(swong@politico.com or @scottwongDC)

HILL OPENS FIRE ON HAGEL – Scott Wong and Manu Raju write for the hometown paper: “Senate Democrats and Republicans are far from sold on President Barack Obama’s expected nomination of Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense. In fact, Obama’s decision to tap the Vietnam veteran and outspoken former Republican senator is likely to spark another nasty fight with Congress right on the heels of the fiscal cliff showdown and just before another likely battle royal over the debt ceiling. Republicans on Sunday unleashed a fresh barrage of attacks amid reports Obama would nominate Hagel on Monday for the top job at the Pentagon. The new Senate minority whip, Texas Republican John Cornyn, said he’s firmly against Hagel’s nomination. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), an Air Force reservist who serves on the Armed Services Committee that will consider the nod, said Hagel would hold the ‘most antagonistic’ views toward Israel of any defense secretary in U.S. history. …

-- “Even Senate Democrats are privately signaling they‘re not yet on board with the Hagel pick, and that the White House has a lot of work to do to get him across the finish line. The nomination comes at a tricky time for the administration — just as the fights over raising the debt ceiling and government appropriations are set to begin. And it could put a number of at-risk or pro-Israel Democrats in tough political spots — especially if the nomination fight grows even more contentious. Democrats are also scratching their heads over why Obama appears willing to go to the mat for Hagel, while abandoning his push for a close friend and member of his inner circle, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, to become secretary of state. Rice, an unabashed Democrat, abandoned her bid after withering GOP criticism over the deadly attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Libya.” http://politi.co/106nVRe

--POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein has a rundown of five groups that could hamstring the Hagel pick: 1. The Pro-Israel crowd. 2. Gay-rights advocates. 3. Senate Republicans. 4. Democrats in the Senate—and the base. 5. Neoconservatives. http://politi.co/XBdZ0w

-- By picking Hagel, the White House is rolling the dice that he will be confirmed, Scott Shane and David Sanger write on A1 of the New York Times: “The White House is calculating that opposition to Mr. Hagel may be loud but not broad and that in end the Senate will confirm him. Administration officials argued that voting against a Republican war hero to run the Defense Department would not be easy for fellow Republicans, and they are confident that disgruntled Democrats will ultimately not deny their president his choice.” http://nyti.ms/UvBwtv

Wall Street Journal, A4, “White House to Go on Offense for Hagel Pick,” http://on.wsj.com/UCzAB8

SENATE MAFIA -- If Hagel and John Kerry join Vice President Joe Biden in the Cabinet, Obama will be surrounding himself with a “Senate Mafia,” Michael Hirsch writes for National Journal. “It's difficult to say for certain what this will mean for Obama's second-term foreign and defense policy, but some broad themes stand out. Kerry and Hagel, a generation older than Obama, are both Vietnam veterans who were, by their own admission, haunted by that experience; both are known for their prudence and judiciousness in the use of force (Hagel even came out against Obama's ‘surge’ in Afghanistan, while Kerry supported it). Both will likely stand fully with Obama’s scaling-down of American military commitments abroad, and with his extreme stringency in applying U.S. military power in new crisis spots such as Libya and Syria.” http://bit.ly/VxdVd9

OBAMA TO TAP BRENNAN AS CIA DIRECTOR – Josh Gerstein reports: “President Barack Obama will announce Monday that he’s nominating the White House’s point person on counterterrorism, John Brennan, to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, White House officials told POLITICO. Brennan, a 25-year veteran of the CIA, currently holds the title of Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. He’s expected to appear with Obama later Monday at a White House event where the president will also announce his nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) to be the next defense secretary. … If confirmed, Brennan would fill a vacancy created when retired Gen. David Petraeus abruptly resigned as CIA director in November after acknowledging an extramarital affair. Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell has been filling in as acting director since Petraeus left and was also considered a leading contender for the nomination set to be announced Monday.” http://politi.co/XdYRSQ

YOUNG REFORMERS HOLD SWAY IN SENATE – Manu Raju writes for POLITICO: “The Senate’s old bulls are rapidly fading as a band of more junior members in both parties seek to upend the seniority system that has ruled the chamber for generations. Gone are the likes of Bob Byrd, Daniel Inouye, Ted Stevens or Ted Kennedy. Growing are the number of younger senators with either little experience in national politics or who were House members from a hyper-partisan institution in which the majority can run roughshod over the minority. It’s an image that doesn’t square with the popular stereotype of septuagenarian senators presiding over an aging institution. Instead, most of the senators in the 113th Congress have barely served one term, and those lawmakers are pushing their respective leaders to engage in more direct confrontations not only with the other party but also on long-standing Senate customs. Appropriators have been weakened. Earmarks are gone. And the political discourse is growing more rancorous.

-- “These reformers are behind the recent push to weaken the filibuster — a threat to talk legislation to death that requires 60 votes to break — that has the most potential to change the stodgy institution. When the Senate returns on Jan. 21, it will take up debate over the practice, which has led to endless rounds of partisan legislative gridlock and has become a pet liberal cause.” http://politi.co/VJ9D29

PARTIES DRAW BUDGET BATTLE LINES – Siobhan Gorman and Peter Nicholas write on A1 of the Wall Street Journal: “Republicans won't accept further tax increases in coming budget and debt negotiations, the party's Senate leader said Sunday, putting GOP lawmakers on a collision course with Democrats over raising the government's borrowing limit. Congress and President Barack Obama last week raised income-tax rates on high earners as part of legislation to avoid the series of spending cuts and broad tax increases known as the fiscal cliff. ‘The tax issue is finished, over, completed. That's behind us,’ Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) told ABC. He said new tax revenue is ‘absolutely’ off the table as part of any coming negotiations with Democratic lawmakers and Mr. Obama.

-- “Democratic leaders say more revenue is needed, mainly by scaling back tax breaks. ‘There are still deductions, credits, special treatments under the tax code that ought to be looked at very carefully,’ Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Democrats' No. 2 leader in the Senate, said on CNN Sunday. Mr. McConnell's line in the sand comes as lawmakers prepare to consider the terms for raising the nation's statutory borrowing limit, or debt ceiling, which must be done by late February or early March, one of several impending deadlines on spending matters.” http://on.wsj.com/ZfVsCp

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GOOD MONDAY MORNING, JANUARY 7, 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 swong@politico.com. If you don't already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.

My new followers include but are not limited to @RNunezLawrence and @PaulRieckhoff.

TODAY IN CONGRESS – Both the House and Senate are out this week.

BOEHNER COUP ATTEMPT LARGER THAN FIRST THOUGHT – Jonathan Strong reports for CQ Roll Call: “A concerted effort to unseat Speaker John A. Boehner was under way the day of his re-election to the position, but participants called it off 30 minutes before the House floor vote, CQ Roll Call has learned. A group of disaffected conservatives had agreed to vote against the Ohio lawmaker if they could get at least 25 members to join the effort. But one member, whose identity could not be verified, rescinded his or her participation the morning of the vote, leaving the group one person short of its self-imposed 25-member threshold. Only 17 votes against Boehner were required to force a second ballot, but the group wanted to have insurance. Even with 24 members, the group would easily have been able to force a second ballot round, but the effort was aborted in frenetic discussions on the House floor. ‘There was an effort to get to a particular number,’ said one Republican member who voted for Boehner but was familiar with the effort to oust him.

-- “Republican Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan, Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina and Raúl R. Labrador of Idaho played key roles in organizing the plot. But participants describe its origin as organic and not led by any particular member, despite the suggestion by at least one House Republican that Amash was the ringleader.” http://bit.ly/RBTcqj

-- The National Review’s Robert Costa takes us behind the scenes of the failed #FireBoehner campaign. http://bit.ly/VFFvqM

BOEHNER’S TOUGH ROAD AHEAD – Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan write for POLITICO: “The 12 Republican rebels who last week refused to back John Boehner for speaker revealed how challenging it will be for Boehner to govern the House over the next two years. The conservatives don’t trust the speaker. They don’t think he cuts good deals. They believe he has repeatedly come away on the losing end of showdowns with President Barack Obama and has not delivered the results he’s promised. As a result, the Ohio Republican — for the moment — is dramatically weakened. Now, with three critical budget fights looming in the next 90 days, Boehner must figure out how to impose his will effectively. The speaker needs to placate agitated conservatives and prevent their discontent from spreading to the 233 other House Republicans — many of them Washington neophytes, even more of them restive veterans.

-- “In a marked shift, Boehner allies are urging him — publicly and privately — to do something he never has before: be willing to shut down the government or default on the nation’s debt to extract compromises from the White House.” http://politi.co/XBhRi1

RAND PAUL’S SON ARRESTED AFTER FLIGHT -- Elisabeth Arriero writes for the Charlotte Observer: “The son of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, and the grandson of former presidential candidate Ron Paul, was arrested Saturday morning at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Police said William Hilton Paul, 19, was traveling early Saturday from Lexington, Ky., to Charlotte.  When the plane landed about 10:49 a.m., Paul was charged with consuming beer/wine underage, disorderly conduct and being intoxicated and disruptive. ‘He was possibly served alcohol on the flight,’ Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Lt. Blake Hollar said. Rand Paul’s office issued a brief statement: ‘Sen. Paul is a national public figure and subject to scrutiny in the public arena. However, as many parents with teenagers would understand, his family should be afforded the privacy and respect they deserve in a situation such as this.’” http://bit.ly/117Hs2T

SERVICES FOR LEWIS’S WIFE -- Lillian Miles Lewis, wife, friend and adviser to Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the civil rights leader, will be remembered at 11 a.m. today at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 407 Auburn Avenue, Atlanta. Mrs. Lewis died at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on New Year’s Eve, the 45^th anniversary of when she and the congressman first met. Memorial donations can be made to the American Kidney Fund on behalf of Mrs. Lewis. Checks can be made out to the American Kidney Fund and mailed to 11921 Rockville Pike, Suite 300, Rockville, MD 20852. Donors are asked to include a memo indicating the funds are a memorial donation for Lewis, and should benefit the Georgia AFK office.  http://on.11alive.com/RBQb9q

RYAN BALANCES PRAGMATISM AND POLITICS – Ashley Parker reports for the NYT: “After Senator John McCain’s failed presidential bid in 2008, he repaired to the Senate to become a thorn in President Obama’s side. His running mate, Sarah Palin, used her considerable clout on the right to rally her fervent supporters against Mr. Obama and Democrats. But when the vice-presidential hopes of Representative Paul D. Ryan were dashed this Election Day, he returned to the House of Representatives and last week helped pass a bipartisan tax deal sought by Mr. Obama.

-- “Mr. Ryan’s vote in support of the plan, which raised tax rates on high income while locking in lower rates for the vast majority of households, was both pragmatic and political. In what he described as a “tough decision,” he backed what was seen by most in Congress as a piece of legislation whose passage was necessary to avert a fiscal crisis. Notably, his support aligned him with Speaker John A. Boehner, who voted for the measure. But it put him in conflict with his two fellow “young guns,” Representatives Eric Cantor of Virginia and Kevin McCarthy of California, the No. 2 and 3 House Republicans. The three men had been in virtual lock step on policy issues and wrote a book together.

-- “It was the first in a series of votes on budget and deficit reduction measures expected in the coming months, all potentially reverberating in the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. A potential rival to Mr. Ryan for the nomination, should both decide to run, is Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who was among only eight senators to vote no, the first clear demarcation between the two men since the election.” http://nyti.ms/UR41od

CRAPO’S APOLOGY TOUR – Scott Wong and Manu Raju write for POLITICO: “Welcome to Mike Crapo’s apology tour. The Idaho Republican senator, who pleaded guilty Friday to a drunken driving charge in Virginia, has been issuing mea culpas in interviews with local reporters and in private conversations with family members, constituents, church members and nearly all of his GOP colleagues. After his early morning arrest Dec. 23, Crapo immediately returned to Idaho Falls to discuss the incident with his wife and children. And he quickly informed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and a number of Senate friends, telling them he would be owning up to his actions and wouldn’t fight the charges. ‘I apologized for any embarrassment that I have caused them and have explained to them I was going to stand up quickly and fully face my consequences,’ Crapo told POLITICO shortly after pleading guilty to the misdemeanor in a city court in Alexandria, Va. …

-- “Even Crapo acknowledged that his arrest for driving while intoxicated is at odds with his personal values and sterling reputation. He’s a devout Mormon — who previously said he never drinks, in accordance with his faith — and comes across as cautious and a bit buttoned-up, while well-regarded by members of both parties. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Crapo would face this crisis head-on, express deep remorse and regret, and try to quickly move past it. Such an incident could be devastating for a vulnerable senator facing reelection, but Crapo appears poised to rebound, provided he doesn’t slip up again.” http://politi.co/Upiudw

WaPo, Style section front, “A career derailed by ‘Fast and Furious,” By Ann E. Marimow. Jason M. Weinstein’s “name had surfaced in a scandal known as ‘Fast and Furious,’ in which federal agents in Arizona monitored sales of guns to suspected firearms smugglers but didn’t immediately confiscate the weapons. In theory, the strategy was meant to allow the feds to trace the guns to the ringleaders and drug cartel bosses in Mexico. The operation went awry when more than 2,000 U.S.-purchased weapons hit the streets of Mexico and the United States. Two of the guns were found at the scene of the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Although Weinstein had no role in devising the tactics and had no supervisory authority over Fast and Furious, he had signed documents that helped the agents proceed with their operation. …

-- “Weinstein’s experience has become something of a cautionary tale about the risks and responsibilities of occupying a relatively high-level government post. And his past 18 months illustrate what it’s like to be swept up in the vortex of a Washington scandal that often inflicts damage on central figures and tangential players alike.” http://wapo.st/117TUQ6

FRIDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – Jim Brewer was first to correctly answer that John C. Calhoun

and George Clinton were the two vice presidents who have served more than one president.

TODAY’S TRIVIA – David Heymsfeld has today’s question: What president took his oath of office from his father? First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me at swong@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.” http://www.politico.com/huddle/

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