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

With an assist from Burgess Everett

OBAMA VETO THREAT KILLS EMERGING TAX DEAL - Back to the drawing board. Jonathan Weisman for the NYT: "With negotiators nearing an accord on permanent tax breaks for businesses worth $440 billion over 10 years, President Obama rallied Democratic opposition on Tuesday and promised a veto ... The deal, negotiated by House Republicans and aides to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the outgoing majority leader, showed how much power has shifted since the Republican election victories this month. The negotiations fractured Democrats, and separated the Obama administration from Mr. Reid."

--"But Mr. Obama's threat showed that he could still wield his authority as well. White House officials said the package, intended to avoid letting a host of politically popular tax breaks expire at the end of the year, is too heavily tilted toward corporations and will have deep repercussions for budget and tax negotiations far into the future. A veto would be the third and by far the most significant of Mr. Obama's presidency. His threat sent negotiators back to the table to see if Republicans could add measures that would win liberal support, especially a permanently expanded child tax credit for the working poor."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c6b216fcd8f18ba62619dad81b0d15564c440f683bf679da9
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c6b216fcd8f18ba62619dad81b0d15564c440f683bf679da9

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 'THE MOST EXPENSIVE REGULATION EVER' - Our condolences to energy reporters, who get stuck with the pre-Thanksgiving White House news dump. POLITICO's Erica Martinson: "The Obama administration will issue a draft air pollution rule on Wednesday that business groups charge would be the costliest regulation of all time - setting up a test of how hard the president will fight for his environmental agenda against a newly strengthened GOP."

--"President Barack Obama has already blinked once on the rule, which aims to limit smog-creating ozone pollution from power plants and factories: Just before Labor Day in 2011, he forced the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw an almost-final version of the rule, infuriating green groups that accused him of capitulating to industry pressure to ease his reelection. Obama said he was acting to 'underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty.' Now EPA is under a court order to issue a new proposal by next week, and people following the issue say this rule may be as strong as the one the White House squelched three years ago."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116cc158e27d28ae7e00cbc3137d7a71d050599dec7641d30f03
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116cc158e27d28ae7e00cbc3137d7a71d050599dec7641d30f03

FLOURNEY: DON'T PICK ME FOR DOD -- John Hudson and Yochi Dreazen with the scoop for Foreign Policy: "Michele Flournoy, widely seen as the front-runner to replace Chuck Hagel as the next secretary of defense, abruptly took herself out of the running for the job Tuesday, complicating what will be one of the most important personnel decisions of President Barack Obama's second term."

--"[I]n a letter Tuesday to members of the [Center for a New American Security] board of directors, Flournoy said she would remain in her post at the think tank and asked Obama to take her out of consideration to be the next secretary of defense. Flournoy told the board members that family health considerations helped drive her decision and the fact that two of her children are leaving for college in the next two years. 'Last night I spoke with President Obama and removed myself from consideration due to family concerns,' reads the letter, first obtained by FP. 'After much agonizing, we decided that now was not the right time for me to reenter government.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116ccdb65a0de805986ebb7a09bb623d5cd4dec30bde5abff566
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116ccdb65a0de805986ebb7a09bb623d5cd4dec30bde5abff566

@jpaceDC: Flournoy out for Pentagon job, but Jeh Johnson in (well, at least under consideration, multiple people close to the process say)

@jpaceDC: Pro for Jeh Johnson: Highly regarded by WH, Pentagon. Con: Confirmation hearings could turn into immigration debate, leaves opening at DHS

DEMS HIT SCHUMER ON OBAMACARE CRITIQUE - Dan Friedman for the New York Daily News: "Sen. Chuck Schumer second-guessed President Obama's top legislative accomplishment Tuesday in a speech that drew quick fire from fellow Democrats. Schumer said Democrats should have shelved health care legislation passed in 2010. With the country in a recession, Democrats should have followed the 2009 economic stimulus bill with bills to help the middle class, then attempted to pass health care later in Obama's presidency, he said. 'We took their mandate and put all focus on the wrong problem - health care reform,' Schumer argued in a National Press Club speech.'"

--"Backlash over Obamacare cost Democrats the House in 2010 and contributed to Republicans capturing the Senate this year, he argued. That view irked fellow Democrats. 'It's sad but not surprising that Sen. Schumer is trying to grab headlines for himself by throwing his colleagues and the President under the bus,' said one seething senior Democratic Hill staffer ... Former White House aides blasted Schumer on social media. 'Shorter Chuck Schumer - I wish Obama cared more about helping Democrats than sick people,' tweeted Tommy Vietor, an ex-Obama aide."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c53ff65325e1e2e48e1c7e6d06f09729b92527b69b7eaece2
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c53ff65325e1e2e48e1c7e6d06f09729b92527b69b7eaece2

--But before launching into his speech, Schumer regaled the crowd with tales of his birth on Thanksgiving Day 1950, when his parents arrived at French Hospital in Manhattan, mom went upstairs, and dad went to the waiting room. We'll let Schumer take it away from there: "Being the adventurous soul [my dad] was, he realized, 'It's Thanksgiving! I'm only four blocks from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.' So out he went to watch the parade instead of sitting in that room. He watched it for three hours. At the end of it, he saw a friend of his and they decided to go into a local pub to celebrate the blessed event. I was born at 11 a.m., he showed up at 3:30. Precipitating the first fight my
parents had over me."

HAPPY PRE-TURKEY DAY, NOV. 26, 2014 and welcome to The Huddle, where we're wishing all our readers a very happy Thanksgiving. We're off until Monday, when Burgess Everett will take over - so please send your tips, suggestions, comments, complaints, and corrections to
mailto:beverett@politico.com
beverett@politico.com and
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com . If you don't already, please follow us on Twitter @burgessev and @seungminkim.

My new followers include @gkroberts and @husainhaqqani.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Zip.

AROUND THE HILL - Zilch.

FERGUSON'S SECOND NIGHT OF PROTESTS - The Wall Street Journal: "Protesters took to the streets here for a second consecutive night in response to the grand-jury decision not to indict a police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed teenager this summer. However, police described the evening's protests as an improvement from a day earlier, when more than 20 buildings were set on fire, and welcomed Gov. Jay Nixon 's move to bolster the number of National Guard troops in the town to head off a repeat of the widespread violence ... However, there were still a number of arrests for unlawful behavior and protests Tuesday evening spread to several other U.S. cities."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c6ca3bcded4afb81d18b08173fbf8ab3eb6657629e2749cf0
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c6ca3bcded4afb81d18b08173fbf8ab3eb6657629e2749cf0

--Read POLITICO's David Nather and Jennifer Epstein on Obama's limited options on Ferguson:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c990f97c20a3acfb6f386f030ba27780e72f6537c61ba20c3
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c990f97c20a3acfb6f386f030ba27780e72f6537c61ba20c3

MCCONNELL MUM ON IMMIGRATION STRATEGY - Last week, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) declined to go into specifics on how House Republicans plan to respond to Obama's executive actions on immigration, and now it's Mitch McConnell's turn. From the Louisville Courier-Journal: "McConnell, during his speech [at the Oldham County Chamber and LaGrange Rotary Club] and in an interview afterward, said four times that Obama has said in the past that he didn't have the authority to issue such an order but that he waited until after this month's midterm elections and did it anyway."

--"'It was a kind of in-your-face reaction,' McConnell said during the speech. He wouldn't speculate on how the Republican-controlled Congress would deal with the immigration issue but said that the current immigration system is broken and that something must be done."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116cd8ab9829b720f49da601469089bc41732af3459db19a73c3
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116cd8ab9829b720f49da601469089bc41732af3459db19a73c3

--A small group of conservatives furiously circulated a letter to House GOP leaders this week, urging them action on three measures: a short-term CR that "defunds the entirety of President Obama's executive order," (a Huddle aside: they can't defund, since U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is fee-funded), pass legislation to authorize a lawsuit over immigration enforcement, and ban money to be used for work permits or green cards for immigrants here illegally (a function that is carried out by USCIS).

--"The House has the responsibility to act quickly and decisively to prevent President Obama and his Administration from further deliberate violation of the Constitution. There is too much at risk for this lawlessness to go unchallenged," the letter, spearheaded by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), reads. It has just seven signers in total -- a Gosar spokesman notes that the office has gotten "a lot of positive feedback" from members, but it was difficult to get formal signers considering it's a holiday week.

--GOP Gang of Eight-er Jeff Flake of Arizona chats with WaPo's Dana Milbank on how Republicans should respond: "First, Flake wants the House, followed by the Senate, to pass a border security bill with tougher standards than the Senate compromise, requiring a 90 percent apprehension rate at the border before any permanent legalization of undocumented immigrants ... Next, the Republican Congress would send Obama a bill with tougher interior enforcement of immigration, including a mandatory 'e-verify' program."

--"Third, Congress would send Obama legislation covering visas for temporary and high-tech workers ... Then, and only then, would Congress send Obama legislation giving his executive action the force of law and providing a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c474c2a27d2394ea15ff6a4665d3e745020a1720de872c7be
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c474c2a27d2394ea15ff6a4665d3e745020a1720de872c7be

PELOSI NO 'CROMNIBUS' FAN - CQ Roll Call's Emma Dumain: "On Tuesday afternoon, the California Democrat slammed the emerging gambit known as a 'Cromnibus' - part short-term continuing resolution, or CR, and part long-term omnibus - saying it would be tantamount to a 'partial' government shutdown ... 'We will not be enablers to a Republican Government Shutdown, partial or otherwise.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c56f86ad8669fc8a9981677f4b1487f7ed9ce760e610ae261
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c56f86ad8669fc8a9981677f4b1487f7ed9ce760e610ae261

--A must-read, like always: POLITICO's David Rogers breaks down the numbers behind Obama's immigration executive action:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c41582f0d016e48c3d4269b3fab8b50ecc0d8e5cd7e1f27bc
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c41582f0d016e48c3d4269b3fab8b50ecc0d8e5cd7e1f27bc

GRUBER TO TESTIFY - POLITICO's Lucy McCalmont: "MIT professor Jonathan Gruber has agreed to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform after sparking outrage with his comments questioning the administration's transparency and voters' intelligence on the passage of Obamacare. Gruber will appear before the Oversight Committee at a Dec. 9 hearing, spokeswoman Caitlin Carroll confirmed Tuesday."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116cc1b4c5d2b20d599227dd5f4dd5688a948dc26c332b356393
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116cc1b4c5d2b20d599227dd5f4dd5688a948dc26c332b356393

CORY BOOKER'S VEGAN THANKSGIVING - The Daily Beast's piece on how the newly-vegan New Jersey senator is going to handle one of the biggest eating holidays of the year: "Booker briefly tried to go vegan but, as he admits in his Reddit AMA, pizza and Ben and Jerry's were too difficult to live without. Now, Booker is reconsidering. 'As a vegetarian eating a plateful of eggs, I found myself in this weird place where I didn't want to think about where those eggs came from. I didn't want to think about the treatment of the animals who produced those eggs. When I find myself trying not to think about things, it seems to me that I'm practicing avoidance.'"

--"Since Thanksgiving and Christmas are such food-heavy holidays, the end of the year is an interesting time to experiment with a vegan diet. Booker admits, 'My mother's cornbread stuffing is one of the best substances on the planet Earth.' Even so, he's had it much easier this time around."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c89b3ad2624566d8bed87405d68289f41ab9d9956380a2379
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a84738cf382116c89b3ad2624566d8bed87405d68289f41ab9d9956380a2379

TUESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - John Clark was the first person to correctly answer that President Obama sent last year's pardoned turkeys to Morven Park in Leesburg, Va.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Huddle reader Mara Stark-Alcalá has today's question: The 1876 presidential election remains the only election in which the losing presidential candidate received more than 50 percent of the popular vote. Who were the two candidates and which states did they hail from? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email
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