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11/23/2016 07:59 AM EDT


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

With an assist from Theodoric Meyer

FIRST IN HUDDLE - McSally eyes run for Homeland Security Committee chair: Rep. Martha McSally plans to mount a campaign for the chairmanship of the House Homeland Security Committee if Donald Trump taps the current chairman, Rep. Michael McCaul, to serve in his administration. "Should the chair become available, we would definitely go for it," Patrick Ptak, a McSally spokesman, told Theo. "Congresswoman McSally brings unmatched national security experience and a firsthand understanding of how we secure our southern border with Mexico. If there's a vacancy there, there's nobody more qualified than Martha to fill it."

- McSally, who easily won reelection to a second term in an Arizona swing district, is a former Air Force colonel and is one of only three House Republicans who represents a district on the Mexican border. (One of the others, Texas Rep. Will Hurd, is also on the committee.) Her early maneuvering for the post also signals how confident Republicans are that McCaul will be tapped by Trump as his Homeland Security secretary.

Related: The Hill's Scott Wong has a roundup this morning of McCaul and other House members being considered for cabinet posts: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281e9d38586aa215820f8951d5021f107856cc5470c2524cc249

PUTIN'S FAVORITE CONGRESSMAN- Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is known for his pro-Russia views. The question is, where does that put him in Trump's Washington? "A former Cold Warrior, Rohrabacher has since morphed into a supporter of better relations with Putin's Russia, for reasons similar to those articulated by President-elect Donald Trump," report Isaac Arnsdorf and Benjamin Oreskes in a story this morning about how the California lawmaker worked to promote one of Vladimir Putin's top priorities this year.

Rohrabacher "was a White House speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, and in the 1990s he famously arm-wrestled Putin, then a lowly deputy mayor, in a Washington dive bar." Now he's being mentioned as a dark horse candidate for secretary of state. "'Some people seem to be looking at me, that's all I know,' Rohrabacher said of the rumors." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281e7377648c819621f392e67fbb106f764cd9122a921830670d

AFL-CIO: WE'RE WITH HER- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi secured a key endorsement Tuesday: the AFL-CIO. As her challenger, Rep. Tim Ryan, tries to pitch himself as the candidate who will be able to bring working-class voters back into the Democratic fold, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said his group is sticking with the current leader. Pelosi "was w/ us before and after the election. Our agenda is her agenda and that's why we're with her to be the Democratic leader," Trumka tweeted Tuesday.

MORE MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS- Rep. Tim Ryan was asked about Pelosi's fundraising prowess during a Q&A on Reddit Tuesday night. "No one can deny that Nancy is a phenomenal fundraiser, but if money was the only problem, Hillary Clinton would be the President and Democrats would be in the majority. It's our message, not our fundraising, that's hurting us in these elections," he said.

Ryan's 50-state strategy: "I believe that Democrats already have the right message," he said. "My plan is a robust 50-state strategy that gets all members of our Caucus involved. We need to send the best and brightest stars of our party into swing states and swing districts to listen and show voters how our agenda will make their lives better." Read the full Reddit thread: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281ea892109d59695dfcb1ad450e6e73ae0e682337a1e618726b

Leader Ryan: Which one? "Tim Ryan said he saw Speaker Ryan in the hall the other day and they shared a laugh about what would happen if there were two Ryans in leadership. The Ohio Democrat said they already get each other's mail and people mistakenly call one office looking for the other Ryan," writes Lindsey McPherson in Roll Call this morning. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281e7f1f60a31f2945336316dc417a2aaf0fd5538dc6cad7be48


BIDEN NIXES DNC RUMORS- Rep. Keith Ellison has one less competitor to worry about in his bid to lead the Democratic National Committee. Vice President Joe Biden's spokeswoman put the kibosh Tuesday on rumors floating around that he might run for the DNC position next year. "The vice president is not interested in being DNC chair," Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said. Edward-Isaac Dovere with the story: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281eddc5c19b9b9ff9ff4f269513bc1cb2373b7b15487ccd14f6

But Ellison still has to worry about the White House: "President Obama's loyalists, uneasy with the progressive Mr. Ellison, have begun casting about for an alternative, according to multiple Democratic officials close to the president," report Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman. "Mr. Obama's advisers, some of whom discussed the party leadership race at a White House meeting last week, have talked about whether Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez and former Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan would be willing to run for the post." More from the New York Times: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281e73e845886a35e6dcefe5a4db835a04045d3bb6960194adb3

T-MINUS 24 HOURS UNTIL THANKSGIVING FESTIVITIES. Welcome to Wednesday, Nov. 23. Thanks for reading POLITICO's Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill. Your Huddle host is very thankful for all the readers (including the daily trivia players) who email, tweet and even call each day. Writing a morning newsletter wouldn't be nearly as fun without you guys. And if you're traveling for the holidays, take Biggie Smalls' advice and buckle up: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281e698a8bcc31b011cfac4e3d8d148d86be0228a4c957fff426

Programming note: Your favorite morning tipsheet will be taking a break for turkey (and gravy and stuffing and green bean casserole and pumpkin pie) on Thanksgiving and Friday, Nov. 25. And then there's the Iron Bowl on Saturday (WOOP WOOP). But don't worry, we'll be back at it Monday, Nov. 28.

TUESDAY'S MOST CLICKED- The Senate's bean soup video was the big winner.

TODAY IN CONGRESS- The House and Senate are out.

THEY LOVE ME, THEY LOVE ME NOT- President-elect Donald Trump said Republican leaders may not have been too hot on him just a few weeks ago but now that he's moving into the White House and can help with their legislative wish list, they're all about him. "Right now they're in love with me. Four weeks ago, they weren't in love with me," Trump told New York Times' reporters during a roundtable Tuesday. "Paul Ryan, right now, loves me. Mitch McConnell loves me," he added. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281ed19ebd935c0756489530a40135879effc876b4de29e4d26a

Trump takes a pass on Ayotte- The president-elect told the Times he has no plans to offer outgoing Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who distanced herself from Trump and then lost her bid for reelection, a job in his new administration. "Ayotte 'would love a job,' Trump added for good measure, while pointing out that he 'helped numerous senators' win reelection," according to an ongoing Times' Twitter feed of the meeting. More on Ayotte: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281eb6cc0524ca1e9ec1ff746357a70ce2bdae659f0d8c84dd89 And the full Twitter feed: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281eb62a690b705d994dd479c1029ef6dd3ce51eb8c44fd8b190

Trump also said he doesn't plan to pursue criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for anything related to her use of a private email server while secretary of state or to the Clinton Foundation. "I want to move forward," he told Times reporters. "I don't want to move back. I don't want to hurt the Clintons, I really don't." Interesting to see how this will play on Capitol Hill, where Republicans, assuming Clinton was going to win the White House, were practically jumping at the chance to relaunch investigations in the days before the election.

NEW THIS MORNING: Rep. Judy Chu, chairwoman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, is sending a letter to Trump requesting a meeting before the year wraps up. "CAPAC has been proud to work with prior Republican and Democratic administrations...and we look forward to sitting down with you before the end of this year to discuss these priorities," she writes. Read the letter: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281ed759c0fa4ea3692570dbf6c176bee4b5f9e7dad80d5d7ed0

NEED A TURKEY DAY PICK ME UP? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shares a lil' Thanksgiving greeting: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281e9fc3835a4d99a7679288b38c9399822b001ec795fbd00e14

DELANEY MAKES DPCC PUSH- Rep. John Delaney is circulating a letter to colleagues asking for their support in his bid to co-chair the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. (Pelosi is currently proposing splitting the DPCC chairmanship into three spots.) "My district is competitive, comprising parts of progressive suburban Maryland as well as Western Maryland - which experienced economic hardship similar to the 'rust belt' and is deeply Republican," Delaney writes in his pitch to colleagues. "I have done well in both areas, significantly outperforming the top of the ticket across the last three elections."

LET'S GET THIS SETTLED NOW- Sen. Ben Cardin wants Trump to clear up any possible conflicts of interest with his overseas business dealings before moving into the White House. Cardin, top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, will introduce a nonbinding resolution "when the Senate returns from the Thanksgiving break [that] would call on Trump to place his business interests in a blind trust or otherwise divest from holdings that could run afoul of the seldom-discussed Emoluments Clause." Roll Call's Niels Lesniewski: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281eb57cd27c2662ebb1813522b92cc922a4bd5a1a497cb9a81d

TUESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER- Devin Mogler was the first to guess that California Rep. Jeff Denham helped usher through the "Pets on Trains" bill, inspired by his adorable French bulldog Lily. Here's a can't-miss picture of Lily courtesy of Denham's former communications director Jordan Langdon: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b9215f1f3245281ef7ea8c0936bfe1232a4526ae3d408e9f2b74c4020e22a864

And shout-out to my girl (and POLITICO's transportation reporter extraordinaire) Lauren Gardner, who was a very close second.

TODAY'S TRIVIA- Devin with today's question: The first documented "Thanksgiving celebration" in what is now part of the U.S. was 23 years before the pilgrims first celebrated in New England. Where was this April 1598 feast held and who was the Spanish explorer to celebrate it? (Hint: A high-ranking GOP lawmaker sent out a note on this Tuesday). The first person to correctly guess the answer to today's question gets a mention in Monday's Huddle.

Have your own Congress or D.C.-themed trivia questions you'd like to see in Huddle? Send them my way: hcaygle@politico.com

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