by Mr. Obama and senators like Mr. Begich: “Senator Begich didn’t listen. How can I ever trust him again? It just isn’t fair. Alaska deserves better.”

Another Website, Another Problem for Obama

WASHINGTON â€" Some supporters who tried to log in to hear President Obama defend his embattled health care law on Monday night were unable to hear him because the website of the group behind the call, Organizing for Action, failed to work for them.

The website problems were an inconvenient moment for a president who has spent the last six weeks trying to explain the failure of HealthCare.gov, the online marketplace for Mr. Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

The event on Monday was intended to offer Mr. Obama’s most ardent supporters a chance to hear directly from him. It was the latest conference call to be hosted by Organizing for Action, the nonprofit group that grew out of the president’s 2012 campaign organization.

“I want to cut through the noise and talk with you directly about where we’re headed in the fight for change,” Mr. Obama had said in one of many emails sent to supporters over the past several days. The emails urged supporters to log onto an Organizing for Action website at 8:15 p.m. to listen to the president’s remarks.

Mr. Obama told those who could hear that there had been “a lot of misinformation” about his health care plan and noted that nearly a half-million people had signed up for Medicaid or for new insurance despite the problems with the health care website.

“I am confident that by the end of this month, it’s going to be functioning for the vast majority of folks,” Mr. Obama said. “Despite all the noise out there, despite all the criticism, despite all the setbacks, I’ve never lost faith in our ability to get this done.”

But many people who logged in said they could not hear anything, with the website reporting “connection failure” over and over again. It was unclear how many people could listen to the call. An official with the group gave a New York Times reporter, who also could not hear anything on the website, a telephone number to call and listen in.

At the same time, a chat board on the website began filling up with messages:

“I can’t hear any audio?”

“Is everyone getting the ‘reconnecting’ message?”

“I did refresh twice â€" still no sound.”

“WHERES THE SOUND YO?”

One supporter pleaded, “Don’t tell me there are troubles with this live event like there were with the Obamacare website!!!!!”

Organizing for Action officials said at the beginning of the call that more than 200,000 people had signed on to listen to the president. Katie Hogan, a spokeswoman for the group, said that technicians noticed a spike in traffic at the beginning of the call and that there was no indication that large numbers of people were unable to hear the president.

Ms. Hogan said the “vast majority” of those who logged in were able to listen in, and she pointed to the quick popularity of a Twitter hashtag â€" #ofacall â€" that was announced on the call as evidence.

Whether or not people could hear may not have mattered much.

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU, MR PRESIDENT, BUT I’M BEHIND YOU,” one person wrote. “PLEASE STICK IT OUT WITH OBAMACARE. THE COUNTRY NEEDS IT … AND YOU.”

The glitch was at the very least inconvenient for a White House that has been struggling to combat the perception that it cannot get things done.

“Just like healthcare.gov, this site doesn’t work either,” another supporter said. “It is tougher and tougher to defend all of this mr president.”

Within Cheney Family, a Dispute Over Gay Marriage

Mary Cheney, a daughter of the former vice president, and her wife, Heather Poe, sharply criticized on Sunday a comment by Liz Cheney, a candidate for the Senate in Wyoming, that she and her sister disagree on the issue of same-sex marriage.

“Liz - this isn’t just an issue on which we disagree, you’re just wrong - and on the wrong side of history,” Mary Cheney, who is gay, wrote on her Facebook page.

Ms. Poe’s comments were sharper and more personal. “Liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when Mary and I got married in 2012 - she didn’t hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us,” Ms. Poe wrote on her own Facebook page. “To have her say she doesn’t support our right to marry is offensive to say the least.”

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Liz Cheney, who is challenging the incumbent, Senator Mike Enzi, in next year’s primary, said she and her younger sister had parted ways on whether gays and lesbians should have the right to marry. “This is just an area where we disagree,” Liz said.

Her sister’s salvo on Facebook is the second time this fall the younger Ms. Cheney has criticized her sister’s position on same-sex marriage. The comment suggests that both Mary Cheney and Ms. Poe are going to continue speaking out on the issue during the primary.

Such comments could present political difficulties to Liz Cheney, who is attempting to unseat Mr. Enzi by running to his right. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has already said that he supports same-sex marriage, but the matter is now plainly causing intense family friction. The back-and-forth comes as Liz Cheney ramps up her campaign and Mr. Cheney is back in the news promoting a book he wrote with his elder daughter about his heart transplant. The former vice president is also playing a role in Liz Cheney’s campaign - he is joining her this Wednesday in Denver for a fund-raiser.

In her post, Ms. Poe argued that the current patchwork of same-sex marriage laws is unfair to gay and lesbian couples. And she subtly raised the issue of Liz Cheney’s move last year from suburban Washington to Wyoming, a sensitive issue in the state and one Liz Cheney sought to address by touting her family’s state roots in her her first television ad last week.

“I can’t help but wonder how Liz would feel if as she moved from state to state, she discovered that her family was protected in one but not the other,” wrote Ms. Poe, who called Liz Cheney “my sister-in-law,” adding: “Yes, Liz, in 15 states and the District of Columbia you are my sister-in-law.

Mary Cheney praised her wife’s statement - “couldn’t have said it better myself,” she wrote.

Sunday Breakfast Menu, Nov. 17

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

President Obama encouraged Americans to blame him - not his party - for the problems with the rollout of the national health care law. Still, some top Democrats are taking to the Sunday shows to defend him and ask for more patience. Plus, one network will dedicate its program to the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Though some critics say the law is destined to fail, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader in the House, is expecting a brighter future for the legislation. She will discuss the next step on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican of New Hampshire, will appear on the program to argue in favor of a proposed “timeout” in carrying out the law.

FOX’s “Fox News Sunday” will have interviews with Karen Ignagni, president of the industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, and Ben Nelson, a former senator from Nebraska and chief executive of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. They will be talking about the president’s meeting on Friday with leaders of the insurance industry. Later in the program, Liz Cheney, a Republican senatorial candidate in Wyoming and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, will sit down for an exclusive interview.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who posted an image on Twitter this week that read, “Don’t rush to a bad deal with Iran,” will appear on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, and Representative James E. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, will be on as well to discus alliances, political gaming and Mr. Obama’s legacy.

ABC’s “This Week” will air an interview with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, about the health care fight and the continuing effort to stop sexual assault in the military. Gov. Scott Walker, Republican of Wisconsin, will sit down to discuss the state of the party and his own political ambitions.

CBS’s “Face the Nation” will have interviews with Luci Baines Johnson Turpin, Lyndon Johnson’s youngest daughter; Hugh Aynesworth, a Dallas Morning News reporter who was present when the shots that killed Mr. Kennedy were fired; and Mike Cochran, a former Associated Press correspondent who was made to carry the shooter’s coffin from the hearse to the grave site when he covered the funeral.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago will be on Univision’s “Al Punto” to talk about unfulfilled promises the president made in his first term, including on immigration reform and the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Representative Bill Flores, Republican of Texas, and Representative Tony Cárdenas, Democrat of California, will also talk about immigration on Telemundo’s “Enfoque.”

Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, will talk about both immigration reform and potential changes to the Foreign Intelligence Service Act on Bloomberg’s “Political Capital.”

C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” will feature an interview with Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He will discuss the future of the National Security Agency’s surveillance program.

Obama Gives San Francisco’s Batkid a Six-Second Shout-Out

All Miles Scott wanted to do was to put on his Batman costume and fight crime on the grimy streets of Gotham City.

Miles, a 5-year-old leukemia patient, got his wish on Friday, and his heroism earned him a pat on the back from President Obama.

“Way to go, Miles. Way to save Gotham,” the president said in one of his first posts on Vine, a social media site that loops six-second videos uploaded by its users.

President Obama's message to #SFBatKid â€"> http://t.co/O7J4XWwYBs

â€" The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 15, 2013

With the help of the Make-A-Wish Foundation in San Francisco, part of the city was transformed into Batman’s hometown as throngs turned out to see the Batkid in action.

Escorted by two black Lamborghinis outfitted with the Batman logo, the junior Caped Crusader took out familiar adult-size villains like the Joker and rescued a woman stuck on the cable car tracks. (He arrived just in time.)

The Justice Department got in on the action, too. After Batkid saved the San Francisco Giants’ mascot, Lou Seal, from the Joker and the Riddler, the United States district attorney’s office announced the villains’ arrest in a news release. “The havoc they could have caused, if it wasn’t for the shrewd crime fighting efforts of Miles, a k a ‘Batman’ a k a ‘Batkid,’ would have been widespread and could have caused great harm in the city and surrounding communities,” it said.

The president’s video drew a range of reactions on the Vine site, not all of them friendly.

“You need to get off Vine and fix our country,” one commenter said.

Another defended the president: “Just because he made a six second video doesn’t meant he stopped taking care of the country or doing his job calm down.”

Former Lobbyist Becomes Biden Chief of Staff

WASHINGTON â€" Steve Ricchetti, a former lobbyist and Clinton administration veteran, will replace Bruce Reed as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s chief of staff next month, the White House announced Wednesday.

Mr. Ricchetti has had a lengthy career in Washington, and has been a counselor to Mr. Biden since early 2012. Like Mr. Reed, he worked in the Clinton administration, having been President Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff and deputy assistant for legislative affairs.

Much of Mr. Ricchetti’s time in politics has been spent in lobbying, which caused some tension when he joined the administration in light of President Obama’s campaign promise to keep lobbyists out of the top jobs in his White House.

“Steve and I have been friends for years, and I was thrilled when he joined my staff as counselor,” Mr. Biden said in a statement. “He has a wealth of experience in policy and government, he knows Congress and he has strong relationships with the West Wing staff. I’m lucky to have him.”

Mr. Reed plans to leave the administration in mid-December to become president of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, a multibillion-dollar philanthropic organization dedicated to education, science and the arts. He has worked as chief of staff since January 2011.

Shailagh Murray, a veteran journalist until she came to the White House in May 2011, will add the position of deputy chief of staff to her duties while continuing to serve as Mr. Biden’s communications director.

Graham Sticks With Threat to Block Nominees

Senator Lindsey Graham on Sunday stood by his threat to block all nominations by the Obama administration until Congress is granted access to all of the survivors of the attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya, even as the news report on which Republicans based their latest demands was being retracted.

Mr. Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said on the CNN program “State of the Union” that he would not back away from his threat because he had been asking to talk to the witnesses of the attack on Sept. 11, 2012, for a long time without success.

“I’ve been trying for a year to get the interviews without holds, and you just can’t allow something this bad and this big of a national security failure for the administration to investigate itself,” he said.

CBS News plans to broadcast a rare correction Sunday to a recent “60 Minutes” program in which a security officer, Dylan Davies, recounted being at the mission on the night of the attack. It was later uncovered that his account on CBS News and in a newly published book differed from what he told the F.B.I., casting doubt on the credibility of his account.

After the “60 Minutes” report was broadcast, seeming to support claims that the mission was not adequately secured and that the attack was the result of a terrorist plot, some Republican senators renewed calls for the Obama administration to make survivors of the attack available to congressional investigators. Mr. Graham vowed to hold up President Obama’s nominations until the administration complied, citing the CBS News report to substantiate his demands.

Mr. Graham said he had not known of Mr. Davies until the “60 Minutes” report came out.

When asked how many witnesses would satisfy his request â€" with one having already testified in a closed hearing with members of the House and another three former security officers set to testify next week, according to CNN â€" Mr. Graham said he wanted to question all five survivors, plus the Central Intelligence Agency officials with knowledge of what happened in Benghazi. He estimated that the total would be no more than 30 people.

“The State Department has thus far refused to allow anybody in Congress to talk to these five,” he said. “And we’re going to talk to them because they possess the best information about what happened at Benghazi, more than you and I know, and I want to find out what they know.”

The attack has been the subject of outrage among congressional Republicans, many of whom have accused the administration of failing to secure the diplomatic compound and of misleading the public about whether the attack arose spontaneously from a protest or from a terrorist effort planned in advance. State Department officials, including then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, have testified before Congress, and an independent inquiry determined there were serious security failures.

Mr. Davies â€" who gave his public account under the pseudonym Morgan Jones â€" told CBS News that on the night of the attack he visited the hospital where he saw the body of J. Christopher Stevens, the United States ambassador who was killed, as well as the compound, where he fought off an attacker.

But that version of events contradicted his account to the F.B.I., in which he said he did not arrive on the scene until the next morning, which matched the incident report completed by his security firm. Faced with that revelation, CBS News said that Mr. Davies had misled them and that it would issue a retraction on the program on Sunday night.

Sunday Breakfast Menu, Nov. 10

<div><img alt=”Sunday’s Breakfast Menu” src=”http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/promos/politics/blog/caucus_mug_190.jpg” /><span>Stephen Crowley/The New York Times</span></div>

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey handily won re-election on Tuesday, and will continue his victory lap with an appearance on four of this week’s Sunday shows. Some Republicans are looking to the governor as the future of their party, especially after such a strong win in a Democratic state.

Governor Christie will appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “Fox News Sunday,” CBS’s “Face the Nation,” and ABC’s “This Week.” Viewers can expect to hear what his plans are for his second term, and his thoughts on the current state of the Republican Party. He may also hint at his plans for the 2016 presidential election.

Senator Robert J. Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will also be on “This Week” to discuss the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas will appear on the show as well.

Leon E. Panetta, the former defense secretary and Central Intelligence Agency director, will be on “Face the Nation” after Mr. Christie, giving his take on whether the Pentagon or the C.I.A. should oversee the drone program.

CNN’s “State of the Union” will feature a one-on-one with Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, as he discusses the breakthrough on nuclear talks with Iran and the “60 minutes” report on the Benghazi attack that it was forced to retract. Later, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat of Florida and the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, will speak up about the problems with the federal health care website Healthcare.gov as her party members continue to put pressure on President Obama. Then, after a major gubernatorial loss in Virginia alongside a big win in New Jersey, Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, will be on to assure his base that the party knows what it’s doing as they look to 2014 and 2016.

Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, will talk about the recent plagiarism allegations against him on Univision’s “Al Punto.” Representative David G. Valadao, Republican of California, will discuss his plan to revive the immigration debate in his party and to get more of his colleagues on board with reformation. Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, a presidential candidate in Honduras, will be on the show as well. She will sit down for an in-depth interview on her campaign promises and the role her husband, the former president of Honduras, would have, if any, in her potential administration.

C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” will feature an interview with Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, about Congress’s inquiry into the health care law and the future role of the Tea Party following Tuesday’s elections.

Rand Paul May Have Had His Own Writings Plagiarized

For more than a week Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has been fending off criticism for using the writings of others, unattributed, in his own speeches, in an opinion article and in one of his books.

But now it appears that Mr. Paul has also been the possible victim of literary larceny himself; he has apparently had his own material lifted without credit.

The campaign website of a Republican candidate for the United States Senate in North Carolina, Greg Brannon, who Mr. Paul supports, includes descriptions of various policy positions that match those of Mr. Paul’s 2010 campaign website word for word.

On monetary policy, Mr. Paul’s 2010 site, captured by the Internet archiving site “The Wayback Machine” read:

“With so much blame going around for the current financial crisis it is surprising that so few in the mainstream press have discussed the role of the Federal Reserve System. For too long the Federal Reserve has operated behind a shroud of mysteryâ€"as Senator I would make sure that all Americans understand the dangers of unsound monetary policy and shed light on this secretive organization.”

He promised, “As Senator I would make sure that the Federal Reserve is held accountable and restore transparency to our monetary system.”

Mr. Brannon’s 2013 campaign site reads:

“With so much blame going around for the current financial crisis, it is surprising that so few in the mainstream press have discussed the role of the Federal Reserve System. For too long the Federal Reserve has operated behind a shroud of mysteryâ€"as Senator I would make sure that all Americans understand the dangers of unsound monetary policy and shed light on this secretive organization.”

He promises, “As Senator I would make sure that the Federal Reserve is held accountable and restore transparency to our monetary system.”

On education, Mr. Paul’s 2010 site read:

“As the Federal Government has increased the size and budget of the Department of Education, test scores and scholastic performance have markedly dropped. More money, more bureaucracy, and more government intervention are eroding this nation’s educational standards. Meanwhile, home schooled children continue to excel as evidenced by their test scores and rapidly growing admission rate into some of the nation’s most prestigious educational institutions.”

Mr. Brannon’s 2013 site reads:

“As the Federal Government has increased the size and budget of the Department of Education, test scores and scholastic performance have markedly dropped. More money, more bureaucracy, and more government intervention are eroding this nation’s educational standards.

I also support the right of parents to educate their children as they see fit, including the right of homeschooling. Government-mandated curriculums and teaching methods do not properly account for different learning styles, leaving many children confused and falling short of their potential.

Meanwhile, home schooled children continue to excel as evidenced by their test scores and rapidly growing admission rate into some of the nation’s most prestigious educational institutions.”

And, on health care, the website of Mr. Paul, an ophthalmologist, read:

“As a doctor I have had first-hand experience with the vast problems facing health care in America.
Like other areas of the economy where the federal government wields its heavy hand, health care is over-regulated and in need of serious market reforms. As Senator, I would ensure that real free market principles are applied to fix this problem.”

The site of Mr. Brannon, an obstetrician, reads:

“As a doctor for more than twenty-five years, I have first-hand experience with the vast problems facing health care in America.

Like other areas of the economy where the federal government wields its heavy hand, health care is over-regulated and in need of serious market reforms.

As a Senator, I would vote to repeal the President’s plan to force families and individuals to purchase government-approved health insurance.”

The similarities between the two websites continue. Dr. Brannon is running in a Republican primary in North Carolina, the winner of which would seek to unseat Senator Kay Hagan, a Democrat, next year. Popular among adherents of the Tea Party movement, Dr. Brannon has modeled himself after Mr. Paul. Like Mr. Paul, he is a doctor who calls for a strict reading of the Constitution and the curtailment of federal powers.

Mr. Paul’s endorsement of him last month is advertised prominently on his campaign home page, with the headline, “Rand Stands with Brannon!”

A spokesman for Dr. Brannon did not respond to a emails about the similarities between the two sites Thursday, and Mr. Paul’s office had no comment.

Rand Paul May Have Had His Own Writings Plagiarized

For more than a week Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has been fending off criticism for using the writings of others, unattributed, in his own speeches, in an opinion article and in one of his books.

But now it appears that Mr. Paul has also been the possible victim of literary larceny himself; he has apparently had his own material lifted without credit.

The campaign website of a Republican candidate for the United States Senate in North Carolina, Greg Brannon, who Mr. Paul supports, includes descriptions of various policy positions that match those of Mr. Paul’s 2010 campaign website word for word.

On monetary policy, Mr. Paul’s 2010 site, captured by the Internet archiving site “The Wayback Machine” read:

“With so much blame going around for the current financial crisis it is surprising that so few in the mainstream press have discussed the role of the Federal Reserve System. For too long the Federal Reserve has operated behind a shroud of mysteryâ€"as Senator I would make sure that all Americans understand the dangers of unsound monetary policy and shed light on this secretive organization.”

He promised, “As Senator I would make sure that the Federal Reserve is held accountable and restore transparency to our monetary system.”

Mr. Brannon’s 2013 campaign site reads:

“With so much blame going around for the current financial crisis, it is surprising that so few in the mainstream press have discussed the role of the Federal Reserve System. For too long the Federal Reserve has operated behind a shroud of mysteryâ€"as Senator I would make sure that all Americans understand the dangers of unsound monetary policy and shed light on this secretive organization.”

He promises, “As Senator I would make sure that the Federal Reserve is held accountable and restore transparency to our monetary system.”

On education, Mr. Paul’s 2010 site read:

“As the Federal Government has increased the size and budget of the Department of Education, test scores and scholastic performance have markedly dropped. More money, more bureaucracy, and more government intervention are eroding this nation’s educational standards. Meanwhile, home schooled children continue to excel as evidenced by their test scores and rapidly growing admission rate into some of the nation’s most prestigious educational institutions.”

Mr. Brannon’s 2013 site reads:

“As the Federal Government has increased the size and budget of the Department of Education, test scores and scholastic performance have markedly dropped. More money, more bureaucracy, and more government intervention are eroding this nation’s educational standards.

I also support the right of parents to educate their children as they see fit, including the right of homeschooling. Government-mandated curriculums and teaching methods do not properly account for different learning styles, leaving many children confused and falling short of their potential.

Meanwhile, home schooled children continue to excel as evidenced by their test scores and rapidly growing admission rate into some of the nation’s most prestigious educational institutions.”

And, on health care, the website of Mr. Paul, an ophthalmologist, read:

“As a doctor I have had first-hand experience with the vast problems facing health care in America.
Like other areas of the economy where the federal government wields its heavy hand, health care is over-regulated and in need of serious market reforms. As Senator, I would ensure that real free market principles are applied to fix this problem.”

The site of Mr. Brannon, an obstetrician, reads:

“As a doctor for more than twenty-five years, I have first-hand experience with the vast problems facing health care in America.

Like other areas of the economy where the federal government wields its heavy hand, health care is over-regulated and in need of serious market reforms.

As a Senator, I would vote to repeal the President’s plan to force families and individuals to purchase government-approved health insurance.”

The similarities between the two websites continue. Dr. Brannon is running in a Republican primary in North Carolina, the winner of which would seek to unseat Senator Kay Hagan, a Democrat, next year. Popular among adherents of the Tea Party movement, Dr. Brannon has modeled himself after Mr. Paul. Like Mr. Paul, he is a doctor who calls for a strict reading of the Constitution and the curtailment of federal powers.

Mr. Paul’s endorsement of him last month is advertised prominently on his campaign home page, with the headline, “Rand Stands with Brannon!”

A spokesman for Dr. Brannon did not respond to a emails about the similarities between the two sites Thursday, and Mr. Paul’s office had no comment.

A Better Night’s Sleep for a Less-Heavier Christie

SOUTH AMBOY, N.J. â€" While Gov. Chris Christie celebrated a big public victory in New Jersey on Tuesday, he has also been privately enjoying another success: better sleep, as a result of his weight loss.

In an interview Tuesday morning on his campaign bus, outside a diner in South Amboy, Mr. Christie described what he called the biggest difference in his life since he started shedding pounds: “I sleep better. I didn’t realize how badly I was sleeping being that much overweight.”

Asked how much weight he has lost since his lap-band surgery in February, the governor smiled, then pointed at his wife, Mary Pat, who was sitting next to him.

“She knows, but nobody else knows,’’ he said. “I’ve set a goal and I’m more than halfway to my goal.”

Mr. Christie described his health as good, and said his appetite is so much smaller now he recently could not even finish a wrap sandwich.

“This surgery really causes you to have a new way to eat â€" it really does,’’ he said. “It teaches you a new way to eat, and that’s a process over a period of time to get used to. And I’m still not completely used to it.”

Asked whether he would have any problems handling the rigors of a presidential campaign, he responded, “No more than any other 51-year-old person.”

He added: “I’m slower than I was when I was 40. But that’s the slow march of time. No, I don’t have any problem handling the rigors.”

Rand Paul Muses About ‘Dueling” His Accusers

In the 1800s, so many Kentuckians were killing one another in duels that the Legislature saw fit to require that incoming state office holders swear an oath that they had not fought in a duel, issued a challenge for a duel or assisted at a duel, “so help me God.”

The state’s explicit ban on dueling, still on the books, may provide some comfort to those journalists who recently accused Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, of lifting wording for a speech from a Wikipedia entry about the science-fiction movie “Gattaca.”

Asked about the accusations on Sunday, Mr. Paul, a man of normally courtly demeanor, appeared to grit his teeth. The senator is considered a top Republican presidential prospect for 2016, and such charges can do harm.

“I take it as an insult, and I will not lie down and say people can call me dishonest, misleading or misrepresenting,” he said, dismissing his critics as “hacks and haters.” Presumably in jest, Mr. Paul added: “If dueling were legal in Kentucky, if they keep it up, it’d be a duel challenge.”

The plagiarism story was first reported on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, and the website BuzzFeed followed up, describing a speech from June in which Mr. Paul appeared to have lifted words from a separate Wikipedia entry.

Mr. Paul insisted, in an appearance Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” that he normally gives credit where it is due. He said that he often credited primary sources but, favoring extemporaneous speaking, sometimes neglected to cite secondary ones.

He promised, going forward, to do more “footnoting.”

Clemency for Snowden? U.S. Officials Say No

If Edward J. Snowden believes he deserves clemency for his disclosures of classified government documents because they provoked an important public debate about the reach of American spying, he has failed to sway the White House and at least two key members of Congress.

The chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, Dianne Feinstein of California, and her House counterpart, Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, gave sharply negative answers on Sunday when asked whether they believed Mr. Snowden had made a case for clemency.

“He was trusted, he stripped our system. He had an opportunity - if what he was was a whistleblower - to pick up the phone and call the House intelligence committee, the Senate intelligence committee, and say I have some information,” Ms. Feinstein said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.” But “that didn’t happen.”

“He’s done this enormous disservice to our country,” she said, “and I think the answer is, no clemency.”

Mr. Rogers was equally adamant.

“No, I don’t see any reason” to grant clemency, he said on the same program. “I wouldn’t do that. He needs to come back and own up. We can have those conversations, if he believes there are vulnerabilities he’d like to disclose.”

Dan Pfeiffer, a senior White House adviser, said on the ABC program “This Week” that there had been no consideration of clemency, and that Mr. Snowden should return to the United States to face charges.

Mr. Snowden’s argument - made in a “Manifesto for the Truth” published on Sunday by the German news magazine Der Spiegel, and in a letter to American officials handed to a leftist German politician who met with Mr. Snowden in Moscow - was that he has started a useful debate about whether American spies are overreaching with the help of enormously powerful technology and should be reined in.

Federal prosecutors have charged Mr. Snowden with theft and with two violations of the Espionage Act of 1917. But Mr. Snowden, who has taken refuge in Russia, has denied any treasonous intent, saying he disclosed secrets to the news media, not to hostile foreign powers, and did so to push for reform.

“Instead of causing damage, the usefulness of the new public knowledge for society is now clear because reforms to politics, supervision and laws are being suggested,” he wrote in der Spiegel. “Citizens have to fight against the suppression of information about affairs of essential importance for the public. Those who speak the truth are not committing a crime.”

Indeed, Ms. Feinstein is among those who have raised the question of overreach by the N.S.A. and the need for possible reform, particularly after reports that the N.S.A. had long monitored the cellphone of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

Ms. Feinstein said Sunday that she strongly supported a White House review to consider a more appropriate framework for intelligence operations. She wants her committee to conduct its own review.

Tapping the private phones of close allies, she said, “has much more political liability than probably intelligence viability, and I think we ought to look at it carefully. I believe the president is doing that.”

As to the question of whether President Obama could have been unaware of such phone monitoring - and whether the Europeans who have expressed outrage over N.S.A. espionage could have been truly surprised that such high-level spying goes on - Mr. Rogers replied with a touch of irony.

“I think there’s going to be some Best Actor awards coming out of the White House this year, and Best Supporting Actor awards coming out of the European Union,” he said.

He insisted that fundamentally, the N.S.A. was doing the work it had been created to do, a point that Ms. Feinstein said she largely shared.

Sunday Breakfast Menu, Nov. 3

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Technical problems that continue to complicate President Obama’s signature health care law and reports of high-level espionage on both enemies and allies have made for a tumultuous week in the White House. Also, some Republicans are threatening to block the administration’s nominees for federal posts until the survivors of the 2012 attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, appear before Congress. Supporters on both sides of each issue will hash it out on the Sunday news shows.

Mitt Romney will be on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” one year after losing the presidential election to Mr. Obama. Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, will share his vision for what a Republican-led White House would have done differently on health care, and will offer his views on national security. Later, his successor, Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, will explain why he thinks Americans should be patient with the new health legislation.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a former adviser to the Obama administration (and a contributor to the opinion pages of The New York Times), and James C. Capretta of the Ethics & Public Policy Center will appear on Fox’s “Fox News Sunday” to discuss reports that only six people enrolled for coverage on the first day of the new health insurance program. The focus of the show will shift when Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, explains why he wants to block all of Mr. Obama’s federal nominees until survivors of the attack in Benghazi testify before Congress.

Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican of New Hampshire, is also threatening to block appointments pending more information on Benghazi. She will appear on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will be on “State of the Union” to talk about Friday’s shooting at Los Angeles International Airport and the effect it could have on airport security around the country.

ABC’s “This Week” will feature one-on-one interviews with Dan Pfeiffer, a senior White House adviser, and Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky. The former will discuss the flaws in the health care website, and the latter will delve into the fallout over reports that the National Security Agency is spying on both allies and enemies abroad.

Mr. Paul will also be on Bloomberg’s “Political Capital” to talk about his threat to block Janet L. Yellen’s nomination as the next Federal Reserve chairwoman.

The conversation will continue on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” when the Intelligence Committee leaders - Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan - discuss the heightened concerns over the N.S.A.’s surveillance.

Telemundo’s “Enfoque” will feature Éric Rojo, a retired colonel in the U.S. Army, with analysis of the espionage issue and possible repercussions for United States diplomacy efforts. Representative Mick Mulvaney, Republican of South Carolina, and Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, will discuss the Affordable Care Act.

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, will appear on Univision’s “Al Punto” to discuss the health care law and his political future. Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, and Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois, will be interviewed about immigration reform.

C-Span’s “Newsmakers” will feature an interview with Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture.

Republican Campaign Committee Pushes Back Against Conservative Group

In a warning shot to outside conservative groups, the National Republican Senatorial Committee this week informed a prominent Republican advertising firm that it would not receive any contracts with the campaign committee because of its work with a group that targets incumbent Senate Republicans.

Even more striking, a senior official at the committee called individual Republican Senate campaigns and other party organizations this week and urged them not to hire the firm, Jamestown Associates, in an effort to punish them for working for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group founded by Jim DeMint, then a South Carolina senator, that is trying to unseat Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and some other incumbents up for re-election next year whom it finds insufficiently conservative.

“We’re not going to do business with people who profit off of attacking Republicans,” said Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the committee. “Purity for profit is a disease that threatens the Republican Party.”

The committee has conveyed the same message, privately, to 2014 Senate candidates such as Representatives Steve Daines of Montana and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee (the senatorial committee’s House counterpart), the Republican Governors Association and Mike DuHaime, the chief strategist for Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, for whom Jamestown also does work.

Jamestown declined to respond to the attempt to curtail their business, deferring to the Senate Conservatives Fund, which criticized Mr. McConnell.

“This is happening because Mitch McConnell is having a complete meltdown,” said Matt Hoskins, executive director of the conservative group. “He can’t defend his record so he’s threatening and attacking everyone who disagrees with him. He’s so rattled, he has decided to declare war on the entire conservative movement, which represents the very people he needs to win re-election. This isn’t the behavior of a confident person. It’s the irrational reaction of a power-hungry bully who isn’t getting his way.”

The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s power play is part of a larger effort among establishment Republicans after the recent government shutdown to seize control of the party from insurgent forces who want to push Republicans toward a more hard-line posture and aggressive brand of conservatism.

Mr. McConnell’s allies in Washington’s lobbying community have been furious for weeks that Jamestown, which also does work for groups like the Republican Jewish Coalition, was on retainer with the Senate Conservatives Fund.

One prominent Republican lobbyist even printed out the records of a Louisville television station detailing the run times of every ad devised by Jamestown for the conservative group’s campaign against Mr. McConnell and gave it to a reporter.

“These are not the kind of people we would ever do business with,” said Scott Reed, senior political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In the wake of the shutdown, Mr. McConnell and his top aides are also becoming more outspoken about wanting to effectively destroy the Senate Conservatives Fund. The senator has told donors that he and other party leaders will take a much more aggressive approach in confronting such conservative groups.

And on Friday, one of Mr. McConnell’s closest aides offered a vivid metaphor about the leader’s determination.

“S.C.F. has been wandering around the country destroying the Republican Party like a drunk who tears up every bar they walk into,” said Josh Holmes, Mr. McConnell’s chief of staff, now detailed to the National Republican Senatorial Committee through the election. “The difference this cycle is that they strolled into Mitch McConnell’s bar and he doesn’t throw you out, he locks the door.”

Republican Campaign Committee Pushes Back Against Conservative Group

In a warning shot to outside conservative groups, the National Republican Senatorial Committee this week informed a prominent Republican advertising firm that it would not receive any contracts with the campaign committee because of its work with a group that targets incumbent Senate Republicans.

Even more striking, a senior official at the committee called individual Republican Senate campaigns and other party organizations this week and urged them not to hire the firm, Jamestown Associates, in an effort to punish them for working for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group founded by Jim DeMint, then a South Carolina senator, that is trying to unseat Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and some other incumbents up for re-election next year whom it finds insufficiently conservative.

“We’re not going to do business with people who profit off of attacking Republicans,” said Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the committee. “Purity for profit is a disease that threatens the Republican Party.”

The committee has conveyed the same message, privately, to 2014 Senate candidates such as Representatives Steve Daines of Montana and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee (the senatorial committee’s House counterpart), the Republican Governors Association and Mike DuHaime, the chief strategist for Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, for whom Jamestown also does work.

Jamestown declined to respond to the attempt to curtail their business, deferring to the Senate Conservatives Fund, which criticized Mr. McConnell.

“This is happening because Mitch McConnell is having a complete meltdown,” said Matt Hoskins, executive director of the conservative group. “He can’t defend his record so he’s threatening and attacking everyone who disagrees with him. He’s so rattled, he has decided to declare war on the entire conservative movement, which represents the very people he needs to win re-election. This isn’t the behavior of a confident person. It’s the irrational reaction of a power-hungry bully who isn’t getting his way.”

The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s power play is part of a larger effort among establishment Republicans after the recent government shutdown to seize control of the party from insurgent forces who want to push Republicans toward a more hard-line posture and aggressive brand of conservatism.

Mr. McConnell’s allies in Washington’s lobbying community have been furious for weeks that Jamestown, which also does work for groups like the Republican Jewish Coalition, was on retainer with the Senate Conservatives Fund.

One prominent Republican lobbyist even printed out the records of a Louisville television station detailing the run times of every ad devised by Jamestown for the conservative group’s campaign against Mr. McConnell and gave it to a reporter.

“These are not the kind of people we would ever do business with,” said Scott Reed, senior political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In the wake of the shutdown, Mr. McConnell and his top aides are also becoming more outspoken about wanting to effectively destroy the Senate Conservatives Fund. The senator has told donors that he and other party leaders will take a much more aggressive approach in confronting such conservative groups.

And on Friday, one of Mr. McConnell’s closest aides offered a vivid metaphor about the leader’s determination.

“S.C.F. has been wandering around the country destroying the Republican Party like a drunk who tears up every bar they walk into,” said Josh Holmes, Mr. McConnell’s chief of staff, now detailed to the National Republican Senatorial Committee through the election. “The difference this cycle is that they strolled into Mitch McConnell’s bar and he doesn’t throw you out, he locks the door.”