By MICHAEL FALCONE ( @michaelpfalcone )

NOTABLES

• OBAMA DEFENDS EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY ON IMMIGRATION: Showing no signs of backing down, President Obama strongly pushed back against critics questioning his authority to bypass Congress and act unilaterally to reform the nation's immigration system, ABC's MARY BRUCE, JIM AVILA and CHRIS GOOD report. "There is a very simple solution to this perception that somehow I'm exercising too much executive authority: pass a bill I can sign on this issue," he said at a news conference at the conclusion of the G20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia. If Congress does act, Obama said, "Metaphorically, I'll crumple up whatever executive actions that we take and we'll toss them in the wastebasket because we will now have a law that addresses these issues." http://abcn.ws/1uhol2Y

• TOM COLE: PRESIDENT BEING 'CYNICAL' WITH IMMIGRATION EXECUTIVE PLAN: ABC's BEN BELL reports Rep. Tom Cole, R-Ok., called President Obama "political" and "cynical" and said he was trying to "pick a fight" with his plan to take executive action on immigration in the coming days. "He had plenty of opportunity to do things when he had complete Democratic control … so it's been a political weapon rather than a problem to be solved in my view from the president's standpoint," Cole said during an interview on "This Week." "I think he's actually trying to bait us into doing some of these extreme things," he added later in the interview. http://abcn.ws/1ztTWQP

THE ROUNDTABLE

ABC's RICK KLEIN: President Obama should always take public advice offered by former President Bill Clinton with the sharply flavored grains of salt that accompany it. Yet Clinton's comments over the weekend, on a subject he knows particularly well, seems like the kind of advice the current president is already following. "I think that he should minimize the chances of being a lame duck," Clinton told Politico's Mike Allen. In suggesting that "lame duck" is a mindset, or at least a choice - and not an inevitable byproduct of the calendar - Clinton offered Obama a path to both consequence and confrontation. And on the two big agenda items now in front of the White House - Keystone and immigration - Obama is acting pretty much like this month's midterms never really happened. It may be that he's following Clinton's advice, with an Obama twist. These last two years won't be about welfare deals on one end or school uniforms on the other. But early signals from the president suggest he's plotting a way to be more than a little relevant in the coming 26 months.

ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE: What a week this could be. Tomorrow, we expect the Senate will vote on the Keystone XL pipeline and it could get sent to the president's desk. This could give the president a chance to use his veto pen, something that he's only use twice previously in his presidency. And this week could also bring the president's decision to issue an executive order on immigration reform, although if it does happen this week it would only be at the end at the very earliest. Whenever it does happen, expect an angry GOP response, but even some Democrats like Harry Reid would like the president to wait until next month after the spending bill is done. What else is going on this week? Giddy GOP governors ecstatic after their victories this month will gather at the Republican Governors Association annual conference, this year in Florida. Even after the AP's call this weekend of the Alaska gubernatorial race with GOP Gov. Sean Parnell losing they have much more to rejoice and expect to see quite an excited group when they gather later this week.

THE BUZZ

with ABC's KIRSTEN APPLETON

STATE DEPARTMENT SHUTS DOWN EMAIL AFTER HACKING ATTACK. The State Department's unclassified email network has been temporarily shut down to update security protocols in the wake of a suspected hacking attack that occurred in early October. According to ABC's LUIS MARTINEZ and PIERRE THOMAS, a senior State Department official confirmed Sunday that "the Department recently detected activity of concern in portions of its unclassified email system." The official stressed that "there was no compromise of any of the Department's classified systems." As a result of that incident the State Department scheduled an outage this weekend of some Internet systems to implement security improvements to its main unclassified network. http://abcn.ws/11h3AKA

POSITIVE CONVERSATION ABOUT SEN. TED CRUZ DROPS SHARPLY ON FACEBOOK AFTER NET NEUTRALITY COMMENTS. The percentage of conversation about Sen. Ted Cruz that was positive on Facebook fell after the Texas Republican criticized net neutrality, calling it "Obamacare for the Internet." ABC's BEN BELL reports that positive interactions related to Cruz on Facebook dropped from 52 percent over the period of Oct. 29 to Nov. 4 to 34 percent from Nov. 5 to Nov. 11, following the firebrand Texas senator's reaction to Obama's embrace of net neutrality, according to data supplied by Facebook. http://abcn.ws/1uiNRF5

TRANSCANADA CEO: 'HIGH PROBABILITY' KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE WILL BE BUILT. Russ Girling, head of the company proposing the Keystone XL Pipeline, expressed confidence that the project would soon be under way, ABC's JESSICA PUCKETT reports. "There is a very high probability this pipeline gets built," Girling said today on ABC News' "This Week." "The need for transportation continues to grow, and the place where these producers want to put those barrels is into the Gulf Coast of the U.S. So, our shippers have not wavered one bit in the past six years." Legislation authorizing Keystone has been in the works since 2008. On Friday, the House voted 252-161 in favor of building the pipeline. http://abcn.ws/1qMQSK8

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

- SEASONED SENATORS DOLE OUT ADVICE: AVOID MISTAKES AND DUNGEON OFFICES. Everyone's a newbie at some point in their Senate career. After years on Capitol Hill, senators have come to learn a thing or two about surviving in the halls of Congress. As 12 senators-elect learned their way around the halls of the Senate this week during freshman orientation, several senators told ABC's ARLETTE SAENZ some of the advice they wish they had when they started in the Senate. http://abcn.ws/14nkXvq

-HERE'S WHY OBAMACARE 'ARCHITECT' JONATHAN GRUBER IS UNDER FIRE. MIT economist Jonathan Gruber may not have been a household name, at least before this week, despite his being described as the "architect" of Obamacare and, previously, Romneycare in Massachusetts. He sparked a furor last week after video surfaced of his talking about the "stupidity" of the American people, among other insults aimed at the voting public. ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE has more on what you need to know about Gruber and the controversy that's still swirling. http://abcn.ws/14nYIpd

WHO'S TWEETING?

@TheFix: Want to understand why nothing gets done in Washington? It's a trust thing. http://wapo.st/1zvUp50

@moody: How Republicans used secret Twitter accounts to share internal polling data with super PACs. http://cnn.it/1uxwmCE

@ShorensteinCtr: Who influences U.S. policy most? Research compares economic elites, interest groups, average voters @JournoResource http://hvrd.me/EodJS

@politicalwire: Mitt Romney: "This idea of poking Republicans with a stick in the eye is not a good idea." http://politicalwire.com/2014/11/17/bonus-quote-of-the-day-568/ …

@rollcall: Saying Farewell to Retiring Obscure Caucus Members http://roll.cl/1xlWSRD via @ClarkMindock