Subject: POLITICO Huddle: GRIMM DAY IN COURT -- Can he survive? -- Lynch’s charm offensive -- GOP wants Elmendorf out -- MORAN BACKS CUBA POLICY
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
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Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 07:02:25 -0600

By Burgess Everett (@burgessev or 
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GRIMM NEWS: Today Rep. Michael Grimm goes to court. And today Michael Grimm is expected to plead guilty to tax evasion, according to the New York Daily News. "Grimm was scheduled to enter the plea Tuesday before Judge Pamela Chen in Brooklyn Federal Court. A Republican who served in the Marines and worked as an FBI agent, Grimm was charged in a 20-count federal indictment in April with hiding more than $1 million in sales and wages at an Upper East Side restaurant he co-owned, and with hiring undocumented immigrants ... Investigators spent two years looking at his ownership and management of a restaurant, Healthalicious, from 2007 until 2010, when he was elected to Congress. The indictment
 charged that Grimm kept two sets of books to hide more than $1 million in receipts and hundreds of thousands of dollars more in wages to lower his payroll, income and sales tax obligations." 
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Can he survive in the House? Probably not, report Jake and Bres. "What is all but certain is that Grimm can't survive politically once he admits guilt. After all, it was Grimm himself who suggested that if he was convicted, he would step down. 'If things don't go my way, right? And I had to step down in January, then there will be a special election, and at least the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn can then have qualified candidates to choose from,' Grimm said during an October radio interview." 
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Five things that come to mind about Michael Grimm: 1. He threatened to throw a reporter over a balcony. 2. He reportedly went into a bathroom at a Brooklyn bar with a woman for 17 minutes. 3.He threatened to vote against Speaker John Boehner if the House did not pass an aid bill for Hurricane Sandy. 4. In April, he embraced the science of climate change. 5. He was easily reelected in November after winning an endorsement from the NYDN over Dominic Recchia, who the paper called "a candidate so dumb, ill-informed, evasive and inarticulate that voting for a thuggish Republican who could wind up in a prison jumpsuit starts to make rational sense."

CHARMED, I'M SURE: AG nominee Loretta Lynch has long been viewed as the subject of a proxy war over President Barack Obama's immigration policies. But Seung Min Kim reports that she's winning Republicans over behind closed doors. "'I want to see what happens in the hearings,' Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said. 'But certainly I'm supportive.'"

McCain, Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) all said in interviews they have met with Lynch privately and are inclined to vote in favor of her nomination. 'I would say yes, unless something comes up during the hearings,' Fischer said when asked if she was leaning toward backing Lynch."

-- "Senate Republicans plan to make Lynch's views on the reaches of executive power - particularly as it relates to immigration - a critical flashpoint of her confirmation hearings, making the attorney general fight a proxy war of sorts over Obama's controversial immigration actions. Senate Democrats argue that Lynch's views on executive action, and the Republican anger over Obama's unilateral moves, shouldn't sink confirmation to such a key Cabinet post. 'All I can tell you is that immigration is going to be a big part of it," said incoming Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who declined to say whether he was inclined to support Lynch. 'Not because of her
 views on immigration, but of the president's action on immigration and the extent of what she feels he's acted in a legal way.'" 
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CONFIRMATION BIAS: Nothing is final, but it's beginning to sound like Ashton Carter's nomination as defense secretary will move before Lynch's. Carter's appointment is viewed as more apolitical and crucial to national security, while though Lynch seems on the path toward confirmation she is also expected to get bogged down in immigration politics.

DYNAMIC OUSTING: CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf is set to get tossed out by Republicans because House Budget Chairman Tom Price wants somebody new, according to U.S. News & World Report. Bloomberg's Dave Weigel reports that the issue is dynamic scoring: "The move comes after a campaign from conservative lawmakers who want to change the way the CBO calculates the costs of government, said the aide, who requested anonymity to discuss a personnel decision. The office provides nonpartisan budget analysis for members of Congress that includes estimates of the cost of legislation." 
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The Democratic reaction, per Reid's office: "Are Republicans trying to cook the books so they can hock tax cuts for the rich as something other than the system-rigging, anti-middle class budget busters they actually are? It would be a major disservice for Republicans to turn CBO from the impartial referee it&#39;s always been into a right-wing ideological organization."

TUESDAY IS GRAY, BUT BLUE SKIES LIE AHEAD. Welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where I'm set to head up to Maine tomorrow for some serious family time and bone-chilling cold. Please send tips to 
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HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE HUDDLE FAMILY: This will be our last Huddle until Jan. 5. See you soon.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Both chambers are scheduled for critical procedural votes on where to go to happy hour.

MONDAY'S MOST-CLICKED LINK: Manu Raju's story about Sen. Mike Lee and the potential for a primary challenge from the center.

SEPARATING POLITICAL WHEAT FROM CHAFF: It was a more quiet roll-out than his Senate colleagues Jeff Flake and Rand Paul, but Sen. Jerry Moran has come out in favor of the normalization of relations with Cuba due to the potential for Kansas's farm industry as well as the chance that the Cuban government is reformed. "A change in our nation&#39;s approach that can open Cuba up economically and politically through the exchange of commodities and ideas is necessary," Moran says. In 2011 he introduced a bill to remove trade barriers with Cuba: 
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THUNE STAFFS UP: No. 3 Senate Republican and Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune of South Dakota is beefing up his staff ahead of what's sure to be a busy year and after a couple senior staffers recently left his office. Brendon Plack will serve both in Thune's personal office and as staff director at the Senate Republican Conference, Ann Marie Hauser will be deputy staff director, AshLee Strong has been promoted to senior communications director, Frederick Hill will take over as the Commerce Committee's communications director and Rachel Millard will serve as communications director for state press.

SAY YEAH: Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell might have occasional problems with his raucous conservative caucus, but the leader's big concern is reversing the Senate GOP's opposition mindset, per NYT's Carl Hulse. "Many of my members are not used to voting for appropriations bills ... But if we are going to pursue our agenda to push back against the bureaucratic overreach seemingly on steroids for the last five or six years, we need to put appropriations bills on the president's desk and make him make a choice." 
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Aug. 1, 2013: "A bipartisan transportation and housing bill stalled in the Senate on Thursday after the GOP leadership peeled back the votes of Republicans who had previously supported the $54 billion package when reported by the Appropriations Committee in June." 
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POPCORN AND CANDY: Louisiana Sen. David Vitter wants President Barack Obama to screen "The Interview" for members of Congress, per Roll Call's Niels Lesniewski. "'The policy of rewarding terrorists, authoritarianism, and cruelty with concessions should not be the legacy we pursue,' Vitter wrote in his letter [to the president]. 'Therefore, I ask that you host a screening of comedy film 'The Interview' for Members of Congress in the White House the week of January 5th, to be followed by a serious discussion of the strong, substantive retaliatory measures we plan to take as a nation against cyber attacks.'" 
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Plan B: If Vitter wins the governor's office in the fall, he could maybe host a viewing in Baton Rouge if the Capitol Hill plan doesn't pan out.

113th CONGRESS FIGHTS BACK: The beleaguered session may have statistically saved itself in the lame duck, per NJ's Daniel Newhauser. "Congress enacted 297 new laws (including the measures currently awaiting President Obama&#39;s signature). Despite predictions from many congressional observers, that is not the fewest bills enacted by a Congress since 1947. It is, however, second only to the 112th Congress, when 284 laws were enacted, according to an analysis from Josh Tauberer, at GovTrack." 
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PREPARING FOR CLASS: The L.A. Times's Lisa Mascaro hangs out with newly elected Rep. Norma Torres during her orientation. "'It&#39;s like your first day of high school,'' said Torres, a former 911 emergency dispatcher who rose to become mayor of Pomona and then a California state senator. 'But worse. Because the responsibility that comes with this job is huge.' Each morning, Torres and the other 60-odd new members assembled last month in the cavernous basement auditorium of the Capitol Visitor Center, usually breaking for lunch along party lines into a gaggle of schmoozing, nervous banter and congratulatory small talk. At night, party leaders wined and dined them at cocktail receptions and
 dinners." 
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MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Shelby Boxenbaum of Rep. Cartwright's office was the first to answer that Dewey Bartlett was the last senator to serve a full term and never in the majority before retiring Sen. Mike Johanns.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Shelby has today's question: Earlier this month it was announced that Elizabeth Warren was nominated for a Grammy for best Spoken Word Album. Four current and former U.S. senators have won Grammy Awards (as the ones reading) in this category. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at 
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