“Lindsey used to be a really close friend. I’m going to work on it again.”

— President Biden, quoted by USA Today, speaking about Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at a bill signing to end forced arbitration for sexual assault and harassment.

“It’s my birthday today. I’m turning 64, or as we like to call it in the Senate: middle-aged.”

— Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), on Twitter.

A former staffer for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) who was fired last month claims he was photographed smoking a joint at her desk afterwards.

Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) returned to the U.S. Senate on Thursday, a little over a month after suffering a stroke, Axios reports.

Politico: “In addition to the great news for his health, it will also be a sigh of relief for Democrats in the 50-50 Senate. They’ll likely need his vote on important nominees, including Ketanji Brown Jackson’s selection to the Supreme Court.”

“Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson will begin on March 21, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday, a timetable that could put President Biden’s first pick for the nation’s most influential court on track to be confirmed by mid-April,” the Washington Post reports.

Politico: Jackson meets with Senate leadership.

“As Russian troops invaded Ukraine last week, Marco Rubio was live-tweeting what looked like detailed intelligence,” Politico reports.

“It’s a highly unusual display of transparency from a senior senator on the Intelligence Committee who gets regular, bipartisan briefings on high-level U.S. assessments. But Rubio is comfortable parsing Russia’s war in public, saying he isn’t revealing anything classified or sensitive, even as critics slam his tweets as irresponsible and unverified.”

“While Rubio says none of his tweets have included or referenced classified information, he has nodded at secret assessments of Putin’s psychological fitness, his intentions and his military’s current and future operations.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) won’t attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address tonight because he doesn’t want to take a Covid-19 test, the HuffPost reports.

Said Rubio: “I don’t have time to go take a Covid test today. I only take a test if I’m sick.”

“The Senate voted 46-48 to block a bill pushed by Democrats to codify abortion rights into federal law ahead of an expected Supreme Court decision that could limit access to the procedure,” NBC News reports,

“The Senate Judiciary Committee is aiming to begin Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings March 21,” Politico reports.

“President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, will hold her first meetings with senators on Wednesday, including the Republican minority leader and the two top senators on the Judiciary Committee,” Politico reports.

“Senate Republicans signaled they have no intention of turning the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court into an ugly partisan fight, focusing their energies instead on using President Biden’s pick to try to rally conservative voters heading into the midterm elections,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

New York Times: “With the identity of Mr. Biden’s choice now known, Senate Democrats and Republicans and their allied interest groups will begin making their competing cases on Judge Jackson in the hope of quickly establishing a portrait of her in the public’s mind.”

“Democrats have set early April as a goal for winning Senate confirmation, with plans to convene Judiciary Committee hearings toward the end of March.”

Former President Trump is privately pushing Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) to challenge Mitch McConnell for Senate majority leader, Politico reports.

“The Florida governor-turned-senator is navigating some treacherous terrain — and we’re not talking about the Senate landscape. He’s trying to balance working with the GOP’s two most powerful figures in McConnell and Trump, who also happen to despise each other.”

A Kansas City Star editorial bashes Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) for what it calls the Hawley Trinity: “Racism, insurrection, appeasement.”

“That may be the path to glory in today’s GOP, but in giving aid and comfort to Vladimir Putin as Russia invades Ukraine, he’s sold out democratic values yet again.”

Daily Beast: “Since leaving office, former President Donald Trump has made no mystery of his desire to exact revenge on Mitch McConnell, by rallying pro-Trump senators to block McConnell from returning to his perch as majority leader. But the ex-president has been tight-lipped about who, exactly, he would want to back as McConnell’s prospective dethroner.”

“However, in private conversations with close associates over the past several months, at Mar-a-Lago and elsewhere, Trump has batted around a handful of GOP senators’ names in his quest to stick it to the riot-averse ‘dumb son of a bitch’ McConnell. Since at least late last year, Trump has been asking a recurring question.”

“Do you think Lindsey could do it?” he has asked advisers.