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By Scott Wong (
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MORE UGLINESS IN MISS. RACE: PRANKSTER CRASHES COCHRAN CONFERENCE CALL -- Nicholas P. Fandos reports for POLITICO: "A media call with aides to Sen. Thad Cochran ended in chaos Wednesday after a participant lobbed racially charged questions, asking whether the Republican's campaign had 'harvested' black votes during the June 24 primary runoff. The identity of the questioner was unclear, though several others on the line suggested it was a supporter of Cochran's GOP opponent in Mississippi, tea party favorite Chris McDaniel. McDaniel has not conceded the race and is considering a legal challenge to Cochran's win.

-- "The interruption came as the campaign's senior adviser, Austin Barbour, was discussing alleged vote irregularities in Jackson-area precincts where black voters came out in support of Cochran. 'If black people were harvesting cotton, why is it OK to harvest their votes?' the caller asked. He repeated his question in various ways several times. Cochran's campaign has been accused of buying the votes of black Democrats ... The incumbent senator had sought the support of African-Americans after he came in second to McDaniel during the initial primary on June 3. ...When the questioner continued, Barbour advised reporters to contact him or others on the campaign individually and hung up. ...

-- "Some [reporters left on the call] pointed out that Charles C. Johnson, a blogger who has been covering the race and written stories suggesting Cochran's campaign had been buying black votes, had tweeted out the details about accessing the conference call ahead of time. But Johnson, on Twitter, said he was not the person asking the 'cotton' question."
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LATEST WORKOUT CRAZE: THE 'MARKWAYNE MULLIN' - Ashley Parker reports for the NYT - and ends up incredibly sore: "A new muscle-crushing, sweat-inducing workout has infiltrated the inner sanctum of Congress, the members-only gym of the House of Representatives. And it is called, simply, the 'Markwayne Mullin.' Named after Mr. Mullin, the 36-year-old Republican representative from Oklahoma and former professional mixed martial arts cage fighter who leads the predawn, bespoke workout, it is a 'mix of CrossFit and circuit training,' he says.

-- "On a recent Thursday, at 6:30 a.m. in a gym in the shadow of the Capitol, a bipartisan group of seven House lawmakers gathered for Mr. Mullin to put them through the paces, as he does almost every morning when Congress is in session. Representing the Republican side: Representatives Kevin McCarthy of California, the majority leader; Todd Rokita of Indiana; Aaron Schock of Illinois; and Jason Smith of Missouri. And on the Democratic side: Representatives Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts. ...

-- "In an era of increasing gridlock and vitriol between the two parties, the House gym has emerged as one of the few places where members can set politics aside and achieve some sweat-infused bipartisanship. The across-the-aisle friendships, solidified over sets of box jumps, are already paying dividends. Ms. Gabbard and Mr. Schock - two of the fittest members of the group - co-founded the Congressional Future Caucus, a group intended to bring lawmakers together to work toward long-term solutions on issues that affect the next generation. ... (Full disclosure: This reporter did about 20 minutes of the hourlong workout, and found herself unable to move several parts of her body for the next
two days.)"
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CONGRESS DITHERS ON ECONOMY - John Bresnahan reports for the hometown paper: "When the latest sign of a troubled economy emerged last week, Congress had a ready response: Nothing. The same week that new data came out showing the U.S. economy shrank nearly 3 percent in the first quarter, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced plans to sue President Barack Obama for abusing his executive authority. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), meanwhile, garnered headlines for denouncing the name of Washington's football team. Both chambers then went into an 11-day recess.

-- "The reaction at the White House wasn't much stronger. Officials there bashed Republicans, and then argued the overall economy is doing just fine now. The collective shrug highlights Washington's inability - or unwillingness - to make bipartisan deals that would assist Americans still struggling to recover from the 2008 economic collapse. That inertia will be on display again Thursday when the June unemployment numbers are released, statistics that could underscore the failure of congressional leaders to revive expired jobless benefits for millions of people who have gone years without work."
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PATTI LaBELLE, TOM BERGERON HEADLINE CAPITOL FOURTH CONCERT - The WaPo reports: Friday's "concert and fireworks, broadcast live on PBS, will be hosted by Tom Bergeron with performances by Frankie Valli, John Williams, Patti Labelle, Phillip Phillips, Jordin Sparks, Michael McDonald, Sara Evans, the Muppets, Kendall Schmidt, Kelli O'Hara, the National Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Jack Everly, the Choral Arts Society of Washington, the U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own," the U.S. Army Herald Trumpets, the U.S. Army Presidential Salute Battery and the Joint Armed Forces Chorus. Attendees must pass through a metal detector. Gates open at 3 p.m., concert at 8 p.m. West Lawn of the U.S.
Capitol, 100 Constitution Ave. NE. 202-226-8000.
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www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/ " WaPo has a roundup of local July 4th events:
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HURRICANE ARTHUR THREATENS COAST, JULY 4TH VACATIONS - The AP's Emery P. Dalesioarthur reports from Rodanthe, N.C.: "Arthur strengthened to a hurricane early Thursday and threatened to give North Carolina a glancing blow on Independence Day, prompting the governor to warn vacationers along the coast not to risk their safety by trying to salvage their picnics and barbecues. Forecasters expect Arthur to whip past the state's Outer Banks on Friday without making landfall. One local remarked that he was more worried about his tomato plants than storm damage.

-- "But North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory warned: 'Don't put your stupid hat on.' The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season prompted a hurricane warning for much of the North Carolina coast and a mandatory evacuation for visitors to the Outer Banks' Hatteras Island as of 5 a.m. Thursday. Residents also were advised to leave the island. ... In addition to the hurricane warning, tropical storm warnings were in effect for coastal areas in South Carolina and Virginia."
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GOOD THURSDAY MORNING, AND AN EARLY HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY TO YOU! ... Just a programming note: Huddle will be off Friday in honor of Independence Day. The Huddle household is still debating whether to make the drive down to the Outer Banks tomorrow morning: With Arthur now a hurricane, this could be the worst vacation idea ever, or it's possible the crowds will clear out and we'll have the beaches to ourselves after the storm passes. Either way, we'll report back on Monday.

You're readingThe Huddle, your play-by-play preview of all the action on Capitol Hill. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to
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TODAY IN CONGRESS - Both the House and Senate continue their Fourth of July recess today. They're back next week.

ALL THE SINGLE LADIES (ALL THE SINGLE LADIES) - Jackie Calmes writes on A1 of the NYT: "The decline of marriage over the last generation has helped create an emerging voting bloc of unmarried women that is profoundly reshaping the American electorate to the advantage, recent elections suggest, of the Democratic Party. What is far from clear is whether Democrats will benefit in the midterm contests this fall. With their Senate majority at stake in November, Democrats and allied groups are now stepping up an aggressive push to woo single women - young and old, highly educated and working class, never married, and divorced or widowed."
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DEMS SQUABBLE: BEGICH VS. McCASKILL - POLITICO's Burgess Everett reports: "Alaska Sen. Mark Begich says fellow Senate Democrat Claire McCaskill is investigating contracting practices in his home state because she 'refuses to try and understand the history and culture' of Alaska. On Wednesday, McCaskill's office blasted out a letter she sent to the Small Business Administration announcing her investigation into Alaska Native Corporations' participation in the SBA's small-and-disadvantaged business contracting program. ANCs are native groups' extended special contracting privileges that other minority companies do not receive according to ProPublica, and McCaskill (D-Mo.) has been raising
questions about them for more than five years.

-- "Begich, who is up for reelection this fall in a conservative state, called his Democratic colleague's actions 'troubling' and mocked her legislative specialty of investigating waste and fraud, an unusual personal attack between senators of an opposite party and even rarer for fellow Democrats. McCaskill is ... chairwoman of a panel that investigates federal contracting. 'I'm afraid my colleague, Sen. McCaskill - through her narrow lens as a 'government oversight and efficiencies guru' - has trouble understanding Alaska history, even with my repeated attempts to reason with her,' Begich said."
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CIA CHIEF CLASHES WITH CONGRESS: 'I'M AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY OFFENDER' - The WSJ's Siobhan Gorman reports from Langley: "John Brennan is starting to tuck into breakfast, including black coffee and bacon, when he decides he hasn't finished chewing on a rather tender subject for the director of the Central Intelligence Agency: politics. 'I am neither Democrat nor Republican nor ideological,' he told a Wall Street Journal reporter recently over a 7:15 a.m. meeting at CIA headquarters. 'I'm an equal opportunity offender.' Partly as a result, relations between the CIA and Congress are more fraught than at any point in the past decade. The source of the tension is the Senate intelligence
committee's classified report on the CIA's controversial post-9/11 interrogation program-and the agency's response to it.

-- "The bad blood could get worse in coming weeks, when portions of the report and CIA response are expected to be declassified. Mr. Brennan made it clear he had no plans to back down in the face of congressional criticism. ... 'I will accept on behalf of the agency responsibility for failures, for problems and actions I believe should not have taken place. At the same time, I am going to take issue with some other elements of the report that I believe are inaccurate or misleading.'"
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FEINSTEIN: MALIKI MUST GO - Sen. Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, writing in POLITICO Magazine, calls for the ouster of the Iraqi prime minister: "The recent takeover of much of northern and western Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant, or ISIL, poses a significant threat to U.S. national security that cannot be ignored. ISIL's rise cannot be reversed, though, until the root cause of its ascendance is addressed, and that is Sunni disenfranchisement with the government in Baghdad. ISIL has been successful in Iraq largely because of Sunni animosity toward the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. His government has not governed inclusively and has fueled
sectarian distrust. Simply put, Maliki needs to go. Only with meaningful political reconciliation between Iraq's Sunni, Shia and Kurdish parties can Iraq move forward, reestablish its territorial integrity and defeat ISIL."
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MAN PLEADS GUILTY FOR THREATING MALONEY OVER GUN BILL - Rebecca Rosenberg reports for the N.Y. Post: "An upstate truck driver ?pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment Wednesday for calling in death threats to Rep. Carolyn Maloney over her proposed gun-owner-liability-insurance legislation in a plea deal with Manhattan prosecutors. ?Gun fanatic Ronald Buchanan, 41, of Elmira,? admitted to making five anonymous calls to Maloney's office in Queens April 2nd of 2013 ... As part of the deal, the father of four must serve ten days in jail, one year probation and enroll in an anger management program."
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WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - David Heymsfeld was first to correctly answer that at 70, Benjamin Franklin was the oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence. Edward Rutledge, 26, was the youngest.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Brian Newell has another question in honor of the Fourth of July: Name the five men appointed to serve on the committee tasked with drafting the Declaration of Independence. The first person to send the correct answer to
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