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08/15/2016 07:15 AM EDT


By Heather Caygle (hcaygle@politico.com or @heatherscope)

With help from Daniel Lippman and Tim Starks

'REBELS IN NAME ONLY' PUT ON ALERT: The tea party has spent years causing headaches for the GOP establishment but as the 2016 election heads into the final months, party leaders are going on offense--take defeated GOP Rep. Tim Huelskamp for example--setting the stage for a "titanic intra-Republican fight during the next Congress," reports Elena Schneider.

The details: "A collection of Republican donors and operatives loosely organized around several super PACs decided this summer to adopt newly aggressive tactics against GOP "obstructionists" - or as John Hart, a former aide to ex-Sen. Tom Coburn, calls them: "Rebels In Name Only" - after years of growing tea-party influence in Republican primaries and the halls of Congress. Low-profile House candidates from Kansas to Georgia watched in astonishment this summer as hundreds of thousands of super PAC dollars poured into their primaries." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb888b8e3dbc2d913d1d5c966e781559888a55f386f83bf9e93

Related deep dive: "How Donald Trump brought House conservatives to heel," by National Review's Tim Alberta. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb86b20eb63acf5ae739fb45491cc7df0e41444641cca4d1607

THE ONE RACE TIM KAINE COULDN'T WIN- "Tim Kaine likes to say he's never lost an election. Then there's 2010. Kaine himself wasn't on the ballot that year. But as the chairman of the national party, he was at the helm as Democrats were decimated up and down the ballot," write Burgess Everett and Edward-Isaac Dovere. "Kaine skirted blame for all of it, despite being the Democratic National Committee chair in the worst Democratic blowout in a generation."

Look to 2012: "On the contrary, people inside and outside the DNC building argue that Kaine might actually deserve some credit for the election not going worse, and that the real story of Kaine's tenure was revealed in 2012, when President Barack Obama held the White House and Democrats clawed back some of their losses."

Quote of the day: "He was handed what was destined to be a turd sandwich," said former Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney. Read it: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb80f7a5f46f9fb2dfa29c6f33701ddce655561fe5cfde1e235

DCCC LEAK: THE AFTERMATH-House Democrats and their staffers are still reeling from a weekend leak of their emails, phone numbers and other personal information after DCCC spreadsheets were posted online, all part of a larger Russian cyberattack that has targeted Democratic campaign committees. Tim Starks with more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb8ff937a4db97108b81d8dbc312a88913c9b679fbf87dca2f5

Members worried about opposition research: DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján held a Saturday night call with members, the Sergeant-at-Arms office and cyber experts to talk about the leak. Some members in tough races expressed concerns about what sensitive information they might have given the DCCC that could now be leaked and used against them ahead of the election, according to a source on the call. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi stressed that the hackers sometimes doctor the documents before leaking them and members should use that to cast doubt on anything that comes out in the future, the source told Huddle.

Republicans targeted too: The same hackers may have also hit some Republicans, including campaign staffers for Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, both prominent critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, reports Cory Bennett. "But the presence of GOP-affiliated emails could also be part of a disinformation campaign meant to make the site seem nonpartisan" one expert cautioned. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb80d2bdffa8136382202178937cb05ba2285f4d28adde7e963

CUTTING OFF THE CASH FLOW? While Republican officials try to maintain a "everything is fine" attitude publicly, in private many top party leaders have started talking seriously about cutting off cash to Donald Trump if he doesn't turn things around by October and redirecting that money to key congressional races, reports Eli Stokols and Ken Vogel.

Top RNC strategist Sean Spicer "has suggested a mid-October deadline for turning the presidential campaign around, suggesting last week to reporters and in separate discussions with GOP operatives that it would cause serious concern inside the RNC if Trump were to remain in a weakened position by then."

Some top operatives think October might be too late: "'Early voting in Ohio starts in a few weeks, there's a 45-day window for absentee voters, so mid-September would probably be the latest the RNC could redeploy assets and have any real impact,' said an RNC member privately. Read more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb861791d7d55bb47c0274f47fc081faa4ddc134c07b651368f

Can't miss op-eds: First up, Rep. Mark Sanford in the New York Times, a Trump supporter, calling on the GOP nominee to release his tax returns: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb86c91de346dc0e86df84a504f5c393ce2ffc38527ee13279b And then there's the Wall Street Journal, calling on Trump to "change his act" by Labor Day and "decide if he wants to behave like someone who wants to be President-or turn the nomination over to Mike Pence." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb8a3b1038e5f5140a6155bf77e650d50c479eaec077989cc31

WE'RE HERE FOR YOU on this Monday, August 15. You're reading POLITICO's Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill. Huddle is coming to you live somewhere in the friendly skies as we head down to North Carolina to trail Sen. Tim Kaine this week. Stay tuned!

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Back in session countdown: 22 days

AROUND THE HILL- Not much. Here's a little MJ to get you through the work day: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb8c2aac8f2744d2b2fc5f92e0b10b22e6acb1d571c32e86881

CLINTON NOTES POSSIBLY COMING TODAY-Lawmakers could receive notes from Hillary Clinton's interview with the FBI about her private email server as soon as today, reports CNN's Jake Tapper and Tal Kopan. "The FBI does not have a complete transcript of the interview, FBI Director James Comey told Congress in long testimony earlier this summer. She was not under oath, he added. But members of Congress will have access to notes taken during the interview," they write. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb864175d32f173913c4225440aa9d62b199784b0815b7a027a

STAND BY ME-The presidential election is still more than two months away but top Senate Democrats are already making their wishes known for a Clinton presidency, should she be elected. The first order of business? Renominate Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, reports Edward-Isaac Dovere and Burgess Everett.

By sticking with Garland, Clinton "would save herself some of the political capital inherent in making a court nomination in the early days of her presidency and call the bluff of Republicans who have repeatedly said the next president should get to decide who fills the bench.

"But renominating Garland would mean that Clinton, who's already running the 2016 campaign as more of an extension of Obama than she ever planned, would have to make one of her first and most significant decisions as president a direct extension of his presidency, long after he's settled into his new home in Washington's Kalorama neighborhood." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb8abd546d2150684419aed50f775fe36c287e685b8ad112196

SUNDAY SHOW TWEET DU JOUR: Jonathan Allen (@jonallendc): Claire McCaskill on Fox: "Trump and his friend Putin are the founder of ISIS"

PAUL BACKS CHENEY CHALLENGER- Sen. Rand Paul is backing a Liz Cheney opponent in Wyoming's GOP House primary tomorrow. "The Kentucky senator has a long-standing feud going with Cheney's father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and that disagreement is again coming to the surface on the eve of an eight-way congressional contest that Paul wants to make into a referendum on the George W. Bush administration's foreign policies," reports Darren Samuelsohn. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb876cb3ce4ece575c5aaa920950ac5e3da9d983af88c15101d

CLICK: "Despite a massive victory in his Republican primary last week, it's been a lousy, diminishing summer for Paul Ryan." Paul Ryan's "bummer summer," by CBS News' Sean Gallitz. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb8d743c6dacb148505c4aa389c70999a6969748701b69937ae

RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE- "Hostility oozed from South Florida TV screens Sunday morning as Tim Canova and Debbie Wasserman Schultz faced off in their first, and likely only, debate before the Aug. 30 Democratic congressional primary," reports Anthony Man for the Sun Sentinel.

The 'gotcha moment' of the debate? "To test Canova's knowledge of South Florida, debate moderator Jim DeFede asked Canova if he knew the name of the mayor of Southwest Ranches, in the heart of the district he's seeking to represent. Southwest Ranches was the location of a now canceled immigration detention center, an issue Canova has used to criticize Wasserman Schultz. 'I'm not going to play that game,' Canova said, before conceding he didn't know. Wasserman Schultz interrupted. 'Jeff Nelson. He's also the assistant principal of Cypress Bay High School.'" More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb80e791b0b887cf128fe676069074041d623f797949dfedaa1

HANABUSA ON TRACK TO TAKE OLD SEAT- "Former Rep. Colleen Hanabusa wasn't supposed to return to Congress next year. But the death of 1st District Rep. Mark Takai in July left an opening in the Hawaii delegation that she effectively won Saturday night with a landslide victory in the seven-way Democratic primary," reports Roll Call's Simone Pathé. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ca2cc987c3e5dcb812ac09efa8f5a26872fcf6c79181cef1f46729d3b1409b89

ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES-After seven years on Capitol Hill working in the House and Senate, Fabrice Coles is leaving his job as economic counsel in Sen. Gary Peter's office for a new gig at the Treasury Department.

Nick Brown, previously deputy press secretary for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, is crossing the Capitol today for a new job as communications director for Rep. Annie Kuster. Brian McKeon is also leaving Shaheen's office, he announced Friday. Robert Diznoff will replace McKeon as Shaheen's legislative director.

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Joseph Pratt was the first to correctly guess that Eliza Jumel was the former wife of Aaron Burr and her home was briefly George Washington's headquarters in the Revolutionary War.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Joseph with today's question: Burr's marriage to Jumel forms the basis for a novel by participants in a famous series of debates that occurred in 1968. Name the novel, the author, and his debate opponent. The first person to correctly answer gets a shout-out in tomorrow's Huddle. Email me: hcaygle@politico.com

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