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By Kate Nocera (
mailto:KNocera@politico.com
KNocera@politico.com or @KateNocera)

SURPRISE, SURPRISE, CLIFF DEAL UNLIKELY- It's rare these days that there's a strong consensus in Washington but party leaders seem to agree on one thing: A deal is virtually impossible before the New Year. Jake Sherman and Manu Raju report for POLITICO that "unlike the bank bailout in 2008, the tax deal in 2010 and the debt ceiling in 2011, the Senate almost certainly won't swoop in and help sidestep a potential economic calamity, senior officials in both parties predicted on Wednesday."

-- PLAN D? "Senate Democrats are drafting a fallback bill to resolve the crisis, but they have little optimism that Republicans will accept their proposals. The White House, a senior administration official said, is in close coordination with Senate Democrats. Late Wednesday, Reid's office pushed Republicans to pass a bill to extend tax rates for income below $250,000."

--OVER TO YOU GUYS- "The House sidestepped a decision Wednesday to bring the chamber back into session, putting the burden squarely on the Senate, where the stars will need to align for swift action in the next few days. Speaker John Boehner's leadership team said bluntly: the 'Senate first must act' before the House will consider additional legislation to avoid the cliff. So that they're all on the same page, House Republicans will have a members only conference call Thursday." Here's the Sherman/Raju story:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919e810ff73706d8ff19b849ac3dd7f236b80990d6d97594b3d4
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919e810ff73706d8ff19b849ac3dd7f236b80990d6d97594b3d4

--The statement out yesterday from House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy and Conference Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers - said if the Senate "will not approve and send them to the president to be signed into law in their current form, they must be amended and returned to the House."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919ed78875dcc70c8ecf99d50ddcd24b47c2defbba70a6033331
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919ed78875dcc70c8ecf99d50ddcd24b47c2defbba70a6033331

DAYS TILL FISCAL CLIFF- Five.

--The Senate is back in session today, and the House has yet to be called back.

GEITHNER WARNS ON DEBT LIMIT - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned Congress on Wednesday that the nation would hit the debt ceiling on New Years Eve and said the administration would take "extraordinary measures" to give the government an extra $200 billion which would typically give the nation about two more months until it faces default on its legal obligations.But if Congress goes off the fiscal cliff, it may take more time for the debt limit to be reached: "Given the significant uncertainty that now exists with regard to unresolved tax and spending policies for 2013, it is not possible to predict the effective duration of these measures," Geithner wrote. The story from Seung Min
Kim:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919e46907c13e30c12a62c3fdede1d3b2dc74e14f6bbf4d9acce
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919e46907c13e30c12a62c3fdede1d3b2dc74e14f6bbf4d9acce

LATOURETTE SLAMS 'BLAME GAME'- Retiring Rep. Steve LaTourette said this morning that if the 'blame game' in Washington was going to put the country "over the edge." "If the president and Sen. [Harry] Reid and [Speaker] John Boehner all said to me today...let's put Simpson-Bowles on the floor, I guarantee you, given the urgency, we could cobble together something to solve this problem," LaTourette (R-Ohio) said on CNN's "Starting Point." "But nobody's willing to pull the trigger. Everybody wants to play the blame game. And this blame game's about to put us over the edge." He blamed both parties for failing to reach an agreement.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919ebb3000decbe6eb4c1e90cc8084eb422c86714e8102696fb7
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919ebb3000decbe6eb4c1e90cc8084eb422c86714e8102696fb7

ALOHA SEN. SCHATZ- Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie appointed Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz to fill the seat of the late Sen. Daniel Inouye. Inouye, on his deathbed, had requested that Abercrombie appoint Rep. Colleen Hanabusa to succeed him. Schatz said he was "humbled and honored by this opportunity and obligation to serve the people of Hawaii and the people of America" and would do his best to "walk in [Inouye's] footsteps." Meanwhile, Inouye's office said they were "disappointed" with the decision."Senator Inouye conveyed his final wish to Governor Abercrombie," Jennifer Sabas, Inouye's chief of staff, said in a statement Wednesday night. "While we are very disappointed that it was not honored,
it was the Governor's decision to make. We wish Brian Schatz the best of luck."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919ec372458c49724afe36038fa5c7800125da9bb7a211c1cc35
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919ec372458c49724afe36038fa5c7800125da9bb7a211c1cc35

--Schatz is hitching a ride back to Washington with the President on Air Force One. He says he's prepared to be sworn in as soon as today.

--Hanabusa was on the state party's short list of potential appointees, but Abercrombie said he took into consideration the fact there would need to be a special election to fill her seat. "Sometimes you have to set aside personal considerations in order to look for the good of the whole,' the governor said a press conference.

DETAILS- Schatz is 40 years old and once he is sworn in will be the youngest member of the Senate (until Connecticut's Chris Murphy takes office in January) and the state's senior Senator when the the 113th Congress convenes. He previously served in the Hawaii House of Representatives. He was Chairman of the state's Democratic Party prior to becoming Lieutenant Governor. Schatz says he'll run in a 2014 special election to complete Inouye's term. Slideshow via Hadas Gold:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919e1c5309400effeb713f0c051fe35c70d84f25bca5573392b6
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919e1c5309400effeb713f0c051fe35c70d84f25bca5573392b6

GOOD THURSDAY MORNING DECEMBER 27 2012, and welcome back to Huddle. I'm stuck in snowy Massachusetts this morning but still want to hear from you. So send tips, complaints, and travel prayers to
mailto:KNocera@politico.com
KNocera@politico.com or find me on Twitter @KateNocera.

MEA CULPA-As so many of you rightly pointed out, I hadn't had enough coffee yesterday morning and I goofed up the state Rep. Ralph Hall represents-it's Texas.

MCCAIN, AYOTTE, GRAHAM WANT IN ON DETENTION ARGUMENTS- Lawyers for Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) filed a formal motion Wednesday asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to allocate them argument time in the case of Hedges v. Obama, POLITICO's Josh Gerstein reports. The case focuses on the scope of a provision regarding law-of-war detention that Congress passed last year, and lawyers for the Senators argue they have a different perspective than the Obama administration and should be heard.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919ead0112982fd6ba7e6da515a263afed60da87cd1f76ab6b99
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919ead0112982fd6ba7e6da515a263afed60da87cd1f76ab6b99

GEORGE H. W. BUSH IN ICU- Former President George H. W. Bush has moved to the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital, after being admitted for a rising fever. "Following a series of setbacks including a persistent fever, President Bush was admitted to the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital on Sunday where he remains in guarded condition," Bush family spokesman Jim McGrath said in a public statement Wednesday night. McGrath hasn't given any timeline for a release and he also told Fox News on Wednesday: "They don't put you in the ICU because things are going well."

REPORT: STATE OFFICIALS TO STAY ON PAYROLL- The New York Post reported yesterday that State Department officials who resigned in the wake of the Benghazi report will remain employed at the Department. "The highest-ranking official caught up in the scandal, Assistant Secretary of State Eric Boswell, has not 'resigned' from government service, as officials said last week. He is just switching desks. And the other three are simply on administrative leave and are expected back," the Post reported. "State Department officials proclaimed . . . that heads would roll . . . Now we see that the discipline is a lie and all that has happened is the shuffling of the deck chairs," House Foreign Affairs
Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) told the paper.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919e797233eaf5eaa74257f1c677ba91b0e2109dd7893ff00a6e
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919e797233eaf5eaa74257f1c677ba91b0e2109dd7893ff00a6e

TWITTER TRAFFIC- @JasonintheHouse (Rep. Jason Chaffetz):
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919ef754ef09d6576a3c5e99c8f84792af12b8fbd2ec6c1aa335
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919ef754ef09d6576a3c5e99c8f84792af12b8fbd2ec6c1aa335 I will be all over this, but first I have to get past the stomach flu. Ugh. TMi

ICYMI: BARNEY FRANK SAYS HE'S TIRED- POLITICO Pro's MJ Lee sat down with retiring Rep. Barney Frank who says he's looking forward to leaving a congressional work schedule behind him and spend more time with his husband. "After 45 years, I'm tired," he said. "I look forward to a situation where when the phone rings, I won't be apprehensive that it's some problem I have to deal with: some crisis - maybe that somebody else has done something stupid that I have to deal with, or in the worst case, something stupid I've done that I have to deal with."

--And though Frank is known to get into spats with members of the media when he thinks a question is stupid, he says he'll miss the 4th estate "somewhat." "I know reporters who are the most hypersensitive people in the world," he said. "It really does strike me that people who make a living by writing rude things about other people get so upset if you suggest any criticism of them." Watch the whole thing here:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919e5befd30813fbe846d635ba765e8be8b06f9e49f0efe0a643
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f9cf82df25a3919e5befd30813fbe846d635ba765e8be8b06f9e49f0efe0a643

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