Sunday Show Roundup

The only politician running in 2006 to appear on a Sunday morning talk show was Senator Dick Lugar (R) of Indiana. On CNN’s Late Edition, Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, weighed in on the situation in Iraq and Iran. When asked about Representative Chris Shays’s (R-CT) recent suggestion of a timetable for withdrawal, Lugar had this to say: “I think that he's probably gauging carefully what the rhetoric of the situation may call for… So, the tug of that kind of thing is going to continue on. Although the point I'm making is, to give absolute timelines and to say out and so forth, is not good policy at this at this point; it's not helpful.”

Senator Carl Levin (D) of Michigan joined Lugar on the program and argued for the withdrawal of troops, saying the Iraqis had to solve their problem politically.

Lugar is essentially unopposed for reelection in November. He’s running against Libertarian Steve Osborn with no Democratic candidate on the ballot, making Indiana’s the only Senate race in 2006 where the incumbent faces no major party opposition.

The Sunday talk shows were rife with talk of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina, with Tuesday marking the 1-year anniversary of the storm’s landfall.

Federal Coordinator of Gulf Coast Rebuilding Don Powell and New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas were on Fox News Sunday. Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) was also on the program to talk about Iraq, Iran, and his 2008 presidential prospects. When asked how he thought he would fare as a northeastern liberal in the South, Biden told Chris Wallace, “You don't know my state. My state was a slave state.”

ABC’s This Week had on Don Powell also, as well as Senator Mary Landrieu (D) of Louisiana and former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown.

NBC’s Meet the Press had on FEMA Director David Paulison and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (D).

CBS’s Face the Nation had on David Paulison also, as well as Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R).

As the Sunday shows indicated, Katrina’s commemoration is very much a political issue, whether we like it or not. The New York Times takes a closer look at how politicians are handling the anniversary amidst the midterm elections with Anniversary Brings Out the Politics of Commemoration. And the Times-Picayune has more on the topic with Katrina’s impact reaches nation's political parties.

IA-03: DCCC Won’t Waste its Money on Leonard

Representative Leonard Boswell (D) faces a potentially tough challenge from state Senate President Jeff Lamberti (R) in a competitive district. Iowa’s 3^rd is one of the few spots in the country where Republicans appear to be on the offensive as opposed to the defensive, and the 3^rd was tellingly the only district with a Democratic incumbent for which the DCCC reserved TV ad space for the fall. But now, in a reevaluation of the expected competitiveness of the race, the DCCC has pulled the money for those ads. WHO-TV reports, “Sources say democrats feel more confident with Boswell's chances to win re-election because more democrats have registered in the district and recent polls show Boswell pulling further ahead of Lamberti.” The Midterm Roundup’s theory is that Bill Cosby advised the DCCC not to waste its time and money on Leonard having confused the congressman for his 1987 film Leonard Part 6.

But the GOP still has faith in the Lamberti cause. On Friday Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R) was in Iowa to stump for Lamberti. Hastert dismissed the notion that the seat was out of the GOP’s reach. “We’re playing. We’re going to play here all the way through,” Hastert said. As for the recent polls that “show Boswell pulling further ahead” cited by the sources in the WHO-TV report? The Des Moines Register says, “There is no recent public opinion polling to give an indication of who has an edge.”

Midterm Look-alikes!

Without much breaking news since Sunday morning, the Midterm Roundup deemed it a good time to waste some space by introducing a new feature to the Roundup: Midterm Look-alikes!

Representative Jim Marshall (D-GA) - Hugh Hefner

Representative Geoff Davis (R-KY) - the stuttering public defender from My Cousin Vinny

Senate candidate Jon Tester (D-MT) - Meat Loaf

Gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) - the Wiz guy from Seinfeld

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) - the dude from Commando

Stay tuned for more installments of Midterm Look-alikes in the future!

IYI (If You’re Interested)

CA-GOV: Schwarzenegger and Democrats scratching each other's backs (SacBee’s Dan Walters)

CT-SEN: Democrats, Unions Vital for Lieberman (The Fix)

MD-04, VA-10: House Races In Md., Va. Echo Quest For Change (WaPo)

SD: S. Dakota Becomes Abortion Focal Point (WaPo)

TX-22: For Sekula-Gibbs, hard work just starting (Houston Chronicle)

NATIONWIDE: Democrats Split Over Timetable For Troops (WaPo with an interesting piece that cuts through the rhetoric and asks the simple question, which democratic candidates have called for withdrawal and which have not? The answer is eye opening – a majority opposes a timeline for withdrawal. As the Post argues, while that negates the GOP’s “cut and run” branding of Democrats it also “complicates their leaders’ efforts to convince voters that they offer a clear new direction for the increasingly unpopular war.”)

SNAKES ON A PLANE: The Midterm Roundup finds it apropos that Snakes on a Plane have its own category heading. A week or so ago the Roundup noted the new DSCC website Snakes on a Senate, along with this Richard Kim post on The Nation’s The Notion blog that pegs Snakes as “the political satire of the year.” Now the Weekly Standard takes a crack at exploring the Snakes metaphor. Louis Wittig argues, “SoaP is a little parable about why the much-hyped left-wing blogosphere has turned out to be a less potent political force than it might be.”

The Midterm Roundup sincerely hopes that articles like these will finally put to rest the narrow-minded classifications of Snakes on a Plane as a vapid creature-horror B-movie propped up solely by the freakish whims of the unwashed Internet masses. No, Snakes on a Plane is far more significant than that. It is vast. It contains multitudes. The Midterm Roundup submits that it is possibly the most important piece of art of our time.