WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's chief of staff and two leading senators will travel to the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on Friday to consider how to meet Obama's vow to move detainees and close the facility, a White House spokeswoman said.

Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, will travel to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo with Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and John McCain, a top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The trio will "review the situation there and discuss the steps that we can take with the Congress to meet the President's goal of closing the facility," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

Both McCain of Arizona and Feinstein of California have long argued that the prison should be closed. But other lawmakers have blocked the move, arguing the administration has not offered satisfactory alternatives on what to do with the detainees.

Obama last month pledged to lift a ban imposed on transfers of detainees to Yemen from the prison, one of the core obstacles to clearing out the detention camp.

Of the 86 detainees who have been cleared for transfer or release, 56 are from Yemen, where al Qaeda has a dangerous presence. There are 80 more prisoners at the camp who are not cleared and an unknown number of those are Yemeni as well.

More than 100 prisoners in the camp have joined a hunger strike to protest the failure to resolve their fate after more than a decade of detention, and 41 are being force-fed through tubes inserted into their noses and down into their stomachs because they have lost so much weight.

(Additional reporting by Jane Sutton in Miami; Editing by Vicki Allen)

The Bruins won the best-of-seven series 4-0 and will play either the Chicago Blackhawks or Los Angeles Kings for the Cup.

It is the first time the Penguins have been swept in a playoff series since losing 4-0 to the Bruins in the 1979 quarter-finals.

Reaching the Stanley Cup Final will be a major boost for the city of Boston, which is still coming terms with the bombing of the Boston Marathon.

Boston's Adam McQuaid belted home a slapshot from distance during a line change early in the third period to send the Bruins to their second Final in three years.

Boston beat Vancouver to win the Stanley Cup in 2011.

"We were a little sluggish in the first two periods and we said, we got to win a period in order to win a series," Boston's Milan Lucic said.

"I remember before the game telling McQuaid he was going to get one today and it ended up being a huge one for us tonight," said Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask, who saved 26 shots on Friday and conceded just two goals in the four-game series against the top ranked team in the East.

Team mate Patrice Bergeron said Rask made the difference.

"I can't say enough (about him)," added Bergeron.

"He is the reason why we are here and he was a huge part of us winning this series."

Finn Rask, who backed up Tim Thomas when Boston won the Cup in 2011, said he had been trying to keep consistent.

"I felt pretty good throughout the year," he added.

"Obviously had some bad games and good games but I just try to stay focused and feel good about myself every game and there is no exception right now," Rask said.

Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma continued the praise of Rask.

"There is no question the performance he put into this series was elite. The difference in the series, there is no question," said Bylsma.

"It's not like we didn't have good scoring chances or opportunities.

"Our guys played extremely hard and we didn't come up with that goal in either Game Three or Game Four and you have to give the Bruins a ton of credit for that and the way they played and battled."

Boston will meet either the 2010 champions Chicago or the reigning Stanley Cup holders Los Angeles. The Blackhawks lead that series 3-1.

(Reporting by Ben Everill in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

One suspect, a non-practicing lawyer, hired the other man to place the bombs and made stock market orders anticipating he could profit in the aftermath of the explosions, according to the Xinbei Prosecutors' Office.

The bombs placed at a lawmaker's office targeted Terry Gou, head of Foxconn Technology Group, a statement from the prosecutors' office said late Thursday. Gou was scheduled to visit the lawmaker's office that day, April 12, to attend a religious event he had sponsored.

Taiwan-based Foxconn produces parts for popular electronic devices at its extensive network of factories in mainland China, including iPads and iPhones for Apple Inc.

The lawyer, Hu Tsung-hsien, 44, and Chu Ya-dong were indicted on charges of attempted homicide and endangering public security, which could carry the death penalty or life imprisonment if they are convicted.

Prosecutors said Hu made the bombs at his home with knowledge gathered from the Internet and employed Chu to place the devices. Scores of bottles containing various chemicals were seized from Hu's home in the southern city of Tainan, the statement said.

Hu attorney Fang Nan-shan said Hu has denied the charges. He said Hu was seeking to raise public awareness on Taiwan's widening gap between rich and poor. Chu has acknowledged he placed the luggage but denied knowing the contents.

Each device had a timer to set off an attached gas can and release toxic cyanide into the air. Police say the bombs failed to explode because the electric current meant to ignite the gas cans was not sufficiently strong.

Prior to the bombing attempts, Hu had placed short sell orders on the local stock exchange, betting the bombings would destroy investor confidence and allow him to reap huge profits, the prosecutors' statement said.

Prosecutors said Hu plotted the bombings after he was charged in February in a separate case of intimidating a businessman. Data seized from his computer indicated Hu had been inspired by the English freedom fighter in the 2005 action thriller "V for Vendetta," they said.

Hu and Chu fled to southern China after the bomb attempts but were arrested and repatriated to Taiwan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton, already the front-runner in the minds of many Democrats for the 2016 U.S. presidential election, is writing a memoir about world affairs and her time as secretary of state that will likely fuel more speculation about her political future.

The presidential prospects of Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, are a subject of feverish speculation in Washington and elsewhere as Democrats look to see over the horizon past President Barack Obama.

The book, her fifth, is to be published next year, and a tour to promote the memoir in 2014 would serve only to generate more guessing about her plans for 2016.

Her inner circle insists Clinton has made no decision one way or the other. This has not stopped the formation of a "Ready for Hillary" political action committee to promote her potential candidacy and seek volunteers and monetary contributions.

Among the subjects Clinton will explore are the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the overthrow of the Qaddafi regime in Libya, the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Arab Spring, diplomacy pertaining to Iran and North Korea and relations with U.S. allies.

"Hillary Clinton's extraordinary public service has given her a unique perspective on recent history and the challenges we face," said Jonathan Karp, president and publisher of the Simon & Schuster Publishing Group who will edit Clinton's as-yet untitled book.

The book will also address trends in economics, energy and climate change, democracy and human rights, the critical role of women and girls, technology and innovation and health and human development, Simon & Schuster said on Thursday.

When she left the State Department February 1, Clinton, 66, had been suffering from a blood clot near her brain. She said she needed some time to rest and to settle on ways she can help women and children in the United States and around the world.

She is now re-emerging. Last month she announced that she now supports marriage rights for gay Americans. Back when she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 she had backed civil unions for gay couples.

On Tuesday night in Washington, she spoke about global women's rights at an event held by the non-governmental organization Vital Voices, sharing the stage with a potential 2016 rival, Vice President Joe Biden.

She will give her first paid speech in Dallas on April 24, the day before she attends ceremonies there marking the opening of George W. Bush's presidential library.

Polls show Clinton as the runaway frontrunner at this stage among Democrats for their party's 2016 presidential nomination and that she leads all potential Republican contenders, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

(Additional reporting by Chris Michaud in New York and Susan Heavey in Washington; editing by Jackie Frank)

FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- The president of the North Dakota Board of Higher Education said Monday he's not sure if the group gave a fair hearing to plans on tuition increases and wants to revisit the idea.

The board approved a plan May 10 that would give colleges the option to raise tuition at various rates, from a low maximum level of 2.13 percent at Lake Region State College to a high maximum mark of 6.63 percent at Williston State. Board members said they liked the flexibility it offered the schools.

The plan passed by a 7-1 vote over another option favored by Chancellor Hamid Shirvani that would keep tuition hikes between 2.18 percent and 4.76 percent.

Board President Duaine Espegard, a retired banker, said Monday he had more time to crunch the numbers after the last meeting and decided it was worth more discussion. A special meeting scheduled Thursday at NDSU is meant to take a second look.

"Upon reflection, when I got home after that meeting, I think about this and say, 'Is that fair?'" Espegard said. "And because this stuff is kind of complicated, I'm not so sure everybody probably fully understood it. I didn't until I took another look."

The state Legislature approved a $900 million higher education budget a nearly 12 percent increase over the last biennium while sending a message to the board and university leaders to keep tuition costs down. But the funding does not cover nearly $32 million in inflationary costs, which could be covered under the approved plan if colleges max out their tuition limits.

The plan backed by Shirvani would require six of the 11 colleges to find cost savings to meet their budgets, leaving a shortfall of $3.3 million at the University of North Dakota and $2.4 million at North Dakota State University.

"We're not trying to cut anybody," Espegard said. "It's not about efficiency or anything like that. It's doing what's best for the students."

Administration officials from NDSU and UND declined to comment about the Thursday meeting.

Robbie Lauf, president of the NDSU student body, said Monday that he likes the idea of a 2.5 percent tuition cap, but not at the expense of jeopardizing on funding for a new equity model approved by the Legislature.

"You get to the point where you have to deal with reality," Lauf said. "If we have to spend equity dollars on something other than equity, what's the point?"

Tuition was scheduled for debate the morning of the May 10 meeting but was pushed into the afternoon after a long discussion about Shirvani's job performance that wasn't on the original agenda. Shirvani said the meeting became so stretched out that "I don't think I did a good job of explaining" his tuition model.

"I think we should do a little bit better at showing our goodwill and support for students and their families," Shirvani said. "Particularly when you consider that the student debt is very high. They are coming out with debt that is the cost of a house or mortgage. We should give the student a break."

Shirvani said her heard from "a lot of people," including lawmakers and parents of students, who were not happy about the tuition plan approved by the board. Lauf said he has heard no complaints and was surprised to find out about the special meeting.

"I guess I'm curious why they are bringing it up again," Lauf said. "I have been calling around and some board members were just as surprised as we were."

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - So much for taking it easy after directing "Behind the Candelabra" for HBO.

Stephen Soderbergh is in talks to team up with Clive Owen on a 10-episode period medical drama for Cinemax, an HBO spokeswoman told TheWrap.

"The Knick" is set in downtown New York at the beginning of the 20th century and focuses on the groundbreaking medical staff at Knickerbocker Hospital, where the boundaries of medicine are being pushed in a time of astonishingly high mortality rates and zero antibiotics.

Soderbergh, who declared his intent to retire two years ago but apparently is only retiring from feature film production, would direct every episode, as well as executive produce with series star Owen, and long-time Soderbergh collaborate Gregory Jacobs.

Pilot writers Jack Amiel and Michael Begler will also executive produce with Anonymous Content's Michael Sugar and Gregory Jacobs.

"Candelabra," Soderbergh's supposedly final feature-length film, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday to rave reviews and debuts on HBO this weekend on May 26.

Deadline first reported this story.

He places the cigarette through a hole he carved in his helmet for a quick toke and exhales.

The green flag hits and out the window goes the cigarette butt and back to racing goes Trickle.

"Dick always had a cigarette lighter in his car," said fellow NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine.

Trickle was a unique driver with a unique name who found cult-like status before his death Thursday.

Trickle, whose larger-than-life personality and penchant for fun won him legions of fans despite a lack of success beyond the nation's small tracks, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said. He was 71.

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office said authorities received a call believed to be from Trickle, who said "there would be a dead body and it would be his." Authorities tried to call the number back, but no one answered.

Trickle's body was found near his pickup truck at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Boger City, N.C., about 40 miles northwest of Charlotte. Sheriff's Lieutenant Tim Johnson said foul play was not suspected.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Dick Trickle on his passing today," NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France said. "Dick was a legend in the short-track racing community, particularly in his home state of Wisconsin, and he was a true fan favorite.Personalities like Dick Trickle helped shape our sport. He will be missed."

Trickle earned his reputation as a successful short track driver before joining the Winston Cup series and earning rookie of the year in 1989 at age 48.

He competed in more than 300 Cup races. Although he never won a Cup race and won only two Busch Series races, Trickle earned cult status in the 1990s.

Former ESPN anchor Keith Olbermann would regularly mention where Trickle finished after talking about each NASCAR race. It caught on and drew snickers from race fans around the country.

Bodine said there was only one way to describe Trickle, a native of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.

"Fun," Bodine said. "Just plain fun."

Trickle was never one to be told how to live his life.

"It's all just sad," Bodine said in a telephone interview. "We don't understand why he would do this. Hopefully we will all learn why he would do that. There was something that triggered him to take his own life. We are all really saddened by this in the racing community."

NASCAR does not keep track of short-track records, but according to the (Milwaukee) Journal-Sentinel, Trickle won more than 1,000 short-track races throughout the country during his prime. He was a seven-time winner in the regional ARTGO Challenge Series in the late 1970s and mid '80s. Trickle also captured the ASA AC-Delco Challenge Series in back-to-back years in 1984-85 before turning to Cup racing.

"Dick Trickle was one of the best race drivers of the '80s, no one knew how many races he won," said Humpy Wheeler, the former president of Charlotte Motor Speedway. "He was right there with Red Farmer and other short track drivers the wins kind of got so big that they blended into each other. He was a product of the rich Wisconsin soil, where they race eight races a week in the season, and he could win all of them."

Wheeler said he asked Trickle to try NASCAR in the 1980s, but Trickle initially declined because he was so successful on the short track circuit.

"He could not make enough money then as he could on those Midwest tracks, so he deferred," Wheeler recalled. "For a guy who really won at least 700 races, I could see why. In those days, unless you were a top Cup driver, you couldn't win enough money to overcompensate for that."

Trickle eventually did move to NASCAR, settling into Iron Station, N.C., where he lived for more than 20 years. Bodine said Trickle was full of stories and popular because of it.

"People everywhere knew his name," Bodine said. "That's why they used his likeness in that movie 'Days of Thunder.' He was such a character."

The main character in that popular niche racing movie, played by Tom Cruise, was named Cole Trickle.

Bodine said that a few years ago he had to back out of a celebrity cruise for patients who were on kidney dialysis. He asked Trickle to fill in.

"He made such an impression on people on that ship that everyone wanted to know when Dick was coming back," Bodine said. "They loved him. They tell me he was the last man to leave most of the bars on the ship and I believe it."

Bodine also recalled inviting Trickle to compete in one of his bobsled events in 2004 at Lake Placid, N.Y.

He said Trickle went down the first time and crashed. After being cleared by doctors to continue, Trickle tried again and crashed in the same place.

"They were doing interviews with him on TV and he was like, 'I don't know what happened, I did the exact same thing I did the first time,'" Bodine said. "And we're all looking at him like, 'Hey Dick, maybe that was the problem.'"

Boehner survived, battered and humbled, but there was no time to hold grudges. The internal wounds opened in the 112th Congress were bleeding into the 113th, and Boehner knew he wouldnt last long as speaker (let alone help his party block the agenda of a commandingly reelected president) unless he sutured those wounds. Tomorrow, Boehner would appear before the entire fragmented GOP conference at its annual retreat to set the next years agenda. But first he needed a plan to win back the trust of conservatives. So now, on this winter afternoon, he was meeting with five RSC leaders not to gloat about his reelection but to secure their support.

Four of the guests had at some point chaired the RSC: Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Tom Price of Georgia, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who had taken over the committee just weeks before. The fifth attendee was House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, a longtime RSC member and the recently defeated vice presidential candidate. They were putting the final touches on a deal with the speaker, weeks in the making, to hide ideological divisions by agreeing on a legislative strategy for the new Congress.

Not long ago, it would have been ludicrous for the House speaker to approach the Republican Study Committee on bended knee, much less to depend on it to restore harmony to the conference. The committees philosophy of governance would vex any speaker: Members consider themselves conservatives first and Republicans second. They did not come to Washington to play for the Republican team; they came to fight for conservative principles. If that means voting against party interests, so be it. For core RSC believers, ideological purity trumps legislative accomplishment. Period.

For decades, the group was seen as a parasitic anomalya fringe organization of hopeless ideologues surviving off the perception of undue moderation among Republican leadership. Several previous speakers had bullied or ignored it, and one even dissolved the RSC in a quest to squelch internal dissent. For decades, the committees membership rolls were thin, and internal GOP debates didnt matter much anyway, because the party was in the minority.

But the 2010 midtermsthanks to an influx of ideologically charged lawmakers converging with an increasingly conservative GOPchanged everything. More than 60 of 85 GOP freshmen joined the Republican Study Committee, giving the group a record 164 members. The committee known as the conservative conscience of the House was now, for the first time in history, a majority of the House majority.

As a result, its influence grew geometrically, and, today, no single subgroup drives the legislative agenda like the RSC. When its members rally against a bill, it usually fails; when they join to push a proposal, it almost always succeeds. Indeed, since 2010, the RSCs embrace or rejection of any legislative effort has become the surest indicator of whether it will pass the chamber. With 171 members today, the Republican Study Committee is the largest caucus in all of Congress, as Scalise puts it. If Boehner and his conductors make the trains run, RSC members are the soot-soaked boilermen shoveling coal into the furnace.

Or refusing, as they sometimes do, to shovel. In the last session of Congress, they made life miserable for Boehner as he attempted to exert authority over his caucus that he did not possess. Opponents of the RSCincluding some within the GOPs ranksnow see it as a mob of conservative kamikazes willing to hold the government hostage until their demands are met. During the debt-ceiling negotiations of 2011, Vice President Joe Biden allegedly labeled these lawmakers terrorists.

Everyone knows Washingtons policy: No negotiating with terrorists. But back in January, Boehner had no choice. By seeking the RSCs assistance, he was accepting its de facto control of his conference. Supplication was the only way to salvage his speakership. The defenders of the faiththe ones who argue that principles are not bargaining chipshad finally penetrated the innermost sanctum of power.

Before becoming president of Washingtons premier conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, Ed Feulner was a congressional aide to Republican Rep. Phil Crane of Illinois. One day in 1972, Feulner says, his boss was meeting with several fellow House conservatives, including Ed Derwinski of Illinois, John Rousselot of California, and Ben Blackburn of Georgia. The discussion turned to a club of liberal House members who convened weekly and called themselves the Democratic Study Group. Look at what theyve done in terms of making sure the Democrats in control of the House are always under pressure from the left, one member said. Why cant we do this on the right?

An idea was taking shape. These conservative House members decided in the long term to target Minority Leader Gerald Ford, whom they saw as a moderate deal-maker rather than a principled conservative. (Ford, foreshadowing the frustration to be felt by future House leaders, fancied himself a conservative but found it impossible to earn the trust from his right wing.) We said, If Jerry Ford isnt getting any pressure from the right, the only way hes going to go is left, Feulner recalls.

First, though, the conservatives went hunting for bigger game. Presidents Nixons welfare plan contained a provision to guarantee Americans a certain annual incomea notion that horrified right-wingers in both chambers of Congress. So Crane had Feulner reach out to conservative aides in the Senate in the hope of joining forces to defeat Nixons plan. Soon, Feulner was working with Paul Weyrich, a young staffer for Sen. Gordon Allott of Colorado, and other conservative Hill aides. The group persuaded the governor of Californiaa popular conservative named Ronald Reaganto testify against the plan before the Senate Finance Committee. The measure eventually failed, and Reagan rewarded Crane by coming to meet with him in the Capitol. Looking back, Feulner says his work with Weyrich, who later founded the Heritage Foundation, laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the Republican Study Committee.

In the months following the welfare episode, Crane and company worked to formally launch the group. But members soon realized that pressuring leadership required real resourcesstaff members to churn out studies, charts, and memos, and to organize the logistics of a new, independent caucus. To accomplish this, Crane and his staff designed a system to hire apparatchiks for their new organization by putting them on multiple payrolls. That way, say, five lawmakers might split the cost of one operative. In 1973, the RSC launched with this model. Sharing staff members was easily done under House rules then, says Feulner. By the time I became executive director in 1973, I was on, like, four different payrolls at any one time.

The group quickly won adherents. When other conservative members saw the sharp materials RSC researchers produced, they asked to join. What began as an informal club ballooned within a few years from four members, to 12, to 20. The new strength in numbers allowed the RSC to contemplate how it might shape the broader GOP agendaand, by extension, the national one.

But that wouldnt work with Republicans out of power. At best, the RSC could have only as much influence as the House GOP had. When the conference is weak and stuck in the minority, the RSC becomes an afterthought on Capitol Hill. The mission of the RSC is always more important when youre in the majority than when youre in the minority, Hensarling says. In the majority, youre actually passing legislation; in the minority, youre mainly in the communications business.

This helps to explain why the committee was irrelevant during the 1980s. Between the groups founding in the 1970s and its resurgence in the 1990s, longtime RSC observers say, it had a negligible impact. Democrats controlled the House, and President Reagan was a kindred spirit whose policies they had little cause to protest. Eventually, the tide of history would turn and conservatives would reestablish their reputation as predators. But first they would become prey.

To fathom the psyche of Congresss most conservative lawmakers, its useful to study the ferocity with which they protect the RSCs autonomy. Whenever the House leadership has even hinted at meddling with the grouprumors swirled last fall that Boehner would try to oust Executive Director Paul Teller at the start of the next sessionthe reaction has been swift and sharp. In this case, conservatives successfully lobbied to keep Teller on as a counterbalance to Scalise, whom some RSC members saw as too cozy with leadership. This history of insulating their group from external interference dates back two decades, when someone the committee considered a friend betrayed it.

After Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in 1994, ending a four-decade stint as the permanent political underclass, the ambitious new speaker, Newt Gingrich, planned several shake-ups. Among his first priorities was to get rid of the Republican Study Committee, which he viewed as a threat to the harmony of the House Republican Conference. To eliminate the RSCwhile avoiding the appearance that he was singling out conservativesGingrich devised a plot to abolish all Legislative Service Organizations, the 28 groups that functioned with the shared staff model perfected by groups such as the RSC and the Congressional Black Caucus. The new speaker spoke craftily about the need to save taxpayer money and eliminate unnecessary expenses, but the message was clear to every conservative in Washington: Gingrich was determined to eliminate the group that could endanger his speakership.

He began immediately after the 1994 election by convening a meeting of the next House Republican Conferenceall returning members, plus the incoming freshmen. Numerous newbies, having heard about the RSC, were devastated when Gingrichs staff announced it was going away. Two of them, John Shadegg of Arizona and Steve Largent of Oklahoma, spoke up. The entire freshman class was there, and we were taking over the majority, Shadegg recalls. Largent and I got up and argued it ought to be saved.

When the meeting adjourned, Majority Leader Dick Armey yanked Shadegg and Largent into an adjacent room. Nice try, but its gone, Armey told them. By abolishing the RSC, the new speaker neutralized a potential menace. But in doing so, he also provoked some GOP members who were incredulous that their self-styled conservative leader would attack a bastion of conservative activism. One of them was Ernest Istook, an outspoken sophomore from Oklahoma, who whispered to a colleague during that meeting, It cant be healthy for all the resources to be concentrated in the hands of party leadership. Istook wanted to know where rank-and-file members would turn for objective analyses on leadership-endorsed legislation.

He wasnt alone. Having arrived in Washington together in 1990, GOP Reps. John Doolittle of California and Sam Johnson of Texas shared a friendship and political philosophy. RSC members both, they were stunned by the power play. Almost immediately, they began plotting to revive the organization. To circumvent Gingrichs restrictive language, they needed someone with intricate knowledge of both the old RSC infrastructure and the House itself. No one was better qualified than Dan Burton of Indiana, who was RSC chairman at the time of its dissolution. Burton, too, had been scheming to resurrect the committee.

As these three began strategizing around the new House rules, they recruited Istook. He suggested that rather than spend House resources on RSC employees, lawmakers should instead hire part-time staffers who could roam between offices working for different members on RSC projects. We set up a structure of rotating the payroll for these employees from one office to the next, so that everyone was, in effect, sharing the cost but working within the new rules, Istook explains.

Now the four members could reboot the RSC, but they wanted a fresh start and a new name to emphasize aggressive ideology over passive partisanship. Istook suggested CAT, for Conservative Action Team. The others approved, and soon Istook was printing lapel pins featuring a roaring mountain lion and distributing them to conservative members curious about rumors of the RSCs resurrection. The rechristened group had returnedwith a new generation of leaders.

This foursome, known since as the founders, nurtured the group with weekly meetings to discuss policy and strategy. (Today, the weekly RSC meeting, which is still part debate forum and part strategy session, is considered the cornerstone of conservatism on Capitol Hill.) Each of the four founders served as chairman on a rotating basis for four to six months. But that proved too chaotic. It got to the point where we felt it had become an organizational weakness that we didnt have a single chairman, Doolittle recalls. Their unanimous choice as CATs first chairman was Rep. David McIntosh of Indiana, who had earned a reputation since arriving in 1995 as unafraid to challenge party leadership. But when Republicans lost seats in 1998 and Gingrich stepped down, McIntosh retired to run for Indiana governor and passed the chairmans job to his class of 94 colleague, Rep. John Shadegg, a combative conservative with a talent for taking the temperature of his colleagues.

Shadegg had, in his first term, become an invaluable resource for Gingrich, who liked to summon him and ask, What are conservatives up to? But everyone knew where Shadeggs loyalties lay. He had not come to Congress to advance the Republican agenda but to promote conservative principles. So when the founders approached him, Shadegg jumped at the chance to become the de facto leader of House conservatives. I was a natural, he says of their choice. He took the group from 40 members in 2000 to 72 in 2002. He also carved out an antagonistic new role for the chairman, fighting party leaders over everything from budgets to committee assignments. And he restored the groups old name, the Republican Study Committee. The people who founded it [back in 1973], they created the Republican Study Committee to study the issues, he recalls. I thought it should have more gravitas than it had by calling itself CAT.

The founders continued to fret over conservative fealty, so they had retained the power to choose their groups chairmen. Elections, they feared, would allow moderates to infiltrate the organization at the behest of leadership and push a party loyalist for the chairmanship. But after the controversial pick of Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, their choice to succeed Shadegg in 2003, they tweaked the selection process to include RSC members. Now the founders (expanded to include all past chairmen still serving in Congress) would nominate a candidate, and any member could challenge them with signatures from 25 percent of the RSC to force a group-wide vote. After the tenure of Rep. Mike Pencewho took the RSC in an assertive new direction on fiscal policy and famously proposed steep domestic spending cuts to offset new government outlays in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrinathey got their first challenge. Members had expected Pences right-hand colleague, Jeb Hensarling, to get the nod; when he didnt, he rounded up signatures and defeated the founders choice, Todd Tiahrt of Kansas. The Republican Study Committee was now run as much by its members as by its founders.

And as everyone soon found out, that didnt mean backsliding: Hensarling, who took over as Democrats won control of the House, chaired the group during some defining moments for the conservative movement. Under his leadership, the RSC rankled the Republican establishment by opposing major policies being pushed by President George W. Bush, such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the automaker bailouts. After Hensarlings chairmanship came Price, whose task was made doubly difficult when Republicans, still in the House minority, lost the White House in 2008. Price describes his tenure as exhilarating because the RSC was in attack mode. Members pounded Presidents Obamas policies, such as the economic stimulus and health care reform, and spoke for conservative orthodoxy. Still, Price says, we were not able to blunt many of the horrendous policies coming out of the administration. When 2010 arrived, they would get their chance.

Im always asked back home, Are there others up there like you? Price pauses and smiles, savoring the punch line. The fifth-term lawmaker, who occupies the seat once held by Gingrich, says his constituents are curious about the culture of Capitol Hill. Specifically, they wonder if hes lonely as a Republican working in a town dominated by Democrats. They want to know, Price says, you got any friends up there? Thats when Price tells them about the Republican Study Committee.

The RSC today is much more than an affinity group; its a fraternity, a place where kindred souls come together to trade political ideas and share life experiences, Price says. Members go to dinner, play golf, and attend Bible studyactivities that strengthen relationships forged by former strangers with a shared political philosophy. Its a clubhouse. The thing I like most about it is, you get a chance to work with people who believe in the same things you do, Jordan says. My best friends are in the RSC.

In theory, this was a great setup for the 112th Congress. House conservatives had formed bonds. Reinforcements had arrived in abundance. Boehner was taking back the speakers gavel. And Jordan, a Boehner ally who represented a neighboring Ohio district, was taking over the RSC. Yet the bonhomie wouldnt last.

Traditionally, the leadership initiates incoming members, but with so big a freshman class, this was easier said than done. Besides, these rookie lawmakers werent interested in the how its done in Washington speech. They were intent on shaking things up, not playing the pawns in Boehners chess game. When more than 60 of the new Republican members enlisted in the RSC, it became clear that Jordan, not Boehner, would have to corral them (even though two former RSC chairsHensarling and Priceworked on Boehners leadership team).

Soon, two warring factions had formed: the moderates loyal to Boehner, and the conservatives led by Jordan. They collided in increasingly ugly fashion, climaxing during the July 2011 debt-ceiling negotiations. Boehner pitched a plan to offset debt extensions with spending cuts. But many conservatives thought Boehners cuts didnt go far enough, and some RSC staffers began e-mailing outside pressure groups, such as Heritage Action, to turn committee members against the deal. The e-mails leaked; Teller, who hadnt written them himself, was nonetheless identified as the chief culprit. Furious conservatives felt betrayed by their flagships own crew. At a conference-wide meeting called the next day, some members chanted, Fire him! at Teller.

Jordan, who remembers the incident as pretty heated, apologized for the e-mails but remained opposed to Boehners proposal. Look, its politics, Jordan says of the episode. Its a game for grown-ups. Its supposed to get intense. Teller is unapologetic about the incidentor about the RSCs other run-ins with leadership. Were not there to smile and nod, he says of his group.

The internal acrimony reached its zenith with an end-of-session failure to rally behind Boehners Plan B for avoiding the fiscal cliff, which proposed to extend the Bush tax cuts for those earning $1 million or less. Conservatives argued against raising taxes on anyone. That episode ended in December with Boehner reciting the serenity prayerGod, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot changeto members of the GOP conference. Republicans had reclaimed the majority with a mandate to fight the Obama agenda, but they had spent as much time fighting each other. Two weeks later, in the opening days of the new Congress, 12 RSC members attempted to overthrow Boehner.

Thats when the speaker convened the Williamsburg summit on that cold January afternoon.

RSC chairmen are always surprised to learn about the guidelines for the jobnamely, that there arent any. The supremo enjoys what Price calls a lot of latitude to determine the groups strategic direction.

Scalise knew that full well. The groups current chairman, a soft-spoken man of Sicilian heritage who carries a fava bean in his pocket for good luck, had a front-row seat for the internecine battles of the 112th Congress. He knew Republicans could not effectively battle Obama until they called an internal cease-fire. So when he met with the founders last November to ask them to nominate him for the chairmanship, Scalise posed a simple question. As conservatives, he asked, how do we define victory?

His message was straightforward: The RSC should focus less on preaching conservative values and more on passing conservative policy; it should emphasize actions over words. He ran for the chairmanship of the group against Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia (the founders choice) as the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling, the sequester, and the continuing resolution all loomed, and he won by promising RSC members that he would work to secure a series of victories, giving House Republicans momentum and putting Senate Democrats and the White House on the defensive.

At the annual retreat in Williamsburg, after conservative leaders had come to terms with Boehner, Scalise lobbied skeptical RSC members to join the ideological armistice. In exchange for approving a temporary extension of the debt limit in January, Boehners leadership team would support a series of conservative policy solutions to the upcoming list of legislative challenges. Many RSC members doubted the durability of this agreementsince dubbed the Williamsburg Accordbut were persuaded to give Boehner one final chance to earn the trust of the conservative rank and file.

Four months later, both Boehner and Scalise have delivered. Consistent with the Kingsmill Resort compromise, the sequester cuts went into effect; the continuing resolution was passed with lower spending levels; and the Houses proposed budget would balance in 10 years. Meanwhile, thanks to the RSC-favored No Budget, No Pay provision attached to the debt-ceiling deal, Senate Democrats were forced to come up with their first budget in four years. Were not a think tank, Scalise says. Were a group of 171 legislators who all came here to fight to pass conservative policy into law.

The Republican Study Committee has, throughout its history, been ideologically pure yet often impotent to achieve legislative results. In the minority, it lacked power or numbers to drive the agenda; in the majority, it focused on infighting over policy. Now, for the first time in its 40-year history, the stars have aligned. Not only is the RSC still emphasizing ideology over partisanshipand passing conservative policy in the processbut it is also pulling the entire conference rightward. Were hitting our stride, says Teller, whos worked for the group since 2001.

There is, of course, a certain irony. The Republican Study Committee has gained size, strength, and influence by preaching that leadership must always be pressured and never be trusted. Now the RSC finds itself more powerful and accomplished than it has ever been, mainly because its members decided to set aside their suspicions and strike a deal with leadership. Its still a fragile relationship, likely to shatter at any sign of ideological betrayal. But, according to many conservatives, Boehner has finally earned the trust of the Republican Study Committee. God bless the speaker, says Jordan.

Somewhere, Gerald Ford is smiling.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Activist investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc have initiated talks with banks and asset managers to line up commitments for as much as $7 billion in bridge loans to back their leveraged recapitalization proposal for Dell Inc, banking sources told Thomson Reuters LPC on Thursday.

Jefferies & Co is leading the deal.

Icahn and Southeastern are looking to lock in the financing before Dell shareholders meet in July to vote on a rival take-private offer from CEO Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners. Icahn and Southeastern are seeking at least $5.2 billion and as much as $7 billion in lender commitments, sources said.

"They want the shareholders to know that they have an alternative," another source said.

Jefferies is understood to have committed $1.6 billion to the bridge loan.

The arranger is asking for commitments as large as $1 billion and is expected to have lenders lined up as early as next week.

Lenders committing to the deal are being offered a fee upfront of 3.5 percent, which is typical of these transactions. As an added sweetener, Icahn and Southeastern are also offering lenders an additional 7.5 percent of any incremental profit the two shareholders receive if Silver Lake prevails with an increased offer.

Pricing on the loan is guided at 350bp over Libor, though pricing could change as syndication efforts are only in the early stages, the same sources said.

Jefferies and Icahn declined to comment. Calls to Southeastern and Dell were not returned by press time.

In a May 9 letter to Dell's board, Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management, two of the company's largest shareholders, proposed an alternative to a buyout deal led by founder Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners. Under the Icahn proposal, shareholders could hold onto existing stock with the option of receiving either a distribution of $12 per share in cash or $12 per share in stock valued at $1.65 per share.

If Dell's shareholders accept the Icahn and Southeastern offer, the bridge loan will become permanent financing.

Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners, who are looking to take the company private for $13.65 per share, or $24.4 billion, have already received $13.75 billion in debt commitments from a number of banks and Microsoft Corporation to back their offer. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Credit Suisse and RBC Capital Markets agreed to provide $11.75 billion in bank lines and Microsoft agreed to purchase up to $2 billion in subordinated notes.

Icahn and Southeastern, which together own about 13 percent of Dell stock, have argued that the Silver Lake offer undervalues the company.

Dell's shares rose 0.01 percent to $13.37 Thursday afternoon.

(Reporting by Michelle Sierra; Editing By Jon Methven)