Subject: POLITICO Huddle, presented by Lifeline Facts Campaign: ARE YOU ANTHONY WEINER? — Congressional Dinner re-play — RUBIO GOES FOR TRUMP — Obama readies a Senate GOP whip list on SCOTUS — SOME GOPerS VULNERABLE IN SCOTUS FIGHT
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2016 06:44:47 -0600

02/26/2016 07:43 AM EDT

By Rachael Bade ([email-masked] or @RachaelMBade) 

ARE YOU ANTHONY WEINER?!? Pretty entertaining Congressional Dinner last night, no? I took notes especially for you Hill nerds. So here's a Huddle recap ICYMI: 

--Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) opened recounting the times women approached him saying he looked "familiar." One, after snapping a selfie with him, exclaimed that she was oh-so-happy to finally meet Wis. Gov. Scott Walker. The others, two flight attendants, giddily asked him: "Are you Anthony Weiner?" Ryan joked that he really liked being the Speaker because he gets to "work closely with Sen. Mitch McConnell." (The crowd about died because we all know McConnell is no open book.) Then his voice grew quiet as he told us he would announce something big there at the Mandarin Oriental. "People have approached me about seeking a higher office.... This is a very dire moment." People were whipping
 their phones out to record his... his... last-minute candidacy for president? "So tonight, I'm announcing that if nominated, I will serve as the next author of Politico Playbook."

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) began with a shot-chaser pairing. She said there was "a special place in hell for women who do not laugh at my jokes tonight" - then repeated the same sentence verbatim, stopping abruptly: "Oh wait, that's Rubio's script!" She took several whacks at Cruz: "It would be fun to spend more time with Ted Cruz. Don't you think? Somewhere where he feels like at home. A Justin Bieber concert? A Toronto Blue Jays baseball game? A maple-syrup tasting? A lot of members of Congress don't like him. But I don't know. How can you not like a Canadian?" She also knocked Republicans for a lack of diversity, telling Ryan she watch his office's recent Snowzilla video
 footage but: "It was so white I couldn't tell if it was the blizzard or the Republican cloakroom." 

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) echoed the lack of diversity jokes - but her target was Bernie Sanders: "Have you seen Bernie Sanders rallies? I haven't seen that many white people since the Oscars." She later smacked that Bernie after the diner was giving out free iPads because they "are a right not a privilege," and she joked that Dem Whip Steny Hoyer once tried to run her over with a car - but only because he thought she was Pelosi. She said she once told climate-change skeptic Sen. James Inholfe to "travel the globe" to educate himself more on the topic. "But he was afraid he'd fall of the edge," she quipped. 

And Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) ended the night for everyone on a grim note. Since the GOP debate was happening simultaneously, he cracked that "this is the largest crowd I've ever talked to during the Republican debate." Then he jokingly complimented women in the room for coming so far with equal rights, taking a jab at Hillary Clinton - and his own party: "Look how far you've come: The most dishonest person in America is a woman who may go on to be the president. How can that be? My party has gone bat-sh-t crazy." He told Ryan his sensible conservatism makes him a "dead man walking" nowadays with Trump in the mix: "When Trump gets the guillotine, you will be the first one to go." But
 then he got very serious: "We as Republicans need to do a little souls searching - what happened to our party?" Everyone was dead silent as he lectured the GOP for letting someone like Trump take the lead. And of course he ended by throwing on a hat that read: "Make America great again" - one last laugh in the otherwise serious swansong of the night.

TOO MUCH WINE? Raise your hand if your head hurts from too much wine at the Congressional Dinner last night. Glad I'm not alone. It's Feb. 26, 2016. Thanks for reading Huddle, where we got up at 5:30 a.m. to throw all this news together so you don't have to. I'm on Huddle all next week. Reachable here: [email-masked] or @rachaelmbade 

TODAY IN CONGRESS: House returns at 9 a.m. for legislative business. First and last votes of the day between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Senate out until Monday.

AROUND THE HILL: At 9 a.m. Reps. Lofgren, Gutierrez and other Dems will gather on the Fair Day in Court for Kids Act of 2016.

** A message from Lifeline Facts Campaign: Since its establishment during the Reagan Administration, and as administered by the FCC, Lifeline has offered low-income Americans discounted phone service. It connects individuals to employers, serves our nation's veterans, provides access to healthcare and first responders, works to close the digital divide, and more. Get the facts at www.LifelineFacts.com **

ICYMI: RUBIO KILLS IT ON THE DEBATE STAGE. For those of us who had to DVR the debate because of last night's ceremonies: "In Republican Debate, a Feisty Marco Rubio Lays Into Donald Trump," by the N.Y. Times' Michael Barbaro and Matt Flegenheimer: "Senator Marco Rubio, alarmed by Donald J. Trump's ascendancy and worried that his presidential chances were slipping away, unleashed a barrage of attacks on the real estate mogul's business ethics, hiring practices and financial achievements in Thursday's debate, forcefully delivering the onslaught that Republican leaders had desperately awaited."

"In a series of acid exchanges, a newly pugnacious Mr. Rubio, long mocked for a robotic and restrained style, interrupted Mr. Trump, quizzed him, impersonated him, shouted over him and left him looking unsettled. It was an unfamiliar reversal of roles for the front-runner, who found himself so frequently the target of assaults from Mr. Rubio and Senator Ted Cruz that he complained they must have been a ploy for better television ratings." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d9667fa11473b4b3e8c5b366bf597b12876c3e27b4f34fd07adf9989d48b7195 

ALSO THIS: "First on CNN: Rubio prepares for contested convention," per my old POLITICO desk neighbor MJ Lee: "Marco Rubio's campaign is preparing for a contested Republican Convention as one option to take the GOP nomination away from Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, his campaign manager told top donors at a closed-door meeting in Manhattan Wednesday night. As Rubio scrambles for support ahead of Super Tuesday, Terry Sullivan, Rubio's top adviser, used a Power Point presentation and took questions from attendees to lay out the two courses that Rubio's quest for the GOP nomination could take in the coming months, two people present told CNN, speaking anonymously to share details from a private
 meeting." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d9667fa11473b4b3ddcb4b1c434f99045c05f31948b14e3582def12bf5f59ee0 

UP ROOSTER: OBAMA'S SCOTUS WHIP LIST. Heads-up GOP Senate moderates, institutionalists and vulnerable blue-state-rs: Obama is coming for you on the SCOTUS fight. Edward-Isaac Dovere reports for POLITICO's White House team: "To overcome the inevitable Senate filibuster, Obama will need to muster 14 GOP votes in a conference that's ruled out even having introductory meetings with the nominee. But that hasn't stopped the administration from putting together a target whip list, according to people familiar with what's being discussed."

"The Republican prospects break down into three categories: Moderates (Maine's Susan Collins, along with South Carolina's Lindsey Graham and maybe Alaska's Lisa Murkowski), institutionalists (Utah's Orrin Hatch - though he was one of the first to be a firm no -Tennessee's Lamar Alexander and Ohio's Rob Portman, also up for re-election) and vulnerable blue state Republicans (New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte, Wisconsin's Ron Johnson, Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey and Illinois' Mark Kirk)." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d9667fa11473b4b38f767d63f0fe30b07a475f0c4a7fcf9e9e7bb3315eebd000

--"Brian Sandoval Takes Himself Out Of The Running For Supreme Court Spot," per HuffPo's Amanda Terkel: "Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) on Thursday asked President Barack Obama to take his name off his list of potential Supreme Court nominees, in an attempt to avoid becoming a pawn in the nasty partisan battle raging in Washington. 'Earlier today, I notified the White House that I do not wish to be considered at this time for possible nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States,' Sandoval said. 'I have also spoken to Senators Reid, Heller and McConnell and expressed the same desire to them. The notion of being considered for a seat on the highest court in the land is beyond
 humbling and I am incredibly grateful to have been mentioned.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d9667fa11473b4b3e4845f396ddcb3630a690389fc1aff9a4d195d18e0e4b9d9 

 "SOME GOP SENATORS FACE PRESSURE OVER SUPREME COURT NOMINATION STANCE." WSJ's Kristina Peterson and Siobhan Hughes report: "Vulnerable Senate Republicans up for re-election may face an uncomfortable eight-month lead-up to Election Day, if voters question their embrace of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's hard line in the Supreme Court nomination dispute. The Senate GOP's strategy is sure to please the party's most loyal followers. But the refusal to consider a nominee to succeed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died this month, even before President Barack Obama has announced his pick, carries greater risks with the independent and more centrist Republicans voting in the swing
 states that will decide which party controls the Senate in 2017." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d9667fa11473b4b3ddb510818bb2c9085c1de0c037dd519176d70aa49f564c5b 

MAYDAY - TOP HOUSE CONSERVATIVES CALL TO ABANDON 2015 BUDGET DEAL. Jake's got it: " The leadership of the Republican Study Committee privately decided Thursday they would push top House lawmakers to abandon the 2015 budget deal and push for steep cuts, the group's chairman wrote in an email to colleagues. The decision by the prominent conservative caucus casts serious doubt on whether the House will be able to pass a 2017 budget." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d9667fa11473b4b3edd845bcb39ac6daec46d52fd15ed5b506f7834f6c95ee8c 

OUT THE DOOR: MATT SALMON KISSES POLITICS GOODBYE. Rebekah Sanders has the exclusive for the Arizona Republic: "U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, a conservative firebrand whose political career has spanned 25 years, announced Thursday he will retire from Congress...A Harley Davidson motorcycle buff who is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Salmon, 58, said he is leaving Congress to spend more time with his family. For the first time in years, his four children and seven grandchildren are living in Arizona, he said. Salmon said he sought office to oppose President Barack Obama's 'devastating economic platform.' But that administration is ending."

"'Now more than ever, it seems the biggest hypocrisy to abandon my family in a quest to protect them,' Salmon wrote in a Republic op-ed announcing his retirement. 'After much soul-searching, that's just not a trade I can justify making any longer.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d9667fa11473b4b3d29ad7e38da610e68259c4734828765c0ef30d0b0de9a73f 

THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER: Judd Smith, Rep. Tom Marino's counsel, was the first to answer that Trump shaved Vince McMahon's head. 

TODAY'S TRIVIA: Comes from Walton Chaney, who asked to stay on the subject of The Donald and wrote this in: "Leading up to the 2006 Democratic-wave midterm elections, how much money did Donald Trump and his son donate to Democratic candidates?" Email me at [email-masked] 

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