Conflict and Interest: The Senate and Trump transition team appear to be trying to ram through cabinet appointees who have yet to receive complete background and ethics screenings. The man who leads the Office of Government Ethics says the schedule of hearings has him under “undue pressure” to get the job done.

Republican leaders insist that Senate hearings begin tomorrow with Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the nominee for attorney general, and Gen. John F. Kelly, up for Homeland Security.

The Senate schedule is further jammed on Wednesday: Rex W. Tillerson, secretary of state; Betsy DeVos, education secretary; and Representative Mike Pompeo of Kansas, for the CIA Tillerson in particular presents a big question mark. As the chief of ExxonMobil he’s got some tangled business interests, and he had close relations with Russian leaders, including Vladimir Putin.

Most of Trump’s cabinet appointees are expected to sail through, with Democrats picking their fights. Tom Price of Georgia, the choice for health secretary has been a big opponent of the Affordable Care Act and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama was once deemed too racist to be appointed a federal judge.

The Russia House: Asked on CBS News about Donald Trump’s hopes for better relations with Russia, Sen. Mitch McConnell said yesterday, “My suspicion is, these hopes will be dashed pretty quickly. The Russians are a big adversary, and they demonstrated it by trying to mess around in our election.”

Short Fingers: Donald Trump, who surely must have bigger things on his mind, was ranting on Twitter yesterday about NBC News. “Before I, or anyone, saw the classified and/or highly confidential hacking intelligence report, it was leaked out to @NBC News. So serious!”

He’s evidently more upset that NBC got the report early than that Russia hacked the elections. But wait, there’s more. “Kellyanne Conway went to @MeetThePress this morning for an interview with @ChuckTodd. Dishonest media cut out 9 of her 10 minutes. Terrible!”

There’s also the possibility that for nine out of 10 minutes Conway said nothing worth putting on television.

Iceball: It was 14 degrees in Pittsburgh at kickoff time yesterday and 13 degrees in Green Bay. Pittsburgh disposed of Miami, 30-12, and the Packers destroyed the Giants. It 15 degrees at the end of the game in Green Bay, but minus 25 for the Giants on the scoreboard.

The Obit Page: Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president of Iran and a founder of the Islamic Republic, who was a massively corrupt and canny survivor of his country’s theocracy, died on Sunday in Tehran. He was 82. Rafsanjani accumulated great wealth, which didn’t come through prayer.

Rafsanjani was a hard-nosed man who disposed of opponents, but who could reasonable on some points. He’s credited with suggesting that “Death to America” be dropped from the chant of slogans at Tehran’s Friday prayers.

Statuary: “La La Land” won seven Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles last night, including Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for Ryan Gosling, and Best Actress for Emma Stone. The Globes are considered an indicator of who and what will win an Oscar, except when they are not. In the television category, “The Crown” on Netflix won Best series, drama. It starts slow but don’t worry, it finishes slow, too.

There’s a Donald Trump angle to every story. In a six-minute speech after receiving a special award, actress Meryl Streep criticized the President-elect for his behavior, particularly for mocking a disabled NY Times reporter. Trump tweeted this morning that the three-time Oscar winner “one of the most over-rated actresses.”

Monster’s Ball: As Inauguration Day approaches, the swamp dwellers of Washington are evidently worried that their cozy and tradition-bound ways of life may be about to change under the President from Queens. He might re-do the whole city in Louis XIV furniture. NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd writes that, “The city has the panicked air of a B-horror movie where the townsfolk stand stock still, bug-eyed and frozen, too frightened to flee, waiting for the creature.”

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