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By Burgess Everett | 04/04/2016 07:36 AM EDT


(@burgessev or beverett@politico.com)

BACK TO SCOTUS: The return of the Senate merely means a change in venue for the battle over the vacant Supreme Court seat that Barack Obama is trying to fill. This week brings meetings between nominee Merrick Garland and Republicans like Susan Collins of Maine and John Boozman of Arkansas as well as Democrats like Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. The goal from the White House and Senate Democrats' perspective? A few more moments like this one in Iowa over the break, when Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley flashed irritation at a constituent that was accusing him of not doing his job: "'When somebody says I'm not doing my job, I kind of resent it,' the Senate
Judiciary chairman shot back at a town hall meeting, explaining that he arrives at work at 6:15 a.m. sharp and hasn't missed a floor vote in 22 years. 'I think I do my job.'"

Perceived momentum: Yet for all the ballyhooed momentum that Democrats claim after a recess that saw hundreds of editorials criticize Republican and thousands of messages delivered to GOP senators, the fundamentals of the debate on the Hill have barely budged. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas walked back his comments calling for a hearing and Boozman has reiterated that he sees no need to confirm Garland despite his scheduled meeting. At the end of the week three senators will have met with Garland and two of them, Collins and Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, are moderates that have criticized the GOP's tactics from the beginning of this process. "None of our members have changed their mind on this
principled decision," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) "But the Dems have certainly unified our base in support of our principled decision." SMK and I with our welcome back story: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=da11c55f7d6fc30846c5701a56bb5d7d81bad3007fddddc2131dd13fa454889d

HOLDING THEM IN LINE: WaPo's Mike DeBonis has this nugget that shows how fast the GOP base is snapping at senators that even appear to step out of line. "Moran backed away from his [original] position soon after, and on Friday, he renounced it completely ... One major activist group, FreedomWorks, as of Friday had tracked more than 28,000 emails its members had sent to Moran's office demanding he withhold action on any nominee. 'We said, 'We're going to make him our example,' said Jason Pye, the group's communications director." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=da11c55f7d6fc308943a3119247b5ecaceb537f51d85160f849eccfad1058d66

BATTLE FOR THE VEEPSTAKES (AND MORE): All those Hillary Clinton boosters on Capitol Hill aren't just doing it for fun. Some of them know that if they play their cards right they could be in the cabinet or at least have a very powerful ally if Clinton wins the presidency and they get props for making it happen. "The Clinton foot soldiers are among the members of Congress who may be in line for a nice return on their hard work if she wins in November - a job in the new administration, perhaps, increased political clout or help from the commander in chief reaching the next rung on the political ladder. 'The Clintons value loyalty. Anyone who has been in politics for a long time values
loyalty,' said Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), a close ally of former President Bill Clinton. 'For anyone who has been involved [in helping to elect Clinton], they can see this as an opportunity.'"

Naming names: Reps. Jim Himes, Tim Ryan, Emanuel Cleaver, John Delaney, Jared Polis, Nita Lowey, Marcia Fudge, Steve Israel, Jim Clyburn, Don Beyer, Grace Meng, Lois Frankel, Judy Chu, Jim Cooper, Xavier Becerra and Joe Crowley and Sens. Tim Kaine, Sherrod Brown and Cory Booker all are poised for at the very least more clout in a Clinton administration. And maybe much more, Lauren reports for us: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=da11c55f7d6fc308c8a78799cc91accd4b6d1e639a74ac10f4c8be5e9ae2bda7

GOOD MORNING. And welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where the scaffolding is finally coming off of the Capitol dome. Please send tips to beverett@politico.com and follow along on Twitter @burgessev.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate is back from a two-week recess at 3 p.m. and at 5:30 p.m. will vote on the Defend Trade Secrets Act. The House is on recess.

HE'S RUNNING: House Speaker Paul Ryan went on Hugh Hewitt's show early this a.m. to announce his run for the presidency. Wait, no. No, he didn't at all. Asked about becoming the unity candidate at a contested convention, he responded: "'People put my name in this thing, I said, 'Get my name out of that,' the Wisconsin Republican and Republican National Convention chairman told [Hewitt] on his radio program Monday, speaking from Israel, where he's making his first trip abroad as speaker of the House. 'This is - if you want to be president, you should go run for president. And that is the way I see it.'" Ryan goes on to add that his face is "somewhat fresh."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=da11c55f7d6fc308fd8c55f0b33848ef45b4d57d4b7ccac3746d88cdedd56685

TRUMP TARGET LIST: Democrats are beating their chest about how their battle for House control is becoming a lot more real with Donald Trump on the ballot. The Hill takes a look at where the DCCC wants to make it hurt for the GOP: Places like Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, Iowa, where either incumbents are retiring like Rep. Reid Ribble (Wis.) or appear more vulnerable with Trump on the ballot like Reps. Tom Reed and John Katko of New York. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=da11c55f7d6fc308545c992b2953ba5ae4a0a6b5c4fff8ce8cfee9206509d910

Counter-spin: This, of course, goes directly at odds with the spin from some Senate GOPers that Trump will help them in the Rust Belt and aid incumbents in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Trump's impact is so unpredictable than nearly every argument can and will be made about both parties' prospects. But they can't both be right.

REPLACING RUBIO: NYT's David Herszenhorn visits the Sunshine State to find that the forecast for the Florida Senate seat is mostly cloudy. Democrats are facing down a rough primary between moderate Rep. Patrick Murphy and hardline liberal Rep. Alan Grayson while the GOP field is so crowded and unclear that we can mention two members of Congress (Reps. David Jolly and Ron DeSantis) as well as Marco Rubio's favored successor (Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera) and still have room for a half-dozen other candidates. "The day after Mr. Biden's visit, a local television station aired a report about how the roughly two dozen candidates for Senate - Democrat and Republican - are virtually unknown. When
it came to Mr. Murphy, the report showed a photograph not of the youthful Florida congressman but of another Patrick Murphy, the former Democratic representative from Pennsylvania." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=da11c55f7d6fc3082effb8550397bcd937aada7caa9d28669c43fac5041d62a4

DSCC JUMPS IN FOR McGINTY: Senate Democrats have dropped $425,000 in favor of Katie McGinty in the Pennsylvania Senate primary against former Rep. Joe Sestak, Roll Call's Alex Roarty reports. That follows endorsements from Sen. Bob Casey, the DSCC and PResident Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=da11c55f7d6fc3086dd1138b4fc853f964ba5e6a6acccc231a1d57bdd09aae48

FOR THE ACELA CROWD - Amtrak is running service on the Northeast Corridor today after a train crash killed two on Sunday, though delays are possible between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Del. Rep. Bob Brady of Pennsylvania, who represents the area of Chester where the crash occurred, said it it might be communication error that led to the crash with a backhoe. "Everybody should know when a train's coming," Brady said. "They're on schedule. It ain't hard to figure out. If I'm working on the track, I wanna know when the train's coming. It's a straight track, you could probably see it." More from WaPo: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=da11c55f7d6fc3088060f091ac6b9b3c7a053e6812c7e4d2ec324db2be29a8a8

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Kirtan Mehta was the first to answer that Joe Cannon served both as a Rules Committee chairman and the speaker of the House.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Jill Borak has today's question: Which current member of the GOP leadership's portrait appears in the first floor of the Frances Perkins building in D.C. and why's it there? 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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