Subject: POLITICO Huddle: RUBIO’S FOREIGN POLICY ADVANTAGE? -- DWS’s bad week continues -- GOP TRIES TO LEAVE MARK ON BALDWIN -- Knives out for Sestak
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2015 07:06:56 -0600

By Burgess Everett (@burgessev or 
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked] )

RUBIO'S FOREIGN POLICY PRESIDENTIAL PITCH: If there's an advantage to running for the presidency from the Senate, it's the opportunity to shape foreign policy that no governors have. And Manu Raju finds that Sen. Marco Rubio is using his position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to sharpen his pitch to be commander in chief. The Florida Republican "is beginning an aggressive effort to sell voters on his judgment and foresight on matters like Syria, Iran, Libya, Russia and Ukraine, making the case there should be no doubt he has the wherewithal to lead the country at a time of war ...The question, voters will ask, is what kind of 'judgment' the 2016 candidates showed each time a
 crisis from abroad has flared up, he said. 'I feel very comfortable about my record,' Rubio told POLITICO in an interview Thursday." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4abd3f18efbe4399a7d2cb01d85eb95e543f83de575080956e4 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4abd3f18efbe4399a7d2cb01d85eb95e543f83de575080956e4 

While he does that: Republican officials are lobbying Rubio to run for reelection to the Senate, AP's Erica Werner reports. "'Sen. Rubio is an impressive senator and of course candidate,' said Andrea Bozek, spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. 'It would be political malpractice if we didn&#39;t want him to run again.'" 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4ab9a250e27cad1f49a6a6acc2eaef1e05909440a7172825e4e 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42a32bfe781aad16b1e0b86aa166216434031dcb1a0d45bc8eb5e9512416bff0 

More missed votes: Rubio will be in New Hampshire early next week, where he's going to miss at least one vote in the Senate on the DHS deadlock. More AP: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4ab9b01bcddc1f5264b5a2b6185087722830b561c68e7635923 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4ab9b01bcddc1f5264b5a2b6185087722830b561c68e7635923 

ELSEWHERE IN FLORIDA: Marc Caputo has a truly bizarre story of damage control from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who allegedly offered to change her anti-medical marijuana stance if a donor would recant his criticisms as she mulls a run for Rubio's seat. 'The proposal to Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan was straightforward: retract critical statements he made to a reporter in return for Wasserman Schultz publicly backing his cannabis initiative that she had trashed just months earlier. Morgan declined the offer with a sharp email reply sent to a go-between, who described the congresswoman as being in a 'tizzy.' 'No,' Morgan responded. 'She is a bully. I beat bullies up for a living.'" 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4ab2dacd65dc25983f7407b017bf7796338c0368054afdb4a52 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4ab2dacd65dc25983f7407b017bf7796338c0368054afdb4a52 

GOP TRIES MAKE STORY STICK ON BALDWIN: Wisconsin Republicans are hoping a long-simmering story about Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin will leave mark. On Thursday the state GOP issued a formal complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee alleging that Baldwin offered a former employee a severance package not to talk about the bungled handling of opioid problems at a Veterans Affairs facility in Tomah, Wis., that have been linked by states investigators to at least one death. The Wisconsin GOP alleged that Baldwin is involved in a "massive cover-up." Baldwin has retained Marc Elias as counsel, a major power player in Democratic politics, to deal with the fallout over Baylor's termination and the
 Tomah VA facility. Elias said in an emailed statement that GOP's complaint is "nothing more than a political stunt." My story: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4abfa91782e74f02c3731a57f77aeaf18c18c2a1df6e2db34c4 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4abfa91782e74f02c3731a57f77aeaf18c18c2a1df6e2db34c4 

Want to get into the weeds? Here's a long detailed timeline provided by Baldwin's office of how she requested investigations into the VA facility beginning last April. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4ab81a1a7ae299cee0992505f49dddaf0f666e2405778cd1837 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4ab81a1a7ae299cee0992505f49dddaf0f666e2405778cd1837 

THE HOUSE'S WHIPLASH: Why would conservatives stay on the House's whip team? And how will leadership whip conservatives on a team that includes few from the party's right flank? These questions and more from NJ's Daniel Newhauser, who looks at the drift of conservative members away from the vote-counting operation: "Under pressure from constituents, conservative outside groups, and pundits, members are making the calculation that it is easier to operate on the fringes. That is a troubling trend, Republican sources said privately, especially as a group of conservative members, including some of the departing whips, considers a guerrilla strategy of threatening to vote down the rules for
 objectionable bills." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4ab4d61306e77c9f0a8b0f6136e033a5b4d0c4c4c05ad0d46d2 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4ab4d61306e77c9f0a8b0f6136e033a5b4d0c4c4c05ad0d46d2 

COME TO CLEVELAND FOR A DAY and you're likely to hear about the planning for the 2016 Republican National Convention. But stick around, and you'll learn about something else: that economic growth seldom seems to reach any of the city's poor, predominantly African-American neighborhoods.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4ab785ca8420fa3bf432a6b8a8a0f8c655b785750539f308994 
 http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3e58d3b71d0be4ab785ca8420fa3bf432a6b8a8a0f8c655b785750539f308994 

HELLO FRIDAY, THE BIG CHILL. And welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where we are all resting up for next week, affectionately dubbed "hell week" by Rep. Steve King. Please send tips to 
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[email-masked]  and follow along on Twitter @burgessev. Lauren French will be taking over next week, so holler at her: 
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[email-masked] , @laurennfrench.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Winds whips across Capitol Square, but no senators or representatives are there (except for a brief pro forma session in the House at 11 a.m.).

THURSDAY'S MOST CLICKED: Reps. Ruben Gallego and Pete Aguilar's letter to Speaker John Boehner requesting a clean CR was the big winner.

KNIVES OUT FOR SESTAK: National Journal's Alex Roarty has compiled an impressive dossier of critical quotes warning former Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak away from a rematch with Sen. Pat Toomey. "'[Sestak&#39;s] not scaring anyone,' said Bob Brady, a congressman from Philadelphia and behind-the-scenes power player in Pennsylvania Democratic politics. 'He&#39;s not clearing the field because he&#39;s running.' ... 'In my estimation, if Joe Sestak is the nominee in 2016 for U.S. Senate, we will once again lose to Pat Toomey,' said T.J. Rooney, who was state Democratic Party chairman when Sestak ran in 2010." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42a32bfe781aad16a1881793c461c12d6b76bb47e03baae30e68e62585ee4b6a 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42a32bfe781aad16a1881793c461c12d6b76bb47e03baae30e68e62585ee4b6a 

My hot take: Democrats I've talked to don't really want Sestak to run, but Republicans say he will be a formidable candidate if he does given the mostly conservative record compiled by Toomey.

A KANDER, GENTLER CANDIDATE: Democrats have a young statewide candidate to go after Sen. Roy Blunt in Missouri, a conservative state where Democrats still compete for statewide office. Secretary of State Jason Kander, an Army vet, will run for the Democratic nomination against Blunt, a current member of Senate leadership and a former top gun in the House. And the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Blunt could also face a primary challenge from Rep. Todd Akin, whose name is now synonymous with blowing a winnable race in 2012. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42a32bfe781aad164e22d54e902469b149f8e09ed2ca4086c7ce5da0aba7f7c3 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42a32bfe781aad164e22d54e902469b149f8e09ed2ca4086c7ce5da0aba7f7c3 

NETANYAHU DRAMA CONTINUES: Nearly two-dozen House Democrats have penned a letter to Speaker John Boehner asking him to postpone the congressional address of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Roll Call's Emma Dumain reports. "The co-signers represent the more progressive contingent of the House Democratic Caucus, among them Reps. Barbara Lee of California, Luis V. Gutierrez of Illinois and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, along with CPC First Vice-Chairman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42a32bfe781aad164f08fb3c59149c54be1152962a5b2c2a1abf188222cfd5e3 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42a32bfe781aad164f08fb3c59149c54be1152962a5b2c2a1abf188222cfd5e3 

PAUL'S DARLING LEAVES THE HILL: I hope that headline confuses you. Sen. Rand Paul's communications director Brian Darling is headed to Third Dimension Strategies after two years on the daily grind with Paul. The Hill's Kevin Cirilli has it: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42a32bfe781aad1692a81c3b2b3ad502a41ab9492418da998b66eb12beca48d3 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42a32bfe781aad1692a81c3b2b3ad502a41ab9492418da998b66eb12beca48d3 

WARM, BIPARTISAN VIBES: If you are huddling for warmth in Washington, or really anywhere in the eastern half of the United States, this slideshow of Sens. Tim Kaine and John Cornyn in Honduras may be useful as a heating agent: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42a32bfe781aad161b8d679001ed7e562bbae7b2220302a4a89741b4f11293c0 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=42a32bfe781aad161b8d679001ed7e562bbae7b2220302a4a89741b4f11293c0 

THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Thomas Campos was the first to answer that Rep. Terri Sewell recruited Susan Rice to join her gospel choir once upon a time.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Thomas has today's question: When U.S. presidents are sworn in, they have the choice to 'swear' or 'affirm' their oath. Who is the only president to have affirmed their oath? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at 
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