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BASKETBALL DIPLOMACY FAILS: NORTH KOREA THREATENS PREEMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKE ON U.S.: WASHINGTON WILL BECOME 'A SEA OF FLAMES' - The New York Times' Choe Sang-Hun reports from Seoul: "North Korea on Thursday threatened for the first time to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States and South Korea, issuing the warning as the United Nations was preparing tough new sanctions over its nuclear program. The threat from the North Korean Foreign Ministry came hours before the United Nations Security Council was scheduled to meet on the sanctions, which areaimed at squeezing the international financing of the already isolated regime in Pyongyang.

-- "Calling such sanctions 'an act of war,' North Korea has sharply escalated its threats against the United States and its allies in the last few days, declaring the 1953armistice that stopped the Korean War null and void and threatening to turn Washington andSeoul into 'a sea in flames' with 'lighter and smaller nukes.' ...

--"The spokesman said that North Korea was no longer bound by the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War - and its military was free to 'take military actions for self-defense against any target any moment' -- starting from Monday, when it declared the cease-fire was terminated. The resolution the United Nations was about to adopt to impose more sanctions against the North 'will compel the DPRK to take at an earlier date more powerful second and third countermeasures as it had declared,' the spokesman added, without elaborating."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242ff5847e9da587e6cf02deb6e63fee60403ff64236a241c8b3d
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PAUL FINALLY ENDS #FILIBLIZZARD AFTER NEARLY 13 HOURS - POLITICO's Philip Ewing, with Juana Summers and Tim Mak: "Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul staged the longest talking filibuster in recent Senate memory from Wednesday into early Thursday, railing with his colleagues for more than 12 hours against what they called the danger of drone strikes to U.S. citizens on American soil. In seizing control of the Senate, a bloc of conservatives led by the libertarian Paul successfully pushed a potential vote to confirm President Barack Obama's nominee to run the CIA off the day's agenda.

-- "Paul began speaking at 11:47 a.m. on Wednesday and finally yielded the floor at about 12:39 a.m. Thursday, having stayed inside the Senate chamber and on his feet for that entire time. 'I would try to go another 12 hours and try to break Strom Thurmond's record, but there are some limits to filibustering and I am going to have to go take care of one of those here,' Paul said. Immediately after he finished, Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois introduced a motion to end debate on the nomination of John Brennan to run the CIA.

-- "Paul said he hadn't done much preparation for what turned into a rare marathon talkfest. 'Well the weird thing is that we didn't really have a plan,' he said. 'We showed up this morning thinking [the Brennan] debate was going to be tomorrow... I hadn't planned on it. I didn't wear my most comfortable shoes or anything. I would have worn different shoes.' ...'I'm very tired,' he acknowledged. 'My legs hurt, my feet hurt, everything hurts.' ...

--"By nightfall, Paul's effort had gained the support of more of his colleagues, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. They joined him on the floor and used up chunks of time with quotes from Ronald Reagan, Shakespeare, and in the case of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, 'The Godfather' and rapper Jay-Z."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242ff182cff7700624bf988f47b67742569839e51570c26dd5c87
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242ff182cff7700624bf988f47b67742569839e51570c26dd5c87

--Here's video of Rubio talking Wiz Khalifa, The Godfather and Jay-Z on the Senate floor:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242ff0d952cc32e158ea207825c73f6bbcdcc4958ff7dd312845e
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242ff0d952cc32e158ea207825c73f6bbcdcc4958ff7dd312845e

CRUZ TO PAUL: 'TWITTERVERSE HAS BEEN EXPLODING' - Charlie Spiering writes for the Washington Examiner: "As Sen. Rand Paul R-Ky. approached the 8-hour mark of his filibuster in protest of the Obama administration's drone program, his colleague Sen. Ted Cruz R-Texas approached the Senate floor to read tweets in support. I feel quite confident that the senator from Kentucky is not aware of the Twitterverse that has been exploding,' Cruz declared. 'So what I wanted to do for the Senator from Kentucky is give some small sampling of the reaction on twitter so that he might understand how the American people are responding to his courageous leadership.' Cruz began reading tweets out loud for over
five minutes on the Senate floor, citing the popular hashtags #StandWithRand and #filiblizzard. As electronics are banned on the Senate floor, Cruz read them from several sheets of paper."
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-- The Wall Street Journal editorial board dismissed the filibuster as a "drone rant," saying "if Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable libertarian kids in their college dorms. He needs to know what he's talking about."
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PAUL DIDN'T COME CLOSE TO BREAKING ANY RECORDS. The Washington Post's Al Kamen, with help from the AP and Senate Web site, takes a look at the longest talking filibusters in history:

-- The record filibuster goes, of course, to former South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond in opposing the 1957 civil rights bill. Thurmond, then a Democrat, held the floor for 24 hours and 18 minutes.

-- Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) nearly matched Thurmond, speaking for 23 hours and 30 minutes as he tried to block a military spending bill in 1986. He also held forth for 15 hours and 14 minutes against a tax bill in 1992.

-- Sen. Wayne Morse (I-Ore.), held the floor for 22 hours and 26 minutes as he tried to block an oil bill in 1953.

-- Sen. Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (R-Wis.), only spoke for 18 hours and 23 minutes when he was trying to block a currency bill in 1908.

-- Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.) held the floor for 16 hours and 12 minutes as he tried to block an increase in the debt ceiling in 1981. (Ah, the debt ceiling.)
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http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242ff3314b184c5922f83e6b97b495fa832d5cdbbb7e613cdda3d

SPOTTED: A casually dressed Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) shopping by himself last night at the CVS in Takoma Park, the neighborhood where he lives. No word from our Huddle source on what he was buying.

OBAMA TO SIGN ANTI-VIOLENCE BILL TODAY - From the White House: "In the afternoon, the President will sign the Violence Against Women Act at the Department of the Interior.The President and Vice President will deliver remarks at the bill signing.They will be joined by women's organizations, law enforcement officials, tribal leaders, survivors, advocates and members of Congress.The law strengthens the criminal justice system's response to crimes against women, including domestic violence, sexual assault and trafficking."

SNOWQUESTER: WaPo, A1, "SHUTTING DOWN: Whoops: Pressure to close proved too much," By Marc Fisher -- "They shut down the schools and the government for what turned out in much of the area to be light rain and a bit of a breeze. But when 'they' - beleaguered bureaucrats, politicians and educators - made that choice in the small of the night, all the experts were telling them that a big storm with an even bigger name was bearing down on the Washington region, preparing to snarl roads, snuff out power and cause all manner of chaos. The pressure was enormous: Whether they called it Snowquester or Winter Storm Saturn, the nonstop media storm-mongering had raised expectations to
supermarket-shelf-clearing levels. At 11 p.m. Tuesday, the dean of Washington weather forecasters, ABC Channel 7's Bob Ryan, tweeted, 'If any school in area is open tomorrow, somebody is nuts.' Thirteen hours later, Ryan backtracked: 'The strong March sun and warm ground yesterday taking a toll on snow . . . Exact rain-snow line always drives us nuts.' ...

-- "All they knew for certain was that no matter what they did, the potential for outrage was rich: Taxpayers might be miffed that governments closed and lost a day of productivity for a storm that fizzled. Conversely, parents and commuters might be equally outraged if schools had opened only to shut down early or if governments had made workers come in and then sent them home into a traffic mess of majestic proportions."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242ff2047d9916c0ebdcfb2987c68ec820bf431b4aae616544b59
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HOUSE VOTES TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN - David Rogers reports for POLITICO: "The House approved a six-month stopgap spending bill Wednesday to keep the government operating past March 27 and shift billions of dollars to military operations to help the Army and Navy cope with automatic spending cuts ordered last week. The 267-151 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where a bipartisan coalition hopes to expand on the package next week and give other Cabinet departments the same relief promised to the Pentagon. It will be a delicate exercise given the tensions over sequestration and the need to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month. But influential House Republicans said
Wednesday that they welcomed what the Senate is proposing, and by acting quickly, the House deliberately gave itself three weeks to make such a deal."
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SCHUMER SPLITS WITH COBURN, MAJOR BLOW TO GUN BACKGROUND CHECKS EFFORT - John Bresnahan and Reid Epstein report for POLITICO: "Sen. Chuck Schumer is ending the bipartisan gun control talks with Sen. Tom Coburn without a deal, a major setback to President Barack Obama's effort to pass universal background checks. Schumer will instead file a place-holder background checks bill he proposed before the Coburn talks began that does not incorporate any of the input from the Oklahoma Republican and Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.). There will be no co-sponsors when the legislation is introduced for the Senate Judiciary Committee markup on Thursday. Meanwhile, Kirk, Manchin and
Schumer will search for conservative Republicans to back the bill they negotiated with Coburn but with the record-keeping requirement the Oklahoman opposed. The three do not plan to introduce the bill until others have signed on.

-- "Manchin admitted Monday that it will be difficult for any Republican to join gun control friendly Kirk and moderate Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) without cover from a more conservative colleague. Kirk and Manchin released a joint statement saying they will not support the bill Schumer introduced alone but will continue the work the three began last month."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242ff01cf61d80de4ca86a40b888bc8b2e50ea6efad45872c073a
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-- The NRA and its allies are kicking their lobbying efforts into high gear ahead of Senate votes on gun control legislation, POLITICO's Anna Palmer reports:
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GOP AGAIN BLOCKS JUDICIAL NOMINEE - Corey Bowles writes for the Wall Street Journal: "For the second time in two years, Senate Republicans blocked the nomination of a former New York state solicitor general to a federal appeals court, citing in part her positions on gun rights. A motion to move ahead with Caitlin Halligan's nomination of to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit fell short of the 60 votes needed for passage. The vote was 51-41 in favor, with only one Republican-Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska-backing Ms. Halligan. It was the latest case of Republicans stymieing a bench nomination by President Barack Obama. They blocked Goodwin Liu, a nominee to the
Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in May 2011."
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GOOD THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH 7, 2013, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of the day's congressional news. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to
mailto:swong@politico.com
swong@politico.com . If you don't already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.

My new followers include @LULAC and @SenatorIsakson.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The House is out for the rest of the week. The Senate is in at 10 a.m. and will continue debate on the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director. The Senate will recess from 12:30 to 2:15 p.m. for party caucus lunches.

AROUND THE HILL - House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi will hold her weekly press conference at 10:30 a.m. in HVC Studio A. Speaker John Boehner will speak with reporters there at 11:15 a.m. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter DeFazio speak on Social Security legislation at 11:30 a.m. in the Senate Studio. Sen. Pat Toomey discusses the sequester at 12:30 p.m. at the Heritage Foundation. Rep. Luis Gutierrez speaks on immigration at 1 p.m. in Rayburn 2456.

OBAMA'S OUTSIDE GAME HEADS INDOORS - Glenn Thrush, Carrie Budoff Brown and Manu Raju report for POLITICO: "While the White House is still intent on hammering House Republicans they view as unreachable, [President] Obama increasingly sees a path out of gridlock through the Senate GOP conference, whose members want to prove their party is capable of big, meaningful bipartisan deals that belie the 'Party of No' label, Democrats tell POLITICO. That's why Obama invited some ostensibly persuadable Republican senators over to the Jefferson Hotel near the White House for dinner Wednesday - a list of invitees that includes on-again, off-again adversaries like John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham
(R-S.C.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). ... The idea for the get-together was first discussed last week at a White House meeting between McCain, Graham and Obama, aides say. ...

-- "It represents an abrupt switch from the combative tone adopted by Obama and his staff since the election. In background briefings with reporters, White House officials have mocked calls by pundits for face-to-face talks, arguing that the only way to deal with recalcitrant GOP legislators was to leverage public opinion against them - in what one Democratic surrogate referred to as the'"Barack and hard place' strategy. ... As news of the Senate confab leaked, so did reports that Obama intends to take a stroll into the lion's den in about week, with visits to the House Republican and Senate Republican weekly meetings on the Hill - more public and presumably less friendly get-togethers."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242fffc3389f29b4ac4798507d84b2dbfa7cf2c70da1cd7511b11
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242fffc3389f29b4ac4798507d84b2dbfa7cf2c70da1cd7511b11

-- Ginger Gibson has more from the dinner, which was also attended by GOP Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.), Dan Coats (Ind.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Mike Johanns (Neb.),John Hoeven (N.D.) and Saxby Chambliss (Ga.).
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242ffa23388a2e5646cb61293cc9aad67b388aed4fd610722e43d
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242ffa23388a2e5646cb61293cc9aad67b388aed4fd610722e43d

-- Obama also has invited House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, the GOP's V.P. candidate last year, and ranking member Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) to have lunch at the White House Thursday, the Hill reports.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242ff808f8a6d78612f450b162fcc9a3e0e87f175cd14209de137
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=de9acae0d8b242ff808f8a6d78612f450b162fcc9a3e0e87f175cd14209de137

PAUL RYAN TO PITCH BOLD 10-YEAR GOP BUDGET - Jake Sherman and David Nather report for POLITICO: "Two years after his party took the majority - and two aggressive budgets later - the Wisconsin Republican is to unveil a spending plan on Tuesday that balances the government's books over the next decade. This year, House Republicans made a political and practical calculation to offer up their boldest budget-slashing plan yet. As a comparison, last year's budget balanced the books in two decades. ...

-- "The Ryan budget - once seen as overly and unnecessarily risky - has become the House Republican majority's most sustainable document. Politically, House Republicans think it carries next to no risk: Conservative truth-telling, they say, is in vogue. Two years after Ryan's decision to transform Medicare into a voucher-like system, the party's presidential ticket won seniors by 17 percentage points and House Republicans are still comfortably in the majority, even if Mitt Romney did lose the presidency with Ryan as his running mate. After election cycles in which the Ryan budget was used against them, Republicans now think the political winds are blowing in their favor. The focus isn't on
Ryan, GOP leadership says, it should be all on Senate Democrats, who are unveiling their first budget in four years."
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GEORGIA SENATE RACE COULD BE FREE FOR ALL - James Hohmann reports for the hometown paper: "One likely candidate called Todd Akin 'partially right' about 'legitimate rape.' Another said evolution and the Big Bang theory are 'lies straight from the pit of hell.' A third accused the Obama administration of practicing 'shakedown politics' after BP set aside $20 billion to compensate victims for damage from the Gulf oil spill. The Republican primary for the open Senate seat in Georgia is shaping up to be a free-for-all, drawing interest from some of the most conservative members of the House and raising concerns that a race to the right could put in play what should be a safe seat. It comes as
the party tries to head off the problem that cost it dearly in 2012: nominating candidates who say things so off-putting to mainstream voters that they blow the election."
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POLL: MARKEY HAS DOUBLE-DIGIT LEAD IN MASS. SENATE RACE - The AP reports: "Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Edward Markey is leading all other candidates by double digits in a new poll. The UMass Lowell-Boston Herald poll found Markey ahead of fellow Democrat Stephen Lynch by more than 29 percentage points among potential Democratic primary voters. Markey also bests all three GOP candidates. In the poll, Markey leads former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan by 17 percentage points, Cohasset businessman Gabriel Gomez by 19 percentage points and Norfolk state Rep. Daniel Winslow by 23 percentage points. Markey also had better name recognition than the other candidates."
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AFTER TOUGH ELECTION, RIFT STILL EXISTS BETWEEN REID, HELLER - Humberto Sanchez reports for Roll Call: "Nevada Sens. Harry Reid, a Democrat, and Dean Heller, a Republican, are having trouble getting over two tense election cycles that have strained both their friendship and their working relationship. While Reid has long attempted to forge good relationships with members of both parties in Nevada's congressional delegation, the 2010 and 2012 elections frayed his friendship with Heller, who previously served in the House. ... A GOP source close to Heller said, 'Team Reid spent $10 million on attack ads and millions more on the ground to defeat Dean Heller. A level of involvement that was not
only unprecedented but also not soon to be forgotten by Team Heller.' ... But the spark for much of the duo's current tension came last September, when Reid blamed Heller for failing to win Republican votes for an online poker bill that is a priority of powerful home-state casino interests. 'A pretty political move on [Reid's] part,' said David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who added it was 'pretty nasty during the campaign.'"
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WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Jim Casto was first to correctly answer that Franklin D. Roosevelt was the last president to be inaugurated on March 4. The year was 1933.

A few astute readers point out that for yesterday's trivia answer, I left out the fourth former senator who received the Nobel Peace Prize in addition to Elihu Root. It was no other than Barack Obama.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Marda Robillard has today's question: Who gave the keynote address at the opening of the cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863? First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at
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