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10/20/2015 08:22 AM EDT


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

A LOOK INSIDE GOP BENGHAZI PREP. No cheap shots, stick to the facts but don't give an inch - that's the quick-n'-dirty takeout of the Republican plan for the Clinton hearing Thursday. They're aiming to strike a balance between a professional approach that shows they're not a bunch of hot-head ideologues - but also reveal new information, proving they're doing their homework and worth the taxpayers' dime.

But that doesn't mean panel Republicans will shy away from what they think are tough lines of questioning either. They'll almost certainly press Clinton on why she wasn't aware of the numerous early requests for more protection from slain U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens - and why her statements on emails seems to keep evolving: "Trey Gowdy doesn't give a sh-t about any of it," said a GOP source close to the probe when asked whether the recent criticism would affect the panel's line of questioning. In short: no. "He's going to go after all these things whether or not they call him partisan." Part II of my weekend interview with Gowdy and others working on the probe:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5076dacaa659302ddfe31296bf82dc401f7c486de1e84cd60d30c154c2811c19

A CLINTON ARMY ALSO READIES FOR THURSDAY. My colleague on the campaign trail, Annie Karni: "Her surrogates have been equipped with talking points blasting the Benghazi Committee as a 'partisan charade.' Her main defender David Brock is expected to give a 'pre-buttal' speech Wednesday, laying out a detailed case against the committee that essentially turns the tables and puts its members on trial. At Correct The Record, a PAC that coordinates with Hillary Clinton's campaign, a war room of about 30 staffers will be on hand to defend Clinton and attack the committee as she heads to Capitol Hill Thursday... And the outside super PAC supporting her campaign, Priorities USA, will be airing its
first television commercials of the cycle in the two days leading up to the hearing, and has also conducted its first polls on attitudes toward the Republican-led panel."

"But Clinton herself is expected to show up solemn and serious in manner, her full commander-in-chief mode on display, allies told POLITICO. In the end, others will do the partisan screaming for her while she attempts to treat the appearance as part of her responsibility to the four Americans killed in Libya under her watch in 2012, as well as an opportunity to outline more broadly how she would conduct foreign policy as president." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5076dacaa659302d02f7f85e2f9dbecef4f8f75d807defd4c22ed2a28d689144

RUBIO VEERS RIGHT ON IMMIGRATION. Guess running for president will do that to you... Our in-house immigration expert, Seung Min has it: "Marco Rubio's support for comprehensive immigration reform two years ago remains a major question mark hovering over his presidential campaign, even as he's cracked top-tier status in the GOP field. On Tuesday, the freshman senator's tightrope walk on the issue will continue, when the Senate takes up a bill, co-sponsored by Rubio and favored by the party's staunchest immigration opponents, to crack down on so-called sanctuary cities."

"But Rubio's attempts to explain his trajectory on immigration - from chief GOP advocate of sweeping reform to largely disavowing that effort and now advocating an enforcement-first approach - is drawing criticism from all sides. 'He's being very sloppy in the way he's answering questions,' said Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the American Principles Project's Latino Partnership, which pushes conservative causes among Latinos. 'He's being very vague.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5076dacaa659302d0c1c7971bba020f1ec5625349d0d4c9fac8e96462ae3a7e9

SPEAKING OF IMMIGRATION--

MUST-SEE TV. Seung Min writes in: Veteran filmmakers Michael Camerini and Shari Robertson have diligently followed Washington's fight over immigration reform for well over a decade. And their latest documentary - which chronicles Congress's up-and-down immigration drama the last two years, and just how close House Republicans got to an immigration breakthrough last summer - will premiere nationwide tonight on PBS's "Frontline." The film largely follows Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and his top aides from the time the House immigration gang (remember them?) began to fall apart in summer 2013 to when President Barack Obama issued his executive actions in November 2014.

We saw the film over the weekend, and there are a lot of interesting nuggets for immigration junkies and the broader Hill crowd. Some of the highlights from the film, titled "Immigration Battle": 1) A host of young immigration activists loudly rally outside Speaker John Boehner's home at dawn. 2) Boehner immigration aide Becky Tallent, before she joined the speaker's office, theorizes that as many as two-thirds of House Republicans could get on board with a legalization bill. 3) Boehner quietly orders up a GOP whip count for immigration around the time he hired Tallent. 4) Democratic leaders fear Gutierrez will give away too much to the GOP, and Gutierrez in turn threatens to travel the
country and tell voters Democrats scuttled reform if leadership intervenes. 5) And Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), who earlier in the film conducts a town hall entirely in Spanish, admits that a majority of Republicans were ready to do immigration reform before last summer's border crisis blew up.

The two-hour documentary airs tonight on PBS (WETA in the D.C. area) at 9 p.m. Watch the trailer here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5076dacaa659302deed7679839c79e6de95f87217385b3aa153bf3763007cf16 And a bonus clip, of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) serenading communications aide Juan Pachon: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=853ec5eaa868d1b598116f3f6c2ab7b0cb719dddc2dd633ac14a31bdad77fd10

BACK AT IT - IT'S TUES., OCT. 20 2015. Thanks for reading Huddle, your round-up of Congress news. Always reachable via rbade@politico.com, or Tweet: @RachaelMBade.

TODAY IN CONGRESS: The Senate reconvenes at 10 a.m. First votes at 11 a.m. for a judicial nominee. Weekly caucus lunches will start at noon, followed at 2:15 p.m. by a roll call on a prosecutorial vote on the sanctuary cities bill. The House returns for 6:30 p.m. votes.

AROUND THE HILL: At 8:15 a.m., Rep. Mike Honda and Ahmed Mohamed, the Texas student arrested for making a homemade clock, will do a House Triangle presser on ethnic and racial profiling. At 5 p.m., Boehner holds a bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act bill signing

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OFF THE HILL: At 10 a.m. across town at Howard University, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) joins Congressional Black Caucus Chair G. K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), Chair of the Whip's Task Force on Poverty, Income Inequality, and Opportunity Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), and Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) for a discussion with on "the damaging impacts that arbitrary sequester spending cuts have on minority communities."

What Hoyer will say: "We're here today because the future of this country is being threatened by the Republican policy of sequestration... Federal student loan and work-study programs like Pell grants and Stafford loans are going to face significant pressure if sequestration is allowed to return... African American college students are more likely to be eligible for Pell grants, and those who benefit from them are more likely to graduate. More than 50 percent of African American college students in this country rely on Pell grants to afford their higher education. Seventy-two percent of students at historically black colleges and universities receive Pell grants. And with rising tuition,
next year's Pell grant will cover the smallest share of the cost of college in more than four decades."

CRUNCH TIME FOR HOUSE REPUBLICANS. Jake and Bres: "It's decision time for Paul Ryan...The Ways and Means Committee chairman will begin to survey the internal political landscape of the Republican Conference in earnest and make up his mind as to whether he will seek the speakership. Ryan's goal is to gauge whether there is truly a widespread clamoring for him to run, according to sources close to him. Lawmakers who have spoken with him recently have come away from the conversation with different impressions of his mind-set. But people in his circle of allies expect him to have a clearer picture by the end of the week."

"Regardless of what Ryan decides, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) - who plans to leave Congress in 10 days, but has said he'll stay until Republicans pick a new leader - wants to set a date for the internal party election this week... They will spend several hours over the next three days behind closed doors, trying to settle on a strategy to avoid a debt default and chart a path for their party. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, House Republicans will meet to discuss their agenda for the rest of the month. The following morning, the party will have its weekly closed meeting, and on Wednesday afternoon, Republican lawmakers will discuss proposed changes to their internal rules."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=853ec5eaa868d1b5fb6eb721dd0ace35466aaf5d829482aefc4f7ab449779e34

CONSERVATIVES GRUMBLE ABOUT 'CLEAN' DEBT CEILING INCREASE. Warning shots, per Roll Call's Niels Lesniewski: "Conservative lawmakers are trying to fire up the base ahead of the next debt limit debate, even as one of them says the establishment could have the votes for a 'clean' increase. Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina cautioned Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., from advancing a bill with a debt limit disapproval process. 'If Mitch doesn't really want to do his job, he should just quit and go home,' Mulvaney said...Mulvaney joined Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on a conference call Monday to outline a newly updated version of 'Cut, Cap, and Balance' legislation designed to curtail
the federal budget." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=853ec5eaa868d1b5474518747f79479973d6e9fc5e5b301fada6114958ee47a5

HOUSE GOP NOTCHES ANOTHER WIN ON ACA LAWSUIT. Leading USA Today's website this am: "The House of Representatives scored another procedural victory in its precedent-setting lawsuit over Obamacare Monday, when a judge declined to allow an appeal of her earlier ruling that the House has the legal ability to sue... The legal question of standing was considered the biggest possible obstacle to the House lawsuit, and Collyer ruled last month that the GOP-controlled House has the right to challenge the use of subsidies to help low-income people afford insurance coverage. Those subsidies were included in the Affordable Care Act, but the House maintains they're illegal because Congress never
appropriated money for them." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=853ec5eaa868d1b53ce2a89ce18b90d403c95b792b36c2ff571899e0e1247909

MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER. Bill Pascoe was the first to answer that Colonel Elmer Ellsworth was one of the first casualties of the Civil War, best known for taking down a large Confederate flag in Alexandria that was in full view of the Capitol. He commanded the 11th New York Volunteer Regiment, also known as the "Brooklyn or Fire Zouaves,"

TODAY'S TRIVIA: Which comes from our winner, Bill: In Wisconsin, former Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold is challenging GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, the man who defeated him in 2010. Who was the last Senator to avenge a re-election loss against the candidate who beat him, whom did he defeat, and what year did the revenge take place? Email rbade@politico.com.

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