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02/18/2016 07:54 AM EDT


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

Featuring Sarah Wheaton

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE: Sen. Chuck Schumer is a sharp elbowed partisan with years of history in the middle of the Senate's judicial fights. And now the next Senate Democratic leader is one of the central characters in the chamber's war over a Supreme Court replacement. Republicans say that his 2007 speech in opposition to a new nominee over George W. Bush is a gift that allows them to slam him as a hypocrite over the issue and they are now saying they are merely following the "Schumer standard.' Take Schumer's gym buddy, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas): "We're embracing this precedent that Senator Chuck Schumer advocated for back in 2007 ... If it's good enough for them when
they're in the majority, then it's good enough for us when we are," said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Dallas radio on Wednesday. "This is a hypocritical argument on the part of Sen. Schumer."

Apples and oranges: Schumer says his remarks are being twisted against him and that he never suggested such an obstructive posture that would deny nominees a hearing and a vote. "What I said in 2007 is after a hearing if senators felt that a nominee was out of the mainstream and wasn't being forthright about it, they should vote no, and that's still my position today," Schumer said in a conference call on Wednesday. "That doesn't reflect on whether there should be a hearing or vote." Democrats like Sen. Richard Blumenthal have Schumer's back, but one aide said that Schumer is "vulnerable" on the matter simply because when he takes a position it is done in such a high-profile matter. Sure,
said Carrie Severino, a former clerk to Justice Supreme Thomas, it's apples and oranges: "At one point, it was a Republican nominee. Now it's a Democratic nominee." My story with Bres: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f411bd1f7db2feae2d803e0293831f0ed3d83da7074a17b4eec1

FUTURE PRESSURE: The Schumer conference call was organized by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and they along with five additional liberal groups will deliver half a million signatures to Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mitch McConnell on Friday demanding an up or down vote on the SCOTUS vacancy.

AND A SCHUMER BATTLE WITH THE WHITE HOUSE: Earnest lit into Schumer after the senator as well as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton criticized budget slashing of homeland security funds in big cities. "I will also just say that at some point, Senator Schumer's credibility in talking about national security issues - particularly when the facts are as they are when it relates to homeland security - have to be affected by the position that he's taken on other issues," Earnest said. "Senator Schumer is somebody that came out and opposed the international agreement to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He was wrong about that position. And most Democrats
agreed - disagreed with him in taking that position." New York Post: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f411d8d314af766cf7e43f708f0340f686181f5d88bf16d7f8d1

GOP STRATEGY: Manu and Ted Barrett of CNN report that the GOP is growing a bit more comfortable without holding any hearings at all on a nominee, under the argument that giving the administration a platform on the committee dais could be a mistake. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f4113b72cf6e28c46334bed1140c29a1ab655037141b1da25405

Not everyone got the message: Sen. Lisa Murkowski isn't really feeling the total obstruction strategy, per the Alaska Dispatch News. "I do believe that the nominee should get a hearing ... That doesn't necessarily mean that that ends up in a vote." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f41114ade949652acfb3eea5795cb34ed2d668f75a3e7248dc84

But most Republicans did: Sen. Orrin Hatch has been pretty hard to read this week, doing a lot of media for a recess. But on Wednesday night he was unequivocal, telling NewsHour: "Republicans should not act on this nomination. Period. I don't want the court denigrated any further."

REID IN NEVADA: Sure, there's a presidential caucus going on and Schumer is in the proving grounds of what his job as leader will be like, but Reid is still lighting into the GOP. "I had someone ask me, 'are you going to shut down the Senate if they don't allow this?' and I said, 'there's no reason to shut anything down; we're not doing anything anyway,'" Reid told reporters in Nevada. "The President's going to give us a nominee that's a good one and I think they're going to have to hold hearings and have a vote."

Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor: "It's an important position and one that we should care about as a nation and as a people and I wish the president well as he makes choices ... we need somebody there now to do the job and let's get on with it." Mediaite: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f4117ac936198fa300db7878bc783dcc673b0d5f05220a4ffeeb

MORE SCOTUS BAGGAGE: And it's in the White House, of course. President Barack Obama "regrets" his role in working against George W. Bush's judicial nominees, namely his vote to filibuster Samuel Alito, Roll Call's John Bennett reports. His vote against advancing Alito was "symbolic," says White House press secretary Josh Earnest, but Obama had real substantive issues with Alito. "Obama, a decade later, believes he and his Senate Democratic mates 'didn't focus more on making an effective public case about those substantive objections ... Instead, some Democrats engaged in a process of throwing sand in the gears of the confirmation process,' Earnest said. 'And that's an approach that the
president regrets.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f4113742ad8e29d708fd9a6c36b618405afd6e0b83a3aa4f0b68

It's the recess that feels like anything but. And welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where I am ready for the scaffolding to come down. Please send tips to beverett@politico.com and follow along on Twitter @burgessev.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Still in recess

WEDNESDAY'S MOST CLICKED: Carl Hulse's NYT piece on the pros and cons of a long recess. He's got another good one today about how every long-serving senator is performing political gymnastics on the Supreme Court matter: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f411445b702fa0e657491701d61d7a0517cf7ad12afff876f198

TOOMEY BRUSHES ASIDE ETHICS COMPLAINT: An aide tells Huddle that Sen. Pat Toomey's post State of the Union campaign video was shot in the Capitol Hill Club, not the Capitol as alleged by the American Democracy Legal Fund. "It seems liberal D.C. interest groups now have to resort to complete fabrications to try and smear Senator Toomey. This simply illustrates how desperate they are," a Toomey spokesman said.

VISITATION REQUEST: Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik writes in to Sen. Tom Cotton, a fierce opponent of the criminal justice reform proposal in the Senate, to ask him to pay a prison a visit. "I urge you to visit a prison. Go to a minimum-security prison where the inmate classification requires a sentence of ten years or less, and the inhabitants are classified as 'non-violent.' I'm confident you'll meet men that fall into that category of those that could be released under the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f41178e1f486ed29ac03898d0966aa42a040421beda3d4613650

But: Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who promoted Kerik several times over the years, sent Congress a letter last fall that argues the opposite. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f4111065e0a07128863a4759f2d9822eef0353b431d4d095b441

THAT'S GOING TO LEAVE A MARK: Kevin Robillard over in campaigns world has snagged this searing attack from Rep. Todd Young on Rep. Marlin Stutzman, who are locked in an ugly battle over whether Young is eligible to run for retiring Sen. Dan Coats's Senate seat. "Some Hoosiers like Chicago-style pizza, but nobody wants Chicago style politics. But that's exactly what Marlin Stutzman is giving us." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f411c972ea0eb2a47a3e334777b3d8f82b0ac9cd47fc5d1b7fb7

And now, back to the Supreme Court ...

BIDEN HINTS ON SCOTUS: It seems that the White House is listening to Senate Democrats' request for a nominee that would either pressure the GOP to support a nominee or make them look hypocritical by voting down someone they've supported in the past. "The Senate gets to have a say, and so in order to get this done the president is not going to be able to go out (nor would it be his instinct anyway) to pick the most liberal jurist in the nation and put them on the court," Vice President Joe Biden told Minnesota Public Radio in an interview aired on Thursday morning . "There are plenty of judges are on high courts already who have had unanimous support of the Republicans."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f4116e506090763849916ccc4fa0e28cd8110dea9774ae8e99a6

Gaming that out: Sri Srinivasan had unanimous support in 2013, but Patricia Millett did not in her post-nuclear option vote on a 56-38 vote. Both serve on the D.C. Circuit. Another dark horse hinted at by GOP Nevada Sen. Dean Heller on Wednesday: Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, who everyone in D.C. thinks wants to be a judge. Reid likes him and he's a moderate but ... he does have an R next to his name.

POLLING BEGINS LANDING: And it really doesn't tell us much other than the United States's political system is really, really divided. CBS is out with one today that finds 47 percent of those surveyed want President Barack Obama to appoint a new justice before November and 46 percent don't want him to. Well, fine, let's see what NBC has to say. Ah, 43 percent of those surveyed want a Senate vote this year and 42 percent don't. That really clears things up. CBS: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f41133d7d124b45851275ccdb537651c67420a70bfdb1c7c0d49 | http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b27127c3d278f411895c9ec217fe60f4c29e7a13f9b7ff48b7414a872d8fa329

WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Ali Amirhooshmand was the first to answer that Justice Clarence Thomas grew up speaking Gullah rather than English. We'll also give a nod to Paul Curran who was the first to answer that Justice Sonia Sotomayor did not grow up only speaking English.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - I'll take today's question: Who was the last Supreme Court nominee to be confirmed without a roll call vote in the Senate? 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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