POLITICO Playbook PM: Under-the-radar House news Presented by Amazon

For years, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) has given long and rambling speeches to an empty House chamber for C-SPAN viewers. | Alex Wong/Getty Images

UNDER THE RADAR, BUT FUN … ATTN. LOUIE GOHMERT … HOUSE DEMOCRATS have moved to limit the number of times an individual member can hold court on the House floor after the day’s votes: “The Chair will not recognize a Member for more than one special-order speech per week, nor may a Member sign up for a second special-order speech in the same week.”

-- EXPLANATION: Members of Congress are permitted to speak on the House floor after the chamber has finished its business for the day. It’s a way for a member to get time alone, without interruption, to give a speech about whatever they want.

-- FOR YEARS, TEXAS GOP REP. LOUIE GOHMERT took advantage of it, giving long and rambling speeches to an empty chamber for C-SPAN viewers. Now, he can do it only once a week.

ON THE BORDER -- AP’S NOMAAN MERCHANT in Houston: “U.S. prepares to start building portion of Texas border wall”: “Heavy construction equipment is supposed to arrive starting Monday. A photo posted by the nonprofit National Butterfly Center shows an excavator parked next to its property. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has said it intends to start building this month on federally owned land.” AP

Good Monday afternoon.

THE LATEST ON NORTHAM … WAPO’S JOHN WAGNER: “‘A rush to judgment’: Joe Lieberman says he sees no reason for Northam to resign”: “Former senator Joe Lieberman (Conn.), the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee in 2000, offered a rare voice of support Monday for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) staying in office amid the controversy over a racist photo in his medical school yearbook.

“Lieberman, who became an independent late in his Senate career, was asked during an appearance on CNN if he thinks Northam should resign. ‘I don’t today,’ Lieberman said. ‘I think there’s a rush to judgment that is unfair to him. One, he says he wasn’t in that picture. Two, I think we ought to fairly ask him, “Did he know the picture was on his page of that yearbook?” And then three, really, he ought to be judged on the context of his whole life.’” WaPo

-- WAPO’S THERESA VARGAS: “Va. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax denies sex assault allegation from 2004”: “Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax issued a statement early Monday denying a sexual assault allegation that appeared on the same conservative website that posted a racist photograph from Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page. ...

“In their response, Fairfax’s staff members, pointed out that the woman first approached The Washington Post with the allegation shortly before he was inaugurated and The Post ‘carefully investigated the claim for several months.’ …

“Fairfax and the woman told different versions of what happened in the hotel room with no one else present. The Washington Post could not find anyone who could corroborate either version. The Post did not find ‘significant red flags and inconsistencies within the allegations,’ as the Fairfax statement incorrectly said.” WaPo

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BLOOMBERG’S ANDREW HARRIS and ERIK LARSON: “Manafort Judge Clears Courtroom to Hear Sealed U.S. Evidence”

2020 WATCH -- AP’S ZEKE MILLER and STEVE PEOPLES: “Trump campaign takes steps to prevent a challenge within GOP”: “The nascent initiative has been an intense focus in recent weeks and includes taking steps to change state party rules, crowd out potential rivals and quell any early signs of opposition that could embarrass the president.

“It is an acknowledgment that Trump, who effectively hijacked the Republican Party in 2016, hasn’t completely cemented his grip on the GOP and, in any event, is not likely to coast to the 2020 GOP nomination without some form of opposition. While any primary challenge would almost certainly be unsuccessful, Trump aides are looking to prevent a repeat of the convention discord that highlighted the electoral weaknesses of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter in their failed re-election campaigns.” AP

-- MORE POLLING FOR HOWARD SCHULTZ’S REVIEW … STEVE SHEPARD: “Poll: Democrats have reason to fret Schultz”: “The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows anti-Trump and Democratic voters are more open to supporting third-party candidates than Republicans — evidence supporting the prominent Democrats who spent the last week warning that a credible, well-funded independent could improve President Donald Trump’s chances of reelection. …

“But the data don’t suggest Schultz, the billionaire ex-CEO of Starbucks, could do more than play spoiler in the 2020 presidential race. … And survey data and experts alike dispute Schultz’s rationale for his possible campaign: that a critical mass of unrepresented voters in the political center could be marshaled into an electoral majority by a moderate voice.” POLITICO

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ANDREW RESTUCCIA, GABBY ORR and ANITA KUMAR, “Dems hope to draw blood from potential Trump SCOTUS pick”: “When the conservative lawyer Neomi Rao appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, she’ll be interviewing for a job on the country’s second most powerful court. But both her allies and enemies will be watching with something even bigger in mind: her viability as a future Supreme Court nominee. …

“Some liberals hope to undermine Rao’s credentials even before she can assume a seat on the federal bench, sending a warning shot to the White House that they’d better think twice before nominating her to the high court. … Conservatives are discouraging talk of Rao as a future justice, recognizing that it will only draw more scrutiny of her record.” POLITICO

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION -- “Conservatives bash FDA for ‘regulatory panic’ on e-cigarettes,” by WaPo’s Laurie McGinley: “The signers include Americans for Tax Reform, ALEC Action, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Goldwater Institute. The groups acknowledged concern about a sharp increase in youth use of such products, but said [Scott] Gottlieb’s reaction has amounted to ‘regulatory panic and significant government overreach.’ … But Gottlieb shows no sign of backing down.” WaPo

THE INVESTIGATIONS -- ZACH WARMBRODT and BJARKE SMITH-MEYER: “Dirty money fears push Deutsche Bank into transatlantic spotlight”

SPY GAMES -- BLOOMBERG’S ERIK SCHATZKER: “Huawei Sting Offers Rare Glimpse of the U.S. Targeting a Chinese Giant: Diamond glass could make your phone’s screen nearly unbreakable—and its inventor says the FBI enlisted him after Huawei tried to steal his secrets.” Bloomberg

JOHN BOLTON PROFILE -- ELISE LABOTT for POLITICO MAGAZINE: “John Bolton Is Living His Dream”: “[A] man once seen by Washington’s foreign policy elites as a dangerous enabler of the president’s worse impulses had taken on a surprising new identity: the adult in the room.

“It’s an unfamiliar role for Bolton, who made his name in Washington as an uber-hawk known for his mastery of international legal arcana and his hair-raising calls for military action in places like Iran and North Korea. To his critics — and he has more than most in Washington — Bolton is an enabler. His fired predecessor, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, was an establishment man who tried in vain to contain the president and his impulse to upend the Western world order. Bolton is often a cheerleader for, and sometimes benefits from, Trump’s wrecking-ball instincts.” POLITICO Magazine

ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA -- AP’S KIM TONG-HYUNG in Seoul: “U.S. envoy, South Korean official discuss 2nd Trump-Kim summit”

-- “He helped Trump confront North Korea. Now Ji Seong-ho wonders whether human rights will be left behind,” by WaPo’s David Nakamura and Min Joo Kim: “A year ago, Trump shared Ji’s personal story during his State of the Union address to shine a light on the brutality of Kim’s regime and praise the human spirit to overcome tyranny in a bid for freedom. … Yet so much had changed as Ji mingled at the White House [Christmas] reception. …

“Ji and several other North Korean defectors who visited the Oval Office a year ago remain uncertain whether their partnership with Trump will lead to the human rights improvements that they have sought.” WaPo

THE LATEST ON VENEZUELA -- WSJ’S LAURENCE NORMAN in Brussels: “Juan Guaidó Recognized as Venezuela’s President by Major EU Countries”: “Spain, France, the U.K., Austria, Denmark, Lithuania and Latvia, the Netherlands and Germany, said Monday they consider Juan Guaidó to be the country’s president, and other European foreign ministers, including the Swedish, Czech and Polish, said they intend to follow suit as the bloc moves closer to Washington’s push for a leadership change in Venezuela.” WSJ

COURT WATCH -- “Two years in, Trump’s appeals court confirmations at a historic high point,” by WaPo’s Ann Marimow: “[T]he immediate effect on the composition of the courts across the country is modest — and the rapid pace is unlikely to continue because of a limited number of remaining open seats. ...

“His picks for the nation’s 13 circuit courts, one step below the Supreme Court, predominantly are male and less diverse than those tapped by his predecessor. They also include younger nominees, including a 36-year-old former clerk to Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch, which means Trump’s conservative imprint on the federal judiciary will endure through cases involving state gun regulations, the environment, immigration and abortion.” WaPo

-- NYT’S ADAM LIPTAK: “Attacking a Pay Wall That Hides Public Court Filings”: “The federal judiciary has built an imposing pay wall around its court filings, charging a preposterous 10 cents a page for electronic access to what are meant to be public records. A pending lawsuit could help tear that wall down. …

“By one estimate, the actual cost of retrieving court documents, including secure storage, is about one half of one ten-thousandth of a penny per page. But the federal judiciary charges a dime a page to use its service, called Pacer (for Public Access to Court Electronic Records). … The suit accuses the judicial system of using the fees it charges as a kind of slush fund, spending the money to buy flat-screen televisions for jurors, to finance a study of the Mississippi court system and to send notices in bankruptcy proceedings.” NYT

ANECDOTE DU JOUR -- THE NOBEL LAUREATE … WAPO’S SHIBANI MAHTANI: “When Vice President Pence met with Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi at a major Asian summit in Singapore last November, they found themselves at odds over one issue in particular: The case of two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar for investigating suspected atrocities.

“Pence pushed repeatedly for Suu Kyi — Myanmar’s de facto leader and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate — to have her government pardon the pair, according to senior Trump administration officials. She, in turn, raised her voice and insisted the reporters had crossed a line by publishing what the government described as state secrets.” WaPo

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CLICKER -- BEATRICE JIN: “Trump approval rating: How voters feel the president is doing this week”: “President Trump loves to talk about ratings, from television news shows to sports leagues to the polling of other politicians. He has claimed at times that his own approval ratings are among the highest of any president. The reality is: It depends on whom you ask.

“In partnership with pollsters at Morning Consult, we charted how American voters feel about the president’s performance broken down by their demographics. How do voters making less than $50K feel about the president, or women as compared with men?” POLITICO

MEDIAWATCH -- Zolan Kanno-Youngs is joining the NYT’s D.C. bureau as a Department of Homeland Security beat reporter. He currently covers NYC law enforcement for the WSJ.

-- USA TODAY’S PHILANA PATTERSON: “Gannett rejects takeover offer from MNG/Digital First Media”

SPOTTED: Former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) celebrating his 92nd birthday a few weeks early on Sunday at Martin’s Tavern. Pic

SPOTTED: Signs are up for “Hillary and Clinton,” a Broadway production starring Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow set to debut in April. Pic … Another pic

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Eugenia Pierson, senior policy adviser at Arnold & Porter and a House E&C alum, and Mathews Pierson, a consultant and longtime Democratic operative, last week welcomed Catherine Lawson Richardson Pierson, who joins big sisters Frances (3) and Celeste (17 months). Pic

BONUS BIRTHDAYS: Ted Carr, the pride of Cohasset, Mass. … Evan Wolfson is 62 ... Colin Roskey, deputy assistant secretary for legislation for oversight and investigations at HHS (h/t Alex Campau)

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