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COULD ROMNEY'S MISSTEPS COST GOP THE SENATE? - Alexander Bolton and Cameron Joseph write for The Hill: "Republicans believe Mitt Romney's mistakes could prevent them from winning back the Senate. Romney's failure to close the gap with President Obama less than 50 days before the election, as well as a variety of high-profile gaffes, have raised concerns that the GOP nominee will strand candidates in close swing-states races. Polls show Obama leading Romney in Ohio and Virginia, two states where strategists think the top of the ticket will most affect the Senate contests. ...

-- "Republican strategists say that Romney has had a rough stretch recently and warn it could cost the party Senate seats if his execution fails to improve by November. 'Every year the top of the ticket has a great influence on the races below. Massachusetts is a very competitive race, and we have a great candidate in Scott Brown. If Obama wins overwhelmingly, it's a lot more difficult for Scott Brown to get reelected,' said John Weaver, a senior adviser to Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) 2000 and 2008 presidential bids. 'If your guy wins the White House, he's going to sweep in one or two or three Senate races that might not happen otherwise,' he added."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e48804a7d66771c91c31dc9bfa216a84c6dfb7c3c85140058
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e48804a7d66771c91c31dc9bfa216a84c6dfb7c3c85140058

-- Number cruncher Nate Silver at the New York Times' FiveThirtyEight blog says the GOP's chances to take the Senate are slipping.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022ef5dd9c17cd223d13292c5ee9a28daf36b191ead15c4630c1
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022ef5dd9c17cd223d13292c5ee9a28daf36b191ead15c4630c1

TWO GOP SENATE CANDIDATES in blue states quickly distanced themselves from Romney's "47 percent" comments:

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.): "That's not the way I view the world. As someone who grew up in tough circumstances, I know that being on public assistance is not a spot that anyone wants to be in. Too many people today who want to work are being forced into public assistance for lack of jobs," said Brown in a statement. "The number of people receiving food stamps has grown to 47 million. That's why I'm fighting for job-creating policies that will help turn our economy around."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022ebb0cc7decb64a28035a8254956ff2227748e4de4f3c2701f
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Connecticut Senate hopeful Linda McMahon: "I disagree with Governor Romney's insinuation that 47% of Americans believe they are victims who must depend on the government for their care. I know that the vast majority of those who rely on government are not in that situation because they want to be. People today are struggling because the government has failed to keep America competitive, failed to support job creators, and failed to get our economy back on track. I am sympathetic to the struggles that millions of Americans are going through because I've been there. As a young couple Vince and I lost our home and our car. With two small children it was not an easy time for my family."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022ec15b09bf27852b9dbd622d07b6f06c67ecfbe8eb490cc136
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022ec15b09bf27852b9dbd622d07b6f06c67ecfbe8eb490cc136

WAPO LEAD EDITORIAL ON ROMNEY VIDEO: '100 percent wrong'
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022ecae3e4885fdc81f4b12548086050e3fbf3cd815c2e49de76
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022ecae3e4885fdc81f4b12548086050e3fbf3cd815c2e49de76

HOUSE GOP DOWNPLAYS ROMNEY REMARK - Jake Sherman and Seung Min Kim write: "Republicans interviewed Tuesday by POLITICO tried to play down the political significance of Romney's statements about non-taxpaying Americans and are trying to spin the moment forward as a chance to explain the conservative worldview on the role of government and taxation. 'I think it's an opportunity [for Romney and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan] to explain what opportunity, liberty and what conservatism is about - which is about giving everybody an opportunity,' said GOP Rep. Tim Huelskamp, a freshman from Kansas. 'After four years of the current administration, we've shown that the opportunities have not
been enhanced.' 'It's not the end of the world,' added another House GOP lawmaker, speaking without attribution to discuss a politically sensitive issue. 'I think it's how they handle it that will matter - Mitt might benefit if he pivots to [President Barack] Obama's policies.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022eab4648cefecabd9bbb95b29369b9673f9f9e464e6158b444
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022eab4648cefecabd9bbb95b29369b9673f9f9e464e6158b444

RYAN: ROMNEY 'OBVIOUSLY INARTICULATE' - Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, told KRNV-TV in Reno, Nev., Romney could have phrased it a little better. Via the AP: "'He was obviously inarticulate in making this point.' Ryan went on to say the point the Republicans are making is that, under the Obama economy, government dependency is up and economic stagnation is up. Asked if he thought Romney regrets the remarks, Ryan says he thinks Romney would have said it differently, adding, 'that's for sure.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022ecde7828c43bba954eff5fb3abdbeb42f692cdbd05f0dbfc6
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022ecde7828c43bba954eff5fb3abdbeb42f692cdbd05f0dbfc6

112TH CONGRESS LEAST PRODUCTIVE IN A GENERATION - Jennifer Steinhauer writes for the New York Times: "The 112th Congress is set to enter the Congressional record books as the least productive body in a generation, passing a mere 173 public laws as of last month. That was well below the 906 enacted from January 1947 through December 1948 by the body President Harry S. Truman referred to as the 'do-nothing' Congress, and far fewer than even a single session of many prior Congresses.

-- "Partisanship and process have impeded measures that have traditionally been easy-peasy affairs - like the farm bill, or a measure to protect women against domestic violence - as well as those that have an impact on national security, for instance a bill to combat cybercrimes and a bipartisan measure to finance the military. A measure to shore up the ailing postal system might as well have been marked return to sender. A broadly supported measure that would normalize trade relations with Russia stalled. Appropriations bills, once the central function of the legislative branch, have been ditched in favor of short-term spending measures that do little more than keep the lights on."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e12ba7a4e845223f673e3b7d846db8b4880713742a7649feb
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e12ba7a4e845223f673e3b7d846db8b4880713742a7649feb

-- BuzzFeed's John Stanton finds that some lawmakers are getting desperate amid Congress' inaction: "Rep. Mary Bono Mack may have hoped her new campaign ad, titled 'effective,' would highlight her legislative prowess in delivering policy legislation for her constituents back home. But in an effort to give the impression of a long string of accomplishments, the ad highlights - among others - her successful push to rename a post office in her district. That's the sort of 'accomplishment' that has become synonymous with Congress' dysfunction in the mind of voters."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e156c3570e48429f196139537437e4a144fc21177fb1b4613
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e156c3570e48429f196139537437e4a144fc21177fb1b4613

DEMS SWEAT CONN. RACE - Kate Nocera writes for POLITICO: "Democrats have no business losing a Senate race in deep blue Connecticut, a state where the Republican candidate lost by double digits two short years ago and Democrats have a commanding voter registration advantage. But now the party is sweating that possibility thanks to a cascade of setbacks for its standard-bearer, Rep. Chris Murphy - and the surprisingly strong general election campaign of former World Wrestling Entertainment magnate Linda McMahon. Murphy's problems of late are forcing the national party to send staff and money to the state to help counter the near-constant onslaught of negative ads from the McMahon campaign.
It's a small ad buy - only $320,000, a fraction of McMahon's spending - but an indication the national party is paying close attention to the state."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e11210af85658bab73cd096832a829131093d0c02906f91d2
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FLAKE WEBSITE GETS MAKEOVER -- Paul Ryan. Pat Toomey. Mike Lee. During his Senate primary race, Rep. Jeff Flake touted these tea-party favorites on the endorsement page of his website. Now that he's shifted to the general election, those names have disappeared from the page.

Instead, the Arizona Republican is only highlighting endorsements from those in the Grand Canyon State: Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl, and dozens of mayors, city council members, county supervisors and sheriffs and state lawmakers.

Flake spokesman Andrew Wilder said the campaign did get a makeover after the congressman's primary victory, but he pointed out press releases announcing the Ryan, Toomey and Lee endorsements - not to mention Sarah Palin's endorsement - still appear in the website's news archive. And a video of Ryan, the GOP vice presidential nominee, speaking at a Flake campaign event in Arizona, continues to be featured on his YouTube feed.

"It'd be a mistake to read anything into this," Wilder said. "Jeff Flake and Paul Ryan are good friends and we are proud to have his support."

Andy Barr, a spokesman for Democratic Senate candidate Richard Carmona, seized on the website revamp, calling Flake "a career politician and former lobbyist" who will "drop any prior position if he thinks it will help him politically.'

Wilder questioned why Carmona doesn't feature his highest profile endorsement on his website: that of President Barack Obama, who personally urged him to run for the open Senate seat. Flake's endorsement page during the primary is here:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022ee523804bc10353a42d9496e0eab6d181fed6d665f01d0896
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022ee523804bc10353a42d9496e0eab6d181fed6d665f01d0896 Here's the page now:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e8a22e560eacbe6a22e7a9dd0316e60c4f084622775d97388
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e8a22e560eacbe6a22e7a9dd0316e60c4f084622775d97388

1ST DEBATE SET - Huddle has learned that Flake and Carmona will square off at their first debate Oct. 10 on "Arizona Horizon," which airs on PBS's Arizona affiliates. The show's host, Ted Simons, will moderate.

WARREN ON A ROLL - A fourth poll shows Democrat Elizabeth Warren leading GOP incumbent Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race. Fred Thys writes: "A WBUR poll of 507 likely Massachusetts voters finds Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren leading Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, 45 percent to 40 percent. The survey has a 4.4 percent margin of error. The WBUR poll, conducted Sept. 15-17 by the MassINC Polling Group, is the fourth released this week to find Warren making gains."
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GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012, 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 @VPerroneDem and @HarryGural.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate's in at 10 a.m. and will continue work on a veterans jobs bill. A series of votes are possible. The chamber will recess from 12:30 to 2:15 p.m. for weekly caucus lunches. Then, the senate will hold a procedural vote on the House-passed six-month continuing resolution to fund the government.

The House is in at noon with votes expected about 6:30 p.m. on nearly 30 bills, including one honoring the four Americans who died in Libya and condemning the attacks on United States diplomatic facilities in Libya, Egypt, and Yemen. Another would confirm full ownership rights for certain U.S. astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts' space missions.

AROUND THE HILL - At 9 a.m., the U.S. Chamber will lead more than 50 small business owners to the Hill to call on lawmakers to immediately extend all of the expired and expiring tax provisions. Reps. Jim Jordan and Mick Mulvaney will kick off the event in the Capitol Visitors Center. In conjunction with the fly-in, the Chamber will hold a virtual march on Washington, hosted on its fiscal cliff website:
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Senate Small Business Committee Chairwoman Mary Landrieu hosts a roundtable discussion with small business owners and lawmakers titled, "Closing the Wealth Gap through the African-American Entrepreneurial Ecosystem," at 10 a.m. in Russell 428-A. Others attending include: Reps. Cedric Richmond, Chaka Fattah, Yvette Clarke and Eleanor Holmes Norton.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer holds a pen and pad briefing at 10:30 a.m. in H-144. Reps. Austin Scott, Mike Kelly and GOP freshmen speak on the health care mandate at 11:30 a.m. at the House Triangle.

Sen. Marco Rubio will address the 2012 Opportunity Nation Summit at 1 p.m. at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW. At 1:30 p.m., Rubio and Sen. Ron Wyden will participate in a discussion on "Holding Higher Education Accountable," at the American Enterprise Institute, 1150 17th St., NW.

The Senate Judiciary Committee's subpanel on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, chaired by Sen. Dick Durbin, holds Congress' first hearing exploring the aftermath of the Sikh temple massacre in Oak Creek, Wis., at 2:30 p.m. in Hart 216.

Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Hill leaders will award the Congressional Gold Medal to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in honor of her leadership and commitment to human rights and for promoting freedom, peace and democracy in her home country of Burma. The ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. in the Rotunda.

ROADS, RAILS GET LITTLE PLAY ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL - POLITICO's Burgess Everett reports: "House members who delivered more than $180 billion in infrastructure investment aren't talking up the new surface transportation or Federal Aviation Administration laws - not even those facing difficult November challenges. After more than 1,000 days of stopgaps in both the air and on the ground, Congress finally delivered to the president longer-term blueprints for national infrastructure that were once routine. While the lawmakers are proud of the work they've done and acknowledge the magnitude of the successful compromises, transportation bills are something that constituents just expect. And it is no
longer an era of earmarks that provide Congress members something back home to show for all their hard work: a construction site filled with local workers soon to be the home of a new highway on-ramp, rail line or bridge."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e1717349558ac5b77199543bf0d975469fede8c1ba340ba38
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e1717349558ac5b77199543bf0d975469fede8c1ba340ba38

JACKSON JR. OPPONENT: CONGRESSMAN'S HISTORY IS 'UNHEALTHY' - Jennifer Abbey writes for ABC News: "Pastor Anthony Williams, one of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s opponents for the U.S. House of Representatives, is calling for the Illinois congressman to resign. 'We have an absentee congressman right now and the people in the Second Congressional District are not receiving any kind of services,' Williams said. Jackson abruptly left Congress June 10. He initially said he was being treated for 'exhaustion' but a statement from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., later said he was being treated for bipolar disorder. ...'I recognize he has an illness but at the same time, life has to go on with or
without him in his district,' Williams said. "The fact of the issue is not his health. The history of his record is unhealthy."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e8e29694408fe2cbb157842888e5ff0ca8d6089f015b6bddf
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-- NBC 5 in Chicago reports that Jackson's four-bedroom Victorian in D.C.'s Dupont Circle is on the market:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e308b5f4128b820b123b3f26b7bb586cc89cb4fe23d6cbc26
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OPPONENT: HATCH MAY DIE IN NEXT TERM - Lee Davidson writes for the Salt Lake Tribune: "Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Scott Howell is making an issue out of Sen. Orrin Hatch's age - suggesting in a fundraising email that he might 'die before his term is through' or become so sick he would need to retire. Howell sent the email this week to supporters saying, 'Look Orrin Hatch is not a bad guy. But he is an old guy, and he's a lifer politician. Our nation doesn't need that. And, at nearly 80 years old, he lacks the skill, knowledge and proficiency to face America's modern needs.' Then he adds the kicker: 'We cannot risk the possibility of an 80-year-old man taking office, only to retire or
die before his term his through.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022e926dfc87e5e78465c5f55b99396ce57468dd62c70b96121a
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McCOTTER STAFFER PLEADS NO CONTEST - Matthew Dolan writes for the Wall Street Journal: "A former congressional staffer in Michigan pleaded no contest to criminal charges related to an effort to submit doctored petitions in order to place former U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter on the ballot.Lorianne O'Brady, 52 years old, of Livonia, who worked as a scheduler to the former Republican congressman in suburban Detroit, pleaded no contest Tuesday in Wayne County, Mich., court to five misdemeanor counts of falsely signing a nominating petition as circulator. Her sentencing is set for Oct. 25. ... In total, four staff members of Rep. McCotter's were charged with election fraud in August after
they were accused of padding nomination petitions with old and duplicate signatures."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022efce730b1142b65348444597c459406a97ca2248b92a9f3a7
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HOUSE GOP PUSHES IMMIGRANT VISA BILL - Julia Preston writes for the New York Times: "Republican leaders in the House of Representatives, hoping to pass a measure before the November elections to improve legal immigration are pushing for a vote this week on a bill that would increase the number of permanent resident visas for foreigners graduating from American universities with advanced degrees in science and technology.The largely partisan bill was introduced on Tuesday by Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. It would allocate up to 55,000 visas, known as green cards, each year to graduates with master's or doctoral degrees from
American universities, by means of a trade-off. The bill would abolish a lottery run each year that distributes the same number of green cards randomly to applicants from countries that do not have large immigrant populations in the United States."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022ef737261339447df6094427449b231bb065e99be23d4b1684
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GOP LEADERS OPPOSE FARM BILL VOTE - The Hill's Molly K Hooper reports: "House Republican leaders are pressuring members to refrain from backing a measure that would force a floor vote on a five-year farm bill.GOP leaders have refused to allow a vote on bipartisan legislation that cleared the House Agriculture Committee, 35-11, in July. Officials in leadership say the bill lacks the support to pass the House, noting conservative members who have balked at its $900- billion price tag.But lawmakers from farm-heavy districts are furious that the bill has stalled, and are calling for action before the November election. They have joined forces to apply pressure to Speaker John Boehner(R-Ohio)
and his lieutenants."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dc832e9504f9022eb2fc4cffc3aa6a58f09f23cff37cf2ed7ebfefcc24be71ae
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TUESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Tom Flanagin was first to correctly answer that 16 states voted to ratify a constitutional amendment that would treat the District of Columbia like a state, granting it two senators and a representative. That was far short of the 38 states needed.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Finally getting around to using this great question from Jim Casto: Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) sometimes tells audiences about the first time she met Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). It was some years back when a young Manchin, then working for his family's business, came to Capito's home in Charleston. What brought him there? First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at
mailto:swong@politico.com
swong@politico.com .

WEATHER - Sunny, breezy and cool with highs in the low 70s, according to ABC7's Brian van de Graaff.

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