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02/17/2016 07:36 AM EDT


By Burgess Everett (@burgessev or beverett@politico.com)

Featuring Lauren French

HEARING ON SCOTUS NOM STILL POSSIBLE: Republicans are saying that Democrats and the media overreached by assuming that the GOP's position in opposition to President Barack Obama's new Supreme Court justice means nothing at all will happen on the nomination. Instead, Republicans say, what's firm is they will vote down a new justice, what's less firm is whether there will be hearings and a vote. "Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin bristled at the suggestion that his party would completely ignore a nomination: 'It's amazing how many words are being put in everybody's mouth ... 'I don't know how things would play out. However it plays out I will fulfill my constitutional role in voting' on the
nomination, said Johnson, one of the most vulnerable Republicans this fall. 'I don't think anybody said we are not going to do anything. They are going to wait to see what the next step is.'" Per usual, Democrats predict the GOP will fold, and fast, after such criticism. "The next step in this process will be for Senator McConnell to back down," said Adam Jentleson, an aide to Harry Reid.

Keeping the door ajar: Republicans aren't there yet, but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office is declining to expand on his Saturday statement and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is refusing to rule out hearings on his panel. Plus, rank-and-file members have said that it is within the president's rights to nominate a new justice, though they quickly add it's within the Senate's right to reject him or her. Still, all the talk about blocking someone who hasn't even been nominated is worrying some Republicans who have made "back to work" the hallmark of their majority. "Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said on Tuesday that the rush to dismiss any pick
threatens to undermine GOP messaging. 'Maybe the president recognizes that he's out of step with the American people, that the American people kind of liked the composition of the Supreme Court, so he puts forth somebody who has identical resume and capabilities of Justice Scalia,' Tillis said on local radio. 'That's unlikely to happen, but I think we fall into the trap - if we just simply say sight unseen - we fall into the trap of being obstructionist.'" My story: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b7d8a54573a2e466aca23cb3433d7929ed74bb970e70af34b12d04f42255c291

RECESS WOES: NYT's Carl Hulse hits it on the head when he looks at how GOP senators deal with a story like SCOTUS while on recess. "On the positive side, Republican senators don't have to spend their days in the Capitol dodging reporters and answering tough questions about their views on whether to vote to fill the vacancy resulting from Justice Antonin Scalia's death, or if they should consider a replacement at all. On the negative side, not being assembled together in Washington makes it harder for Republicans to deliver a unified message or even come to a clear agreement on what their approach should be." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b7d8a54573a2e46638490d7eb9594523ce5e422006a1461eab8ef2cae24a64a9

Shout out: To the senators doing interviews this week rather than just sending out statements.

RYAN SUPPORTS MUTOMBO STRATEGY: The House Speaker says that he's got McConnell's back on delaying a replacement for Antonin Scalia until next year. "The Supreme Court is not an extension of the White House. The president has absolutely every right to nominate someone to the Supreme Court, but Congress as an equal branch also has every right not to confirm someone," Ryan told the Journal Sentinel. And not being in Senate allows him to talk a little truth that you won't hear from many senators: "Ryan did not dispute that Republicans also would be arguing differently if their party occupied the White House. 'I think everyone is going to make spin that benefits their side. I think it's pretty
obvious.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b7d8a54573a2e466ba5757591461311fb798ae595936de461db42f57cd363d1a

Pelosi faces off: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is not impressed with Ryan or McConnell. From a transcript passed along by her office: "It's sort of shocking to me that they would engage in this level of pettiness at a time when his family is mourning their loss and have not had their religious service that would be very important to his family - I know that - and then go from there. But President Reagan in his Administration in the last year in 1988, an election year, Justice Kennedy was confirmed around February of 1988 - an election year. So, why is it that this President should not be able to fill the term? And there's work to be done. There's work to be done."

You're in the right place. Welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where you are fine to wear sneakers all week. Please send tips to beverett@politico.com and follow along on Twitter @burgessev.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Both chambers are still on recess.

WAY OFF THE HILL: At 12:15 p.m. Sen. Chuck Schumer and PCCC will hold a hall on the SCOTUS situation. At 3 p.m. the U.S. Justice Action Network will release polling on criminal justice reform in six battleground states at 444 North Capitol.

TUESDAY'S MOST CLICKED: In what I believe is a first, my piece on ... you guessed, the Supreme Court nomination, was the big winner.

POPCORN TIME: The beef between Schumer and the Wall Street Journal is getting pretty good. After Schumer put up a Medium post yesterday defending his past statements about opposing Supreme Court nominees, the WSJ editorial page expends far more ink than yesterday criticizing him. And I thought Schumer and Wall Street were supposed to get along! "Supreme Court vacancies tend to showcase political consistency-or lack thereof. So it is amusing to watch how thoroughly New York Senator Chuck Schumer has been reduced to self-parody as he tries to excuse his 2007 demand that Democrats reject, sight unseen, any of George W. Bush's nominees." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b7d8a54573a2e46679f146efaf5fa520a2f58ad509ecf040ff329babfba2e28d

TOOMEY WHACKED WITH ETHICS COMPLAINT - You know the Senate races are drawing close when you start to see these. The American Democracy Legal Fund says Sen. Pat Toomey violated ethics rules by recording a campaign video in the Capitol complex after the State of the Union. "Senate rules prohibit members from using official resources like spaces in the Capitol complex for campaign purposes. For the above stated reasons, we request that the Committee commence an immediate investigation into Sen. Toomey's conduct." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b7d8a54573a2e4662a775890da9f1f894b4bb2b28fcfc552498928f0309899ec

Reminder: "Since 2007, the committee has received 613 allegations of wrongdoing and has summarily dismissed more than 90% of them. Only 75 have had even a preliminary investigation." USA TODAY: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=537d9f8de9a151db733a9e2cf03fbec46c423f7ad4b5189a711b2164a42ba4a9

I GUESS HE'LL NEVER GET THAT AMENDMENT VOTE: Former Alaska Sen. Mark Begich is not mounting a political comeback this year against Sen. Lisa Murkowski. "It's a wild year in a lot of ways, and for me personally, it's kind of a nice year to not be running," Begich told the AP. He didn't rule out running again for office; Sen. Dan Sullivan faces reelection in 2020... http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=537d9f8de9a151db0d8c2a23bed42d162967ea9be312cb864eb6246c05115bb3

CORY BOOKER'S INCREMENTALISM: The New Jersey senator is settling into his role as the junior member from his state, Niels Lesniewski finds in a sitdown interview. But now that he's got a book out, you're about to see him a lot more on TV. "'This will be the first time I'm going back on national TV with this book, but I feel like I really have something to say,' Booker told Roll Call. 'And it actually is fortuitous, as we didn't plan it this way, that this is at a time of lots of ... savage divisiveness that I can be someone that's talking about what is the best of America.' In United: Thoughts on Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good, which hits bookstores Tuesday, Booker opts to
speak through stories and vignettes from his upbringing, his time as an activist for better housing and overhauling the criminal justice system." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=537d9f8de9a151db7a8ed375e3ebb44379855ad02192e5285fbac978fafd97b4

MEMORIES WITH TED CRUZ: Since Sen. Cruz hasn't been able to cause a lot of mischief this year and is concentrating on the campaign trail, so might as well reminisce on the heady days of fall 2013. "For many Republicans in Congress, this was the episode that soured them on Cruz. Many suspect that he always knew his plan would fail but went ahead with it anyway - expecting that he would personally benefit from the exposure, even if his party lost a damaging fight. 'He knew that. He knew it. He knew it,' former senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said. 'It wasn't about the shutdown. It wasn't about the Affordable Care Act. It was about launching Ted Cruz.'" WaPo:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=537d9f8de9a151db25107cf206a826111fe76a6e78384254595b81ccf739b490

COMMITTEE SHUFFLE: Rep. Martha McSally is taking over for Rep. Candice Miller as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee's Border and Maritime panel. Rep. Dan Donovan is now leading the Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communication Subcommittee.

TUESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Logan Ferree was the first to answer that Sen. George Edmund Badger was nominated but not accepted by the Senate as a Supreme Court justice.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Logan has today's question: Who is the most recent Supreme Court Justice appointed who did not grow up with English as their first language, and what language did they grow up speaking? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at beverett@politico.com

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