SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET:

LIZ LOSING – FROM THE HILL:   Massachusetts voters are split on whether or not Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) should be reelected, according to a new poll.  Forty-six percent of all voters told WBUR they should "give someone else a chance," compared to 44 percent who said Warren should be reelected.
Steve Koczela — president of The MassINC Polling Group, which conducted the survey — said the numbers shouldn't be "reassuring" for Warren, who is up for reelection in 2018.  "No one's going to look at a 44 percent reelect number and think that that's a good number," he told WBUR.  Roughly a third of Democrats told WBUR that someone else should be given a shot at Warren's seat. Ninety two percent of Republicans also want someone else besides Warren, a liberal favorite in the Senate, as well as 46 percent of independent voters.  Warren is terminally obnoxious, a condition not covered by Obamacare.

RESPECTING ANOTHER ALLY – FROM REUTERS:  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed ways to boost the fight against terrorism and extremism on Monday and the new American leader underscored his commitment to bilateral ties, the two countries said.  Trump told Sisi in a telephone call he appreciated the difficulties faced by Egypt in its "war on terror" and affirmed his administration's commitment to supporting the country, Sisi's spokesman Alaa Youssef said in a statement.  "The U.S. president also expressed during the call his looking forward to the president's awaited visit to Washington which is being prepared for through diplomatic channels," the statement said.  Sisi is an ally of the United States, and thus Obama treated him like an outcast.  Things have changed in Washington.  Allies are welcome again, and enemies are described correctly, as in "Islamic extremists."  Breath of fresh air. 

THE OLD BANANA SMEARING SCHEME – FROM AP:    PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – A woman is being charged with sneaking onto President Donald Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club shortly before his inauguration and smearing bananas on cars.  Palm Beach, Florida, police say in a report released Monday that 48-year-old Kelly Weidman also typed a profanity about Trump on a Mar-a-Lago computer and moved outside some ballroom balloons a few hours before Trump was sworn-in Friday.  She was confronted by security guards, who called police. She allegedly told officers she wanted to be arrested because no one was paying attention to her claim of being cyber attacked. She was charged with misdemeanor trespassing and released.  Because Trump wasn’t at the ritzy club, the Secret Service wasn’t involved.   Watch.  She'll be delivering the keynote address at the next Democratic National Convention.

January 23,  2017