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By Scott Wong (
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CABINET SHUFFLE - Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, a former California congresswoman, said Wednesday she's stepping down after four years at the agency. Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki will stay put in President Obama's second term. And Obama will announce his intent to nominate his chief of staff, Jack Lew, as Treasury secretary at 1:30 p.m. in the East Room.

-- Lew's selection "signals that Obama's second term will not initially focus on big new ideas to create jobs or expand government investment in the economy," Zachary Goldfarb, Jim Tankersley and Chris Cillizza write on A1 of the Washington Post."Rather, it will involve a sustained conflict with congressional Republicans over the nation's finances. The government is likely to face a deadline to raise the $16.4 trillion federal debt ceiling no later than March 1 - as well as a series of deep and automatic spending cuts known as sequestration set to begin around the same time. These upcoming battles will once again pit Democrats' economic vision against that of Republicans."
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-- The Wall Street Journal's lead editorial says Obama is "assembling a team of personal and ideological loyalists whose jobs will be less to offer independent advice than to advance and implement his agenda for a larger, more redistributionist government."
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WaPo, A15, "Get the White House some binders full of women," By columnist Ruth Marcus: "About all those white guys: What a shame. Not an outrage, but a shame. The face of power that President Obama has chosen to present to the country and the world with his second-term Cabinet picks is striking - except for the African American president at the top of the pyramid - for its retro look, white and male. It's "Mad Men" Goes to Washington, except Peggy's leaving. On the foreign policy team, white guy for secretary of state, white guy for defense secretary, white guy for CIA. For Treasury secretary, white guy. Obama's replacement as chief of staff - as yet unnamed, but the rumor mill names no one
but . . . white guys.

--"To be clear: I've got nothing against white guys. Some of my best husbands are white guys. White guys get to be secretary of state, too, and John Kerry will be the first in 16 years. But to look at the most important jobs in the government, in 2013, and see such lack of diversity is just so drearily disappointing. Especially because it could easily have been so different. Imagine the tableau of Obama flanked by secretary of state nominee Susan Rice and defense secretary nominee Michele Flournoy. That would have been the ultimate you've-come-a-long-way moment."
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WHO WILL DEFEND HAGEL? - POLITICO's David Rogers, an infantry medic during the Vietnam War, writes in a rare op-ed: "In saying his goodbyes at the White House this week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta joked that he was going home to his California walnut farm after 50 years in public life to deal with 'a different set of nuts.' It was classic Panetta: never able to resist a good line. But also an apt introduction to the heartbreaking, loopy debate over his would-be successor: Vietnam veteran and former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel. Heartbreaking in the sense that old Hagel colleagues in the Senate can seem so blinded by their sense of injury that they would throw him to the wolves
to get back at President Barack Obama. Loopy because Washington's politics - and its press - appear to have lost all sense of context from which to judge the man before them.

-- "Hagel has been loudly taken to task for speaking of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as a 'Jewish lobby.' But former Connecticut Rep. Sam Gejdenson - Jewish, born in post-war Germany in a displaced persons camp and the child of Holocaust survivors - could be far blunter about AIPAC as the top Democrat on the House International Relations Committee a decade ago. And wasn't it just weeks ago that the Senate was tripping over itself to praise the grace and courage of Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, who died before Christmas? Does anyone seriously think Inouye, a decorated veteran of World War II and strong Israel supporter, would not be supporting Hagel, the first enlisted-man
veteran given a shot to lead the Defense Department?

--"This reporter brings his own past to this debate as an infantry medic in 1969 in Vietnam. In more than 30 years covering Congress, it's been impossible to totally separate that experience from dealing with those few members who were also in combat: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) or the late Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), for example. Hagel falls into the same mix: never a social friend but someone who extended himself to provide context for stories. In this same context, no one is more important to the Hagel debate now than McCain, Obama's old adversary and often bitter critic."
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FEW SENATE PALS FOR HAGEL -- Jonathan Allen and Darren Samuelsohn write for the hometown paper: "Chuck Hagel probably never thought he'd have to win a popularity contest in the Senate. Maybe that's why he wasn't terribly careful about whom he confronted or whom he offended. He popped off on the 'Jewish lobby' and a gay Clinton nominee. His fellow Republicans will never forget the relish with which he lectured them on the flaws of the Iraq War - after he voted to authorize it. Policy aside, Hagel's bedeviled by his own abrasive personality. In a chamber known for back-patting and elbow-rubbing, the former Nebraska senator mostly rubbed people the wrong way. Now, on his path to the Pentagon,
he has to hope that irritation doesn't come back to bite him. ...

-- "One vote that will be tough for Hagel to win: that of fellow Nebraska Republican Deb Fischer. Hagel crossed party lines to back Fischer's Democratic opponent, former Sen. Bob Kerrey, in 2012. Now, Fischer sits in judgment of Hagel as a freshman member of the Armed Services Committee, the panel that will handle his confirmation hearing."
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--Roll Call's Meredith Shiner reports that Sen. Mark Kirk's deputy chief of staff, Richard Goldberg, "has been distributing anti-Chuck Hagel emails to a large, undisclosed listserv of staffers - including Democrats."
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HILLARY'S SWAN SONG ON HILL: BENGHAZI - Scott Wong writes for POLITICO: "Hillary Clinton's appearance later this month at Senate and House hearings on the Benghazi attacks will be the last time she testifies before Congress as secretary of state. Republicans may make Clinton wish she left Foggy Bottom earlier - but they'll be nice about it. GOP members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee promise that Clinton will face a 'tough but respectful' grilling when she testifies about the Obama administration's handling of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Libya that killed four Americans. After all, the outgoing secretary is still on the mend from a concussion and
subsequent blood clot she suffered after a bad fall over the holidays. She served in the Senate with many of those she will appear before. And she has close friendships with Republicans like Sen. John McCain, perhaps the most vocal critic of the administration's response to Benghazi. ...

-- "Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, in his debut as top Republican on the panel, told POLITICO Wednesday he's not interested in 'gotcha questions but serious policy questions about Benghazi.' 'It is personal to me,' said Corker, who traveled to Libya shortly after the attacks. 'The folks on the ground were left on a tether without any support.' Clinton could appear as early as Jan. 22, and it's expected that the Foreign Relations panel will hold a hearing the same week for her nominated successor - the committee's current chairman, Sen. John Kerry. The Massachusetts Democrat will not chair Clinton's hearing or his own confirmation hearing, Senate aides tell POLITICO. He has been attending
closed-door briefings at the State Department, preparing for his confirmation hearing."
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-- Bloomberg Businessweek's Elizabeth Dwoskin looks back on Clinton's efforts to recruit more business to the U.S. Read the profile here:
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N.Y. DOESN'T WAIT FOR CONGRESS TO CURB GUNS - David M. Halbfinger and Thomas Kaplann write on A1 of the New York Times: "New York State is nearing agreement on a proposal to put what would be some of the nation's strictest gun-control laws into effect, including what Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vowed on Wednesday would be an ironclad ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, and new measures to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and mentally ill people. Lawmakers in Albany, seeking to send a message to the nation that the recent mass shootings demand swift action, say they hope to vote on the package of legislation as soon as next week. ...

--"The dash to enact new gun controls made New York the first flash point in the battles over firearm restrictions that are expected to consume several state capitals this year.... At the White House, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. met with gun-control advocates and said the Obama administration planned both to pass legislation and to use executive orders to try to reduce gun violence. 'The president and I are determined to take action,' Mr. Biden said. 'This is not an exercise in photo opportunities.'"
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GOOD THURSDAY MORNING, JANUARY 10, 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
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My new followers include but are not limited to @AndersonDrew and @mikepasco.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Both the House and Senate are out this week.

BARNEY SENATE BID GETS BOOST FROM PROGRESSIVES - Jason Cherkis writes for the Huffington Post: "Former Rep. Barney Frank has gained the backing of two of the most influential online progressive groups in his bid to be appointed to Sen. John Kerry's soon-to-be vacated Senate seat. Both MoveOn.org and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) have begun online petitions supporting Frank as the interim replacement for his fellow Massachusetts Democrat..... On Monday, MoveOn started its petition drive to persuade Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to pick Frank. So far the group has collected about 5,000 signatures. On Wednesday, the PCCC launched a website,
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www.appointbarneyfrank.com , promoting its own petition. The organization is also mobilizing its 25,000 members in Massachusetts with an email announcing the petition."
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WaPo: McCONNELL'S OPENING TAX BID BAD POLICY - The Washington Post's lead editorial today: "WHEN CRUNCH time came over the 'fiscal cliff' at the end of 2012, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell ended up as his party's de facto deal-maker with the White House. So it matters when Mr. McConnell declares, as he did Sunday, that the 'tax issue is finished' and it's time to 'pivot' to the 'biggest issue,' cutting spending. Now that President Obama has persuaded Congress to go along with $620 billion in higher income taxes over the next decade, mostly from upper-income households, there's no reason to consider extra revenue - not even from closing loopholes, according to Mr. McConnell. ...
[A]s a matter of policy, rather than politics, it is no more sensible to draw the line at $620 billion in additional revenue over the next decade than to insist, as have some Democrats, that Medicare and Social Security remain untouched. The country's structural deficit poses too large a threat to future prosperity, and there is no politically or fiscally realistic scenario under which entitlement cuts alone can solve the problem."
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-- On a visit to Capitol Hill, Afghan President Hamid Karzai let it slip that McConnell was headed with other senators to Afghanistan this week. Senators typically don't announce when they are traveling to hot spots for safety reasons.
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BOEHNER TAKES FIRE FROM DEFENSE HAWKS OVER SEQUESTER - Russell Berman and Jeremy Herb write for The Hill: "House Republican defense hawks are pushing back strongly against Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) claim that he has GOP support to allow steep automatic budget cuts to take effect if President Obama does not agree to replace them with other reductions. Party leaders have for more than a year railed against the Pentagon portion of the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration, but in an interview published Monday, Boehner pointed to the reductions as leverage and said he had significant Republican support, including from defense hawks, in his 'back pocket.' Not so fast, two
defense-minded House Republicans told The Hill. 'I don't support that,' said Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a member of the Armed Services Committee whose district includes one of the nation's largest military installations. 'You get into dangerous territory when you talk about using national security as a bargaining chip with the president.'"
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THANKS TO SCHUMER, N.Y. WINES ON MENU AT INAUGURAL LUNCH - Janie Lorber writes for Roll Call: "New York's growing wine industry has home state Sen. Charles E. Schumer to thank for two spots on the inaugural luncheon menu. As the chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, Schumer suggested a 2009 merlot from Bedell Cellars on the North Fork of Long Island and a Tierce 2010 dry riesling produced from grapes from three Finger Lakes vineyards. With hundreds of guests including President Barack Obama, his Cabinet and the Supreme Court justices, landing on the inaugural table is the political equivalent of 'Top Chef.'"
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WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Jim Casto was first to correctly answer that the first time five former presidents were alive was at the time of Abraham Lincoln inauguration in 1861. John Tyler, James Buchanan, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and Martin Van Buren were all alive.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - For his confirmation hearing to be secretary of state, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) will appear before the very committee he now chairs. When was the last time a presidential nominee faced this situation? Hint: The answer can be found in my story above. First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at
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