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Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for the 17th of December. I'm John Dickerson in Washington with David Plotz. A little snowy here. Emily Bazelon is in Connecticut. Where has it snowed, Emily? Not really. No. It's feeling very northeasterly down here. And so the city's gone into a total chaos mode, but we're all safe inside our little room here. That is so not true. How was the city gone into chaos mode? Did you just drive to here an hour ago? No, why would you drive? Why would you drive? Because I drove in from my house. I know. So who has a better understanding of how it's like outside of the U-Doh? In what way was there chaos? Well, there were people throwing rocks at you. There were people who were fish tailed in the middle of the road.

There were other... better understanding of how it's like outside. In what way was there chaos? Well, there were people throwing rocks at you.

There were people who were fish tailed in the middle of the road.

There were other people screaming at other people because pedestrians were like slipping

around on the road.

It was chaotic relative to a normal sunny day.

Washington, D.C. ever unable to handle any amount of snow.

I can't stand that claim. I hate it when people say that. It is not true. It's not true. Washington, D.C. gets a lot less snow than, say, Minneapolis, which has, and they spend, as a result, they spend a lot, they spend a lot less. Post- prerogative. This is the dullest conversation in the history of dull conversations. But our first conversation is going to be about the tax cut deal. Then we'll talk about the ruling in Virginia on the president's health care plan. And then finally we're going to talk about Mark Zuckerberg, who is named as Times Person of the Year. But before all of that, Emily has something to tell us.

Yes, we are really excited. We are coming back to Washington for a live show on January

the 12th at our favorite D.C. spot, the Sixth and I Synagogue. We'll be there at 7 p.m.

You can purchase tickets at the Sixth and I website,

which is 6th and I, the letter I, all spelled out.org. Or you can just come to the Gab Fest

blog page or Facebook page and we will post the links there and it's going to be a new Congress

and the old lovely familiar us and you, we hope, and we can't

wait.

Our first topic is about the tax cut deal, which passed the Senate this week by a pretty

sizable marginally 19 senators voted against the bill, and it is very likely to pass the

House.

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