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

COTTON STORMS THE SENATE - Burgess Everett profiles the man of the hour in the Iran battle, freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.): "Sen. Lisa Murkowski was knee-deep in the starting ceremony for the world-famous Iditarod dog-sled race on Saturday in Anchorage when her phone blew up. On the other end of the line was Sen. Tom Cotton, eager to recruit as many Republican senators as he could for a letter to Iran's leadership that would soon anger the White House and inflame partisan tensions in Congress. The Alaska Republican ultimately declined, one of seven GOP senators to tell Cotton 'thanks, but no thanks.'"

--"But the exchange highlighted the methodical approach that Cotton, a freshman senator from Arkansas with an Ivy League CV and multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, is taking behind the scenes as he emerges as one of the chief antagonists of President Barack Obama's foreign policy ... With his letter and a few headline-grabbing speeches in his Senate committees, Cotton is showing that driving a message can be just as important to building a profile in the Senate as amassing bipartisan support for legislation. And he's clearly winning the favor of his colleagues while doing it - at least the Republican ones."

--" 'I wasn't necessarily thinking this guy's going to be the greatest possible replacement,' said a Republican lawmaker. 'But, I'm impressed.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e2dd2efac92a614919f611bee53bb11ee6f5340aa1fc06f1b
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NO CLINTON OUTREACH TO HILL - Buzzfeed's Kate Nocera and John Stanton on how Hillary Clinton's Hill defenders want to help, but are in the dark: "Even as Clinton attempted Tuesday to explain the email controversy at a press conference - the first time she had publicly addressed the issue - top Washington Democrats and her potential allies on the Hill say they have heard little or nothing from the Clinton camp in the week since the story broke."

"Only a very small number of senators, television surrogates, and top officials have heard directly from Clinton's staff since the New York Times broke the story last Monday ... While BuzzFeed News was able to confirm that some individual lawmakers have been contacted directly by Clinton staff, five senior Senate Democratic aides said Clinton's camp has made no official coordinated attempt to reach out to lawmakers and provide them with talking points or guidance on how to handle press questions."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e31aaee0ae8d94b14e309709aece70be5442b490444ad689e
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e31aaee0ae8d94b14e309709aece70be5442b490444ad689e

--The Benghazi committee plans to seek emails from Clinton's top deputies at State, CNN reports. The panel's chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), tells Dana Bash: 'We are going to seek any private email that relates to official business, and I don't care about wedding cakes, but any work that could have been done on private-to-private accounts for those State Department employees we know had private accounts."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9eed169b64584453cf2b2c993b685381abdb6d81886a74a5b6
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9eed169b64584453cf2b2c993b685381abdb6d81886a74a5b6

--Speaking of Gowdy, POLITICO's John Bresnahan and Lauren French have the analysis on Benghazi's point man on the Hill and the tricky path he'll have to navigate: "Gowdy and House GOP leaders will have to figure out how far they want to push this fight - for instance, do they want to subpoena Clinton's private email server now? - and whether they might play into her hands by overplaying theirs."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e878b90021253ec3cbf3afba60fb4f935e77c9ef115f66494
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e878b90021253ec3cbf3afba60fb4f935e77c9ef115f66494

--And Gowdy wants Clinton to testify before the Benghazi committee - at least twice. CQ Roll Call:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e089502a8ccb6c2f5de612a9b65faf7e3a2eac0a1f83411e4
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e089502a8ccb6c2f5de612a9b65faf7e3a2eac0a1f83411e4

SCHOCK TALKS - POLITICO's Jake Sherman flies to Peoria, Ill., and gets a brief interview with Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), now dogged by a spending scandal: "The question to Rep. Aaron Schock was simple: Do you think you've broken any rules or federal laws? But the scandal-plagued congressman did not have a definitive answer. 'Well, I certainly hope not,' Schock said. 'I'm not an attorney.' The 33-year-old Republican went on to argue that he does his 'best' and takes his obligations 'very seriously,' which is why he's enlisted outside advisers to help audit his office's procedures. 'That's what we can all do, is our best effort,' Schock said."

--"And so it went for six defensive minutes with POLITICO on Tuesday, in one of the lawmaker's most extensive interviews with the press since news of his big-spending, sloppy-accounting ways - from luxury hotels and fine dining paid for with public and campaign money to gifts that apparently should have been reported but weren't - erupted a month ago."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e7142d667007b6527a0ae86f6c4753c63d6a81613d6df3a28
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e7142d667007b6527a0ae86f6c4753c63d6a81613d6df3a28

LYNCH VOTE EXPECTED NEXT WEEK - The vote count to confirm Loretta Lynch as the next attorney general remains extremely close, and some of the more moderate Senate Republicans will have to support Lynch in order to avoid calling in Vice President Joe Biden to break a tie. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said her nomination will be on the floor next week. So far, Republicans backing Lynch are Orrin Hatch of Utah, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine. The state of play, from Bloomberg's Kathleen Hunter:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e27bc385472f5b8b41994be664e3aa46c406010cb28273fd9
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e27bc385472f5b8b41994be664e3aa46c406010cb28273fd9

--Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) tells Kate he won't support Lynch: "I gave her an opportunity to tell me how the department would be different under her leadership from an agenda standpoint than Eric Holder, and she said that it wouldn't, and I voted against Eric Holder." And another "likely" no: Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who told Huddle on Tuesday that he (like many others) is concerned over her testimony that President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration are legal.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 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 @PressSec and @AsbestosNation.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The House is out. The Senate is in at 9:30 a.m. and will continue work on the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. No votes are currently scheduled.

AROUND THE HILL - Senate Budget Committee Democrats, led by ranking member Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), will hold a press conference on the budget at 2:15 p.m. in S-325.

ABORTION POLITICS THREATENS TRAFFICKING BILL - Is anything ever easy in the Senate? No, as Burgess and I write: "Senate Democrats are threatening to pull their support from a bipartisan anti-trafficking bill set for Senate action this week. They are infuriated over an abortion-related provision that Democrats say was slipped in without their knowledge. The legislation passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in late February without opposition, but Democrats are now balking over language in it that would prohibit money in a restitution fund from being spent on abortions."

--"Aides said Democrats shepherded the bill through committee and to the floor, unaware that abortion language was in the bill written by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas). 'You can blame it on staff, blame it on whoever you want to blame,' Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday. 'But we didn't know it was in the bill, and ... the bill will not come off this floor as long as that language is in the bill.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e217f97000f22852fd9ab3d67c2c93e58aed8926850e1118f
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e217f97000f22852fd9ab3d67c2c93e58aed8926850e1118f

--An e-mail exchange obtained by Huddle between two Judiciary Committee staffers from early January shows that the Hyde Amendment language (which was not part of the trafficking bill passed in the last Congress when Dems were in the majority) was not mentioned in the list of seven changes between the two versions that Republicans gave to Democrats. But a Cornyn aide said other Democratic aides knew the abortion-related provision was in the legislation.

@JohnCornyn: Senate Ds who voted for anti-trafficking bill read it before they voted for it?

GOP WIN IN AMMO FIGHT - News that came amid all Clinton chaos of yesterday: the Obama administration, for now, is backing off a proposal to restrict certain types of gun ammunition. An overwhelming number of Hill Republicans and some Democrats had protested the plan. The New York Times: "The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had proposed to restrict the armor-piercing 5.56-millimeter 'M855 green tip' rifle bullet, saying its increasing use in handguns that could be concealed posed a threat to law enforcement officers. But in a Twitter post on Tuesday, the agency acknowledged the intense opposition to the change and said it would shelve the proposal for now."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9eb160f0d18c9d564ed6c9d98686ec79c157b7eebec951129f
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--House Judiciary Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who spearheaded a letter with nearly 240 House members opposing the ATF proposal, says he's "pleased that the Obama Administration has abandoned its attack on the Second Amendment."

MENENDEZ STAYS DEFIANT - The New Jersey Dem, who's expected to soon face criminal corruption charges, criticizes the Justice Department for leaks about his looming indictment. From Manu Raju and John Bresnahan: "Sen. Robert Menendez stood up at a closed-door Democratic lunch Tuesday to address an issue that's been dominating the news: Iran. But he didn't mention the big issue that's been putting him in the headlines lately - his looming indictment on federal corruption charges."

"It was all in keeping with the defiant, business-as-usual approach the New Jersey Democrat has maintained since news leaked Friday that the Justice Department was preparing to charge him with illegally aiding a political benefactor and longtime friend, Salomon Melgen ... And in an interview with POLITICO on Tuesday, Menendez jabbed the DOJ for recent leaks that his allies have said were clearly intended to undermine him ... 'All I can say is leaks are in violation of the law,' Menendez said. 'And I hope there is an investigation as to however, whomever is conducting such leaks.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9ef929a6e450414af45a15ffd90a125c0f3c97f9fb66770a6a
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9ef929a6e450414af45a15ffd90a125c0f3c97f9fb66770a6a

--Quote of the day, from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), on why Senate Dems don't - unlike Republicans - have rules that force indicted members to step down from leadership jobs: "Beats me. I don't know."

GOP TO KEEP SEQUESTER LEVELS - The Wall Street Journal's Kristina Peterson and Nick Timiraos: "Republican leaders are expected to unveil House and Senate budgets next week that will hew to spending curbs enacted four years ago, even though many GOP lawmakers believe the limits are harming the nation's military readiness. Counter to warnings from top military officials, the two chambers' fiscal year 2016 budgets will likely restrict both military and domestic spending to levels agreed to in a 2011 deficit-reduction deal ... 'There is need for more defense spending, but we do not break the sequester,' said Rep. Diane Black (R., Tenn.)."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e39553586462ef777a41c9273a73f504e192055736af56756
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e39553586462ef777a41c9273a73f504e192055736af56756

--Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who's trying to work on a sequester fix with a bipartisan group of senators, offers more details on what the group is looking at - such as closing tax loopholes (in exchange for entitlement cuts) that fiscal conservatives will view as a tax hike. The Hill:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9ec510d532ebf3eb526ba14de3ed4f50111ecae4dcf1893d63
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9ec510d532ebf3eb526ba14de3ed4f50111ecae4dcf1893d63

--And POLITICO's David Rogers writes on the coming generational debate in the budget wars: Boomers vs. Millenials. The story:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9ea2ade8db82272d0a38cbe11c41ae79b1c8d75dce61dcf2ae
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9ea2ade8db82272d0a38cbe11c41ae79b1c8d75dce61dcf2ae

RAND, GILLIBRAND, BOOKER ROLL OUT MARIJUANA BILL - The Washington Post with the details: "The bill ... would end the federal prohibition on medical marijuana and eliminate the ambiguity surrounding related state laws. It would untie the hands of veterans' doctors when it comes to recommending the drug and bankers when it comes to providing business services to the industry. It would also facilitate very limited inter-state trade, expand research and shift marijuana out of the most severe category in the federal government's drug classification."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e16bd2cc8d5ed2e294bda4281fd913821304de4591ebdfa10
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9e16bd2cc8d5ed2e294bda4281fd913821304de4591ebdfa10

FAVE LINE OF THE DAY - It's from this National Journal story: "Ohio Republican Rob Portman and New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen are either gluttons for punishment or close to picking the political lock that often keeps even widely supported legislation out in the cold." The duo are set to re-release the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill later today:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9eff242ba34b7d67b13bfe18d4c3915063d1b316d34237f3a7
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0da55ef8553caf9eff242ba34b7d67b13bfe18d4c3915063d1b316d34237f3a7

TUESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Sean Neary and Kirtan Mehta were the first to answer that California and Ohio are the two states that don't have an avenue named after them in the District of Columbia. California is officially a street, while Ohio is a drive.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Sean offers today's question: Who is the only U.S. senator to hold both Senate seats from a state at the same time? Name the senator and also give me the senator's birthday. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com .

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