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

With an assist from Lauren French

NYT: HAGEL RESIGNING UNDER PRESSURE - The Times's Helene Cooper: "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down under pressure, the first cabinet-level casualty of the collapse of President Obama's Democratic majority in the Senate and a beleaguered national security team that has struggled to stay ahead of an onslaught of global crises. The president, who is expected to announce Mr. Hagel's resignation in a Rose Garden appearance on Monday, made the decision to ask his defense secretary - the sole Republican on his national security team - to step down last Friday after a series of meetings over the past two weeks, senior administration officials said."

--"The officials described Mr. Obama's decision to remove Mr. Hagel, 68, as a recognition that the threat from the Islamic State would require a different kind of skills than those that Mr. Hagel was brought on to employ. A Republican with military experience who was skeptical about the Iraq war, Mr. Hagel came in to manage the Afghanistan combat withdrawal and the shrinking Pentagon budget in the era of budget sequestration. ... Even before the announcement of Mr. Hagel's removal, Obama officials were speculating on his possible replacement. At the top of the list are Michele Flournoy, the former under secretary of defense; Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island and a former officer
with the Army's 82nd Airborne; and Ashton Carter, a former deputy secretary of defense."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f6b13b733c33ed85ef1260f8b53522b5538be52cbee7a0974
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f6b13b733c33ed85ef1260f8b53522b5538be52cbee7a0974

LAMEST LAME-DUCK EVER? POLITICO's Burgess Everett and Manu Raju lay out the case: "GOP leaders had a grand vision for the new Congress: Focus on a bold conservative agenda - not last year's business and the deadline-driven crises that have long dominated Washington. So much for that. Congress left for Thanksgiving without checking anything big off its to-do list during the lame duck, leaving just 10 days to fund the government when they come back in December and likely pushing big items like authorizing force against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants and the confirmation of an attorney general into 2015."

--As Republicans take the reins of both chambers of Congress for the first time in nearly a decade, their new agenda will be consumed with leftover business, a reality check for many in the party who had hoped to come out swinging in the new year on tax reform, trade deals, energy legislation and changes to Obamacare. 'What happened to clearing the deck?' said incoming Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas. 'Democracy's a messy business.' Or, as Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) put it this week: 'Eventually, the Republican majority is going to be in the pooper-scooper business, cleaning up for all the mistakes made in this deal.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5ff8736c9f3f478cc17881e61955a94944859bf09a00f11b9c
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5ff8736c9f3f478cc17881e61955a94944859bf09a00f11b9c

BREAKING: IRAN TALKS EXTENDED - The AP: "Elements are falling into place for an agreement to allow talks on Iran's nuclear program to continue another seven months, a well-placed Western diplomat said Monday. The diplomat told The Associated Press that according to the deal, a broad agreement should be completed by March 1, with the final details worked out by July 1. The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential talks, is familiar with the discussions now taking place in Vienna on how to continue the negotiations past the original deal deadline of Monday midnight."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f2de832cb135a19c5c5e1a2d682c89da5070768faa2ebc79c
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f2de832cb135a19c5c5e1a2d682c89da5070768faa2ebc79c

ENZI VS. SESSIONS: WHAT IT MEANS - The Wall Street Journal's Damian Paletta writes that the battle for the gavel of the Senate Budget Committee could have big implications for the GOP-led Congress and for 2016: "Messrs. Enzi and Sessions don't have many differences politically, with conservative records. They have opposed a number of recent bipartisan bills including proposals to overhaul immigration rules, siding with the chamber's more conservative members. So if they don't differ much on politics, their leadership ability might be a deciding factor. Mr. Sessions - fairly or not - is considered by many congressional aides to be more of a conservative maverick, willing to buck GOP
leadership in interviews to reflect party splinters. This could endear him to some of the Senate's more conservative members, or it could make GOP leaders wary of how he might act during a budget battle."

--"Why could this impact 2016? At least four Senate Republicans have are said to be considering a run for the White House: Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rob Portman of Ohio, and Ted Cruz of Texas. A budget vote will be a statement of principle for any White House contender, and those decisions can't be made lightly. With Senate Republicans holding a narrow majority, the budget committee chairman will have to mollify presidential contenders and rank-and-file members."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fda62dc5f0acac87a70eda34bd9ee0a71ea64d4bed85f135d
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fda62dc5f0acac87a70eda34bd9ee0a71ea64d4bed85f135d

RAND: FORMAL DECLARATION OF WAR AGAIST ISIL - The New York Times's Jeremy Peters with the exclusive: "Senator Rand Paul is calling for a declaration of war against the Islamic State, a move that promises to shake up the debate over the military campaign in Iraq and Syria as President Obama prepares to ask Congress to grant him formal authority to use force. Mr. Paul, a likely presidential candidate who has emerged as one of the Republican Party's most cautious voices on military intervention, offered a very circumscribed definition of war in his proposal, which he outlined in an interview on Saturday. He would, for instance, limit the duration of military action to one year and
significantly restrict the use of ground forces."

--"Unlike other resolutions circulating on Capitol Hill that would give the president various degrees of authority to use force against Islamic militants, Mr. Paul would take the extra step of declaring war - something Congress has not done since World War II."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fa00d86528561218685a929b55b2832b7c3fa5988b199c454
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fa00d86528561218685a929b55b2832b7c3fa5988b199c454

SUNDAY SHOW WRAP-UP --

--President Barack Obama, in an interview with ABC News, says that voters in 2016 will want a candidate with "that new car smell." Bloomberg:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fb3d61cf38bdd9449b9acc169aeae37c49cc3b5f04a18ec7a
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fb3d61cf38bdd9449b9acc169aeae37c49cc3b5f04a18ec7a

--He also defends his executive actions on immigration, arguing: "Why we would prefer a system in which they're in the shadows, potentially taking advantage of living here but not contributing?' The AP:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fb3c9c6eb33a902824557fd23af4bcdfde19aa1221515560d
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fb3c9c6eb33a902824557fd23af4bcdfde19aa1221515560d

--And Obama urges residents in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere not to use the grand jury's deliberations in the fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown as "an excuse for violence." ABC:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fa8a1153298f0731acf5258daba5975f7fc8be8f59d49c00b
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fa8a1153298f0731acf5258daba5975f7fc8be8f59d49c00b

--Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who argues that Obama has no legal authority to issue his executive action, says the president is essentially "counterfeiting immigration papers." POLITICO:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f9a6409815889bfa21e1faabef5ad0373e5dc0c395c1ebae1
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f9a6409815889bfa21e1faabef5ad0373e5dc0c395c1ebae1

--Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says "shame on us as Republicans" for not passing immigration reform. "I'm close to the people in the House, but I'm disappointed in my party. Are we still the party of self-deportation?" he said. The Hill:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f76068b61744bdeff6d4f20fec3a1a4e9831c9f4019b93d46
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f76068b61744bdeff6d4f20fec3a1a4e9831c9f4019b93d46

--And Graham adds that the House Intelligence Committee report on Benghazi, which cleared the Obama administration of any wrongdoing in the 2012 attacks, is "full of crap." CBS News:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fd2f7839b0bf4e97a480d73a018d302e65b7e7dc4716a7602
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fd2f7839b0bf4e97a480d73a018d302e65b7e7dc4716a7602

--But Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) says it's time for Republicans to move on from Benghazi. HuffPo:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f4ebf2a1a060377ecbed7c11c4bd7be1d71a390b77b00650b
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f4ebf2a1a060377ecbed7c11c4bd7be1d71a390b77b00650b

--In case you missed it - since it was dumped on a Friday of a crazy news week - here's the wrap-up of what the GOP-led report said on Benghazi, courtesy of CNN:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f61d10865e1ba93bc779acaa5d8c6cb88117f2247936fafd2
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f61d10865e1ba93bc779acaa5d8c6cb88117f2247936fafd2

HOT CLICK: SNL MOCKS OBAMA ON IMMIGRATION - Pretty funny spoof from Saturday Night Live this weekend, for all of us who loved "Schoolhouse Rock":
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f83c15a6658664ed367f855703799fd2092d551208df0c941
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f83c15a6658664ed367f855703799fd2092d551208df0c941

W.H.: PROGRESS ON CIA REPORT -- The White House pushed back against an item included in Friday's Huddle quoting Senate Democrats angry with chief of staff Denis McDonough over the long-awaited report on the CIA's interrogation programs. Democrats met with McDonough on Thursday and pressed the top Obama aide to clear key sections of the interrogation methods report before the new year. A White House official said McDonough has made progress as a mediator between the Senate and the intelligence community to declassify broad sections of the report and the final key hang up is over the use of pseudonyms for overseas assets.

--But the official took exception to the criticism from Democrats that McDonough was holding the talks up - noting that almost 95 percent of the report is ready to go. Separately, a spokesperson for the agency praised each side's 'principled positions' on the need for further redactions in the report.

--'We share the Intelligence Committee's desire for the declassified report to be released, and all of the administration's efforts since we received the initial version have been focused on making that happen while also protecting our national security,' White House spokesman Shawn Turner said.

TRANSITIONS - Joe Hack, current deputy chief of staff and communications director for Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), is moving on up to serve as chief of staff. He previously worked for former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) and former Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio).

Eve Lieberman is being promoted to chief of staff for Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.). Lieberman, Polis's current deputy chief of staff, has been with the lawmaker since 2011, when she began as his legislative director. She also worked for Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.).

HAPPY MONDAY, NOV. 24, 2014 and welcome to The Huddle, where your host is learning that it's difficult to hit snooze on your alarm if you never set the alarm in the first place. Please send your tips, suggestions, comments, complaints, and corrections to
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com . If you don't already, please follow me on Twitter @seungminkim.

My new followers include @pkollipara and @kackleyZ.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Both House and Senate are out until December.

AROUND THE HILL - I'm still recovering from last week. You?

WEEKEND MUST-READ - The New York Times's Jason Horowitz with a delicious read about David Krone, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's top aide:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f8cfb8ea3704d25f3a8527f91b3f79cecf28176ad3387d6fb
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f8cfb8ea3704d25f3a8527f91b3f79cecf28176ad3387d6fb

MCCONNELL PREPS FOR 2016 - Manu Raju: "Mitch McConnell spent years charting the Republican path back to power - and now he's already plotting to make sure they don't lose it. The Kentucky Republican is quietly pushing his fellow Republican senators to beef up their political shops. He's considering a new super PAC that could spend millions on Senate races. And he's locking down operatives for another cycle who were key to GOP triumphs this month."

--"The under-the-radar moves less than three weeks after the 2014 midterms and a month-and-a-half before McConnell takes over for Harry Reid makes clear the brutal reality in front of Republicans: Their majority could be short lived. Republicans face a daunting map in 2016, when they will be forced to defend 24 seats in a presidential year, while Democrats have to defend only 10 seats - a scenario McConnell is taking so seriously he's leaving nothing to chance, starting now."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fd5c51922d2a88e578c3f7191bdff6c5b4b81f022e0760832
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fd5c51922d2a88e578c3f7191bdff6c5b4b81f022e0760832

ICYMI, A CLASSIC FRIDAY NEWS DUMP - The IRS inspector general discovers 30,000 of Lois Lerner's missing emails. The Washington Post: "The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration told several congressional committees on Friday that it has recovered as many as 30,000 of the ex-Internal Revenue Service official's messages from disaster recovery tapes, according to congressional aides who participated in a briefing on the matter. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified in June that the e-mails were lost after Lerner's hard drive crashed in 2011."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fef945222719060b63affccf42ef34c956bceb2138b0994e1
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fef945222719060b63affccf42ef34c956bceb2138b0994e1

REST IN PEACE, MARION BARRY - The Washington Post's obituary of the former D.C. mayor, who died early Sunday at 78: "The most influential and savvy local politician of his generation, Mr. Barry dominated the city's political landscape in the final quarter of the 20th century, also serving for 15 years on the D.C. Council, whose Ward 8 seat he held until his death. Before his first stint on the council, he was president of the city's old Board of Education. There was a time when his critics, in sarcasm but not entirely in jest, called him 'Mayor for Life.'"

"Into the first dozen years of the new millennium, he remained a highly visible player on the city's political stage, but by then on the periphery, no longer at the center. His personal and public lives were fraught with high drama and irony. He struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, relapse and recovery. He was married four times, divorced three times and separated from his fourth wife. His extramarital liaisons and legal trouble over unpaid taxes made news."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f636e1f9df5e04754e104306b913ed29bb2420c213e3d9559
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f636e1f9df5e04754e104306b913ed29bb2420c213e3d9559

CRUZ HITS OBAMA ON MIDEAST POLICY -- The Dallas Morning News writes from New York: "Sen. Ted Cruz issued a blistering critique of U.S. policy toward Israel on Sunday night, telling a major Jewish group that President Barack Obama is endangering Israel by refusing to confront Iran and block its nuclear ambitions. 'What would real presidential leadership look like?' the Texas Republican said. 'A real president ... would stand up and say on the world stage: Under no circumstances will Iran be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran will either stop, or we will stop them.' Cruz headlined the annual dinner of the Zionist Organization of America. His tough talk toward Iran and Obama, and
full-throated embrace of Israel, drew ovations from the audience of about 1,100."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f219c155900bd723b4005de43054255b68d4a32bdafdb98a6
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f219c155900bd723b4005de43054255b68d4a32bdafdb98a6

FLOOR WAR OVER OBAMA NOMINEES? Niels Lesniewski of Roll Call: "When the Senate returns from Thanksgiving, the first pressing business will be confirming a pair of President Barack Obama's nominees who might not stand a chance in a Republican-led Senate. The Senate is set to vote on Dec. 1 to limit debate on the nominees to be ambassadors to Argentina and Hungary, both of whom were criticized early this year for not knowing much about the countries in question. Neither nominee is a career diplomat. They're both major Obama campaign contributors."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5ff0da2ee0117ba76bca52b3a8e429169fa9723a53de35b653
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5ff0da2ee0117ba76bca52b3a8e429169fa9723a53de35b653

LACK OF IMMIGRATION PLAN FLUSTERS GOP - Burgess Everett and yours truly: "The lack of a unified response from the GOP risks further fracturing the party just as Republicans prepare to take over Capitol Hill and attempt to prove themselves a responsible governing majority. And Obama's nationwide tour pitching his plan threatens to blunt Republicans' momentum and messaging heading into a long holiday recess, exposing frustrations by both conservatives at a lack of direction on how to respond to Obama's moves and of party elders who worry the GOP's right flank will overreact to the immigration action with talk of impeachment and government shutdowns."

--"Republicans, for now, have offered little other than rhetorical criticisms and a variety of suggestions not yet endorsed by GOP leaders: Block the president's nominees; take further legal action against the White House; zero out funding to Department of Homeland Security agencies and dare Obama to exercise his veto; or pass step-by-step immigration reform to override Obama's executive actions."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f8113e61b411fd16437a42249ccd672d5e1bc2db4780904db
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5f8113e61b411fd16437a42249ccd672d5e1bc2db4780904db

HOUSE SUES OBAMA OVER OBAMACARE - The Wall Street Journal: "House Republicans on Friday filed a long-threatened lawsuit claiming the Obama administration overstepped its bounds in how it is paying for or enforcing certain aspects of the health-care law. The lawsuit, filed in a Washington, D.C., federal court a day after President Barack Obama said he would act without Congress on an immigration overhaul, exacerbates an already frayed relationship between the White House and congressional Republicans, who feel empowered by gains in the midterm election."

--"House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said in a statement that lawmakers had an obligation to act to protect the Constitution. 'Time after time, the president has chosen to ignore the will of the American people and rewrite federal law on his own without a vote of Congress. That's not the way our system of government was designed to work,' he said."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fc9963fe5565a2e517e63baf312f02300f51328f411581c86
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4dbb177bcf206f5fc9963fe5565a2e517e63baf312f02300f51328f411581c86

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - David Heymsfeld was the first person to correctly answer that Timucua Indians in St. Augustine, Fla., lay claim to the first Thanksgiving, where they ate salt pork and beans.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - David has today's question: Name the president whose first job was a baseball announcer, and the main team he covered. Must answer both parts. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email
mailto:skim@politico.com
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