Sunday shows: Into the lame duck

The legislative battles set to kick off during next week’s lame-duck Congress look to dominate the Sunday talk show circuit.

Tax cuts, leadership races, President Obama’s fiscal commission and more figure to be the topics of conversation this weekend.

{mosads}White House senior adviser David Axelrod will lay out the
administration’s perspective during appearances on NBC’s “Meet the
Press” and “Fox News Sunday.” The top Obama aide had signaled in an
interview earlier this week with the Huffington Post that the White
House might be open to compromise with Republicans on tax cuts that are
set to expire at the end of the year, and his appearances on Sunday
could detail the White House position on the tax debate.

Elsewhere, lawmakers will be positioning themselves for the coming session of Congress.

Sen.
John McCain (R-Ariz.) will appear on “Meet the Press,” where he’s
likely to talk about his recent trip to Iraq. One of McCain’s travel
companions, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), is also likely to report back
from the Middle East trip on ABC’s “This Week.”

The impending battles over congressional leadership will also take
center stage on Sunday. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) will
be on CNN’s “State of the Union,” where he’s likely to discuss his race
against House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) for the position of
minority whip in the next Congress. Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) will
also be on CNN, where he’ll almost certainly face questions about
whether he plans to challenge outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
for the Democratic leader position in the next Congress.

Another figure on the rise, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), will also be
on Fox this weekend, where he’ll be talking about his upcoming vote on
ending earmarks within the Senate GOP, a power play he’s made against
Republican leaders.

Sen.-elect Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a supporter of DeMint’s earmark ban,
will answer questions about that and other issues on CBS’s “Face the
Nation.”

Campaign issues for 2012 may also be on the agenda as
two veterans of each party’s Senate campaign efforts will appear on
Sunday. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a former Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee chairman, will be on CBS. National Republican
Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas), meanwhile, will be
on CNN.

Lastly, centrist Democrats may make their voices known on fiscal
issues and whether or not compromise is possible between Democrats and
Republicans in the next Congress. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the
chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, is on ABC, and Sen. Mark
Warner (D-Va.) will be on CNN.