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By Seung Min Kim (
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com or @seungminkim)

With an assist from Burgess Everett

CRUZ'S SPOTTY ATTENDANCE RECORD - POLITICO's Austin Wright digs into Senate Armed Services Committee records and finds that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who's officially thrown his hat into the ring for 2016, has the worst attendance at the panel's hearings - by far: "The Texas Republican attended just three of the panel's 16 public hearings so far this year, according to a POLITICO review of transcripts from full committee hearings. The average committee member attended 13 of the 16 hearings, and Cruz is the only one of the panel's 26 members with an attendance rate below 50 percent."

--"By contrast, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is weighing his own bid for the Republican presidential nomination, attended 11 of the panel's 16 hearings this year ... Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, often mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick on the GOP ticket, attended 14 of the 16 hearings. Four committee members have perfect attendance records: Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.). The panel's chairman, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), missed just one hearing - because he was part of the president's January delegation to Saudi Arabia to pay tribute to the late King Abdullah."

--Cruz's aides responded to Austin with 16 pages of background material, and the senator's communications director, Amanda Carpenter, said: "Sen. Cruz is deeply engaged in defense and national security issues. He never hesitates to defend American sovereignty and has established a remarkable track record leading on these matters."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa561489d1a08e5a4d44c8ad1d0a5003067f035edb7a2e2fc7bbc81f
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DURBIN VS. MURRAY FOR NO. 2? The race to replace Harry Reid at the head of the Democratic Caucus is pretty much settled, with Chuck Schumer moving deftly to lock up support after Reid's retirement announcement last week. But the race to be Schumer's top deputy is far more in question, as Manu Raju and Burgess Everett report: "Washington Sen. Patty Murray is refusing to rule out a run to be the chamber's No. 2 Democrat, a position Durbin wants to keep in the next Congress. Yet several Democratic sources say she is getting encouragement from senators to take on a larger role in the leadership. And the Democratic leader-in-waiting, Schumer, is open to seeing Murray elevated to whip from her
current role as the caucus secretary, the No. 4 job, several sources said."

--Talk about a case of he-said, she-said: "A Durbin aide asserted Monday that Schumer and Durbin had reached a deal in a private conversation in the Senate on Friday morning: The Illinois Democrat would endorse Schumer for leader, and the New Yorker would back Durbin for whip. Asked for comment, a person close to Schumer said: 'It never happened, and they know it.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa561489cfe953e013776e165cebb2b91961d7433207b688fb5df569
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa561489cfe953e013776e165cebb2b91961d7433207b688fb5df569

--Murray officially threw her support behind Schumer for Democratic leader earlier Monday. Niels Lesniewski of Roll Call:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa56148943202819823731f0dc4ab6b06f0f025653d4696c8537e812
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa56148943202819823731f0dc4ab6b06f0f025653d4696c8537e812

KENNEDY HONORED AT DEDICATION - Joshua Miller for the Boston Globe: "President Obama recalled Edward M. Kennedy's powerful ability to forge compromise. Senator John McCain remembered arguing with him on the Senate floor, after which the Democrat warmly put his arm around him. And Elizabeth Warren spoke about her first meeting with the liberal lion, and how it changed her life ... Vice President Joe Biden spoke of Kennedy's friendship, mentorship, and his understanding that consensus comes through the cumulative effect of personal relationships."

--" 'Forgive me for saying in the city of Tip O'Neill, but I think he was wrong that all politics is local. All politics is personal!' Biden said. 'And no one, no one in my life understood that better than Ted Kennedy.' In one of the lighter moments of the day, Biden told the story of Kennedy taking him, as a new senator, to the Senate gymnasium and introducing him to his colleagues - some of whom were nude."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa5614897f209167bc05c3a26e03b688bc8cc69b88d526741fded15a
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa5614897f209167bc05c3a26e03b688bc8cc69b88d526741fded15a

--POLITICO's Edward-Isaac Dovere writes about how the dedication was like an Irish wake - for the Senate:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa56148993da69b0a4856abc4fda8bfb32151a8dd297a9c7fb74904d
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa56148993da69b0a4856abc4fda8bfb32151a8dd297a9c7fb74904d

--The Boston Globe has a photo gallery of the dedication:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa561489aafa9c132e76ef1af9214d86803bb31a5e413d1d35e2fe5a
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa561489aafa9c132e76ef1af9214d86803bb31a5e413d1d35e2fe5a

MORAN GETS TO WORK - Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran is firing an early warning shot at potential primary challengers, hoping to prove well ahead of time that he's no Pat Roberts. In an internal poll by Glen Bolger, Moran has 95 percent name ID and 66 percent favorability, which is at 70 percent among conservative votes. That poll also found that 57 percent of likely GOP primary voters want to reelect Moran, while 32 percent want a new Republican senator. In a head-to-head with Milton Wolf, who took on Roberts last year, Moran comes out on top 70-18.Read the internal poll here first:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa561489577646c14aee016809e5a81b8a62d740ad80d142fea779f5
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa561489577646c14aee016809e5a81b8a62d740ad80d142fea779f5

--While it's likely to be at least a month before Moran officially announces his reelection campaign, he told us that he's using the long recess to finish up his plans to visit all 105 Kansas counties - another contrast to Roberts and the residency issues that dogged him in 2014.

MENENDEZ ALLY COULD BE CHARGED - More news drips out as Bloomberg's Del Quentin Wilber reports that Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor and friend of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), may face federal charges of his own on allegations of corruption: "U.S. prosecutors are investigating whether the doctor, Salomon Melgen, provided the New Jersey Democrat with gifts and campaign donations in exchange for help with federal agencies. Menendez may face his own set of charges as soon as this week, according to another person familiar with the investigation."

--"Melgen and Menendez are long-time friends, and Melgen hasn't cooperated with federal investigators, according to one of the people familiar with the probe. The senator has denied any wrongdoing and vowed not to leave office amid the Justice Department inquiry."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa5614890073db0570cb3d53be5d92958aed6507d842cf45eda4195a
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa5614890073db0570cb3d53be5d92958aed6507d842cf45eda4195a

TRANSITIONS - Two Hill Dem flaks are headed over to the Democratic National Committee to take on new communications roles. Kaylie Hanson, most recently the deputy communications director for Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), will be the DNC's regional press secretary for the Northeast, while Eric Walker, who was communications director for Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) and House Rules Committee Democrats, will serve as regional press secretary for the West.

HAPPY TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2015 and welcome to The Huddle. Please send your tips, suggestions, comments, complaints, and corrections to
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com and please follow along on Twitter at @seungminkim.

My new followers include @kelmej and @JonTReid.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Zip.

SCHUMER'S TEST ON IRAN DEAL - Manu Raju and John Bresnahan on how the Senate Dem leader-in-waiting could determine whether Congress weighs in on a nuclear agreement: "During a tense phone call with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough in early March, Sen. Chuck Schumer delivered a blunt message: He would join a growing chorus of senators defying the wishes of President Barack Obama by demanding that Congress have an official say over any nuclear deal with Iran. But in a nod to the president, Schumer later made clear that he would give administration officials more time to negotiate a nuclear pact before pushing forward with a congressional review bill."

"The conversations underscored the unusually conflicted - yet increasingly influential - role Schumer is playing as the Iran talks approach a critical juncture. The New York Democrat was already among a handful of senators with the power to undermine or even scuttle a nuclear agreement. Then on Friday, he became the Democratic leader-in-waiting following Sen. Harry Reid's retirement announcement. Now senators on both sides of the aisle will be watching Schumer - closely - to see how he responds to any deal."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa5614896b7527b1fdac0096e184a53867616ce8cbd34b983702d76d
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa5614896b7527b1fdac0096e184a53867616ce8cbd34b983702d76d

DURBIN DEMANDS SEQUESTER FIX - In an interview with the Huffington Post, the Senate's second-ranking Dem says he can't vote for any funding bill that doesn't relieve the spending cuts, which Durbin says has wreaked havoc on areas such as biomedical research: "'I couldn't [vote for it]. I couldn't. I've seen it, I lived through it. It was supposed to be a threat so awful it never happened. And yet we stumbled into it and stuck with it,' said Durbin. 'You don't hear too many people saying I'm going to fight sequestration because non-defense is going to get cut too much. It is worth a fight at that point.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa561489a649c2ddb426b52253d3dab11642d4c99ad2d564ea3bb1f3
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--David Rogers details yet another obstacle that defense hawks in Congress must overcome to get extra cash for the Pentagon: Obama. "[T]he [Budget Control Act] requires both Congress and the White House to sign off on any spending exempted from the appropriations caps. Absent such an agreement, whatever extra spending which Republicans add for the military will be short-lived and almost certainly trigger across-the-board cuts next January."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa561489fc596f50e8cde73cbe04e765c673cc7b206c756e3fd04e76
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa561489fc596f50e8cde73cbe04e765c673cc7b206c756e3fd04e76

OVERSIGHT STANDS DOWN FROM HILLARY PROBE - National Journal: "House Republicans have decided that two probes are too many-for now-when it comes to investigating Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email account to conduct State Department business. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has confirmed that it has halted plans to investigate the issue, deferring to the Select Committee on Benghazi."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa5614897844cf192093f72bf07d364964c3aad103e5284a273f018e
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa5614897844cf192093f72bf07d364964c3aad103e5284a273f018e

WELL, THAT'S AWKWARD - Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who chairs a Senate panel overseeing antitrust issues, plans to investigate meetings between Google officials and the White House. Here's what comes next, per Brody Mullins of the Wall Street Journal: "On Tuesday, Mr. Lee will be accepting campaign contributions from Google employees and others at a fundraising event in Silicon Valley hosted by the technology industry. Sponsors of the event, including Google's political action committee, are asking for a $500 donation to Mr. Lee's re-election campaign from individuals, or up to $5,400 to be a "host" for the event, according to an invitation seen by The Wall Street Journal."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa56148992d8d487ef63afe9cbfcaf07eb33bf66afe249ca0e5365d8
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa56148992d8d487ef63afe9cbfcaf07eb33bf66afe249ca0e5365d8

WHY HILL REPORTING IS THE BEST GIG AROUND - National Journal's Ben Geman has a good piece dissecting the value of the "hallway interview": "On July 11, 2006, I spotted Pete Domenici, a powerful Republican lawmaker in the twilight of his decades-long career, in the hallway off the Senate floor. Back then I wrote for Environment and Energy Publishing, a subscription-only website. I wanted to ask Domenici, who at the time led the Senate's Energy Committee, for the latest on something energy journalists were covering closely: a brewing, complicated congressional deal to, among other things, open millions more acres of the Gulf of Mexico to oil drilling."

"Domenici, in his sandpaper voice, strongly suggested an agreement was at hand that would get the bill passed by the full Senate. But his comment had a sliver of ambiguity. 'Is such a deal in place?' I chirped as he stepped onto a senators-only elevator. 'Yes,' he replied. News! Could I ride with him? 'No,' he said. The doors closed; my brief interview had ended abruptly. Still, I now had a small piece of a worthwhile story. And it was all thanks to a hallway interview."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa56148941d8c13fb157dfddef12779b85822c147b1b11045ab0be04
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1696ef2aa56148941d8c13fb157dfddef12779b85822c147b1b11045ab0be04

MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Brad Grantz was the first person to correctly answer that Orrin Hatch was reading "The Summit: Bretton Woods, 1944: J. M. Keynes and the Reshaping of the Global Economy" by Ed Conway during last week's budget vote-a-rama.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Grantz has today's question: A little known fact is that Hatch was born and raised in suburban Pittsburgh, attending Baldwin High School (also the alma mater of former NFL head coach Dave Wannstedt). Name the other U.S. senator who was born in Pittsburgh. Bonus points if you can name the current House member who represents both of these senators' original homesteads. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email
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