Subject: POLITICO Huddle: Presented by Raytheon – GOP’s Obamacare silence – The Benghazi believers – Sunday show wrap-up – Brendan Buck to AHIP – Rand Paul pens NYT op-ed – The two women who control the Senate
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 06:32:16 -0600

By Seung Min Kim (
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GOP MUM ON OBAMACARE - The Hill's Elise Viebeck: "House Republicans have no scheduled votes or hearings on ObamaCare, signaling a shift in the party's strategy as the White House rides a wave of good news on the law. Not a single House committee has announced plans to attack the healthcare law in the coming weeks, and only one panel of jurisdiction commented to The Hill despite repeated inquiries. GOP campaign committees also declined to say whether they will launch any new efforts on the law. The lack of action highlights the GOP's struggle to adjust its message now that enrollment in the exchanges beat projections and the uninsured rate is going down. Insurers also report that 80 to 90
 percent of new policyholders are paying their premiums, contradicting a frequent criticism from the GOP."

--"This dynamic was laid bare last week as Republicans failed to land punches against the healthcare law in a hearing of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. In a rare display, Democrats began to control the message as witnesses from health insurance companies rebuffed several lines of GOP questioning ... The change in focus is also evident in what Republicans are not doing. Last fall, the GOP tore into ObamaCare around the clock, and criticisms of the law became a huge story amid the enrollment website&#39;s woes. Now, major news events related to the Affordable Care Act barely draw a Republican response.Republicans virtually ignored the final release of ObamaCare&#39;s enrollment
 numbers and a report that healthcare spending jumped in the first quarter of 2014. Mentions of the law have dwindled in press conferences by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), where they were a mainstay earlier this year." 
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THE BENGHAZI BELIEVERS - POLITICO's Lauren French writes for the hometown paper: "Hillary Clinton passed on the Sunday shows after the Benghazi attacks to preserve her White House aspirations. The White House is covering up for political reasons why President Barack Obama wasn't in the Situation Room as the attacks were unfolding. And there are reasons CNN can track down the masterminds behind the 2012 ambush but the U.S. government can't. These are just a sampling of the doggedly held views of a die-hard cadre of Republican lawmakers about the controversial events that led to the death 20 months ago of four Americans in Benghazi - a word that is now synonymous for conservatives with
 cover-up and conspiracy."

--"Call them the Benghazi believers. These Republicans - and there are dozens - are deeply convinced that the truth has yet to be fully aired about the attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. A solid majority believe Obama and his aides have repeatedly misled Congress about the attacks, spinning a political message to promote the president's 2012 reelection. A handful of them take as fact that then-Secretary of State Clinton obstructed the delivery of adequate security to diplomats on the front lines in Libya." 
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--The Washington Post's Wesley Lowery wraps up the latest from House Democrats and their strategy on the Benghazi panel. It's TBD:
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--And more from the Post -- Ed O'Keefe breaks down the Benghazi committee and what each member brings to the panel: 
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DEM CLASH OVER TAX EXTENDERS? - CQ Roll Call's Steven Dennis, Niels Lesniewski and Humberto Sanchez: "Defying the White House and a years-long push for more revenue, Senate Democrats are on the verge of passing an $85 billion grab-bag of tax cuts with no plans to pay for any of them. The question now is whether President Barack Obama will stick to his guns and threaten to veto the bill - picking an intraparty fight in an election year with control of the Senate at stake. Ask a liberal Senate Democrat about the deficit-financed "tax extenders" package headed for the floor next week, and you're likely to hear a refrain that could have been uttered by a Republican - some tax cuts shouldn't
 have to be paid for because they pay for themselves. Or extending an expired tax cut shouldn't count - never mind those pesky pay-as-you-go rules."

--"But the White House's budget proposed a corporate tax package that would generate revenue to help pay for its transportation bill, not another tax cut that would inflate the deficit. 'Our position remains unchanged and we continue to believe the extenders should be paid for,' an administration official told CQ Roll Call. The administration hasn't yet threatened a veto of the Senate measure, but the Office of Management and Budget issued a sternly worded veto threat over the House GOP's tax extender bill resurrecting the research and development tax credit and making it permanent, at a cost of $156 billion over the coming decade. Some 62 House Democrats defied their leaders and the
 president's veto threat to help pass the bill Friday with a potentially veto-proof majority. It's not the tax break Obama opposes - his budget would revive it too. It's the not-paying-for-it part. But that doesn't bother many of his fellow Democrats. 'There are certain tax breaks that really help this economy create jobs and in the end bring in more revenues because they're there,' said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif." 
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RAND: SHOW US THE DRONE MEMOS - The Kentucky senator writes an op-ed for the New York Times: "I believe that killing an American citizen without a trial is an extraordinary concept and deserves serious debate. I can't imagine appointing someone to the federal bench, one level below the Supreme Court, without fully understanding that person's views concerning the extrajudicial killing of American citizens. But President Obama is seeking to do just that. He has nominated David J. Barron, a Harvard law professor and a former acting assistant attorney general, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. While he was an official in the Justice Department's Office of
 Legal Counsel, Mr. Barron wrote at least two legal memos justifying the execution without a trial of an American citizen abroad. Now Mr. Obama is refusing to share that legal argument with the American people ... I believe that all senators should have access to all of these opinions. Furthermore, the American people deserve to see redacted versions of these memos so that they can understand the Obama administration's legal justification for this extraordinary exercise of executive power." 
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SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY -

GOWDY VOWS FAIRNESS IN BENGHAZI PROBE - The chairman of the select committee talks to Fox News Sunday, per POLITICO's Byron Tau: " 'I have no friends to reward and no foes to punish,' the South Carolina Republican said ... 'We're going to go wherever the facts take us. Facts are neither Republican nor Democratic, they are facts.' 'If we overplay our hand or we engage in a process that is not fair according to the American people, then we will be punished, as we should be.'" 
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RUBIO: READY TO BE PRESIDENT - The Florida Republican sits down with ABC News: "He's a 42-year-old freshman senator, but when asked by Jonathan Karl on 'This Week' if he's ready to be president, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida answered without hesitation. 'I do ... but I think that's true for multiple other people that would want to run ... I mean, I'll be 43 this month, but the other thing that perhaps people don't realize, I've served now in public office for the better part of 14 years.' ...When asked if he was qualified to run, Rubio reiterated that the Republican Party has several qualified candidates. 'The question is what - [whose] vision is the one that our party wants to
 follow?' 
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BOEHNER: HOUSE WON'T ARREST LERNER - National Review: "The House may have voted to hold former Lois Lerner in contempt, but don't expect John Boehner to authorize the sergeant-at-arms to arrest the former IRS employee at the center of the agency's targeting of conservative groups ... When asked why Boehner didn't issue an arrest warrant himself, he said the provision has never been used before and he was 'not sure it's an appropriate way to go about this.'" 
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'MORE THAN HASHTAGS AND SELFIES' - Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says that foreign policy can't be driven by what's popping online: " 'You can't base your policy based on what's trending on Twitter,' the Michigan Republican said Sunday on CBS' 'Face the Nation.' 'It has to be more than hashtags and selfies.' Rogers said that the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria by the Islamist group Boko Haram was part of a larger problem that&#39;s spreading across the Middle East and Africa." 
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LIVE TODAY, POLITICO's newest series ALL POLICY IS LOCAL -- with its first coverage area focusing on ENERGY.The series covers the 2014 midterms like no one else, examining the intersection of politics and policy and the impact on industry and community.See full coverage including the must-read piece by Andrew Restuccia reporting from Colorado on the closely watched Senate race and the fracking fight here: 
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GOOD MONDAY MORNING, May 12, 2014, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of all the action on Capitol Hill. I&#39;m Seung Min Kim, filling in for Scott Wong on your favorite congressional morning newsletter. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to 
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My new followers include @SaatAlety and @Preston_Maddock.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The House is out. The Senate is in session at 2 p.m. and will have votes at 5:30 p.m. on two nominations, as well as a vote to invoke cloture on the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill.

AROUND THE HILL - Pretty quiet today on the Hill today. Outside of Washington, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is in the Bronx, touring the Bronx Charter School for Excellence and holding a roundtable about education and school choice. The tour begins at 9:45 a.m.

TRANSITIONS - Brendan Buck, press secretary for Speaker John Boehner, will head to America's Health Insurance Plans to become spokesperson and vice president of communications. He has served as press secretary for more than three years for Boehner, in addition to press duties for Rep. Paul Ryan when he was the GOP vice presidential nominee. Boehner says about Buck: "He took a leading role in our communications shop, holding the White House accountable in the middle of some of the biggest fights this town has seen in quite a while. I've appreciated his advice, his energetic advocacy, and his wit ... Boehnerland will miss him."

And Max Gleischman, former communications director for Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, can finally announce his new adventure: he starts today as director of communications and spokesperson for Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Power: "It&#39;s great to have Max here in New York as part of the U.S. Mission ... Max has had plenty of experience juggling hot policy issues. Now we just have to unleash him on Twitter." (@gleischman)

CANTOR FACES HOMETOWN TEA PARTY FURY - Jenna Portnoy for the Washington Post from Short Pump, Virginia -- Just a few miles from his family home, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) felt the wrath of the tea party Saturday, when activists in his congressional district booed and heckled the second-most powerful House Republican. They also elected one of their own to lead Virginia's 7th Congressional District Republican Committee, turning their back on Cantor's choice for a post viewed as crucial by both tea party and establishment wings in determining control of the fractured state GOP. Former lieutenant governor Bill Bolling, pushed out of last year's governor's race by a similar party
 schism, said he was "extremely disappointed" by the results of the vote, in which longtime Cantor loyalist and incumbent Linwood Cobb was unseated by tea party favorite Fred Gruber.

--"'Clearly, there is a battle taking place for the heart and soul of the Republican Party,' Bolling said in a statement. 'While the voice of every Republican should be heard, our challenge is to figure out how to be a conservative party, without allowing the most extreme voices of the day to control our party and determine its future direction.' The tea party faction trumpeted the election results as a victory for core conservative principles of limited government, low taxes and a free-market economy. 'There's been an ongoing battle for years between conservatives and establishment, and it's a sweet victory when you win but you also win on the front porch of Eric Cantor,' said Jamie
 Radtke, a leader in the state tea party movement and former U.S. Senate candidate." 
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--Cantor tells The Hill that he is concerned that Obama's "pivot" to Asia is sending the wrong signal to U.S. allies in other areas of the world: 
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'THE TWO WOMEN WHO CONTROL THE SENATE' - National Journal's Sarah Mimms writes about the power of Senate Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine: "Without Murkowski and Collins, chances for passage of many bills [are] slim, at best. Murkowski&#39;s willingness to play ball with Democrats, she says, has a lot to do with how she got here. Murkowski has one of the most intriguing political histories of any member currently serving in the Senate. The daughter of a former senator, her own father appointed her to his Senate seat when he became governor in 2002. But in 2010, when she ran for reelection for just the second time, she lost the Republican primary to a tea party
 candidate and looked as if she would become one of many casualties that year to the far-right."

--"Susan Collins has a very different reason for working so often with Democrats, though she also points to her constituency. Although her voting record had conservative outside groups chomping at the bit to replace her, the third-term senator faces no Republican opposition in her reelection race this fall. Collins attributes that to a particular pragmatism among Mainers, a noun likely to be applied by each senator to their home state. But Collins has a point. Though her House counterparts, Democratic Reps. Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud, lie further left on the ideological spectrum, Collins is one in a long line of moderates hailing from the Pine Tree state." 
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MAN ARRESTED FOR BOEHNER THREAT - NBC News: "An Indiana man has been charged with threatening House Speaker John Boehner over the House GOP's refusal to extend unemployment benefits. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Joseph Hogsett confirmed that federal charges were filed Friday against Brandon James Thompson. 'Free speech is the cornerstone of our democracy but threats of violence have no place in our civil society,' Hogsett said in a statement. 'People who are inclined to make them need to know that they violate the law and they will be aggressively pursued.' According to the criminal complaint, obtained by NBC News, Thompson allegedly threatened Boehner over email and
 in a voicemail left on the speaker's wife's cell phone." 
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MICA HOLDS UP FAKE JOINT AT POT HEARING - The headline is pretty self-explanatory, but the Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly has more: "'I have this joint here,' Mica said. 'Don&#39;t get too excited out there, some of you, this is not a real one, it&#39;s a mock one.' Mica, who opposes marijuana legalization generally, says the law will allow D.C. residents to possess up to 20 joints, and he brought the fake one to make his point. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) asked Mica whether he&#39;d rolled it himself. 'No, I had staff do it,' Mica said in response. 'They have more experience.'" 
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WASHINGTON MONUMENT REOPENS - WUSA-TV: "Since the 5.8 magnitude earthquake [in August 2011], the 130-year-old monument was covered in scaffolding to repair the more than 150 cracks in the 555-foot obelisk&#39;s white marble. Last year, 488 lamps restored the monument&#39;s glow during its restoration as sensors lit the monument automatically each night at dusk. Public tours of the Washington Monument will begin at 1 p.m. on Monday. Attending the ceremony does not guarantee you entry into the tour. Tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 8:30 a.m. Monday at the Washington Monument Lodge." 
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--The New York Times' Nick Corasaniti writes about efforts from the National Park Service to take care of the grass on the National Mall, which he writes was "envisioned more than a century ago as a lush carpet of green connecting the nation's most treasured monuments, [but now ] has looked more like a West Texas dust bowl." 
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TODAY&#39;S TRIVIA - No one answered Friday's question from Colleen Shogan correctly, so I'm asking it again: How many committees have been chaired by women in the 113th Congress in both chambers? A clue: Look at the words "have been" (meaning not necessarily currently). The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day&#39;s Huddle. Email me at 
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