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By Scott Wong (
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IS OBAMA OVERPLAYING HIS HAND? - POLITICO's Carrie Budoff Brown and Jake Sherman have the lead story this morning: "President Barack Obama's greatest adversary in the latest budget battle isn't the Republican leadership in Congress - it's his confidence in his own ability to force a win. He has been so certain of his campaign skills that he didn't open a line of communication with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell until Thursday, a week before the spending ax hits. And when they did finally hear from Obama, the calls were perfunctory, with no request to step up negotiations or invitations to the White House.

-- "That's because Obama's all-in on an outside strategy, doing just about everything other than holding serious talks with Republicans. In the last two days alone, he's courted local TV anchors, called in a select group of White House correspondents to talk off-the-record, chatted up black broadcasters, and announced plans to stump next week at Virginia's Newport News Shipyard. Throughout, he's talked in tough terms that signal little interest in compromise - or suggestion of backing down. He's navigating a thin line. Obama is convinced he's got the upper hand on Republicans. Yet he can go only so long before he risks being perceived as a main actor in Washington's dysfunction, threatening
a core element of his political brand - and the fragile economic recovery he's struggled to maintain."
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-- Darren Samuelsohn and Scott Wong track down the top 10 excuses folks in Washington are giving for the sequester: "President Barack Obama and members of Congress have dubbed sequestration 'stupid,' 'dumb' and 'irresponsible.' But here's one thing none of them are calling it: 'My fault.'" Here are a few examples: 1. House GOP: Hey, we did our job. What's Obama waiting for? 2. Obama and the Democrats: Yup, Republicans are STILL protecting the rich. 3. Both sides: Don't look at me. I didn't vote for it in the first place.
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-- Samuelsohn also writes that the White House has been holding daily meetings this week with first responders, teachers and nurses to discuss the real-world implications of the sequester. It's also dispatched Cabinet members across the country to talk about cuts to agencies in a bid to step up pressure on Congress.
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ROTHENBERG: WHY DEMOCRATS' ECONOMIC MESSAGE STILL TRUMPS GOP'S - "Congressional Republicans figured that after the fiscal cliff, they'd have the advantage talking about the sequester and, down the road, the continued funding of the government. Clearly, they were wrong," Stu Rothenberg writes for Roll Call. "One of the reasons Republicans are faring so badly these days is that the Democratic narrative, presented most persuasively and effectively by the White House, plays more easily into the national media's preference for dramatic stories that evoke emotional responses. ...During the past few weeks, Democrats have raised the specter of key personnel from teachers to meat inspectors being
thrown out of work if the sequester isn't delayed, to say nothing of the surge in unemployment nationally and the possibility of a recession. The Republican message? Taxes are too high. We just raised taxes. We won't compromise. And the party of Lincoln and Reagan wonders why it is losing."
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MILITARY CHIEFS AMPLIFY WARNINGS OF CUTS - Ernesto Londono and Lisa Rein report on A1 of the Washington Post: "After staying largely on the sidelines of the debate over deficit reduction, the U.S. military's service leaders have begun painting a stark picture of the toll a congressionally mandated budget cut could take on the readiness of the world's largest armed forces. ...Injecting ominous warnings about national security into policy debates has in the past snapped elected leaders into action, but ... Some lawmakers and analysts have dismissed the caution as posturing by a force reluctant to shrink too much in a postwar era. In response, the military's service chiefs are amplifying the
months-long warnings of Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and others and providing what they have described as the specific and serious consequences of the across-the-board cuts.Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army's chief of staff, recently warned that the cuts may curtail training for 80 percent of ground forces, including some in the deployment pipeline, forcing him to extend the deployments of troops already in Afghanistan."
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GOP MESSAGING ON HAGEL ALL OVER THE MAP - On the same morning that Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn sent a letter to the president urging him to withdraw Chuck Hagel as his defense secretary nominee, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said he would join Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) in backing the former Nebraska senator. And while Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) won't vote to confirm Hagel, she said she still supports giving her fellow Cornhusker an up-or-down vote. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) also said this week he won't hold up Hagel's nomination any longer. That should be enough support to overcome a new GOP filibuster effort led by Armed Services ranking member, Oklahoma
Sen. Jim Inhofe. Take a look at some of the recent headlines this week:

-- Roll Call: "Shelby will vote to confirm Hagel,"
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-- Washington Post: "Cornyn asks president to withdraw Hagel,"
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-- Nebraska Watchdog: "Fischer could vote to end debate but won't vote for Hagel,"
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-- The Hill: "Inhofe lobbies senators to block Hagel again,"
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-- New York Times: "Graham and McCain Say They Will End Bid to Block Hagel Opposition,"
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- Jeremy Peters writes the state of play in the NYT today: "[E]ven as Republican senators tried to throw up another obstacle, Senate Democrats said they were pushing ahead with plans to hold a final up-or-down vote on the nomination no later than Wednesday. Should that vote proceed as planned, Mr. Hagel's confirmation appears assured. Several Republicans have said that they intend to drop their attempts to filibuster the nomination. But given how deeply divided Mr. Hagel's nomination has left the Senate, the outlook in the immediate term is murky. Many Republicans, like the 15 who wrote to the president on Thursday, signaled that they would not let the issue die quietly. And those who have
said that they would ultimately not support a filibuster, like Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Richard Shelby of Alabama, were leaving the door open to further delay."
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-- WaPo reports that the letter was signed by: Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), David Vitter (R-La.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Dan Coats (R-Ind.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.).

--McCAIN, who aggressively questioned Hagel during his confirmation hearing, was noticeably missing from the list of signatories.

Boston Globe, A1 below the fold, "Markey holds firm on his analogy to slave ruling," By Noah Bierman: "Representative Edward J. Markey refused to back down Thursday from comments he made this week that seemed to compare the US Supreme Court's ruling on campaign finance law to the high court's 19th-century Dred Scott decision, a notorious pro-slavery ruling. On Tuesday, at a campaign rally in Pittsfield, the Democrat said that if he is elected to the Senate he will fight for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, the 2010 case that allowed unlimited third-party spending in political campaigns. 'The whole idea that the Koch brothers, Karl Rove can say we're coming to
Massachusetts, that we're coming to any state in the union, with unlimited amounts of undisclosed money, is a pollution that must be changed,' Markey said, according to a video of the event provided by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. 'The Constitution must be amended ... The Dred Scott decision had to be repealed; we have to repeal Citizens United.' ...

--"Markey made his comments Tuesday afternoon, hours after he met with a group of African- American ministers in Springfield. Several black ministers contacted Thursday said they found the comments inappropriate and off-the-mark, but added that they would not judge Markey solely on that remark.Markey's opponent in the Democratic primary, Representative Stephen Lynch, condemned the comment, as did Republicans. In a statement Thursday, Markey repeated his opposition to Citizens United and criticized Republicans for failing to embrace a pact to curb spending from political action committees in the Senate election. He did not disavow his earlier remarks."
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FIRST LOOK: HAGAN LAUNCHES APP - Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) will launch her free mobile app today that will allow North Carolinians to stay connected with her while she works in Washington and around the state. The app allows users to contact her office, watch videos, view photos and receive real-time social media updates of her latest efforts and events. "My new app will allow North Carolinians to stay updated on my work to create jobs, reduce our deficit, advocate for our seniors, students and military service members," Hagan, who is expected to face a tough reelection fight in 2014, said in a statement. "Constituent service is one of my top priorities, and this new tool will make contacting
my office easier than ever." The Hagan app can be downloaded at the app store for iPhones, iPads and Androids.

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GOOD FRIDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 22, 2013, 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 @djwinyo and @Jo_Maney.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Both chambers are out today for the Presidents Day recess. The Senate is back at 2 p.m. Monday at which time Sen. Kelly Ayotte read George Washington's Farewell Address. At 5:30 p.m., the Senate will vote on the nomination of Robert Bacharach to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Tenth Circuit.

CHAMBER/AFL-CIO FIND COMON GROUND ON IMMIGRATION - Josh Gerstein writes for POLITICO: "President Barack Obama's immigration reform drive got a boost Thursday in the form of a joint statement of principles from the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, but the two coalitions cautioned that despite months of talks they still haven't settled on the details or resolved all their differences. ... The basic understanding seems to be that companies would do a better job informing American workers about job openings and unions would acknowledge that-despite labor movement rhetoric to the contrary-in some low-skill fields Americans just aren't willing to do the work. A key point of
agreement seems to be the creation of 'a professional bureau in a federal executive agency' to assess labor shortages and aid determinations about when foreign workers can be admitted for low-skill jobs."
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KRAUTHAMMER: OBAMA, RUBIO PROPOSALS 'BAD POLICY' -- Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer takes issue with immigration reform proposals pitched by both President Obama and Sen. Marco Rubio: "[O]n the single most important issue - instant amnesty - there is no real difference between the proposals. Rubio calls it 'probationary legal status.' Obama uses the term 'lawful prospective immigrant.' But both would instantly legalize the 11 million illegal immigrants living here today. The moment either bill is signed, the 11 million become eligible for legal residence, the right to work and relief from the prospect of deportation.

--"This is bad policy. It repeats the 1986 immigration reform that legalized (the then) 3 million while promising border enforcement - which was never carried out. Which opened the door to today's 11 million. And to the next 11 million as soon as the ink is dry on this reform. The better policy would be enforcement first, followed by amnesty. Yes, amnesty. But only when we have ensured that these 11 million constitute the last cohort. How to ensure that? With three obvious enforcement measures: (a) a universal E-Verify system by which employers must check the legal status of all their hires; (b) an effective system for tracking those who have overstayed their visas; and
(c) closure of the southern border, mainly with the kind of triple fence that has proved so successful near San Diego."
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THE PARTISAN DIVIDE DEEPENS - Alex Roarty writes for National Journal: "Much of America prays Dan Boren is wrong. Parents worried about the threat of gun violence certainly hope he is. So do the roughly 11 million people who immigrated to America illegally and the deficit hawks who demand a grand budget bargain. These men and women are depending on Washington, Republicans and Democrats, to come together and reach an agreement on the national agenda: gun violence, immigration, and the budget. But Boren, a retired House member from Oklahoma, doubts they'll end up satisfied. It's why he left Capitol Hill last year. ... This past year, according to National Journal's 2012 congressional vote
ratings, the centrist Democrat was the most conservative member of his conference ...

-- "For the third year in a row, no Republican member of the Senate had a more liberal voting record than any Democrat-just as no Democratic senator had a more conservative record than any Republican. What was once a milestone in the ongoing march of political polarization-the absence of ideological crossovers in National Journal's rankings happened for only the second time ever in 2010-is now nearly as unremarkable in the Senate as naming a post office. The House was barely more heterogeneous. Only 10 Democrats registered a more conservative score than the most liberal Republican; only five Republicans were more liberal than the most conservative House Democrat, Boren. Rep. Chris Gibson of
New York was the most liberal Republican."
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McCARTHY COULD BE TAPPED TO HEAD EPA ON WEDNESDAY - Emily Heil of the Washington Post reports: "Looks like it could be Gina McCarthy's big day. The assistant administrator for air and radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency is the White House's pick to head that agency - and the long-expected announcement could come as soon as Wednesday, we're hearing. McCarthy is replacing Lisa Jackson, who stepped down earlier this month. It's long been expected that whoever the nominee was would face tough questions on Capitol Hill - after all, the agency's portfolio includes flashpoint issues like climate change, a key priority for the White House. Jackson's tenure was marked by plenty of testy
Hill exchanges."
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TWITTER TUSSLE - POLITICO's Hadas Gold writes: "House Speaker John Boehner's Press Secretary, Brendan Buck, and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney got into a Twitter tussle Thursday afternoon over the looming sequester cuts. The fight started with a series of tweets from Buck during Carney's daily press briefing, during which Carney touted Obama's balanced budget approach to avert the sequester and villified Republicans for not acting to avert it in a balanced way. Carney also called out Republican hashtag efforts, such as #Obamaquester, saying it is 'totally at odds with the facts.' Buck tweeted: 'Public Service Announcement: The only group in Washington to pass a plan to replace the
sequester is the Republican House majority' and 'Dem Senate-passed sequester bills: 0; Republican House-passed sequester bills: 2; Awesome House R hashtags: too many to count' and 'Today in White House Fantasyland: Republicans 'making choice' to allow sequester - despite being the only ones to pass replacement bill.' After the briefing, the dustup unfolded.

@PressSec: BTW @Brendan_Buck, USAT/Pew poll says Americans support POTUS' balanced approach to deficit reduction 76-19% over GOP plan. #GOPOutOfTouch?

@Brendan_Buck: @PressSec If the American people support approach so much, why hasn't the Dem-run Senate ever passed it?

DSCC LED NRSC IN JANUARY FUNDRAISING - Joshua Miller and Kyle Trygstad report for Roll Call: The National Republican Senatorial Committee raised just $1.5 million in January, according to its most recent fundraising report. That's significantly less than the $4.2 million the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee brought in last month. The DSCC reported it had $3 million in the bank at the end of January, while the NRSC reported slightly more - $3.3 million - cash on hand at the same time. But while the NRSC reported $10 million in debt, the DSCC had much more - $15.7 million - in arrears, according to its fundraising report. The NRSC did not hire senior staff until Jan. 30, part of
reason behind the committee's meager fundraising."
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KY. GOV.: JUDD A 'SERIOUS CANDIDATE' FOR SENATE - Breanna Edwards reports for POLITICO: "Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear praised actress Ashley Judd as a potential 'serious candidate' to challenge Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for his Senate seat in 2014. 'There are a number of people that are still talking about running for the U.S. Senate, and I think she would be a very serious candidate,' the Democratic governor said at a briefing at the state Capitol, according to CN2 Pure Politics. Beshear added that he's 'going to encourage as many as possible to take a look at it and we can come up with the best candidate.' Judd has been pushed further into the spotlight as a likely pick for
Kentucky Democrats, especially since meeting with officials from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee earlier this week."
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THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Kyle Gerron, who works at the American Conservative Union, was first to correctly answer that S. I. Hayakawa (R-Calif.) was the last U.S. senator (other than Ted Cruz) to have been born in Canada. He was born in Vancouver and served in the Senate from 1977 to 1983.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Gerron has today's question: Name the American political dynasty whose family members served as congressman, senator, governor, vice president, presidential candidate and ambassador. First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at
mailto:swong@politico.com
swong@politico.com .

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