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By Heather Caygle | 02/08/2017 08:00 AM EDT


With assists from Burgess Everett, Kyle Cheney and Daniel Lippman

EVERYTHING IS FINE - The normally collegial Senate was unrecognizable Tuesday night after the Republican-controlled chamber voted 49-43 to essentially tell Sen. Elizabeth Warren to sit down and shut up, Seung Min reports. "The rare rebuke against Warren, a hero on the left, added another extraordinary layer of tension in the contentious battle to install [Sen. Jeff] Sessions at the Justice Department and the broader fight over President Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees. And rather than quieting Warren, the episode sparked by a dispute over arcane Senate rules only served to elevate her cause."

Republicans say Warren violated chamber rules against impugning another senator after she tried to give a lengthy speech against Sessions' nomination, including reading a 1980's letter from Coretta Scott King in opposition to the Alabama senator, then up for a federal judgeship. Sessions is expected to be confirmed as the next attorney general at some point today but the vote could come as late as this evening if Democrats use all of the debate time. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0db587dec2916ed3165448d0bf62a60d429ebe10fee08f502341d3ad5815e0ce127c5c8f54fcb4ce979f0bcac60b0364

Democrats are embracing the grueling delay tactics like the Senate all-nighters they've employed this week. And even though their strategy can only delay, not stop, Trump's nominees, Democrats insist their opposition is all part of a bigger plan. "The Democratic grass roots wants to see a high-profile fight, even one that ends in a loss, and senators are happy to oblige," Elana and Burgess report. "Republicans predict the gambit will backfire and say that Democrats have misread their electorate by drawing more attention to fights they can't win." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0db587dec2916ed365e6aaeb9d514623449c0dbe1b291fada6cb46b582d78589204b754be117acedb5434102a9c36e38

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP - Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley is on the cusp of appointing state attorney general Luther Strange to fill the seat soon to be left vacant by Sessions. The appointment would have an advantage for Bentley, who has been implicated in a tawdry sex scandal with a former assistant. Strange's office has been investigating the matter, including empaneling a grand jury, which has called Bentley as a witness. With Strange in the Senate, Bentley could appoint a state AG less likely to prosecute him, report Kenneth Vogel, Bres and Marc Caputo. "Luther is screwed either way," a source said. "If he gets the job, it looks like he cut a deal. And if he doesn't, it looks like
he's prosecuting Bentley out of revenge." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0db587dec2916ed3300d342ce3b75725a07a9589ee785d0da5eb6e50baac78a465dd60949506f3385f92940ae5179476

DEMS HOPE FOR LUCK IN CHARM CITY - House Democrats kick off their annual retreat today, heading to Baltimore for the first confab in years without President Obama to lead the party. Now House Democrats are facing a crossroads: Do they lean into full-scale resistance against President Trump or do they continue to toe the line, hoping for bipartisan policy wins down the road? For some members, promising four years of obstructionism seems unrealistic and unworkable.

But others --especially lawmakers who have no idea what it's like to be in the majority and are facing many more years in the wilderness-- are ready to take the gloves off and see what happens. "This is a different world," CBC Chairman Cedric Richmond said. "There are no more rules, we've seen that." My story: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0db587dec2916ed3d7bc4beb71e97d9132bc2040d15c017854f9fe62268225c08bc5f87c6c76f65020d15b5f6d744b1d

Troll so hard: Republicans won't be far from Democrats' minds, at least the ones that use Snapchat. The American Action Network, the GOP group often aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, is rolling out a mobile billboard (on wheels!) and Snapchat geofilter around Democrats' hotel in Baltimore taking aim at Obamacare. AAN has spent more than $5 million on its Obamacare repeal and replace campaign so far.

AT THE PLEASURE OF THE PRESIDENT - Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia are invited to a White House meeting with Trump today. "Those four Democrats and Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who are all up for reelection in 2018 in states that Trump won handily, will be key to the progress of Trump's agenda and to getting his Supreme Court nominee confirmed," Burgess writes. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0db587dec2916ed3da9eaf4d5156cade993255589155015bf6abcdff38763abc16d5018a4359d55aac6bfe580a9ebb5e

WEDNESDAY, THE FOURTH BEST DAY OF THE WEEK. Welcome to Feb. 8. Thanks for reading POLITICO's Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill.

TUESDAY'S MOST CLICKED: The Albany Times Union's story about a staffer from Rep. Elise Stefanik's office circulating a meme comparing Afghans to Ewoks.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The House is out. The Senate continues to be in session with a vote on Sen. Jeff Sessions' attorney general nomination at some point today.

AROUND THE HILL - Sen. Jeff Flake will meet with Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch at 10:30 a.m. in Russell 413. Sen. Ben Cardin, top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, will hold a pen and pad at 10:45 a.m. in S-116. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp will meet with Gorsuch at 11:15 a.m. in Hart 110. Sen. Tom Cotton will meet with Gorsuch at 1:30 p.m. in Russell 124. Sen. Richard Blumenthal meets with Gorsuch at 3 p.m. in Hart 706.

SHAKIN' IN THEIR BOOTS - President Donald Trump has grand plans for what he says will restore American greatness: new roads and bridges, big time military spending, cutting taxes and a multi-billion-dollar border wall. But for Republicans who actually have to find a way to translate Trump's big ideas into policy, the big question is how to pay for it all. "GOP lawmakers are fretting that Trump's spending requests, due out in a month or so, will blow a gaping hole in the federal budget - ballooning the debt and undermining the party's doctrine of fiscal discipline," Rachael Bade and Josh Dawsey report this morning.

Keeping it real: As the president prepares to release his first budget this spring, "Republican lawmakers have to choose between embracing Trump's expensive agenda - or pushing back and risking his wrath," they report. "I don't think you can do infrastructure, raise defense spending, do a tax cut, keep Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security just as they are, and balance the budget. It's just not possible," said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a senior member of the House Budget Committee. Much more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0db587dec2916ed30cc54c702289eb88e37dcc16960deb4c811cbcd3847217cd6b67766e60cd138fd7596822c3d71c89

CAN WE JUST SLOW DOWN A LITTLE BIT? "Andrew Puzder has faced allegations of beating his wife, apprenticed to a notorious mob lawyer early in his career, and just admitted to hiring an undocumented immigrant and failing to pay taxes on her employment. Yet somehow, Donald Trump's Labor secretary nominee is still standing," Burgess and Marianne Levine report. GOP leaders are intent on pushing his nomination through - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he's still "enthusiastically" supporting Puzder - but some Republican senators say they want to slow things down after the latest revelation. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0db587dec2916ed3d5e0207e0eb4160d46b036552e640fb27f930e803fd6691bd306197ae895eb7c302c23753d417a96

MUM'S THE WORD - Rep. Jason Chaffetz said his much-hyped meeting with Trump Tuesday included zero talk about the House Oversight Committee's probe into the president's lease of the Old Post Office Hotel, Kyle reports. "Before my bum even hit the chair, the president said, 'No oversight. You can't talk about anything that has to do with oversight,'" the Utah Republican told reporters after the 30-minute meeting.

Chaffetz also threw cold water on the notion that he's thinking about investigating Trump's conflicts of interest. "I never did a personal investigation of Barack Obama. I didn't do it of Hillary Clinton. I didn't do that," he told reporters. And as for Trump, "It would have to rise to a very high level for us to do that." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0db587dec2916ed3e5e8647bb83b7715ad28ba7b4e1f16ed787c48085d8f0d5b6da694123c3a091fc96c36caff39e3b8

OBAMACARE REPEAL COMING TOGETHER? Four Obamacare replacement measures are under consideration, Jen Haberkorn reports, as Republicans struggle to get their repeal efforts back on track. The goal is to start work on the legislation in the relevant House committees by the end of February with the hope of "stuffing as much of a replacement policy as possible into a repeal bill" that could be passed using an expedited process. "Sources on and off the Hill say the process is in its early stages and could still change. It's still unclear whether a repeal-replace bill would get enough support to pass - or how quickly." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0db587dec2916ed3f7bf488b1cc650001d40dbd3c35ce6afcbe8000c126229c846711e1c2f52d976398e7b3ea6767f6e

On the flip side: GOP Sen. Bob Corker offered a candid assessment of current Obamacare talks to reporters on Tuesday. "To be honest, there's not any real discussion taking place right now," Corker said. "I'm not on a committee that deals with this ... but I don't see any congealing around ideas yet. And I think it's fine that we take our time." More from the Huffington Post's Ryan Grim and Jeffrey Young: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0db587dec2916ed32420aef035a526df5c6462afdaae44cca6de26c572073502822635525568afd01dda4bd54fc2e513

One of the biggest problems with replacing Obamacare: For Republicans, it's finding a way to convince insurers not to ditch people with pre-existing conditions, a foundation of Obamacare that Trump has said he'd like to keep in place. "All of the options under discussion would either raise the uninsured population or run afoul of GOP principles," reports Paul Demko. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0db587dec2916ed3411c06216c2dcff0fccc5e7333b46a5495e6333d06e4e9310f812a2bd253a3d0941ec3198e3e3c9f

Meanwhile, GOP talks safety as Obamacare protests get rowdy: "House Republicans during a closed-door meeting Tuesday discussed how to protect themselves and their staff from protesters storming town halls and offices in opposition to repealing Obamacare," Rachael reports. Several House Republicans have been confronted by rowdy Obamacare protesters during their district meetings in recent weeks. Some members have been booed or shouted down while others abruptly left or were escorted out by police. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0db587dec2916ed3da343be0fdac0b2dfc626beac3e918400f89d71c5e655229561bb87ba58b9b8aa82962cef4a37a3e

GABBARD IN HOT WATER AGAIN - Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has failed to comply with House ethics rules surrounding her controversial trip to Syria, Tim Mak reports. Gabbard "hasn't yet submitted the required disclosure forms which detail who paid for her trip, and who else she met" while in the war torn country. The Daily Beast: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b7ea6adaaa16b8ae9a797ada855e7bf6c7c00822376e35c74c556df0565372e7f8c69c6297b06f42915801fec3be767

TRUMP'S MAN ON CAPITOL HILL - Vice President Mike Pence was on Capitol Hill Tuesday to break the tie on the vote to confirm Betsy DeVos as Education secretary. And then the new VP did what's become a regular habit for him, dining with Senate Republicans during their Tuesday caucus lunch. Pence has become a key ally to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, writes Paul Kane, and a Trump decoder for senators who get whiplash trying to decipher the president's roving policy playbook. But "what remains to be seen is whether Pence has true clout in a West Wing that seems to thrive off competing power centers," PK reports. More from the Washington Post:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b7ea6adaaa16b8a5b03089122f95cc32a7652a3414efb76b82099190b86e1397f5334cb604ac61df5fc35ac1a614368

TALK IT OUT - Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer met with SCOTUS nominee Neil Gorsuch Tuesday but according to the New York Democrat's readout of the 45-minute meeting, it didn't go that well. In the meeting, Schumer peppered Gorsuch with questions on everything from how he feels about Trump's refugee ban to the president's debunked claims of widespread voter fraud. But Gorsuch "avoided answers like the plague," Schumer said. "And that's why I have such severe doubts about him." Seung Min: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b7ea6adaaa16b8a7515a104e090f692f35949f73953dfe25afb6685540fce225ea87deab10283b2e3565544132cd2a1

JOINING THE PRIVATE SECTOR - Ryan O'Daniel, the 2016 campaign manager for John McCain, is starting Intrepid Public Affairs in Arizona, his own firm that will do consulting and lobbying for companies and candidates.

SENIOR RYAN AIDE MOVES TO WHITE HOUSE - The White House has tapped Joyce Meyer, senior aide to Speaker Paul Ryan, as its House liaison, David Drucker reports for the Washington Examiner. Meyer, currently the speaker's deputy chief of staff, is a longtime Ryan aide and respected among House Republicans. Andy Speth, another longtime Ryan aide, will replace Meyer as deputy chief of staff.

Other Speaker's office staff changes: Brendan Buck, Ryan's chief communications adviser, has been named counselor to the speaker. Jennifer Hemingway has joined the speaker's office as director of house operations. Jeff Dressler has been tapped as national security adviser, succeeding Jonathan Burks who was promoted to chief of staff in December.

SPOTTED - Dennis Kucinich and Gerry Connolly lunching in the Longworth cafeteria Monday afternoon.

TUESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Paul Kane (this guy's on a roll lately) was the first to correctly guess that there have been 241 times a vice president has voted to break a tie vote in the Senate. The last tie breaker was cast by former Vice President Dick Cheney in 2008 on a procedural vote.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - I'll take today's question: How many former House members have also served on the Supreme Court and of those, how many became chief justice? The first person to correctly answer gets a shout out in tomorrow's Huddle.

And don't forget, send suggestions for trivia questions my way: hcaygle@politico.com

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