Today was supposed to be the final day of the Congressional session, as the House would return to finish off the payroll tax deal negotiated and passed through the Senate. But that blew up over the weekend. We now have a regular business day in the House, with votes in the afternoon. But it’s not clear exactly what they’ll do with the Senate’s payroll tax deal.

Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) declared his support today for the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA, S.598), a bill that would repeal the so-called federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Senator Menendez is the 32nd U.S. Senator so far to co-sponsor the RMA and joins a growing list of senators — currently totaling 13 — who originally voted for DOMA in 1996 as a Senator or Representative.

Activist Dan Choi was wrestled to the ground by MPs and thrown off the base at Fort Meade, where he was to attend the trial of Bradley Manning. Choi, who went with Pentagon Papers leader Daniel Ellsberg to the trial, has now been banned from the courtroom, and must stay off the base for at least 24 hours.

When the House Judiciary Committee adjourned without a final vote on the Stop Online Piracy Act, the expectation was that they wouldn’t take up the matter again until next year. HJC Chairman Lamar Smith appeared to agree to allow technical experts give testimony on the implications of the bill to the Internet’s architecture, particularly the Domain Name System. But quietly, Smith announced a resumption of the markup for this Wednesday, at a time when Congress may not even be in session.

It seems like the rule of the Republican primary race is whatever goes up must come down, except Mitt Romney who remains creepily consistent at roughly 20 percent support. In the past few weeks Newt Gingrich went from a big lead in Iowa to dropping all the way down to a distant third place according to PPP polling. Ron Paul now leads in the caucus.

The death of Kim Jong-il comes just as the United States was about to re-engage with North Korea, a plan now thrown into doubt because of the succession to Kim Jong-un. Hours before Kim’s death, news leaked about an imminent large grain shipment to North Korea, seen as an olive branch to restart talks on the country’s nuclear program.

The pre-trial (Article 32) hearing for Bradley Manning continues with day 4. There’s also a recap of Sunday’s proceedings (day 3)

David Dayen’s news roundup. The “Dear Leader” is dead; bookends a the death of a true Czeck leader. Congress is still in session so nothing’s safe, Ron Wyden makes excuses, drones take pictures of US leaving Iraq, Yurps’ a mess, but Romer says we have a choice, and much more.

A variety of links to articles/interviews on current topics that may, or may not, be of interest.

There’s a decreasing chance Newt’s going to be the GOP nominee, but I read the New York Times piece on how the thrice-married middle-aged Republican Newt Gingrich suddenly converted to become a Roman Catholic. And like Masaccio in his post here yesterday I was drawn to this particular passage: “As he got involved with the [...]