Subject: POLITICO Huddle: WHY GOP LEADERS AREN’T CALLING FOR SHINSEKI’S HEAD – 100+ lawmakers tell VA chief to quit -- #RedSkinsPride campaign vs. Reid backfires – HILLARY WON’T JOIN BENGHAZI ‘SLUGFEST’ – Garamendi saves the (wedding) day
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Date: Fri, 30 May 2014 06:42:10 -0600

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WHY GOP LEADERS AREN'T CALLING FOR SHINSEKI'S HEAD - Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan report for the hometown paper: "John Boehner and Eric Cantor don't want to make the Veterans Affairs scandal about Eric Shinseki. They want to make Barack Obama responsible. The 'secret wait lists,' supposedly subpar medical treatment and failure to fix a bulky VA bureaucracy, they argue, are just the latest examples that the president is asleep at the switch and disinterested - or unable - to manage the federal government.

-- "'This is a core competency question for the White House,' Cantor, the House majority leader, said in an interview with POLITICO Thursday. 'And, as I have said before, this president seems to be in many areas in over his head. There are lots of issues of competency that are being raised right now about what's going on in this government.' ...

-- "To Republicans, Shinseki is fleeting - a figurehead who could be gone any moment. To push for his resignation lets Obama off the hook, they say. The focus on Obama is to fixate on the leader of the opposition party in the middle of an election year - and, better yet, a figure who will be around for the next two years. Concentrating on Obama helps continue the GOP's narrative about an administration gone amok." 
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-- SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH McCONNELL, writing for Fox News, has also trained much of his fire on Obama. But he has called for a change in leadership at the VA: "Don't our veterans deserve just as much attention as [the Obamacare] website? The answer is obviously yes - and a whole lot more, too. So the president needs to get serious and take action. For instance, President Obama needs to stop defending Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. Secretary Shinseki is an honorable, patriotic man, but he has failed to appropriately supervise his cabinet agency. New management is long overdue, something even the president&#39;s own party now recognizes." 
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-- PRESIDENT OBAMA said he will have a 'serious conversation' with Shinseki about whether he&#39;s the right person to address the VA crisis. "The comment, made during an interview taped Thursday for 'Live! with Kelly and Michael,' was played on ABC&#39;s 'Good Morning America' on Friday." CNN:
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-- MORE THAN 100 lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, have called on Shinseki to resign, ABC News reports. The growing list includes DCCC Chairman Steve Israel of New York, and Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.). 
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-- But former NYT foreign correspondent Richard Halloran, who wrote a biography on Shinseki, writes that the four-star Army general isn't a quitter. POLITICO Magazine: "Today Shinseki is again being asked to quit before he's finished. ... And yet, Shinseki's personal history suggests that if he does leave any time soon, it will violate every tenet of his career." 
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MORE DONATE TO GOP SECRETLY AFTER REID'S KOCH ATTACKS - Matea Gold writes on A1 of the WaPo: "Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid's relentless attacks on the billionaire Koch brothers are having an unforeseen impact: spurring other wealthy Republican donors to give more money to groups that keep their supporters' names secret. Several prominent pro-Republican advocacy groups say they are benefiting from a burst of cash as some donors - fearful of harsh public attacks such as those aimed at the Kochs - turn away from political committees that are required by federal law to reveal their contributors.

-- "The trend can be seen at the prominent GOP super PAC co-founded by strategist Karl Rove, American Crossroads, which discloses its donors to the Federal Election Commission. The group, which hauled in $117 million during the 2012 election, has raised $9 million so far this cycle, including just $266,000 in April." 
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#REDSKINSPRIDE TWITTER CAMPAIGN VS. REID BACKFIRES -- FoxSports.com reports: "The Washington Redskins have launched a Twitter onslaught at Sen. Harry Reid in their campaign to keep the team&#39;s name. The Redskins instructed fans Thursday to tweet the Nevada Democrat to show their 'RedskinsPride' and 'tell him what the team means to you.' Fans did just that -- but not always in a manner the Redskins would have preferred, with many telling Reid they support his efforts to change the name. Soon, both 'RedskinsPride' and 'changethename' were trending in the D.C. area. ...

-- "After many of the responses on twitter backfired on the Redskins, Reid&#39;s digital director, Faiz Shakir, told the Washington Post that the failed Twitter campaign had 'really made our day.' 'What we saw was a collective, overwhelming outpouring that was heavily critical of the team. I hope that causes the organization to reflect on why that occurred,' Shakir said." 
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GOOD FRIDAY MORNING, May 30, 2014, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of all the action on Capitol Hill. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to 
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TODAY IN CONGRESS -The Senate is out today and back on Monday. The House is out all next week but meets at 9 a.m. today with first votes expected between 10 and 10:30 a.m. and last votes between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. on the fiscal 2015 Intelligence Authorization Act.

AROUND THE HILL - Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and others speak on a marijuana amendment at 9 a.m. in HVC Studio B. Rep. Mike Thompson and other members of the Gun Violence Task Force push a mental health gun violence prevention bill, at 9:30 a.m. in Cannon 234. Reps. Luis Gutierrez, Mike Honda, Joe Crowley, Anna Eshoo, Steven Horsford, Jan Schakowsky and Juan Vargas speak on immigration reform at 10:30 a.m. at the House Triangle.

TRANSITIONS - NEAL PATEL,communications director and counsel for Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), will be joining the office of Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) as deputy communications director and counsel beginning June 8. "Having grown up in South Carolina, I understand politics is a contact sport. Now, having worked in Louisiana politics, I can say with certainty, politics is a blood sport in the Pelican State," he wrote in an email to friends and colleagues. "And I&#39;ve loved every, single, confounding minute of it." Jack Pandol will replace Patel in Boustany's office. (h/t: Lauren French)

HILLARY BOOK: I WON'T JOIN IN 'SLUGFEST' OVER BENGHAZI - Our own Maggie Haberman with an exclusive look at the Benghazi chapter: "Hillary Clinton offers a detailed account of the deadly attack on the American embassy in Benghazi - and a pointed rebuttal to Republican critics who've laced into her over the incident - in a much-anticipated chapter of her forthcoming book, 'Hard Choices,' obtained by POLITICO. 'Those who exploit this tragedy over and over as a political tool minimize the sacrifice of those who served our country,' Clinton writes in the gripping chapter, 'Benghazi: Under Attack.' ... 'I will not be a part of a political slugfest on the backs of dead Americans. It's just plain
 wrong, and it's unworthy of our great country. Those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me.'

-- "The 34-page chapter ... appears intended, in part, to give Democrats a clear framework to respond to Republicans who have raised questions about Clinton's role and what the Obama administration has said about the Sept. 2012 killing of four Americans. The section was obtained and reviewed by POLITICO on the eve of a meeting in which members of Democratic-leaning groups will be briefed by Clinton's team about how she addresses the attacks in the book." 
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HOUSE OKS MORE MONEY FOR BACKGROUND CHECKS ON GUN BUYERS - Deirdre Walsh reports for CNN: "The House on Thursday approved a bipartisan measure that would provide more money for background checks on gun buyers nearly a week after a mass murder in California left seven people dead, including the killer. The Republican-led chamber added $19.5 million to expand the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which is a federal database that states access when processing gun sales. The amendment to a spending bill for the Justice Department and other agencies was sponsored by Republican Peter King of New York and California Democrat Mike Thompson. It was approved 260-145." 
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GOP REJECTS FLOTUS IN SCHOOL-LUNCH FIGHT -- Helena Bottemiller Evich and Bill Tomson report for POLITICO: "House Republicans pushing to relax school nutrition standards backed by first lady Michelle Obama are looking forward to the coming battle with the Senate. They may have picked an unusually high-profile food fight with the White House - and especially the East Wing - but GOP lawmakers behind the push are confident it's a fight they can win. The House Appropriations Committee voted, 31-18, Thursday to advance a fiscal 2015 agriculture spending bill with a controversial rider that would allow schools to opt out of nutrition rules requiring more fruits and vegetables, less sodium and more
 whole grain-rich products if they are losing money from the healthier meals. The move sets up what promises to be a contentious conference between the House and Senate bills, although the measures have yet to clear either chamber." 
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GARAMENDI SAVES THE (WEDDING) DAY - "Shawna Caley narrowly averted a wedding day disaster recently, and she has her congressman to thank for it," Rowena Coetsee writes for California's Contra Costa Times. "The Rio Vista resident was facing the real possibility of tying the knot while her dress was still stuck on the other side of the country when the office of U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, staged an 11th-hour intervention. 'I was freaking out,' said Caley, 38. But staffers for the 3rd District congressman saved the day by prodding U.S. Customs to resolve the holdup at New York&#39;s JFK International Airport, where the gown had been languishing. Caley finally had found The Dress
 after an approximately two-year search for a gown in keeping with her camping-theme wedding, which took place May 1 at the base of a waterfall in Yosemite National Park followed by a weekend celebrating the man of her dreams and the beauty of nature with guests at the Wawona Campground." 
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THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Drew Thies was first to correctly answer that Samuel Chase was the only Supreme Court justice to ever be impeached. President Thomas Jefferson led the campaign, but Chase was later acquitted by the Senate. 
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TODAY'S TRIVIA - Drew Thies has a Jefferson question: Jefferson is well-known for founding and designing the University of Virginia. What other famous U.S. structure did Jefferson submit architectural plans for, only to lose the contest in a defeat discovered only after his death? The first person to send the correct answer to 
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