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10/23/2015 08:21 AM EDT


By Rachael Bade (rbade@politico.com or @RachaelMBade)

5 TAKEAWAYS FROM CLINTON'S MARATHON BENGHAZI TESTIMONY. She left the lion's den with her ears boxed but intact. POLITICO's Glenn Thrush and Gabriel Debenedetti report: "1. Clinton won the news cycle - not the war. "Clinton - who famously fumed last time she testified on Benghazi - didn't lose her cool this time.... But ... The FBI is still probing Clinton's use of a private email server while at the State Department."

"2. Eleven hours of selfies with a Democrat Republicans love to hate. None of the GOP committee members are personally opposing Clinton for the presidency next year, but picking a fight with the Democratic front-runner was an electoral no-brainer. Every single one of them will be running for reelection in 2016... So battering the party's prime target on video... makes perfect political sense."

"3. No email bombshells. For the most part, Gowdy and Co. were almost entirely intent on keeping their sights on Benghazi and Clinton's tenure at the State Department, spending most of the day avoiding procedural examinations of Clinton's email except to establish that Stevens, the ambassador, did not have her personal email address."

"4. All Sid, all the time. No one's name ID rose more on Thursday than that of Sidney Blumenthal - Clinton's on-again-off-again friend/source/staff/chronicler - and the committee's Republicans made clear that his name would come up again and again (and again) over the next 15 months."

"5. No fun allowed. Roby pressed Clinton on a question that has nagged at the GOP for months: Where Clinton was, and who she was with, on Sept. 11, 2012, the night of the Benghazi attack. 'Were you alone?,' Roby asked. 'I was alone, yes,' Clinton replied. 'The whole night?' 'Well, yes, the whole night,' a bleary-eyed Clinton laughed heartily...'I don't know why that's funny,' the congresswoman said." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e75a6f6d1c93ce6bc5db84da33e6dd98d11cde55766c781d8542ade10f855352

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE HEARING. The New York Times blogged the best moments form the hearing, from Rep. Peter Roskam's dramatic display, tearing paper in half to make a point, to the to the heated back and forth between Elijah Cummings and Gowdy over Blumenthal transcripts. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e75a6f6d1c93ce6b341b091fdabd0cf14b5ad9dd3107ac179dce7248efc1f207 And of course, Hillz's best reactions during the hearing - including her Jay-Z-"dirt off your shoulder" moment. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e75a6f6d1c93ce6bb916cfd136a09869f0857926ffefbb3462db25b68809d3a7 and http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e75a6f6d1c93ce6b01a00df7e4989f1eb73f936cb7be0ad26cb8f3ab20d65aef

MUST WATCH TV: "BINGE-GAZI" HEARING MAKES THE DAILY SHOW. The Daily Show poked fun at the Netflix-like "Binge-gazi" hearing on the investigation that has "more sequels than 'Fast & Furious,'" including Chairman Gowdy who they snarked: "looks like a baby possum on picture day of school." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e75a6f6d1c93ce6bf857e2dce6655905b0d8af5eaad7c791714d3484ab023f6b

TGIF!!! It's OCT. 23, 2015. Thanks for reading Huddle, where we apologize for the late and short send this a.m. The Clinton hearing kicked our, umm, derrière yesterday - and frankly, sleep this morning was waaaaay more appealing than entertaining you folks. You can reach me here: rbade@politico.com, or Tweet: @RachaelMBade.

TODAY IN CONGRESS: The House returns at 9 a.m., with first and last votes of the week between 11:45 a.m. and 12:45 a.m. The Senate is out until Monday.

AROUND THE HILL: Rep. Mike Honda joins with students at 10 a.m. to discuss legislation on school safety. House Democratic leaders at 10:15 a.m. talk debt limit.

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BEHIND PAUL RYAN'S DECISION TO MAKE IT 'OFFICIAL.' "The fragile marriage of Ryan and the Freedom Caucus," Lauren French takes it away: "One of Rep. Paul Ryan's conditions for running for House speaker was that he wanted to reform the 'motion to vacate,' a rarely-invoked legislative tool that's essentially a way to boot the speaker from his job His pitch didn't go over well with the House Freedom Caucus, the group of 40 conservatives that helped drive John Boehner to the Capitol exits, including with threats of using it. They were reluctant, to put it mildly, to relinquish one of their most potent weapons without proof that Ryan would agree to other demands they had of the next speaker.

"In the end, the two sides have reached a temporary détente, which will allow Paul to become speaker under most of the terms he set - and the Freedom Caucus to hold out the possibility of serious turbulence for Ryan later if he doesn't deliver on his less-than-concrete assurances. Ryan still wants to overhaul the motion-to-vacate procedure, saying it's impossible for a speaker to operate under the threat of a coup at at minute. But he agreed to wait until later hash it out with the group of hardliners. The talks will take place in the coming weeks when the entire House Republican Conference launches a fuller debate about changes to House and Republican conference rules."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e75a6f6d1c93ce6bc606b478d8da90b7e85e55ddbb61c7232896761a8a1a15e3

MCCONNELL PRESSES PAUL TO FOCUS ON SENATE BID. Shane Goldmacher and Anna Palmer scoop: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his allies are quietly ratcheting up pressure on Rand Paul to pay more attention to his Senate reelection next year - and less to his flagging 2016 presidential candidacy. So far, those efforts have stopped short of urging the Kentucky senator, whose presidential bid McConnell has formally endorsed, to outright abandon his national campaign. But there are growing concerns that Paul, as a senator still in his first term in office, is courting trouble by dividing his time between the two races, raising the prospect that a rock-ribbed Republican seat could be put
into play and jeopardize McConnell's fragile 54-seat GOP majority."

"McConnell and Paul themselves have spoken about the issue with increasingly regularity in recent weeks, according to people familiar with their conversations. And last month, one of the top lieutenants charged with protecting the Senate Republican majority called Doug Stafford, the chief strategist for Paul's presidential campaign, to the headquarters of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for a one-on-one meeting." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e75a6f6d1c93ce6b644bd67dc13707b2d2a9336f196893f15b9ea2c6939d3345

HOUSE REPUBLICANS SCRAMBLE FOR DEBT CEILING PLAN. John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman: "Congress has a debt-ceiling problem again. A big one. House GOP leaders initially planned to vote on a red-meat proposal Friday pitched by the Republican Study Committee to increase the debt ceiling while imposing new limits on executive-branch power. That measure stood no chance of passing the Senate, but would at least show effort. Yet when House Majority Whip Steve Scalise's (R-La.) team tested Republican support for the legislation, it fell far short of the needed 218 votes, and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) postponed any floor action."

"Now, the U.S. government is 12 days from reaching the debt limit without a clear plan of what to do. Boehner, McCarthy and other GOP leaders are refusing at this point to move ahead with a 'clean' debt ceiling bill insisted on by President Barack Obama. Senior leadership aides said they couldn't find the 30 Republican votes needed to join with all 188 Democrats to pass that proposal - a bleak indication of the current state of play."

"Boehner is still trying to hammer out a broader budget deal with the White House that would boost defense and infrastructure spending while making offsetting cuts in entitlement programs. But Obama is playing a strong hand and has refused to make any major concessions. Boehner, who wants to leave Congress next week, remains hopeful he can reach a budget agreement with the president, which would then allow him to put a clean debt bill up for a vote." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e75a6f6d1c93ce6b0907447538aec2f1653e941a13ebf7f9bef03928d4327c31

SWING AND A MISS: (Burgess writes in!) The Nationals need a new manager, but Harry Reid says that search should probably pass over DMV legend Cal Ripken. The Senate minority leader wants a veteran in the dugout, not someone training on the job. Asked about Ripken in an interview, Reid responded: "Nah. I think they need somebody with some experience managing ... There's some good people out there, I just think having an untested manager is dangerous."

THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER. Logan Ferree was the first to answer that Paul Ryan was voted "biggest brown-noser" by his 1988 high school senior class. He was also tapped for prom king and class president junior year.

TODAY'S TRIVIA: Comes from our winner: Occasionally members of the House protest their party leadership by casting votes for other candidates for Speaker, but it is almost unheard of for a member to back the nominee of the opposing party. Who was the last member to vote for the nominee for Speaker of the opposing party? Email rbade@politico.com.

GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says 'Sign Up.' http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e75a6f6d1c93ce6bc250dfb1c2cd707f1cde563cd5542b3d6496441c37be23ea

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