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03/01/2016 08:14 AM EDT


By Rachael Bade (rbade@politico.com or @RachaelMBade)

DRIVING THE DAY: HRC, THE DONALD EXPECTED TO SWEEP SUPER TUESDAY VOTING. "Insiders: Trump, Clinton to run riot on Super Tuesday," per our Pro Politics ed Steven Shepard: "Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are already beating their rivals. On Super Tuesday, insiders predict they'll all-but bury them." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92e678f93aa7f58b68cadec2c059f44c5d4c1f8032341c3319799bc2552c7149

SENATE REPUBLICANS STAND BY AS TRUMP MARCHES TO NOMINATION. Burgess with the read from the Hill perch: "If Donald Trump becomes the GOP presidential nominee, Senate Republicans won't be remembered for their brave resistance. Though their precarious Senate majority is tied directly to the top of the ticket this fall, and most Republican senators believe Trump would drag down vulnerable incumbents, the Senate GOP has done little to stop Trump ahead of a potentially decisive Super Tuesday. Trump's refusal to repudiate the Ku Klux Klan in a Sunday interview - he disavowed David Duke in a Facebook post the day before, but declined to do so again live on TV - made lawmakers uncomfortable. But it
did little to keep most Republican senators from swearing they will support the business mogul if he ends up being their nominee."

"The reluctance to take on Trump head-on, some conservatives say, could negate all the party's work over the last eight years to take back Congress and position the GOP to win back the White House. 'Trump is a terrible problem for the party: Lose the presidency to Hillary, lose the Senate and therefore the Supreme Court,' said David McIntosh, the president of the Club for Growth, which has spent $3.5 million in a sustained anti-Trump campaign. 'What I'm sharing with the donors now is: Now's the time.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92e678f93aa7f58bc09a407f22b47d1b51e58e7e4a60e33d3d4d28468e1a3c7c

"Donald Trump Poised for String of Super Tuesday Wins Amid GOP Split," Reid J. Epstein reports for the W.S.J.: "Donald Trump was poised to win a string of Super Tuesday states, but faced a stiff contest in Texas, the home state of Sen. Ted Cruz, amid a growing divide in the Republican Party over the billionaire businessman's front-runner status. Republican voters will decide a total of 595 delegates on Tuesday, or about half of the 1,237 needed to claim the GOP nomination. In all, 11 states are awarding delegates, ranging from 155 in Texas to just 16 in Vermont... Mr. Trump is seen as the favorite in most of the states, with a prominent exception in Texas."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92e678f93aa7f58bcec41a1021379347c29c3d23563fa5701abb48fcd5136391

"Trump nabs endorsement from Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Marino." He's No. 5 to jump on the Trump Hill Bandwagon. Here's Daniel Lippman. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92e678f93aa7f58b058b1eecb2034b0f58a04bcc35026741fbfce95f57f20562

WARREN'S GHOST HOVERS OVER MASSACHUSETTS PRIMARY. Our Annie Karni and Gabriel Debenedetti are in BOSTON: "Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are battling it out in Massachusetts ahead of the March 1 primary here - and the state's most important endorsement, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, is still sitting on the sidelines of the debate, watching and waiting for her moment of maximum leverage. Even as Clinton turns Massachusetts - a predominantly white, progressive New England state that should be tailor-made for Sanders - into a battleground Super Tuesday state, the campaign has been quietly respectful of Warren's desire to remain neutral. In part, that's because the progressive standard-bearer -
and the only member of the state's congressional delegation who has not endorsed Clinton - is expected to play the role of peacemaker in the Democratic party at some point in the months leading up to the convention, sources familiar with Warren's thinking said." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92e678f93aa7f58b035545ce08b17b28fe51eead6e837f4a0bff2759ae86f4e7

SUPER TUESDAY! It's March 1, 2016. Thanks for reading Huddle, your daily wrap of all things Congress-where all eyes are turned away from Washington today, affixed on the huge block of states voting in primaries today. Always reachable here: rbade@politico.com or @rachaelmbade

TODAY IN CONGRESS: House back at 10 a.m. - first and last votes between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. The Senate returns at 10:30 a.m. to continue consideration of the motion to proceed to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2015. Caucus lunches at 12:30 p.m., as usual.

AROUND THE HILL. At 10 a.m., Speaker Paul Ryan and GOP leaders hold post-Conference meeting media avail. At 10:15 a.m., House Triangle Dem Caucus Chair Xavier Becerra and Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Suzan DelBene and Bonnie Watson Coleman talk women's health on the campaign trail. At 11:15 a.m., Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer holds pen and pad briefing.

At 1:30 p.m., the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net), in partnership with National Hispanic Media Coalition, will call on Congress to support expanding the Lifeline program to include affordable broadband services. Reps. Mark Takano, Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison will attend. At 3 p.m., in Statuary Hall, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden will honor women vets.

DRIVING BELTWAY HEADLINES: OBAMA TO PRESS GOP TO FILL SCOTUS VACANCY. Kevin Lamarque for Reuters: "U.S. President Barack Obama will press Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, despite Republican vows to not to act on anyone he nominates. Obama is slated to speak at 11:30 a.m. with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley at the White House. The president and Republican senators are at odds over whether Obama should select a replacement for Scalia in an election year... McConnell and Grassley have argued that the seat should remain
vacant until Obama's successor takes office next January, allowing the American people to have a say in the selection when they choose a new president in the Nov. 8 election." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92e678f93aa7f58ba4c826723f6ca54c1d05307198408e8efb04affcde1d33a8

DEMS FIRST TARGET IN OPENING SCOTUS FIGHT: GRASSLEY. Washington Post's Mike DeBonis with this story up rooster: "When President Obama sought bipartisan cooperation on his first major legislative endeavor - passing his signature health-care law - he set his sights on one man: Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, then the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. Despite months of entreaties, Grassley never came around on the Affordable Care Act, which ended up passing the Senate on a series of party-line votes. Now, six years later, Grassley again occupies a central role in what is possibly Obama's last big fight with Congress."

"As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley holds the power to hold hearings and advance Obama's promised Supreme Court nominee through the confirmation process. He is in lockstep with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who declared in the hours after the Feb. 13 announcement of Justice Antonin Scalia's death that the next president, not Obama, would name his successor. But key Democrats believe Grassley can be persuaded - or, more precisely, shamed - to take up an Obama nomination in the coming months, thus breaking the Republican blockade and opening the door to an eventual confirmation vote." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92e678f93aa7f58b70bcf47b689669e5a1fd9e8f47503174d9f002dbfc65bec6

ON THE FLIPSIDE...

GOP GROUP LAUNCHES SCOTUS ADS VS. DEMS. Anna Palmer with the read: "The conservative Judicial Crisis Network is ramping up its efforts to oppose President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee...launching a six-figure digital ad buy going after Democrats such as Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Joe Donnelly of Indiana. JCN is also targeting Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota...As Democrats pummel Republicans for refusing to take up a nominee, JCN is looking to turn the tables on them by arguing the party is trying to deny voters a say on the critical high court vacancy." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92e678f93aa7f58b1e9fda3cd30b3653fa91c00ed4787130796513c41b47f78e

DAILY POLICY DOSE: CONSERVATIVES BALK AT BUDGET RECONCILIATION STRATEGY. From our new budget reporters Matthew Nussbaum and Ben Weyl: "Conservative Republicans continue to resist House GOP leaders' entreaties to back a budget at the 2015 deal's spending levels - even rebuffing pledges to use a powerful procedural maneuver that could land an Obamacare repeal on the next president's desk soon after inauguration. The conservative skepticism increases the odds that Speaker Paul Ryan will skip doing a budget this year, in what would be an embarrassing setback."

"'Those are all promises long-term that may or may not come to fruition that are good, while the thing that is bad - increasing spending, forcing us to borrow money we don't have - is definitely going to occur,' said Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a House Freedom Caucus member. 'I have been here long enough to see these promises that don't pan out.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92e678f93aa7f58b18d160474a3a7967b32eaf3862ad5dbd2a8f78b4e943eea1

TRANSITIONS. Ryan L. Shucard just left Rep. Tom Marino's office to become coms director for Rep. Scott Tipton. (H/t Daniel Lippman). He's taking over for Josh Green who has been promoted to chief of staff.

MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER: Jon Deuser was the first to answer that President Andrew Johnson was the first commander-in-chief impeached in 1868 for removing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, which went against the Tenure of Office Act.

TODAY'S TRIVIA: Comes from our winner: "You have probably seen the recent advertising from Kentucky Fried Chicken featuring Colonel Sanders. But do you know what Kentucky politico led the group that actually bought KFC from the Colonel and began franchising the restaurant throughout the country?" Email me at rbade@politico.com

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