Subject: POLITICO Huddle: WHAT IT WOULD TAKE FOR RYAN TO RUN -- Cotton wants Cheney as speaker -- Ex-Im makes comeback -- BENGHAZI PANEL’S LATEST DRAMA
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2015 06:01:57 -0600

By Burgess Everett | 10/12/2015 07:59 AM EDT

PLAYING HARD TO GET: How do you get the reluctant man from Janesville to run for speaker? Jake Sherman reports there's but one way: Get the whole House GOP on board. Paul Ryan has thus far proved resistant to the entreaties of his colleagues to step into the House's leadership void, but there's a scenario that might change that. "No opposition, no sniping, no acceding to demands in exchange for support. Republicans - including the hard-liners who pushed out John Boehner and convinced Rep. Kevin McCarthy to drop his bid for speaker - would need to show they're prepared to follow Ryan." 

The catch: Some of the House Freedom Caucus is indicating it would back Ryan IF he agrees to the fulsome debate on the House rules that Americans across the country are clamoring for. "But unlike other candidates for the speakership, Ryan won't be eager to engage in horse-trading to earn support of his colleagues on the right flank. He might be open to some of the rules changes they want, but it's extremely unlikely that he would commit to such reforms in exchange for votes in a speaker election." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8d171956156a47bba092fc35e4b32891f5e72a894b0068975ba18e1cde668764

ROGERS ON RYAN: As the Ways and Means chairman's name is plastered across the headlines while Washington simultaneously seeks a budget deal, it's worth remembering that two years ago Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington took a leap together to fashion a budget deal to temporarily push aside the sequester. But, as David Rogers writes this morning, that 2013 effort demonstrates precisely what the next speaker must deal with: "Ryan didn't fail: He got 169 Republican votes, more than enough together with 163 Democrats. But the fact that so many in the GOP still voted 'no' is a bit of history worth revisiting in light of the turmoil now ... House Republicans are best understood as a
 coalition government of two parties, not just one." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8d171956156a47bb8954533d0d6cf31c3eaf116b837914c486d34d159db45e50

COTTON WANTS CHENEY FOR SPEAKER: Yep, Sen. Tom Cotton told us in an interview that with all the instability in the House leadership, it's time to turn to the former vice president. "Look, these are trying times for our nation. It's important to have a steady hand on the helm during times like this. I think experience really counts in a matter like this. I think House leadership experience really matters. And as you know the speaker doesn't have to be a member of the House: So therefore, Vice President Cheney for speaker." SMK and I asked if he was serious, and Cotton replied: "He's a man of the House, he says that himself."

Today's outside speaker is ... OK, Cotton is the youngest senator and only spent two years in the House. But more senior lawmakers are also seriously talking about bringing in someone from the outside. "The reminder is always out there that the speaker does not have to be a seated member of Congress," says Sen. Richard Burr, a close buddy of John Boehner and a 10-year House vet. So, who then? "I'm not suggesting anybody. I know from prior similar events that I have been through when I was in the House that it was researched very heavily then, and the speaker could be somebody who could be brought in from the outside." 

Sen. Joe Manchin chimes in: "This means Cruz is in line now." Hey, they voted the same way on a CR defunding Planned Parenthood! 

OBAMA 'CONCERNED' ABOUT WORKING WITH CONGRESS: But the president and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at least appear to be on the same page with the radical legislative combo package of no shutdowns and no defaults. Here's what the president told Steve Kroft on "60 Minutes" last night of John Boehner's exit and legislative prospects for the next 15 months: "I am a little concerned that the reason he left was because there are a group of members of Congress who think having somebody who is willing to shut down the government or default on the U.S. debt is going to allow them to get their way 100 percent of the time."

Obama's target working with the legislative branch? "I have a more modest goal, which is to make sure that Congress doesn't do damage to the economy." HuffPo writes up the testy interview: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8d171956156a47bb1e925ec88ae1c2c44e034faaa214d4ef1b23785d3aabc898

Glorious, glorious recess. Welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where it's totally fine if you dip out early today for happy hour. Please send tips to [email-masked] and follow along on Twitter @burgessev. 

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Zilch. 

AROUND THE HILL - See above. 

EX-IM BACK FROM DEAD: The House will vote later this month on reviving the Export-Import Bank's charter, the first successful discharge petition since 2002 and the result of bipartisan work by Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and and GOP Reps. Frank Lucas and Stephen Fincher. The Hill: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8d171956156a47bb2f178d6795037802b13bbb8941808fb36166f3d2fc7ada9e

Legislative outlook for Ex-Im? Partly sunny: The Senate attached the Ex-Im renewal to a transportation bill this summer -- and it passed, fulfilling McConnell's commitment to give Democrats' a binding vote on must-pass legislation. The House is struggling to come up its own transportation bill, while McConnell says he won't spend a week on a standalone Ex-Im vote (however, if he did, imagine Sen. Ted Cruz's reaction). Easiest path forward for Ex-Im: The House takes up and passes the Senate's transpo bill, or includes Ex-Im in an eventual transpo conference report.

WAPO REPORTER CONVICTED: Jason Rezaian has been convicted by Iran, though no sentence has been announced. Statement from the Washington Post: "Jason is a victim - arrested without cause, held for months in isolation, without access to a lawyer, subjected to physical mistreatment and psychological abuse, and now convicted without basis. He has spent nearly 15 months locked up in Iran's notorious Evin Prison, more than three times as long than any other Western journalists. The only thing that has ever been clear about this case is Jason's innocence." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8d171956156a47bb04f01fe893ae5a4013dbefd28040d352a7749c17b1516176

Flashback: On Sept. 17, an amendment to the Iran congressional review bill that would have required the release of Rezaian and other Americans held in Tehran failed, 53-45. That vote was rejected as the White House and Democrats on the Hill argued such language is out of the scope of the nuclear deal. 

BENGHAZI COMMITTEE FLARE UP: Bradley Podliska ... hmm, why does that name familiar? Oh, it's because he's an ex-Benghazi committee investigator now claiming the panel is a "partisan investigation" to discredit Hillary Clinton. Podliska says he was fired for attending to his military service, but the "real" news is that the self-described conservative agrees with most Democrats that the panel is a witch hunt: "The victims' families are not going to get the truth and that's the most unfortunate thing about this." CNN: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8d171956156a47bb19da3c8f78cf2434e50e159882490b577730d3ad6af2cffc

Attack the media, part infinity -- Here's your Trey Gowdy statement: "Had CNN contacted the Committee regarding its interview with this staffer before it rushed to air his sensationalistic and fabulist claims, it could have fully questioned him about his unsubstantiated claims. But that is the difference between journalism as practiced by CNN, and the fact-centric investigation being conducted by this Committee." Hadas Gold: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8d171956156a47bbb87d6358d6e34cc590502cacc511dd950509cefa32dd1681

BUSY WORK? Senate Republicans are still studying changing the Senate rules, The Hill's Alex Bolton reports, with a task force looking at the filibuster on the motion to proceed (http://goo.gl/KKWpq0). We'll note here that the Senate GOP doesn't have the votes to internally change the rules on anything right now, considering we're still waiting on the changes to Supreme Court changes to come through committee nine months later. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8d171956156a47bbad57fdb6b40b7175d979c7cb3abd3e2b815db867217c9505

MOVING ON UP? This week Washington State Rep. Dave Reichert will announce whether he will run for governor. The 10-year House GOP veteran claims that even Democrats are asking him to run in the blue state, where he previously served as King County sheriff. The announcement is expected on Friday, per AP: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8d171956156a47bb06f8afce88c70990b171138bb55dc57c36e71be095894104

SPEED READ, SWIPED FROM SCORE -- Ex-Ayotte aide pleads guilty: "David Wihby, a former top aide to Sen. Kelly Ayotte who resigned from that post and his seat on the Manchester School Board following his prostitution arrest, has reached a plea deal that will allow him to avoid jail." Union-Leader: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8d171956156a47bb0d06f7064451d70119531f92aa4977ebc72636361956c628

Not the Onion: "Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alan Grayson says he has closed down hedge funds that he set up in the notorious offshore tax haven of the Cayman Islands." Tampa Bay Times: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8d171956156a47bb583958060db342b74f9fd66aca0f389424e4cf1675d786c6

ONE SIDE OF THE CAP TO THE OTHER: Tom Pietrykoski is leaving his post as communications director for Rep. Bill Pascrell to assume the New Jersey press secretary job for Sen. Cory Booker. Pietrykoski will be based in Newark. 

-- Ben Garmisa is peacing out from Rep. Steve Cohen's office to join Rep. Tammy Duckworth as her communications director. She is, of course, running for the Senate. 

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Wilfred U. Codrington III was the first to answer that the Curie family has won five Nobel Prizes, the most of any family.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - I've got today's question to kick off another D.C. trivia week: How many D.C. public high schools are named after presidents, and what are the names of the schools? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at [email-masked]

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