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By Seung Min Kim (
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com or @seungminkim)

PELOSI GROPES FOR GAME PLAN - POLITICO's Lauren French and Anna Palmer have the curtain-raiser on this week's House Democratic retreat in Philadelphia - a getaway that comes at a time of internal caucus divisions on strategy, messaging and procedure: "Nancy Pelosi has big problems in her ranks. The California lawmaker is facing some of the most serious unrest she's ever seen in her dozen years as the leader of the House Democrats: Members complain that the party has no message and no clear plan to retake the majority ... They also accuse senior lawmakers of failing to pull their weight in dues as they occupy coveted committee slots."

--"Still, Pelosi is trying to adjust. She is taking the angst seriously and has tried to quell discontent by appointing junior members to newly created task forces, giving some fresh faces a chance to shine. While the top four positions of Democratic leadership remained static, Pelosi made the surprising move of choosing New Mexico Rep. Ben Ray Luján to run the House Democrats' campaign arm. She also created two task forces focused on addressing the most prevalent criticisms of the Democrats' midterm election strategy and authorized her deputies to survey members on what they want to change."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a08bdbc7dc6b5c7254db6bb72929050416d11fcc2a6cc95e88c
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a08bdbc7dc6b5c7254db6bb72929050416d11fcc2a6cc95e88c

COMING ATTRACTIONS: BORDER DRAMA FOR GOP? National Journal's Daniel Newhauser and Fawn Johnson on the internal divisions for House Republicans on a border-security bill set for a floor vote this week, which very well could be the drama in the fourth week that Charlie Dent (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a08523ebc4bdc8f8f913d40270ede7675e025b25468105815c0
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a08523ebc4bdc8f8f913d40270ede7675e025b25468105815c0 ) predicted: "Republican leaders are billing the legislation-which Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul called the 'toughest border security bill ever'-as the gateway to their long-promised, step-by-step immigration rewrite."

--"But Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson called it 'extreme to the point of being unworkable,' meaning Democratic support will be hard to come by, and that may confront Republicans with a dilemma in which they don't have enough votes in their own party to pass it ... Sen. Jeff Sessions, a leading voice in the far right on immigration issues, has been rallying opposition, and that may translate into problems with House conservatives."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a08b5e4b8e806cd7873f93946ac69c16db5b73f564da404a3df
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a08b5e4b8e806cd7873f93946ac69c16db5b73f564da404a3df

--A bipartisan group of House lawmakers headed down to the Texas border this weekend ahead of the McCaul bill vote:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a080c4bd99436523f13ab660ba4a19032517c4d3fe525d37df7
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a080c4bd99436523f13ab660ba4a19032517c4d3fe525d37df7

--And the Wall Street Journal profiles Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a leading immigration hardliner who's relishing his new gavel on the Senate immigration subcommittee:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a083fd8c107f839905ba7a8d69041c40160a3fb713669f66f5d
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a083fd8c107f839905ba7a8d69041c40160a3fb713669f66f5d

GOP COULD NUKE SCOTUS FILIBUSTER - Burgess Everett and I had the scoop on the Senate Republicans' plan to get rid of the 60-vote filibuster threshold for nominations to the Supreme Court: "The proposed change would expand on the dramatic move Democrats made in 2013, when they killed the 60-vote hurdle for executive branch nominations and almost all judicial nominees ... The 60-vote filibuster threshold would remain for legislation. The change is nowhere near a done deal: The proposal has not been widely circulated among Senate Republicans, and its backers say they would make the change only if they can get 67 votes for it on the floor."

--"But Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who's spearheading the proposal with Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), said the change would bring the Senate back to the way it operated before the presidency of George W. Bush, when the Democratic minority elevated the use of filibusters as a tactic to stymie judicial nominees."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a0856260855b69eb7b984f5dd98a0cbe7552b165bbc96cff36c
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a0856260855b69eb7b984f5dd98a0cbe7552b165bbc96cff36c

--QOTD, from Sen. John McCain on talk of his party keeping the 51-vote threshold: "We said this was outrageous what they did. Not only how they did it, but what they did, OK? Some of my Republican colleagues seem to have forgotten that. Some selective amnesia."

SUNDAY SHOW WRAP-UP -

--White House chief of staff Denis McDonough repudiates the statement from an anonymous White House official who said of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: He "spat in our face publicly." Talking Points Memo:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a082965301182bed186c1622edb2b771709f224b2b02deeba89
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a082965301182bed186c1622edb2b771709f224b2b02deeba89

--And McDonough accidentally revealed the previously undisclosed first name of a female hostage being held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. POLITICO:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a08a0d51f7555c52e28854f093c11863dd55a55a5855e5e8f00
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a08a0d51f7555c52e28854f093c11863dd55a55a5855e5e8f00

--Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) push for more action from the Obama administration in Yemen. The New York Daily News:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a08041fc2f758d9b9afb108dff16f1871b3658676f6599b0b26
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a08041fc2f758d9b9afb108dff16f1871b3658676f6599b0b26

THE ROGERS REPORT - POLITICO's David Rogers reaches into his institutional memory and dissects the drama over Speaker John Boehner's invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - done without White House input: "Soon after becoming House Speaker in 2011, Republican John Boehner started running the traps on inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint meeting of Congress. But when Barry Jackson, then Boehner's chief-of-staff, checked with President Barack Obama's top advisers, Jackson said he was left waiting a month only to get no response."

--"Ultimately the Netanyahu speech went ahead in May but soon after Jackson faced the opposite problem: the White House had promised South Korea's leadership an appearance before Congress, he said, without checking first with the speaker. None of these slights justify what seems like payback now: Boehner's decision to invite Netanyahu again, only this time without advising Obama or Democrats in Congress. But the sequence of events does capture how much the normal courtesies between this White House and Congress have deteriorated - even in front of guests from another country."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a089ec3040af69b018e7811b9a60ea90f0608b0fe9d190432a4
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a089ec3040af69b018e7811b9a60ea90f0608b0fe9d190432a4

ABOUT THIS WEEKEND ... -- We're not going to link to all the Iowa Freedom Summit coverage, so get your fix of what happened at Steve King's Iowa cattle call with our friends on POLITICO's politics staff, here:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a082c7fcfd4fa13c6df8f6d7d76661ae4f3d92532cfc099a323
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a082c7fcfd4fa13c6df8f6d7d76661ae4f3d92532cfc099a323

** The Beer Institute represents the American beer industry, which employs more than 2 million Americans earning nearly $79 billion in wages and benefits. The industry pays more than $49 billion in business, personal and consumption taxes, making taxes one of the most expensive ingredients in your beer. Learn more at BeerInstitute.org. **

WELCOME TO MONDAY, JAN. 26, 2015 and welcome to The Huddle, where we're jazzed and caffeinated for another week on Capitol Hill. Please send your tips, suggestions, comments, complaints, and corrections to
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com and please follow along on Twitter at @seungminkim.

My new followers include @sarahacorley and @_MattSparks.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The House is in at noon, with votes delayed until 6:30 p.m. Lawmakers are taking up a host of suspensions from the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Education and Workforce Committee dealing with human trafficking. The Senate is in at 4:30 p.m. and votes are expected at 5:30 p.m. related to the Keystone XL pipeline.

AROUND THE HILL - House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, and Democratic Reps. Chris Van Hollen, Carolyn Maloney, Gerry Connolly, Don Beyer and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton will hold a press conference on the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act at 1 p.m. in the CVC Auditorium Atrium.

SENATE GOP'S NAME-CHANGE DRAMA - As the Judiciary Committee under Republican control organized itself, it decided to drop the "civil rights and human rights" part from the name of the Constitution subcommittee. The Washington Post's Colby Itkowitz has the blow-back from civil rights leaders: "[C]ivil rights leaders are displeased. Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, called it 'a discouraging sign' in a news release ... 'Changing the name of this subcommittee is a poor start, but the proof of the panel's seriousness about addressing these issues will become apparent in its actual work,' she said."

--Subcommittee chairman Sen. John Cornyn "in announcing his chairmanship this week, described his role as defender of the Constitution - 'the foundation of the freedoms and values we hold dear' - but didn't specifically mention human or civil rights." A Cornyn spox said the name change came because the Constitution "covers our most basic rights, including civil and human rights."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a081ede276aac239be07e1591e9e68b436de39300a6503153cf
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a081ede276aac239be07e1591e9e68b436de39300a6503153cf

MENENDEZ: IRAN BILL COULD BE DELAYED - The ex-chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a major Democratic critic of the Obama administration's policies on Iran chats with Tom Moran of the Star-Ledger: "[H[e said he was considering putting off his clash with Obama over Iran by delaying until March his bill that would force Obama to turn up the heat against Tehran by preparing a new round of tougher sanctions ... [On Iran], Menendez has broad support. He's been a leader of the hawks that dominate Congress and are closely allied with Israel's combative prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu."

--"For years, Menendez has co-sponsored bills to toughen sanctions, which Obama concedes are the only reason Tehran is even talking. 'I hate to say it but this administration at various times when I have moved on sanctions legislation has opposed them, and now heralds them as the reason (Iran) is at the table,' Menendez says."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a08d55318f3ea12aaef11760b7891f599f2dfeef922a64c7b33
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a08d55318f3ea12aaef11760b7891f599f2dfeef922a64c7b33

BIDEN'S 'COMPASSION' PHONE CALL - Sharp observers noted an intense-looking conversation between Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) before last week's State of the Union. The topic, it turns out, was about Murphy's sister, whom Biden telephoned shortly before she died of cancer last month, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a recap of that December call: " 'Oh my goodness,' Mrs. Dittebrand [Murphy's sister] said when the vice president came on the line. Her daughter videotaped her receiving the call. 'Hey Mary. It's Joe Biden - Vice President Joe Biden. I'm here with your family and everybody's thinking about you, kid. You'll be in my prayers. God love you,' he said.
'Well, thank you, Mr. Vice President. I really appreciate you thinking of me,' she managed to say before the nation's loquacious second-in-command cut her off."

--"'I know there's nothing easy about this right now, but keep the faith, child. Your brother greatly loves you and so does your sister,' he said. 'I wish I got the chance to meet you.' Effusive, the vice president barely let her get a word in during the 1-minute phone call, and she later told her brother she found that funny. 'That was the last time she ever really smiled,' [Murphy] said."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a0861348aa4f06b605cc85dc367c251b1b7c4a4bc4d92b73111
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ffdecd2768464a0861348aa4f06b605cc85dc367c251b1b7c4a4bc4d92b73111

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Greg Smith was the first person to correctly answer that Charles Evans Hughes Supreme Court justice served two separate stints on the Supreme Court - one as associate justice and one as chief.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Greg has today's question: Who succeeded Joseph McCarthy in the U.S. Senate after his death in 1957 and who holds that seat today? The first person to correctly answer both parts gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@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.'
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** Nobody knows the beer industry better than the Beer Institute. Have a question about beer policy? Contact the Beer Institute. With roots dating back to 1862, the Beer Institute represents brewers, beer importers and allied suppliers before Congress, the media and others. You can learn more about the business of beer, and answer your questions about complex industry issues, by calling the Beer Institute at (202) 737-BEER (2337), or by visiting BeerInstitute.org. **

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