EMAIL DETAILS

By Scott Wong (
mailto:swong@politico.com
swong@politico.com or @scottwongDC)

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: MURRAY TO BE NEXT BUDGET CHAIR -- With the election now over, Sen. Patty Murray will soon be switching hats: The outgoing Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairwoman will succeed retiring Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) as the next chair of the Senate Budget Committee.Though the Washington Democrat was widely expected to grab the gavel, Murray made it official Wednesday, declaring to Huddle in her first post-election interview about her new role: "It's my intent to serve as Budget chair."

While Conrad had a reputation as a deficit hawk and numbers guy, Murray - nicknamed the "mom in tennis shoes" after her successful 1992 Senate run - underscored that she'll bring a more compassionate approach to the budget process. "I think what's been lacking from our discussion for a long time is really that other part of what a Budget chair does, which is set the priorities for this country in terms of making sure we invest in the right places, in education, in job training, and to make sure we do a balanced approach moving forward," Murray said. "I am fighting for those middle-class families who want us to deal with our debt and deficit, but they also want the investments that are
critical to our country moving forward. And I want to help them understand why this word 'budget' is so important to them. It's about whether their kids get access to college, or we have an ability to create the infrastructure for our roads to bring new jobs here, or we have job training, and a really deep concern of mine, that we are ready to take care of the veteranswho are returning home by the hundreds of thousands."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Democratic caucus won't likely finalize committee chairmanships until after the Thanksgiving break or as late as January. But by announcing her intentions now, Murray is making it clear she wants to play a role in the bipartisan negotiations to solve the "fiscal cliff," the mix of tax hikes and spending cuts set to hit the country at the end of the year. And she has the resume to do so: She's served on the Budget panel for 20 years, is a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee, is part of Reid's leadership team, and was co-chair of the supercommittee that failed to strike a deficit deal last year. But how she'll work with the Budget
Committee's top Republican, conservative Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, is a big question mark. Sessions and his fellow Republicans hammered Reid and Conrad for failing to pass a budget blueprint during the past three years, though Democrats argue that last year's Budget Control Act essentially served as a budget because it set spending levels.

Murray made no promises Democrats would pass a budget with her at the helm, but she said she's never turned down a job because it was too tough. "We are deep in discussion about what we need to do from now until the end of the year. That will totally determine our path forward. As I've said repeatedly, we've got to have a balanced approach. This election was about that: Our president ran on it, our numerous Senate candidates said those at the top need to contribute to this," Murray said. "If we can get Republicans to quit protecting the wealthy in order to move forward and solve that, then I think we are on a path to be able to make the decisions we need to do and move towards a budget."

MALES DOMINATE GOP LEADERSHIP - Manu Raju and Jake Sherman report for the hometown paper: "After getting thumped among female voters last week, Republicans returned to Washington knowing they have to narrow the gender gap to prevent another drubbing in 2014 or 2016. But in their first official action, the House and Senate GOP chose four women lawmakers out of 14 spots for senior leadership positions. The numbers underscored the party's struggles to recruit and promote top women at a pivotal moment for their party. In the Senate, none of the four remaining women in the new 45-member Senate GOP Conference ran for any of the six elected leadership positions, keeping the largely homogeneous
team relatively intact. The House GOP returned Reps. John Boehner of Ohio, Eric Cantor of Virginia and Kevin McCarthy of California to serve as their top three leaders. But women did see some gains during House leadership elections on Wednesday. Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers defeated Georgia Rep. Tom Price for the No. 4 position in the House GOP - a significant victory that elevates a woman as the party's top spokeswoman. Kansas Rep. Lynn Jenkins became the party's vice chairwoman and North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx will be the conference secretary."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2ee0e0f51b1d858abffa345f14117a447c4ad6bed6ab574bba3
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2ee0e0f51b1d858abffa345f14117a447c4ad6bed6ab574bba3

THE ROGERS REPORT: WHY PELOSI STAYED - "They don't call her 'Mother' for nothing," David Rogers writes. "The first female House speaker, Nancy Pelosi came to power just two years before the nation elected its first black president. Together, they next reshaped the American health care system - a landmark law that has since driven two national elections, cost her dearly, but still stands. And now, with President Barack Obama firmly ensconced for another four years, you thought this mayor's daughter from Baltimore would just walk away? Not likely. Salmon swim upstream to spawn and die. Nancy Pelosi sticks around to see what comes of the eggs. And Wednesday's announcement that she will stay on
as House Democratic leader in the new Congress came as no great surprise, despite her milking 'D-Day' for all it was worth. That said, Pelosi's decision is not without worries for her party, freezing in place a top hierarchy of Democratic leaders - all in their 70s - and lacking a strong, natural communicator among the lot.

-- "With Obama in the White House, perhaps none is needed. But Pelosi is foremost a party builder, and by staying, does she risk smothering the very initiative she wants to foster in her brood? She joked Wednesday that if she were to walk away, she would leave only men at the table meeting with Obama. True enough, but her own rise began when men, younger than her 72 years today, left the leadership, thereby creating an opening. 'Oh, you've always asked that question? Except to Mitch McConnell,' she snapped in response to a reporter's question about her age. 'You have to take off about 14 years from me because I was home raising a family, getting the best experience of all in diplomacy,
interpersonal skills.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2ee6b4aa535680c0b5a5efcd8f792f0e1d117adaf29c2fa1b0f
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2ee6b4aa535680c0b5a5efcd8f792f0e1d117adaf29c2fa1b0f

-- Other Democratic women booed when NBC's Luke Russert asked Pelosi about her age:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2ee2bc2805f3e5e5852323a321112da3e30ab31ad316a13e325
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2ee2bc2805f3e5e5852323a321112da3e30ab31ad316a13e325

HOUSE GOP STILL OPEN TO MILLIONAIRES' TAX HIKE - Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer report for POLITICO: "A certain wave of realism is sweeping through the House Republican ranks: It might be hard to resist a tax rate hike on millionaires. It's not that they're about to fully embrace President Barack Obama's tax hikes, but many Republican lawmakers privately concede that the 2012 election left them with far short of a mandate on taxes, and if urged by Democrats to raise rates on what they dub the mega-wealthy, they will have a tough time resisting. Since the election, [Speaker John] Boehner has said House Republicans have a strong mandate to keep tax rates frozen. Not even millionaires, he said,
should see an increase in their rates. But conversations with more than a dozen Republicans - from across the ideological spectrum - tell a different story. Hardly anyone ruled out a tax rate increase on the wealthy."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2eec6b181e2eb0d84bce2c2c27747a7f7c85aa3eef6b802fb92
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2eec6b181e2eb0d84bce2c2c27747a7f7c85aa3eef6b802fb92

AT FIRST PRESSER, OBAMA DRAWS A LINE -- Mark Lander reports on A1 of the New York Times: "President Obama, riding the winds of re-election, signaled Wednesday that he was prepared to battle with Republicans over budget negotiations and his national security team's handling of the deadly attack on an American mission in Libya. Displaying a mix of resolve and restraint, Mr. Obama flatly rejected any budget deal that did not raise tax rates on income above $250,000 a year, even if it meant driving the economy into a recession. But he did not rule out a compromise that could leave the top tax rates lower than their levels during the Clinton administration, presumably combined with a restriction
on some tax breaks for top earners."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2ee4787083171ed4ad78ee96c779de3d9c0e09c59e71d6569de
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2ee4787083171ed4ad78ee96c779de3d9c0e09c59e71d6569de

OBAMA VS. McCAIN PART II -- Reid Epstein writes for POLITICO: "President Barack Obama just finished his second presidential campaign - but he's not finished lashing out at his opponent from his first. Obama's irritation at his 2008 rival, Sen. John McCain, flared Wednesday during the president's first news conference since winning reelection. It was a startling moment in an otherwise unremarkable appearance - and hinted at lingering tensions with McCain. At the heart of Obama's outburst are Republican claims that United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice covered up the genesis of the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans. Rice has become the symbol of Republican anger over the
administration's handling of the incident - at a particularly uncomfortable moment for both Obama and Rice, who is in contention to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. ...

-- "But the subtext was just as important as Obama's actual words: This was the man he beat in 2008. Despite a public rapprochement, they've never been close. McCain is fighting this round with Graham, his closest ally in the Senate, and New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte, a rising star in the Republican Party. And their target is a woman who is close to Obama."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2eea0ec789dc5217cca78e44b3d49a52eaf374f06ea217769e2
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2eea0ec789dc5217cca78e44b3d49a52eaf374f06ea217769e2

TRUMKA IN SPEECH TODAY: THERE IS NO CLIFF! - AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka delivers a speech at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel this morning. Here are excerpts: "The most frustrating thing about Washington, DC, is the way political insiders create a self-reinforcing reality out of nonsense.Take what the media are calling the 'fiscal cliff.' There is no fiscal cliff! What we're facing is an obstacle course within a manufactured crisis that was hastily thrown together in response to inflated rhetoric about our federal deficit.Don't misunderstand me. I don't for a moment think that America's deficit is not a long-term problem. It is, but it's not our short term crisis.

-- "But all the deficit chatter has distracted us from our real crisis-the immediate crisis of 23 million unemployed or underemployed workers, a crumbling national infrastructure, an under-supported manufacturing sector, all of which require significant federal investments, all of which will allow our economy to grow out of this crisis, instead of digging us further in. And yet, none of the quote-unquote 'fiscal conservatives' who whipped the deficit talk will consider, even for a moment, the idea of fair taxation."

CORNYN: GOP BUNGLED IT - POLITICO's Manu Raju and John Bresnahan ask John Cornyn, the outgoing NRSC chairman and incoming Republican whip, what went wrong this election cycle: "Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the incoming Republican whip who led his party's Senate campaign efforts this year, candidly acknowledged the GOP bungled a prime opportunity to take control of the chamber through a combination of poor polling, poor candidates and a poor job of selling its message.

-- "While claiming Democrats 'got lucky' in gaining two Senate seats, the Texas Republican admitted his party had an image deficiency with women, minorities and disaffected voters - one that needs to be immediately addressed before suffering the consequences in the next election cycle. During an interview in his Senate hideaway in the basement of the Capitol, Cornyn told POLITICO that the 2012 elections exposed that the GOP had a 'brand problem' and a 'tactical problem.' 'How can we convey what I believe is the true image, that Republicans actually do care about people of all races, ethnicities, and classes in America?' Cornyn said as his party began charting a way out of the wilderness
after last week's devastating losses."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2ee2b8f33820232998da7673f1a5e9ab7bc9822650bef3e60b0
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c1be384f4c1bf2ee2b8f33820232998da7673f1a5e9ab7bc9822650bef3e60b0

SCOOPLET: CORNYN NAMES NEW CHIEF OF STAFF FOR WHIP OFFICE - Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) will announce today that Russ Thomasson will serve as his chief of staff in the Senate Whip Office in the next Congress. Thomasson currently serves as Cornyn's legislative director. He has previously served as a military legislative assistant for former Sen. Bob Smith and as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force. Cornyn was elected by the GOP conference on Wednesday to succeed retiring Sen. Jon Kyl as minority whip, the No. 2 Republican in GOP leadership.

COONS ROLLS OUT VOTING REFORM BILL - Amid reports of voters waiting for hours to vote, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) will introduce legislation today that confronts the election problems seen in more than a dozen states this year by challenging states to turn around their poorest performing polling places. The Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely Voting Act (FAST) draws on the successful Race to the Top education reform program to reward states that make substantial improvements in the administration of their elections to make voting faster and more accessible to all voters. The bill focuses on voter registration, early voting, absentee voting, accessibility, training, disaster preparedness, and
reducing wait times. For the text of the bill click here:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c3482a14e23d4f56a645dcf64d5c487d9b77c37363fa221ee8d
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c3482a14e23d4f56a645dcf64d5c487d9b77c37363fa221ee8d

HILL TURF BATTLE BREWS OVER BENGHAZI - Scott Wong and Kate Nocera report for POLITICO: "When GOP Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham stepped before the cameras Wednesday and renewed their calls for a Watergate-like committee to probe the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Libya, their longtime partner - Sen. Joe Lieberman - was noticeably missing. Lieberman later emerged from a classified, closed-door briefing with a much different message: A special congressional committee is unnecessary - at least for now. Lieberman says his Homeland Security Committee could handle a broad investigation into the deadly Benghazi assault just fine. Unanswered questions about what actually happened at the U.S.
consulate in Benghazi that night, what information was shared about the attack and why Americans there didn't have greater security has created divisions among longtime friends and between fellow Republicans. Further complicating matters is the fact that retired Gen. David Petraeus resigned last week as CIA director over an extramarital affair with his biographer, and some are worried the affair may have jeopardized Benghazi-related national security matters.

-- "Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, backed up her chairman, Lieberman, and dinged McCain, a member of the panel, for missing Wednesday's nearly two-hour briefing in the Capitol. Both Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, 'who was there at the briefing, and Sen. McCain, who was not, are members of our committee, and I know they would play very important roles,' Collins told POLITICO after the briefing.

'I do not see the benefit of creating a brand new committee when we already have the Senate's chief oversight committee, plus the Intelligence Committee, examining this very important matter.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c34df66bee4a61f7758c069517c7b6e97c8cd39f1dcae6649f5
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c34df66bee4a61f7758c069517c7b6e97c8cd39f1dcae6649f5

TWITTER TRAFFIC -- @davidaxelrod: Sen McCain had plenty of time today for a demagogic presser on Benghazi, but none 2 attend a classified briefing on it?
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c34d473ffdfb4b7e2402e42894ab28b5da71374b863b46c8281
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c34d473ffdfb4b7e2402e42894ab28b5da71374b863b46c8281

PETRAEUS HEADS TO HILL FRIDAY - Peter Landers and Siobhan Gorman report for the Wall Street Journal: "Former Central Intelligence Agency director David Petraeus is set on Friday to make his first appearance on Capitol Hill since his resignation last week, but he won't be talking about the extramarital affair that led to his downfall. A congressional aide said Mr. Petraeus would testify in a classified session before the House intelligence committee about the September attack against Americans in Benghazi, Libya. The aide said Mr. Petraeus's personal matters wouldn't be on the agenda. The Friday testimony will follow hearings on Benghazi Thursday at the House and Senate
intelligence committees. The acting CIA director, Michael Morell, is set to speak before closed sessions of the committees, first at the House in the morning and then in the afternoon at the Senate."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c34ba4dcb614942e22dd68c540ba4afbf6f09c825b24d5c8f98
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c34ba4dcb614942e22dd68c540ba4afbf6f09c825b24d5c8f98

RUBIO MET SOCIALITE JILL KELLEY - The Tampa socialite who's become a key player in the Gen. David Petraeus scandal met Florida Republican Marco Rubio during his 2010 Senate campaign and has invited him to several social events, Rubio's office confirmed to Huddle. She has never donated to Rubio and it wasn't immediately clear where they met. "She has communicated with our office at various times to invite him to social events she was organizing, but he's been unable to attend any of them," said Rubio spokesman Alex Conant. Kelley, who triggered an FBI investigation that revealed an extramarital affair between Petraeus and his biographer, was rumored to have once dated Rubio's GOP primary
opponent, former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. But Crist told the Miami Herald that "never happened."

New York Times, A1, "Veteran FBI Agent Helped Start Petraeus E-mail Inquiry," By Michael Schmidt and Scott Shane: "The F.B.I. agent who spurred the investigation that led to the resignation of David H. Petraeus as C.I.A. director is a "hard-charging" veteran who helped investigate the foiled millennium terrorist plot in 1999, colleagues said on Wednesday. The agent, Frederick W. Humphries II, 47, is also described by former colleagues as relentless in his pursuit of what he sees as wrongdoing, which appears to describe his role in the F.B.I. investigation involving Mr. Petraeus. Suspecting that the case involved serious security issues and was being stalled, possibly for political reasons -
a suspicion his superiors say was unjustified - he took his concerns to Congressional Republicans. 'Fred is a passionate kind of guy,' one former colleague said. 'He's kind of an obsessive type. If he locked his teeth onto something, he'd be a bulldog.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c34525d1cfbf7354b30863cb18a240ce5a28499e1f0b6b89765
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c34525d1cfbf7354b30863cb18a240ce5a28499e1f0b6b89765

QUICK HITS

No surprise here: Sen.-elect Angus King (I-Maine) will caucus with Democrats:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c3477c6832cd186e8fe602107649bc808258447f17dddccc17f
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c3477c6832cd186e8fe602107649bc808258447f17dddccc17f

The Senate rejected a cybersecurity bill for the second time, paving the way for executive action to address threats:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c34f4368614f98cf10bb87264d13526b022df27da1352cdad2b
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c34f4368614f98cf10bb87264d13526b022df27da1352cdad2b

**A question from ONE: What do Mike Huckabee, Tom Daschle, Condoleezza Rice and Mike McCurry have in common? Answer: They all work with ONE because foreign assistance makes America stronger and saves millions of lives. Learn more at
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c3467e7c98849f57e46e5aeaebed736025c83ea8706519a8817
www.ONE.org .

GOOD THURSDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 15, 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 @megroh and ‏@geoffreyvs.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate is in at 9:00 a.m. and will vote at 9:15 a.m. on a cloture motion on the Sportsmen's Act. The House is in at 10 a.m. with first and last votes expected between 5 and 6 p.m. on a resolution allowing consideration of a bill to normalize trade relations with Russia and Moldova, as well as the Mark Twain Commemorative Coin Act.

AROUND THE HILL - At 8 a.m. members-elect will take a class photo on the House steps. Sen. Tom Coburn speaks on a Defense Department report at 11 a.m. in the Senate Studio. Sen. Marco Rubio speaks at the National Journal/The Atlantic's Washington Ideas Forum at 9 a.m. at the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi addresses the forum at 10:50 a.m. House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson holds a post-meeting media availability on jobs and the fiscal cliff at noon in the HVC-210 alcove. Also at noon, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, dean of the Senate women, will host her traditional, bipartisan Senate Women Power Workshop in S-238.

Pelosi holds her weekly on-camera briefing at 1:00 p.m. in HVC Studio. New Democrat Coalition members speak on the fiscal cliff at 2 p.m. in HVC Studio A. Reps. Ander Crenshaw, Chris Van Hollen and Sen. Bob Casey speak on the anniversary of the ABLE Act at 2:45 p.m. at the House Triangle. Rep. Louie Gohmert speaks on Benghazi at 3:45 p.m. at the House Triangle.

WAYS AND MEANS SUBPOENAS SEBELIUS - POLITICO's Jennifer Haberkorn reports: "The House Ways and Means Committee has subpoenaed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, demanding that she reveal details of how the agency is promoting the health reform law, according to the committee. The election may have iced efforts to repeal the law on the whole, but House Republicans are indicating they're full speed ahead on intense oversight of how the Obama administration is enacting the legislation. The subpoena demands that Sebelius turn over documents about how taxpayer dollars are being used to promote the law through public relations, advertising and message testing. The committee is
asking for all documents covering the period from January 2008 to now."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c3408dfaf5e5ead8d72602c9b363ae0f9818967be10e0271559
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c3408dfaf5e5ead8d72602c9b363ae0f9818967be10e0271559

REID TRIES TO INCREASE MAJORITY EDGE ON COMMITTEES - Alan Ota reports for Roll Call: "A partisan dispute is shaping up in the Senate over Majority Leader Harry Reid's plan to increase the majority's advantage on some Senate committees from one seat to two. 'With our new numbers, there are not going to be any more one-seat majorities,' Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday in an interview. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declined to comment on whether he will push back against Reid's plan, although some other Republicans were not hesitant to voice their objections. 'We'll be negotiating committee ratios, the two of us, like we always do,' McConnell said."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c342a128bd14867b67e172ec71fc07e0a3cb6eaddd5396bbc94
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c342a128bd14867b67e172ec71fc07e0a3cb6eaddd5396bbc94

SEN. WHITEHOUSE HOPEFUL FOR FILIBUSTER REFORM - Ted Nesi reports for WPRI in Providence, R.I.: "Fresh off his re-election victory, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is optimistic the Senate will approve new rules making it harder for Republicans to block bills, and he's prepared to break with President Obama on a budget deal if it cuts Social Security or Medicare benefits. 'The good news is I think Majority Leader [Harry] Reid is now in a different frame of mind about filibuster reform, and that gives those of us who have been arguing for it a new and very important ally,' Whitehouse told WPRI 12 on Wednesday during a half-hour phone interview from Washington. Senate Democrats' caucus
will expand by two after last week's elections, to 55 lawmakers, and some of the new senators have expressed support for filibuster changes. 'I think this has traction,' Whitehouse said. 'I think there's a very good chance [Harry Reid] is an advocate for this and that sways other members of the caucus.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=009cd3a7634a3a5a9994aaefb5dccbc4eff8fc10016dc7b6bb1dc390028199e6
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=009cd3a7634a3a5a9994aaefb5dccbc4eff8fc10016dc7b6bb1dc390028199e6

CAPITOL POLICE GET NEW CHIEF - "A three-month nationwide search for a new chief of Capitol Police culminated in an announcement Wednesday that Frederick, Md., Police Chief Kim C. Dine will assume the post in mid-December," Emma Dumain reports for Roll Call. "The selection of the 37-year law enforcement veteran from a vast pool of internal and external candidates was made public in a release issued by the Capitol Police Board, which led the search. Dine will take over a department that has been rife with tension over conflicts between commanders and the police union over unofficial policy directives and alleged mishandling of the Family and Medical Leave Act."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=009cd3a7634a3a5a20800c55cbddbc828c865f4557a624dcefb4a18d8f3bcd5b
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=009cd3a7634a3a5a20800c55cbddbc828c865f4557a624dcefb4a18d8f3bcd5b

WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER -Jim Casto came closest to guessing yesterday's question. According to the "Women in Congress" website, he said that 277 women have served as U.S. representatives or senators. He estimated that about 10,000 men have served in Congress. While the first number is correct, the number of men who have served in the House and Senate is about 12,000, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz says.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - David Morgenstern has today's question: There's talk of Scott Brown running in a special election for Sen. John Kerry's Senate seat if Kerry resigns from the Senate to serve in President Obama's Cabinet. Who was the last GOP senator to lose reelection but then return to the upper chamber by winning the state's other Senate seat?

First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at
mailto:swong@politico.com
swong@politico.com .

WEATHER - Mostly Sunny, though a cold morning and chilly afternoon again with highs near 50 degrees, according to ABC7's Bob Ryan.

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=009cd3a7634a3a5add6a3a0a0e42dcfd4f8cf66571983a0093c1f7a66071c399
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=009cd3a7634a3a5add6a3a0a0e42dcfd4f8cf66571983a0093c1f7a66071c399

** A message from ONE: At less than 1% of the budget, poverty-fighting foreign assistance opens new markets, tackles the root causes of violence and war and saves millions of lives. To stop or reduce foreign assistance would take us back to a time when AIDS was a certain death sentence and millions more children died from preventable diseases. Join ONE's 3 million members - Democrats, Republicans and Independents - who believe that we cannot solve America's fiscal problems on the backs of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people. Learn more at
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a90d73accebd2c3467e7c98849f57e46e5aeaebed736025c83ea8706519a8817
www.ONE.org . **

Go to POLITICO Huddle Now >> http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=009cd3a7634a3a5a62fbb86013af3501e3c0648ac60a341360a0d35c5fe8a8b1

=================================

2012 POLITICO, LLC

POLITICO Huddle.

To unsubscribe, http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=009cd3a7634a3a5aca003b0717a0e43c41d519f7bc92f3ff7949aca4026a6963

=================================