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WHY OBAMA NEEDS A GRAND BARGAIN - Carrie Budoff Brown and Jake Sherman report for the hometown paper: "President Barack Obama used to want a grand deficit deal because he philosophically believed it was best for the country, and politically believed it was best for him. Now he needs it because he has no choice. Obama's failure to avert $85 billion in spending cuts known as the sequester underscored the limits of his outside strategy and signaled that he could not persuade Republicans to raise revenue again without a comprehensive agreement to overhaul the Tax Code and entitlements.

-- "A lull in the deadline-driven budget battles could soon give way to a fresh round of fiscal crises - from rising public pressure to lift the sequester to a looming summer deadline to increase the debt limit. If the president is to have any hope of resolving either fight to his liking, he'll need more revenue. But Republicans won't even consider it unless entitlement reforms are on the table. So after more than two months in hiding, talk of a grand bargain has suddenly resurfaced in Washington.

-- "Obama is doing things he's never done - like dine out this week with a dozen Republican senators at a meal in which they talked fiscal issues, invite House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to the White House for lunch - and to re-engage with lawmakers after almost two years of campaigning against them. 'This week, we've gone 180,' House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday. 'After being in office now for four years, he's actually going to sit down and talk to members.'"
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-- Obama told GOP senators at the Thursday night dinner he wants to reach a deficit deal by the end of July, "an aggressive timeline coinciding with the expiration of the nation's debt limit," The Hill's Alex Bolton reports. "Obama told a small group of Republican senators who had dinner with him Wednesday evening that a deficit-reduction deal needs to happen in the next four to five months, according to three sources familiar with the meeting."
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Detroit Free Press, A1 centerpiece, "CARL LEVIN WON'T RUN FOR SEVENTH TERM: A voice for Michigan to leave Senate," By Todd Spangler: "Carl Levin, who rose from one of the most prominent families in Michigan to become one of the most respected members of the U.S. Senate, sent political shock waves through the state when he announced Thursday that he would not run for a seventh term.Levin, 78, is an iconic figure in Michigan politics and was once called by Time Magazine one of the best 10 senators in the chamber. But, he said, after long talks with his wife, Barbara, they decided the next 21 months are better spent fighting for passage of policy priorities than raising money and running a
campaign. ...

-- "First winning election in 1978, Levin not only became a force in Michigan politics, but in the Democratic Party nationally, relentlessly pushing for states other than Iowa and New Hampshire to take a place earlier in the presidential primary calendar. He chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee. Through the years, he has steered billions of dollars in funding to Michigan projects and priorities. ...

-- "[T]here will be no replacing Levin, who with his rumpled suits, combed over hair and glasses perched at the tip of his nose, stuck out as a prototypical senator. To that, he brought a fierce belief in liberalism, a love of his state - he is a lifelong Tigers fan - and an incisive debating style that could allow him to disagree without being disagreeable.He could find common ground with the opposition party too, and counts Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona as a close colleague, if not always an ally, on the Armed Services Committee.... Levin came up through political connections. His father, Saul, served on the Michigan Corrections Commission; one uncle, Theodore Levin, was chief
judge on the U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan. He grew up in Detroit, graduated from Swathmore and Harvard Law School, and worked for Detroit's public defender's office before being elected to the City Council.In 1978, he ran for the U.S. Senate and won, in part, because incumbent Robert Griffin jumped out of the race, only to try to re-enter - unsuccessfully - later."
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OBAMA'S STATEMENT ON LEVIN: "If you've ever worn the uniform, worked a shift on an assembly line, or sacrificed to make ends meet, then you've had a voice and a vote in Senator Carl Levin. No one has worked harder to bring manufacturing jobs back to our shores, close unfair tax loopholes, and ensure that everyone plays by the same set of rules. As chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Levin is a true champion for all those who serve, and his tireless work will be missed not just in his home state of Michigan, but by military families across our country. Michelle and I wish Carl, Barbara and their family all the best, and I look forward to working with Carl over the next two
years as we continue tackling some of our nation's toughest challenges."

-- Levin's retirement sets off a scramble for the Senate seat. "A GOP official floated four potential candidates: Rep. Mike Rogers, state Attorney General Bill Schuette, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley and Secretary of State Ruth Johnson," POLITICO's James Hohmann reports. "A Democratic primary is possible. Among those receiving buzz in the wake of the announcement are Rep. Gary Peters and former Rep. Mark Schauer."
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SEN. WARNER TAKES PART IN STAFFER'S TWITTER PROPOSAL - Check out the tweets and proposal pics, flagged by BuzzFeed, here:
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McCAIN, GRAHAM RIP RAND OVER DRONES, FILIBUSTER - Richard W. Stevenson and Ashley Parker report on A1 of the New York Times, with an awkward photo of Paul and McCain sharing an elevator: "After invoking and being embraced by civil-liberties-minded liberals during a 13-hour filibuster starting Wednesday on the Senate floor, [Sen. Rand] Paul, of Kentucky, was showered with praise on Thursday by both the Tea Party movement and the provocateurs of the peace group Code Pink. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican minority leader, praised Mr. Paul's conviction. ... But he was assailed by two of his party's most prominent national security hawks, Senators John McCain of Arizona and
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. They took to the floor on Thursday to defend President Obama's aggressive use of drones against Al Qaeda and its affiliates and to suggest that Mr. Paul and his backers had engaged in scaremongering.

--"'We've done, I think, a disservice to a lot of Americans by making them think that somehow they're in danger from their government,' Mr. McCain said. 'They're not. But we are in danger from a dedicated, longstanding, easily replaceable-leadership enemy that is hellbent on our destruction.'"
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--How'd he go 13 hours? He had no plan - just a binder of information, support from colleagues and a Milky Way bar. POLITICO's Kate Nocera and Tim Mak take us behind the scenes of Paul's filibuster.
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-- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a frequent Paul critic, praised the Kentucky senator's endurance - not to mention his "strong bladder': "I have been involved in a few filibusters, as Rand Paul did yesterday. And what I have learned from my experiences in talking filibusters...you need strong convictions but also a strong bladder. It's obvious Sen. Paul has both," Reid said.
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-- Roll Call's Niels Lesniewski and Joshua Miller ask if Mitch McConnell waited too long to #StandwithRand.
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--Paul tells our own Lois Romano he's "seriously" weighing a 2016 presidential bid.
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HOLDER: BREVITY IS BETTER, THE AG'S 43-WORD RESPONSE ON DRONES - Attorney General Eric Holder finally got back to Paul on his question that originally led to Thursday's 13-hour filibuster. Holder wrote:

"It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: 'Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?' The answer to that question is no." Read the letter here:
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SENATE CONFIRMS BRENNAN AS CIA CHIEF - The AG's terse response was apparently all that Paul wanted and John Brennan was quickly confirmed by a vote of 63 to 34. Peter Finn and Aaron Blake report for the Washington Post:
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GOOD FRIDAY MORNING, MARCH 8, 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 @CarinaKhanjian and @ZoeBarnesDC.

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

AROUND THE HILL - Reps. Rosa DeLauro, Robert Andrews and other members of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hold a meeting on sequestration at 10 a.m. in HVC 215. RSVP: evangeline.george@ mail.house.gov.

GRAHAM, AYOTTE: 'BAD PRECEDENT' TO TRANSPORT BIN LADEN'S SON-IN-LAW TO U.S. -- Jonathan Dienst, Pete Williams and Andrea Mitchell report for NBC News: "Republicans in Congress would like to keep Guantanamo open and have strongly opposed bringing terror suspects on U.S. soil. 'We believe the administration's decision here to bring [Sulaiman Abu Ghaith] to New York City, if that's what's happened, without letting Congress know is a very bad precedent to set,' said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who held a press conference with Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H, Thursday. 'And when we find somebody like this, this close to bin Laden and the senior al-Qaida leadership, the last thing in the
world we want to do, in my opinion, is put them in civilian court. This man should be in Guantanamo Bay,' Ayotte said. Officials tell NBC News he had been a prisoner in Iran for most of the past decade and is scheduled to appear in federal court Friday. NBC's Brian Williams reports. 'So we're putting the administration on notice,' said Graham. 'We think that sneaking this guy into the country, clearly going around the intent of Congress when it comes to enemy combatants, will be challenged.'"
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U.N. UNANIMOUS IN NORTH KOREA SANCTIONS VOTE - Rick Gladstone and David E. Sanger report on A1 of the New York Times: "Ignoring threats of retaliation, the United Nations Security Council ordered new economic sanctions against North Korea on Thursday for its third nuclear test last month, unanimously approving a resolution that the United States negotiated with China, the North's greatest protector. In an angry response, North Korea said Friday that it was nullifying all agreements of nonaggression and denuclearization with South Korea and was cutting off the North-South hot line. But beyond those steps, it was unclear how, if at all, North Korea's young and untested leader, Kim Jong-un,
would react to the rebuke. His government has threatened to terminate the 60-year-old armistice that brought a halt to the Korean War and that has kept a cold peace on the peninsula since, and South Korean officials said they were on the alert for any possible attack by the North. Any military action, or response, could end up involving the American forces that have remained in South Korea as it has turned from war-ravaged ruin into one of the most advanced industrialized powerhouses."
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LYNCH OBAMACARE 'NO' VOTE AT ISSUE IN SENATE RACE - Eric Moskowitz writes on A1 of the Boston Globe: "After a year of heated national debate and decades of failed attempts to achieve universal health coverage, it was all coming down to one moment in the US House. The Democrats needed every vote they could get.Smart money said the Massachusetts delegation was a lock. All 10 members had supported an earlier version that narrowly passed the House. They hailed from the same state that had crafted the landmark law which provided the template for health care reform, the home of the late senator Edward M. Kennedy, who made universal coverage his life's cause. But Stephen F. Lynch, the South Boston
Democrat now running for Senate, refused to get on board that week in March 2010. President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, old labor allies from Boston, and even Kennedy's widow all tried to get Lynch to come around. He wouldn't budge.Three years later, Lynch's opposition to the Affordable Care Act remains one of the better known moments of his Washington career, raising questions about his record. It hovers over his primary race against fellow Representative Edward J. Markey, who has called passage of sweeping health legislation "one of the most important votes of my career."
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THE ROGERS REPORT:MIKULSKI, ROGERS PLAY BEAT THE CLOCK ON CR - "Senate Democrats mapped out plans Thursday to expand on a House-passed stopgap spending bill - adding full-year budgets for four more Cabinet departments as well as major science and space agencies," David Rogers reports. "Justice, Homeland Security, Agriculture, Commerce, NASA and the National Science Foundation should benefit most. And Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski said she has begun drafting new legislative language to expand on the ability of other departments to move money between accounts to cope with cuts ordered last week. But to keep the peace, the Maryland Democrat has had to sacrifice
Transportation, caught in a long-simmering partisan fight over the future of California's high-speed rail program. ... Mikulski and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) are working toward the goal of having an agreement in place by March 27, when that same CR runs out. After briefing her caucus at a party luncheon, Mikulski said she hopes to file the final package Monday and begin voting on the floor next Wednesday."
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JUMPING THE SEQUESTER - WSJ columnist Kimberly Strassel says the White House has "jumped the sequester" in closing tours: "The phrase 'jumping the shark' describes that gimmicky moment when something once considered significant is exposed as ludicrous. This is the week the White House jumped the sequester. The precise moment came Tuesday, when the administration announced that it was canceling public tours of the White House, blaming budget cuts. The Sequesterer in Chief has insisted that cutting even $44 billion from this fiscal year will cause agonizing pain-airport security snarls, uninspected meat, uneducated children. Since none of those things has come to pass, the White House decided
it needed an immediate and high-profile way of making its point. Ergo, it would deny the nation's school kids a chance to view a symbol of America. The act was designed to spark outrage against Republicans, yet the sheer pettiness of it instead provided a moment of clarity. Americans might not understand the technicalities of sequester, but this was something else entirely. Was the president actually claiming there was not a single other government item-not one-that could be cut instead of the White House tours? Really?"
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THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Kelly Yahner was first to correctly answer that Massachusetts Rep. Edward Everett of Massachusett gave the keynote address at the opening of the cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863. He spoke for more than two hours before President Lincoln gave his now famous address enshrined at his memorial on the National Mall.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Before a bipartisan agreement was struck on Thursday's vote to confirm John Brennan, Senate Majority Leader harry Reid had threatened to hold a rare Saturday session. When was the last time the Senate held a Saturday session and for what issue? First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at
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