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By Burgess Everett (@burgessev or
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Featuring Seung Min Kim

ESTABLISHMENT EYES LEE: Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is girding for a different kind of primary challenge, according to crack reporter Manu Raju. "As the 43-year-old Lee plots his 2016 reelection bid, he is courting business leaders under the radar, hoping to head off a primary challenge backed by business leaders and other establishment figures in his home state, like billionaire Jon Huntsman Sr., an influential bank CEO and a former Utah GOP party chairman ... 'I think I'm going to be OK,' Lee said when asked about lingering concerns about his performance in Congress in corners of Utah's business world."

Fighting words: "'All I can say is Mike Lee is an embarrassment to the state of Utah,' Huntsman said in an interview, calling Lee 'an extremist' for his role in the government shutdown fight that he said cost his cancer research institute millions in federal dollars and hurt small businesses affected by the closure of national parks. 'He's been a tremendous embarrassment to our family, to our state, to our country to have him as a U.S. senator.' Huntsman ... added: 'He's tried to come in and see me several times. ... I have no interest whatsoever in chatting with him.' Asked if he had a response to Huntsman, Lee simply said: 'I don't.'"
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Uphill battle: Knocking off a tea party-inspired lawmaker from the GOP's center is no easier task than defeating an establishment incumbent. Just ask Brian Ellis, who was shellacked by Justin Amash in August after a spirited primary challenge in Michigan this year.

Name omitted: Former Sen. Bob Bennett, who Lee defeated in 2010, pens an op-ed for the Deseret News chastising Sen. Ted Cruz for his tactics and not learning that politics are a "team sport." No mention of Lee, who marched with Cruz a week ago and was the one who actually objected to an agreement between Senate leaders to avoid December's Saturday session.
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2008 DEJA VU: Sen. John McCain and President Obama can't even agree on what to call North Korea's reported hack of Sony. "''The president does not understand this is a manifestation of a new form of warfare,' McCain told CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'When you destroy economies, when you are able to impose censorship on the world - and especially the United States of America - it's more than vandalism, it's a new form of warfare that we're involved in, and we need to react and react vigorously.'... [The president] declined to call the Sony attack an act of war: 'I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive.'" The Hill's Justin Sink:
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DSCC YOU LATER: Outgoing DSCC executive director Guy Cecil won't be campaign manager for his 2008 boss Hillary Clinton and will instead assist her in a non-official campaign capacity, Maggie Haberman scoops. "Without Cecil looking to manage the effort, the already small field of potential campaign managers who are discussed shrinks further. Robby Mook, who managed Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's campaign, is a front-runner. People such as EMILY's List head Stephanie Schriock and former Clinton campaign adviser and California-based strategist Ace Smith have been mentioned as well."
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BOGGED DOWN: Plenty of judicial and executive nominees hitched a ride to confirmation last week as the Senate bolted town, but liberals left one high-profile judicial nominee behind in Michael Boggs, whose record as a state legislator in opposition to gay marriage, abortion and the Confederate flag caused a revolt against his nomination after a judicial deal between the president and Georgia's two GOP senators. Now, it seems unlikely that Boggs's nomination will get quickly carried over into the new Senate. A senior GOP aide tells us that "at this point, it's up to the Georgia senators and the President as to if Mr. Boggs will be renominated." Georgia, of course, has a new senator in David
Perdue.

More Judiciary work ahead: The president plans to nominate Sally Yates, a U.S. attorney in Georgia, as deputy attorney general, according to the Washington Post. That leaves the GOP Senate to consider Yates as No. 2 and Loretta Lynch as attorney general right off the bat.
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WINTER COMETH. Good morning welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where those of us who work on the Senate side are finally feeling a bit refreshed. Please send tips to
mailto:beverett@politico.com
beverett@politico.com and follow along on Twitter @burgessev.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Gone 'til January.

AROUND THE HILL - Sen. Chris Coons is the first member of Congress to visit Liberia since the Ebola outbreak, and he'll be holding a presser at 9:15 a.m. Eastern Time from Monrovia to talk about it. Email
mailto:ian_koski@coons.senate.gov
ian_koski@coons.senate.gov for call-in info. Photos of Coons's trip are here:
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PROGRAMMING NOTE: Huddle will be taking a long winter break beginning on Wednesday. We'll be back on Jan. 5 -- we hope you can survive a few days without us.

OBAMA'S CUBA COVER: Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake was out front when President Obama announced the normalization of relations with Havana -- but those that know him weren't surprised by the Republican's support for Obama and break from his party, reports Lauren French. Flake "has been one of the most vocal supporters of lifting a decades-old U.S. embargo and opening up travel to the country ... this week, when Barack Obama wanted to send lawmakers to pick up American Alan Gross in Cuba, Flake was a natural choice for National Security Adviser Susan Rice to ask to join the two Democrats on the plane - adding a bipartisan flavor to the event that gave the president some cover. 'I don't often
agree with President Obama, but he was right to begin the process of normalizing relations with Cuba.'"
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BOEHNER'S NEW EYES ON THE W.H.: Cory Fritz, previously House Speaker John Boehner's political spokesman, is joining the speaker's office as press secretary dealing with the White House media. "I am thrilled that Cory will be working full time to help us hold President Obama accountable next year," Boehner said in a statement to Jake Sherman. Fritz's new job was previously held by Brendan Buck, who will be Rep. Paul Ryan's top spokesman on the House Ways and Means Committee.
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NOTHING TO SEE HERE: A panel instructed by CIA Director John Brennan is likely to recommend not punishing anyone involved in the spat with the Senate Intelligence Committee over seizure of documents from the committee's investigators, per NYT. "While effectively rejecting the most significant conclusions of the inspector general's report, the panel, appointed by Mr. Brennan and composed of three C.I.A. officers and two members from outside the agency, is still expected to criticize agency missteps that contributed to the fight with Congress. But its decision not to recommend anyone for disciplinary action is likely to anger members of the Intelligence Committee, who have accused the C.I.A.
of trampling on the independence of Congress and interfering with its investigation of agency wrongdoing."
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RUBIO: 'OBAMA-PAUL FOREIGN POLICY' -- All those Twitter attacks from Sen. Rand Paul seem to have sunk in on Sen. Marco Rubio, who lashed out at his potential 2016 rival on Sunday, per WSJ. "'Rand, if he wants to become the chief cheerleader of Obama's foreign policy, he certainly has a right to do that,' Mr. Rubio said on ABC on Sunday. 'I'm going to continue to oppose the Obama - Obama-Paul foreign policy on Cuba because I know it won't lead to freedom and liberty for the Cuban people.'" Should be a fun couple years:
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HUDDLE SNEAK PEEK - The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus will send a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson later today raising concerns with so-called carve-outs included in new federal racial profiling guidelines by the Justice Department. Those new guidelines released earlier this month include exemptions for agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection, which are housed under Homeland Security. In the letter CAPAC calls on DHS to close the gaps that lawmakers said are created when certain agencies and activities are excluded from the new profiling guidelines. "The two-tiered system is a slippery slope that risks the
use of bias-based profiling even in situations that are intended to be covered by the guidance." Read it here first:
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PROTECT YA SEN.-ELECT: Incoming Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford has staffed up his senior positions ahead of his move from the House to the upper chamber. Greg Slavonic will remain Lankford's chief of staff, Michelle Altman will continue as legislative director, D.J. Jordan of the House Committee on Small Business will be Lankford's communications director, former House Oversight aide Linda Good will serve as administrative director and Mona Taylor will continue Lankford's state director.

Welcome to team Scali$e: Former NRCC Finance Director Jenny Sheffield Drucker has joined House Republican Whip Steve Scalise as a fundraiser.

Rut-Roh: Meghan Roh is leaving Sen. Patty Murray's comms team after more than three years to join Sen. Tammy Baldwin as deputy communications director.

TODAY'S TRIVIA: No one answered this question from Rob Placek, aide to outgoing Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), so we're asking it again: Johanns is leaving the Senate after one term having served in the minority the entire time. Who was the last senator who served at least a full term that never served in the majority? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at
mailto:beverett@politico.com
beverett@politico.com

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