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10/18/2018 07:59 AM EDT


By Nolan D. McCaskill (nmccaskill@politico.com or @NolanDMcCaskill)

SENATE REPUBLICANS ADVANCE MORE JUDICIAL NOMINEES -- The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold another hearing on nominees next week. A handful of committee Republicans advanced a half-dozen of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees yesterday with the Senate out of session and no Democrats in sight. "For Republicans, there's nothing that matters more," Burgess and Elana write. "They aren't pitching a big visionary agenda to persuade voters to return them to power next year -- there's only passing mention in the midterms of repealing Obamacare, and little talk of making Trump's border wall a reality. It's all about the judiciary."

Among those who testified was Allison Rushing, 36, who's young enough to serve on the Fourth Circuit for 40 or 50 years. "Trump's latest circuit nominee, Rushing, faced occasionally sharp questions from one of the four Republicans who attended on Wednesday," they add. "But the Democratic side of the aisle was empty less than a week after the minority agreed to confirm 15 Trump judges in exchange for an early recess, a boycott a Democratic aide said was intentional." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has prioritized the confirmation of conservative judges and will continue reshaping the courts as long as Senate Republicans have at least 50 votes in the chamber. More:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a2724e0689ec3ba294dfe0a6c0bdaf0ac6ae643f238a3dfe598f75d65cc451067b4af07cc0755b40885e

Related: "Don McGahn Leaves Trump With Big Wins -- And Big Risks," by Nancy Cook: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a272d9f50bf3a53dc8ceb8f721112fad9e6a97b0437fec620688d86124d1f38184950840ec1adb0a10db and "McGahn exits as White House counsel," from Brent D. Griffiths and Nancy Cook: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a2727a37f404a76b06f02fd389b574c13b228bc15782ed2652264e28a23744b5e6e0935d9059ba783efe

SENATE GOP STILL EYEING OBAMACARE REPEAL -- Senate Republicans could pursue another attempted repeal of Obamacare if they expand their majority. Failure to kill former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act is "the one disappointment of this Congress from a Republican point of view," McConnell said. "If we had the votes to completely start over, we'd do it. But that depends on what happens in a couple weeks ... We're not satisfied with the way Obamacare is working." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged Americans to take McConnell at his word, warning that Republicans "will do everything they can to take away families' health care and raise their costs" if they're still
in the majority.

McConnell also reiterated to Reuters that entitlements -- such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- are responsible for the national debt. "We all know that there will be no solution to that, short of some kind of bipartisan grand bargain that makes the very, very popular entitlement programs be in a position to be sustained. That hasn't happened since the '80s," he said. "But at some point we will have to sit down on a bipartisan basis and address the long-term drivers of the debt." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a272b1ad0d8d3df6722d5a38e57d82d40f1d991cc0839a77856a5b15ac586b21852cfebc5819f440cf67

Related reads: "House GOP leader McMorris Rodgers faces Obamacare backlash," via Paul Demko: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a2722ef7afc07db2d2a84b0016f92e49a93ce56f64302e33a89fba8d26a6aefbfef3ceb1a1b1e2d81470 and "Democrats Pounce On Mitch McConnell For Blaming Debt On Social Security, Medicare," per HuffPost's Daniel Marans: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a272f200ba0170ccfcf0f7afafee9ec28f4ca8d22582c160a05703ad6b8c340bd48472f24bc2f64fd585

MCCONNELL SAYS DECEMBER SHUTDOWN UNLIKELY -- McConnell signaled that a partial government shutdown amid a partisan clash over border wall funding in December is unlikely. "The speaker and I are going to try to help the president get funding for a wall for a year," McConnell told network reporters. "Shutting down the government is something that's widely disliked by virtually every American and I don't think we're going to do it." The GOP leader also listed Senate races in Arizona, Nevada, Montana, North Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee, West Virginia and Florida as "very competitive" but acknowledged Republicans likely have a "slight edge" to keep their majority. "I don't think any of
them are over one way or the other," he said. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a272f3d9dfdc90a15ac505e41d6580396e380b7c5d87c5ec7e5785234ac54ceb80c0f33484b4ca325aed

GOOD MORNING! Thanks for reading Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Thursday, Oct. 18.

WEDNESDAY'S MOST CLICKED: McClatchy's report on members of the Congressional Black Caucus pushing Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) to be more active ahead of the midterms to position himself for House speaker or majority leader was the winner.

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POLITICO is partnering with the Milken Institute to bring a special edition of the POLITICO Pulse newsletter to the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit. Written by Dan Diamond, the newsletter will take readers inside one of the most influential gatherings of global health industry leaders and innovators as they tackle today's most pressing health challenges. The newsletter will run from Oct. 23-24. Sign up today to begin receiving exclusive coverage on Day One of the summit.

FOR YOUR RADAR -- The president will meet with the South Carolina delegation at 2 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room.

CONSERVATIVES FEAR LAME-DUCK IMMIGRATION DEAL -- Conservatives are fretting that the president and Republican leaders will cut an immigration deal with Democrats in the lame-duck session of Congress if Democrats win the House. "Republicans fear that Trump ... will be eager to provide protections for hundreds of thousands so-called Dreamers in exchange for a $25 billion border wall, and that he might do so without getting any other concessions from Democrats if he thinks it's his last chance to secure funding for the wall," The Hill's Melanie Zanona reports. "[A]s conservatives start to grapple with the possibility of life as the minority party next year, they are sending up flares about the
possibility of a wall-for-Dreamers deal and warning it could backfire with the GOP base." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a272edd72ea6fe78f7c0a638e0f46852aa8ed98f76ce6eea2ff6b900c5866df5f65bbe55166d1fc49b9b

ADMINISTRATION CLAMPS DOWN ON KHASHOGGI INTEL -- Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, said the Trump administration has "clamped down" on sharing intelligence about the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Corker said Tuesday's intelligence briefing was canceled and that he was informed no additional intel would be shared with the Senate for now. "I can only surmise that probably the intel is not painting a pretty picture as it relates to Saudi Arabia," said Corker, who added that earlier intel suggests "everything points not to just Saudi Arabia but to [Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman]. This could not have happened without his approval."

The Senate could sanction Saudi Arabia, with or without the president's backing. "Trump has long viewed his relationship with the Saudis through the prism of money. He regularly boasts of the Saudis' commitment to buy $110 billion in U.S. arms, though that figure is misleading because it includes agreements reached by the Obama administration as well as sales that may not materialize for many years, if ever," The Washington Post's Robert Costa, Josh Dawsey and Philip Rucker report. "A group of Democratic senators on Wednesday called for a full disclosure of Trump-Saudi transactions and for freezing all business during the Khashoggi investigation." Much more:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a272de3e0376db650eba90d6d2cd9380595bc71dd02ccabe29d5887933b9a466152e3a32cf67c0a0abae

Related: "Reed calls for international investigation of Khashoggi's disappearance," by Connor O'Brien: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a272a187bc85ee3c736283ec681f2b6b839c084968611ca7acd397d60153b2f1b7f792ae6ab034e0ad02

ROMNEY MAKES MIDTERM MOVES -- Utah Senate candidate Mitt Romney is going national, using his profile and expansive political network to boost embattled Republicans across the country. "Weeks before his virtually assured election to the Senate, the 2012 Republican standard-bearer is issuing endorsements, appearing in TV ads and fundraising for hopefuls up and down the ballot," Alex Isenstadt reports. "The burst of campaign activity is a stark reminder that the 71-year-old Romney will arrive in D.C. as much more than a typical freshman senator -- and shows how he plans to use his prominence to reward allies and forge relationships." Much more:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a27285773861d3a430eb359994158acfb48767cbe3534a7fb7b1329bc226ec652468266444f9fcb2e0a8

HEITKAMP STAFFER RESIGNS -- Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) requested and received the resignation of a campaign staff member who had a role in gathering names for an open letter newspaper ad that identified several women as sexual assault victims without their permission. "Heitkamp has called some of the women who were affected by it to apologize personally to them," James Arkin reports. "The misstep came as Heitkamp tried to focus attention on GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer's comments about sexual assault victims in the closing days of the North Dakota Senate race. Heitkamp has trailed in the polls but maintained hope of mounting a late comeback." More:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a272679b079577ba387568b0964de9b20a22ffb28b26275516e8397bfc852b0a578f7c7a545f2a304f77

MANCHIN ROLLS OUT ENDORSEMENTS -- University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban, West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins and NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West are trying to help Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) score another six years in the Senate. The trio of West Virginia natives endorsed Manchin in an ad Wednesday. "Joe and I grew up together in West Virginia and he never forgets where he came from," Saban says in the ad. "I don't have a better friend or know a better person than Joe Manchin." Manchin is in a tough race against state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in a state the president carried by more than 40 points in 2016. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a2726545f6323090132b386c9ee1966d69a58b80a0cbdc19bcac56c00f1b4a7b276f5a2fc707a1ea71af and
the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a2721bdc9bf4bb3fce5ceb59a783bd76d7228f5f05bf567f137a8afd73d7de4b5fec6ff3d8db3b280df7

BREDESEN DOUBLES DOWN ON KAVANAUGH SUPPORT -- Democratic Tennessee Senate candidate Phil Bredesen has no regrets about voicing support for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. In fact, "it was the right decision and if I had the same information, I'd do it again," he told NBC News. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was the only Democrat to vote for Kavanaugh despite sexual assault allegations against him, accusations he vehemently denied. "Bredesen has been locked in a tight race with Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn, with the Democrat finding success pointing to his tenure as governor to preach bipartisanship," Leigh Ann Caldwell writes.

"Bredesen led a handful of polls released over the summer, prompting questions as to whether the Democrat can transcend party lines in a red state," she continues. "But Republicans are hopeful that the entire nomination process halted his momentum and have seized on the vote to help pull Republicans back to their corner even despite Bredesen's support for Kavanaugh." Bredesen's support for Kavanaugh cost him nearly two dozen campaign volunteers. He is the only Democratic Senate candidate to say he would have voted to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a272788e53f0170a45589b51cc27a9b634fe879fbbd23b5c2c6b2aee07533eed0ebf663c721658fc6d9c

SHALALA SLIPS UP -- Donna Shalala learned a valuable lesson. Unfortunately, for her, she learned it too late. "In a district filled with [Fidel] Castro-hating Cuban-Americans and Venezuelan exiles, Shalala's campaign committed an egregious gaffe -- and set off a round of Democratic finger-pointing -- by posting an announcement that she would hold a campaign event Wednesday with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Californian, Rep. Barbara Lee," Marc Caputo reports. "Lee's visit was ultimately canceled, but not before Shalala was savaged in a debate by her Republican opponent." Lee had said in 2016 that Castro's death should be mourned.

Republicans protested Shalala and Pelosi, with some shouting "go back to Cuba!" "commie!" and "witches!" "The timing was especially poor for Shalala, occurring in the final weeks of a race in which the Democrat has struggled to lock down an open, Democratic-leaning House seat that was once assumed to be hers for the taking," Caputo writes. "About 57 percent of the district's voters are Hispanic, the bulk of whom are Cuban-American. In addition to Cuban exiles, the district also has Venezuelans who despise dictator Nicolas Maduro's regime and immigrants from Nicaragua, many of whom oppose socialist Daniel Ortega." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=0b56ab5b0b64a27209cfbc10e532e13fdfa6bcd598d399fc98c08ccd5475a24d4d3305abc7a62c70d29c59b295ab099c

TODAY IN CONGRESS -- The House and Senate are out.

WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER -- Steve Finley was first to correctly guess that all nine presidents who served between the end of World War II and the end of the Cold War had previously served in the U.S. military.

TODAY'S TRIVIA -- From Steve: This person ran for the House and lost but did serve two terms as governor of a Western state and was a strong environmentalist. He had a cameo as a newscaster in a movie starring Jack Nicholson, and his father was a Republican who served 20 years in the House and was governor of Massachusetts. Who is this person and in what movie did he appear? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your best guess my way: nmccaskill@politico.com.

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