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OBAMA'S END RUN AROUND NRA - Reid Epstein reports for the hometown paper: "President Barack Obama is trying an end run around the NRA - rallying groups as varied as churches, medical organizations, retailers and the Rotary Club to build support for new gun regulations. It's an unusual strategy but one the Obama administration has used before: projecting strength on an issue by trying to create the perception that the White House is riding a wave of momentum from the American people.

-- "It was the theme of Obama's two presidential campaigns and was central to his campaign-style road show to tout his fiscal cliff priorities in December. Participants in Vice President Joe Biden's meetings have said the White House is seeking to mount an aggressive effort to back the gun-control push, which is likely to formally commence next week after Biden delivers his recommendations to the president. ...

--"Biden has made a point of highlighting the broad diversity of organizations now backing the White House gun efforts, telling the NRA and other gun owner organizations in a meeting Thursday that "all of a sudden there is a different attitude" from groups not previously invested in gun control, according to Richard Feldman, who attended the session and is president of the Independent Firearm Owners Association. In Biden's public remarks Thursday, he emphasized the extent of his panel's outreach to groups from fields including medicine, law, education, mental health, religious groups and social service outlets such as the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs."
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NRA DELIVERS REBUKE AFTER BIDEN MEETING - Colleen McCain Nelson and Gary Fields write on A1 of the Wall Street Journal: "Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday he would recommend the White House push for broad measures to stem gun violence, citing growing support for tighter background checks on gun purchasers, restrictions on high-capacity clips and other moves. But the National Rifle Association delivered a swift rebuke following a meeting with Mr. Biden, saying the administration was gearing up for an attack on gun ownership.

-- "Mr. Biden said he would deliver his recommendations Tuesday to President Barack Obama, who has promised a quick effort to put them into practice. The strong opposition from the NRA, the nation's most powerful gun-rights group, suggested proponents of new measures had substantial work to do to build political support. ... In a written statement, the NRA said it was 'disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment.'"
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-- The NRA meeting was taking place just as cable news outlets reported a high school student in California's Kern County had opened fire in his classroom, critically injuring a classmate. The incident occurred in the district of Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, who was immediately on the scene. At a news conference, McCarthy said the injured victims were in his thoughts and prayers and praised school officials and law enforcement for reacting quickly to talk the shooter down and prevent further injuries. But the California Republican made no mention of gun control.

--"In a statement, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called the shooting - which she said occurred at the school her father attended - 'tragic,' Kate Mather writes for the L.A. Times. "'At this moment, my thoughts and prayers are with the victims, and I wish them a speedy recovery,' the statement said. 'But how many more shootings must there be in America before we come to the realization that guns and grievances do not belong together?' Feinstein authored the 1994 federal ban on assault weapons that expired a decade later. Last year, after a Dec. 14 massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school that killed 20 children and six adults, she vowed to introduce another such bill this month."
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-- Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the anti-illegal guns group, says it has attracted 400,000 new members since the Dec. 14 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., far surpassing the 100,000 new members the NRA said it has added since then, POLITICO's Katie Glueck reports.
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WaPo TO BIDEN GROUP: DON'T GO BIG - Today's lead editorial in the Post: "The working group is right to think big, yet it must be cognizant that legislation will face stiff opposition from the National Rifle Association. In today's polarized environment, an omnibus bill might offer everyone something to oppose. It would be a mistake to ask Congress for a package so big that it sinks. We support reinstatement of the expired ban on sales of new assault weapons and limits on high-capacity ammunition clips. These military weapons have no place in civilian hands. But this is not a whole strategy. The use of assault weapons in mass killings is horrific, but they are used in only a fraction of the
nation's deaths from gun violence. And any ban on new-weapons sales would not address the millions of assault weapons in private hands.

-- 'The White House would be wise to consider at least two other measures that polls suggest enjoy public support. One would be to require universal background checks for gun sales, closing a loophole in which more than 40 percent of sales, and perhaps up to half, are not subject to such checks, including through the Internet and at gun shows. The other would be federal legislation to tighten the definitions and penalties for gun trafficking, a problem that plagues the border with Mexico."
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GOOD FRIDAY MORNING, JANUARY 11, 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 but are not limited to @CeoLundgren and @amelie_cochet.

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

TAX REFORM IN 2013? FAT CHANCE - Jake Sherman and Steven Sloan write for the hometown paper: "This is supposed to be the year that Washington finally locks arms and tidies up the littered Tax Code. Don't count on it. In a perfectly divided Washington, a mix of politics, policy and personality has made a comprehensive rewrite of the nation's tax system - a top Republican priority - increasingly elusive in 2013, aides and lawmakers say. The fiscal cliff has deepened distrust between the two parties. The politics have become riskier and more complicated. Time is short. And Washington has to first endure battles over the debt ceiling and scheduled spending cuts before tax reform can come under
serious consideration. 'We're starting from ground zero in doing this,' said Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. 'They have this object out there - this kind of mythical goal - but there's no basis in fact of people actually working together.' Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) was more blunt: 'I'm not overly optimistic.' ...

-- "The highest hurdle to a deal, perhaps, is the fact that Republicans insist that a rewrite of the Tax Code cannot generate more revenue for the federal government - while some Democrats favor a tax overhaul that raises revenue. Indeed, the GOP is already trying to beat back efforts from Democrats to raise revenue as part of deals to raise the debt ceiling and get past sequestration."
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WHY HAGEL NEEDS SCHUMER - Manu Raju and Maggie Haberman report for POLITICO: "Chuck Schumer is quietly letting out the word: He's far from sold that Chuck Hagel will be a staunch advocate of Israel. And it's his vote that counts. Schumer, the most powerful Jewish Democrat in Congress, has been noncommittal in his public statements on Hagel's nomination. But privately, several sources say he has told senators it would be 'very hard' for him to support Hagel as the next defense secretary because of his positions on Israel over the years. In New York, Schumer has told allies and power brokers in the Jewish community that he's uneasy about Hagel's nomination, a concern he reiterated at a
private breakfast in Manhattan's posh Park Avenue Winter restaurant on Wednesday.

-- "If Schumer were to oppose Hagel, it would almost certainly amount to a fatal blow to his candidacy since a number of pro-Israel Democrats who are squeamish about the nominee could very well be influenced by the No. 3 Democrat's position. It would also give bipartisan political cover to Republicans and neocons fighting Hagel's nomination. ...

--"With the retirement of Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, Schumer has emerged as perhaps the most hawkish Jewish member of the Senate Democratic Caucus with regard to Israel, a subject that has caused rifts between President Barack Obama and pro-Israeli activists throughout his first term. The Hagel nomination has only raised the temperature on their relationship, and if Hagel fails to placate concerns from the pro-Israeli groups, Schumer will be in a tough spot between his Jewish base and the administration pushing hard for his confirmation."
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WSJ, A1, "Hagel, Obama Forged Bond Over Iraq," By Julian E. Barnes, Adam Entous, Sara Murray and Carol E. Lee: "Chuck Hagel was the one Senate Republican willing to help Barack Obama when he needed it most-in July 2008, as Mr. Obama, then an Illinois senator, prepared to fight Sen. John McCain in the presidential election. Mr. Hagel, at the time a GOP senator who had already fallen out of favor with Mr. McCain and other Republican Party leaders, agreed to join Mr. Obama on a tour of Iraq and Afghanistan, just weeks before the national conventions. Running against a war hero with long experience in foreign policy, Mr. Obama had never visited Afghanistan and been just once to Iraq.

--"The overseas trip was intended to bolster Mr. Obama's foreign policy credentials and claims to bipartisanship. But through the long plane rides, cramped quarters and endless meetings, Mr. Obama came to see Mr. Hagel as a kindred spirit, as much for his beliefs as his pragmatism, said people who were there. As they relaxed in a Kuwait hotel room trading jokes and talking shop, a senior administration official said, it was obvious the two men 'just kind of clicked.'
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WaPo, A1, "From team of rivals to bank of brothers," By Scott Wilson: "It may not have the glamour of the first Cabinet - no Nobel laureates or former political rivals - but the team President Obama is assembling for his second term reflects a desire to complete the unfinished business of his first. From ending the war in Afghanistan to the episodic negotiations with Congress over fiscal issues, the emerging Cabinet reflects Obama's views, not the contrarian ones he once said he welcomed. His nomination of Jack Lew as Treasury secretary on Thursday fits the pattern of choices the president has made in recent weeks. The nominations underscore how little time Obama has left to accomplish an
enduring governing legacy, and that on-the-job training, political drama and the unpredictability he discovered in some of his outside-the-Beltway nominees last time around have no place in a second-term administration. Nearly all of the men - and so far they are all men - have been with Obama, one way or another, since his first presidential campaign or early days in office."
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-- Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Thursday Obama's Cabinet diversity problem is "embarrassing as hell."
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PANETTA ORDER DEFENSE CUTS AHEAD OF SEQUESTER - David Alexander reports for Reuters: "Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday he had ordered the U.S. military services to freeze civilian hiring, delay maintenance work and reduce other spending as fears grow the Pentagon will likely face another huge budget cut in March. Speaking at a Pentagon news conference, Panetta acknowledged for the first time that across-the-board cuts he had said would be 'devastating' to national security were increasingly possible and 'we simply cannot sit back now and not be prepared for the worst.' The Pentagon is facing some $500 billion in cuts to defense spending over the next decade under a procedure
known as sequestration. That comes on top of $487 billion in cuts over a decade that the department began implementing last fiscal year."
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DIVIDED HOUSE GOP HUDDLES NEXT WEEK AT RETREAT - National Journal's Billy House reports: "It's called the House GOP's annual issues "retreat." But political "war council" might be a better description of what's ahead when Speaker John Boehner and his rank-and-file Republicans trek next week to Williamsburg, Va., for a private three-day meeting. The conference - coming fresh off the fiscal cliff showdown and an embarrassing-even-if-unsuccessful coup attempt on the speaker - will focus at least partly on healing divisions. Republicans will try to emerge with more unified strategies and a public messaging campaign in the upcoming debt ceiling, tax, and spending battles."
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IN DISARRAY, TEA PARTY LOOKS TO D.C. FOR HELP, CASH - Ken Vogel and Katie Glueck write for POLITICO: "Tea party activists always worked alongside like-minded conservative organizations, but they failed to capitalize on the anti-Obama momentum in 2009 and 2010 to build their own infrastructure and war chests. That means national groups like American Majority, the Club for Growth and the Koch brothers-linked Americans for Prosperity are essentially in the position to determine if GOP incumbents face serious primary challenges. Potential prime tea party targets include GOP senators up for reelection in 2014 - Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Conservative activists would also love to hit back at the 33 Republican senators and 85 representatives who voted last week to raise taxes on the wealthy as part of a deal to avert the fiscal cliff.

-- "The tea party 'Is in disarray,' said Erick Erickson, the editor of RedState, a blog that helped crystallize the fiscally conservative ethos of the populist movement. Going forward, tea partiers will 'either be within the conservative movement as part of that movement or they won't be effective.'"
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PASTOR YANKED FROM INAUGURATION OVER REMARKS ABOUT GAYS- Emma Dumain writes for Roll Call: "Two days after he was selected to deliver the benediction at the presidential inaugural celebration and one day after a firestorm erupted over anti-gay comments he made in the past, the Rev. Louie Giglio has been removed from the program roster. The Presidential Inaugural Committee, the coordinating body responsible for choosing participants to speak at and perform during the Jan. 21 ceremonial swearing-in of President Barack Obama, said it was unaware of Giglio's remarks at the time of his selection. ... Think Progress - the blog of the progressive think tank Center for American Progress - reported
that Giglio had delivered a sermon in the mid-1990s called 'In Search of a Standard - the Christian Response to Homosexuality.' The 54-minute address, available on a website repository of 'Christian discipleship training resources,' advocates for psychiatric treatment for gays and lesbians and generally calls for them to renounce homosexuality, through religion or otherwise."
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BACHMANN HASN'T PAID 5 PRESIDENTIAL STAFFERS - Alex Seitz-Wald reports for Salon: "Over a year after she dropped out, Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann has refused to pay five staffers from her failed presidential bid, according to a former top campaign official. Peter Waldron, her controversial former national field coordinator, told Salon the dispute started when former Iowa straw poll staffers refused to sign a nondisclosure agreement that would bar them from discussing any 'unethical, immoral, or criminal activity' they witnessed on the campaign with police or reporters. Waldron said the staffers are owed a mere $5,000, and that Bachmann has more than $2 million in her campaign account,
but has refused to pay unless the staffers sign the agreement. Negotiations over payment with Bachmann Finance Chairman James Pollack eventually broke down and Waldron decided to go public with the news, posting a press release on Christian Newswire this evening."
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BARNEY BACKS MARKEY FOR MASS. SENATE - "Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is publicly seeking a temporary appointment to the U.S. Senate after Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is expected to be confirmed as secretary of state, is backing Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in a likely special election for the seat," Luke Johnson writes for the Huffington Post. 'Ed Markey should be and will be the next senator. Frankly, Ed and I have worked together in Congress and, before that, in the Legislature,' he said Wednesday on MSNBC's 'The Last Word.' 'And I would like to think of this as something of a kind of a relay team.' Frank praised Markey as a 'leader in gun control when we were in the Legislature
together in the 1970s' in a
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WBUR interview. "
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TOUGH JOB AHEAD, WARD TAKES HELM AT DCCC - Alex Isenstadt reports for POLITICO: "To say Kelly Ward has a tough job ahead of her as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's new executive director would be an understatement. House Democrats face a midterm in 2014 that is fraught with peril for the president's party, if history is any guide. They need to motivate minority voters who are more prone to cast ballots in a presidential election than a midterm. And to take back the House, the party has to dislodge Republicans who used the once-a-decade redistricting process to build an electoral bulwark to protect their jobs. Enter Ward, who over the past two election cycles has emerged as
a quietly effective behind-the-scenes operator. In 2010, as an incumbent retention director, she worked overtime to protect besieged House Democrats. In 2012, as the DCCC's political director, she helped to navigate her party through a campaign in which it picked up eight seats but failed to capture the House.

-- "Ward doesn't have the most obvious background for a top DCCC official. A native of Las Vegas, the 32-year-old mother of one grew up in an apolitical, working-class household. Her father was a cab driver. Her mother, a teacher, later remarried to a doctor. It wasn't until high school, when she visited Washington for an educational trip, that she realized she was hooked on politics."
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THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Bill Pascoe was first to correctly answer that Sen. Lloyd Bentsen's confirmation hearing before the Finance Committee to become Treasury secretary was the last time a presidential nominee appeared before a committee that he or she chaired. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry will face a similar situation this month.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Pascoe has today's question: In honor of Richard Nixon's 100th birthday this week: Nixon was the first U.S. president to use the name 'The People's Republic of China.' On what date did he do so, and at what event?

First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at
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