Monday's Starting Lineup

By Reid Wilson

Good Monday morning. We hope your Thanksgiving holiday went well, and that you recover quickly. It may take us some time.

Here is Hotline OnCall's Starting Lineup, the people who have big decisions and much at stake over the next 24 hours:

EX-GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Polls show he is the first choice of more GOPers than any other potential WH '12 candidate, but his connection to a suspect in the shooting deaths of 4 Pierce Co., WA, police officers could prove a major hurdle if he chooses to get back into politics. Huckabee granted clemency to the suspect in '00, leading some to call the lifelong criminal Huckabee's version of Willie Horton.

Huckabee's office issued a statement late 11/29 deflecting blame, calling the suspect's release the "result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system." But it appears Huckabee didn't grant clemency without pushback: "This is the day I've been dreading for a long time," Pulaski Co. (AR) prosecuting atty Larry Jegley told The Seattle Times yesterday. That makes one wonder if Huckabee was urged not to sign the papers, raising questions about his judgment in the face of prosecutors' objections.

Add the horrible crime committed by a man he released to a statement this weekend, in which Huckabee said he is "less likely rather than more likely" to run for the WH in '12, and Pres. Obama's first potential foe looks to be effectively out of the race.

AFGHANISTAN STRATEGY: Pres. Obama travels to West Point tomorrow to give his long-awaited preview of a new strategy for turning around the war in Afghanistan, and his biggest challenge may come from an unusual side. Already, liberals are lining up with big concerns about expanding the war. "I've got a real problem about expanding this war where the rest of the world is sitting around and saying, 'Isn't it a nice thing that the taxpayers of the United States and the U.S. military are doing the work that the rest of the world should be doing?'" said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on ABC's "This Week."

What may be more troubling is that at least one Dem is using opposition to Obama's plan as a campaign issue in a primary. MA AG Martha Coakley (D) said in a 11/29 statement she believes withdrawal is a better option, though she promised to listen to Obama's speech to make up her mind. If Obama loses liberals, he needs to pick up GOPers to get any troop increase through Congress -- something he has been singularly unable to do on major legislation, but that could give both sides an opportunity to tout their bipartisan credentials.

(Coakley's statement, in its entirety, is below the jump.)

Coakley's statement, in full: "Based on what I know now about the President's planned troop increase, I do not believe that we should send additional troops into Afghanistan. I believe we should begin the process of bringing our troops home. I will of course listen further to the President's address, but I remain very concerned that the case for an increase in troops has not been made.

"My concern moving forward is that there is no evidence that the Afghan government, led by President Karzai, is a legitimate or trustworthy partner in these efforts. Without a credible Afghan partner, we cannot achieve a goal of securing this country with increased troop levels and then implementing a sound exit strategy that leaves it in the hands of a stable Afghan government."

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: When the liberal icon isn't voicing his opposition to the admin's Afghanistan strategy, he's leading a group of Sens, along with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who are fighting for a more robust public option in health care legislation on the Senate floor this week. As amendments roll in, the robust option that liberals want to see may be in danger of falling by the wayside.

still, given the option to support or oppose the final product even if it is not entirely to his liking, Sanders stopped short of saying he would filibuster the bill. He once called the public option "critical" to health care reform, but 11/29 he would not say he will filibuster the bill. There's a long way to go before a conference report makes it back to both chambers, but if Sanders signals he is willing to give up the public option, that could help Dems convince House liberals to sign on as well.