You won't be surprised to hear that Dick Morris is butchering the facts to smear Hillary Clinton, but this one's so egregious and dishonest that it really deserves a look. In a column on Clinton's recent appearance on The View, Morris singled out this quote from Hillary: "We've never had a mother who ever ran or was elected president..." He then used that one quote to spin out an elaborate theory on how Clinton is cynically hewing to a poll-tested and scripted "Mom Strategy" in her quest for the White House. Wouldn't you know it, but Morris left out an inconvenient fact that would have blown his theory into smithereens if he'd included it: He didn't tell his readers that the subject of motherhood in the context of politics, indeed the very idea of a "mom" as President, had been set entirely by Clinton's questioners, and not by Clinton herself. More after the jump.

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Rudy Giuliani plans to start reaching out to Iowa's GOP caucus activist types as he gears up for what appears to be a more and more likely Presidential run, today's Des Moines Register reports. Though Giuliani leads the GOP primary field in national polls, lots of analysts have been saying that he lags way behind his rivals in building an organization in key primary states.

The Register reports that one Iowa GOPer Giuliani's people have been reaching out to is Gordon James, a longtime local ally of the Bush family. "They've been asking about Iowa. They've reached out to us and want to know how to do this," James tells the paper. "The first thing I told them is you can ill-afford not to be a player in Iowa. Iowans will throw you off the island faster than anyone I've seen."

As reported here yesterday, Giuliani has also signed up to deliver a big GOP keynote speech in New Hamphshire next month. In other words, it looks like the guy's really running.

The White House is refusing to criticize GOP Rep. Virgil Goode for his assertion that having a Muslim in Congress is a threat to American values, making President Bush the leading Republican who's declining to condemn Goode's anti-Muslim comments. Asked by The New York Times for comment on Goode's remarks, White House spokesperson Dana Perino told the paper: “We’re aware of the situation, but no judgments have been made.” In other words, no comment. As TPM readers know, Justin Rood of TPMmuckraker has been struggling mightly to track down a single Republican who will condemn Goode's remarks, and has compiled a very long list of GOPers who are refusing to comment. Now we can add Bush to the top of the list.

Here's a quick rundown on the movements of the 2008 Presidential candidates:

* It's official: Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will announce that he's running for President as soon as the week of January 8th, a Romney adviser tells the Associated Press. "The timing is somewhat dependent on when Sen. John McCain of Arizona makes an expected announcement about his own campaign for the GOP nomination," the AP says, citing the Romney aide.

* Former Dem Sen. John Edwards will head to Des Moines, Iowa on Dec. 28 to hold a "special town hall" with locals. The visit is expected to be part of a tour of early primary states coinciding with the official announcement of his '08 intentions.

* GOP Sen. Sam Brownback touted his opposition to abortion and gay marriage as proof that he's the only true conservative in the race -- and hence, that he can win -- at a campaign stop yesterday in Spartanburg, SC.

* A group in Oregon has launched its own version of the "Draft Obama" campaign.

* Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who lost his bid for the Senate in '06, is now seeking an advisory role on a 2008 GOP campaign. Steele has been in contact with each of the GOP campaigns.

* In order to deflect questions about Dem Sen. Joe Biden's staying power in the 2008 race following Sen. Evan Bayh's exit from it, Biden's advisers made sure to leak word that he has raised $5.5 million through September, which they claim is "more new money than most would-be rivals to Clinton and Obama." Biden's aides also let it be known that he will announce an exploratory committee early in the new year.

* Dem Sen. Christopher Dodd (yes, he's thinking of running for President, too) joined other Dem hopefuls by telling reporters yesterday that "there's no need for a so-called surge of some 20,000 to 30,000 troops" in Iraq. That puts him in the company of Hillary Clinton and Tom Vilsack, both of whom have opposed an increase.

Bill Clinton once famously described George W. Bush as "strong and wrong," but now a majority of the American people sees the current President as weak and wrong. A new CNN poll finds that 51 percent of respondents think Bush isn't a "strong" leader; meanwhile, 55% say he doesn't share their values. And if being seen as weak and wrong by a majority weren't bad enough, 53% say Bush isn't honest or trustworthy. That's quite a Christmas present. We'll bring you the full poll when it's available.

First Obama, now Rudy: Giuliani has just scored a major speaking engagement in New Hampshire, agreeing to keynote the Granite State's annual Republican State Committee meeting on January 27, according to the New Hampshire GOP's web site. Rudy's scheduled speech puts him in a good position to try and impress New Hampshire GOP operatives and woo them to sign on with his candidacy. That's because anyone at the gathering, from officeholders to party activists, would be a good catch for his campaign, particularly since he lags behind his GOP rivals in building an organization. According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, which broke the story of Rudy's speech today, Giuliani was last in the state in October.

"Yes, I think a black person can be elected president."

-- Condoleezza Rice, in an interview with the Associated Press

Okay, here it is: We've just compiled our massive Election Central chart of every single staff member that's been hired on every one of the 2008 Presidential campaigns. You'll probably never hear the vast majority of them quoted, and will rarely see their names in print, if at all. But they are the ones who will largely determine -- through thousands of choices large and small -- what the 2008 Presidential race will be like. They'll help set the course of the campaign's larger narratives and subplots alike. They'll get the credit if their candidate soars -- and take the blame if he or she sinks. So you should know who they are. We'll be updating the list constantly, with every new hire, so check back whenever you like. And if we've missed anyone, let us know. Meet all of them right after the jump.

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The heavy fire conservatives are directing at Mitt Romney shows no sign of abating. Today's Boston Globe reports that at a gathering in New Hampshire yesterday Romney took a grilling about his views from conservatives in the audience, some of whom left the event even less persuaded of the authenticity of his conservativism than they'd been when they arrived.

"When I first heard his answer about his journey of becoming prolife, I began to feel better about the questions being asked of him lately," Shannon McGinley of Bedford, N.H., told the Globe. "After talking with him in person, though, it is hard to figure out what he does believe."

Romney's expected to announce his political plans in January.

The forces who are out to weaken the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reforms have won a minor victory: A U.S. District Court has just voted to relax restrictions on issue ads, the Associated Press is reporting. The judges declared that a group called Wisconsin Right to Life had the right to run ads urging people to call Senator Russ Feingold's office and oppose his stances on judicial confirmations within 60 days of his election in 2004.

McCain-Feingold was designed to nix third-party issue ads that specifically name a candidate within two months of an election. But the judges ruled that the group was justified because their ads didn't specifically mention the election.

The decision will likely be appealed. But if the group's victory holds, then expect this to become a major new avenue for ads against incumbents and possibly even challengers in the days leading up to elections.

The Chicago Sun-Times digs into the most recent Gallup poll and comes up with an interesting number: Despite relentless media coverage of Barack Obama in recent days, one-third of Americans still don't know who he is. Another 14 percent say his name "sounds familiar" but haven't formed an opinion. While that's not terribly surprising given that he's a freshman Senator, it suggests another interesting layer in the equation should he and Hillary Clinton run against each other: While impressions of Clinton are pretty well established in the minds of the vast majority of voters (though they can of course change), Obama is a completely blank slate to nearly half the electorate.

Meanwhile, Obama is on vacation in Hawaii, where he will make up his mind on whether to run, the Sun-Times reports.

It just gets worse and worse for Mitt Romney: It's now emerged that Romney actually voted for a liberal Democrat in 1992. Today's Washington Post piece on the criticism Romney's been taking from conservatives also contains the news that Romney, who was an independent in the early 1990s, voted for Tsongas in the 1992 Dem primary. That means that Romney was not only not conservative early in his career but wasn't even a moderate Republican. The man he voted for was a liberal Democrat who of course vocally supported all the things Romney now claims he's against — gay rights and abortion rights, to name just two.

Tom Vilsack, an orphan, has long said he isn't sure of his place of birth or the identity of his parents, but a key part of the mystery has just been solved for the Iowa Governor: He now knows definitively where he was born. In a meeting with the editorial board of the The Quad-City Times, Vilsack revealed that he received a letter last weekend from an administrator at a Pittsburh orphanage informing him that the institution was his place of birth — and that he was welcome to more non-identifying information about his birth parents if he wanted it. “I’m 56 years old, I didn’t know where I was born until Sunday,” Vilsack told the paper. In a poignant postscript, Vilsack also revealed that he hadn't yet decided whether or not to pursue the identity of his parents.

Here's the latest news on prospective Presidential candidates — from big names like McCain to smaller ones like Keating.

* Mitt Romney will be at two events in New Hampshire today. However, it's also been announced that there's one place he won't be in early January: his Democratic successor Deval Patrick's inaugural, which would be teeming with liberal Massachusetts residents who might boo him.

* Romney has also picked up the support of two prominent activists from the religious right: Gary Marx, executive direction of the Judicial Confirmation Network, and Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice. Does Sekulow's support mean Romney also has the support of ACLJ founder Pat Robertson?

* John McCain is busy solidifying support from establishment Republicans out West, picking up Steve Schmidt and Matt David, key political aides to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

* McCain has also brought on board Jill Hazelbaker, who served as communications director for Tom Kean's campaign in the New Jersey Senate race this year, to head up his communications effort in New Hampshire. Hazelbaker has her own "straight-talk" problems, though — relating to past questions about alleged involvement with anti-Menendez Internet posts posing as a liberal.

* Bill Richardson is now the subject of a draft letter from 70 notable Democrats in the important caucus state of Nevada — including Reynaldo Martinez, an ex-chief of staff to Harry Reid.

* Former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating is indicating that he'll decide soon on whether or not to enter. Notably, the factor that first got him thinking about the race was the downfall of George Allen, which left the GOP race without a top-tier candidate from the South.

Interested in seeing Hillary Clinton's much-talked-about appearance on "The View" for yourself? We've got the video right here.

In clip number one, she discusses Iraq and her '08 intentions:

In clip number two, Clinton answers the inevitable question about Barack Obama and talks about family and the Presidency. Take note of this interesting quote: Clinton discusses the fact that "we've never had a mother who ever ran for or held that position." (Emphasis ours.)Perhaps we're witnessing the birth of a new framing of the first-woman-for-President question: Is the country ready for a mom in the White House?

Let us know what you think.

Here's the new ad that DraftObama.org, the group trying to build up public support for a Barack Obama Presidential campaign, is now running in New Hampshire and Washington, D.C.:

The 60-second spot goes up on the air today and will run through Christmas.

Uh, oh -- more trouble with social conservatives on the horizon for Mitt Romney. As you readers know, the Presidential hopeful has been taking heavy fire from conservatives for some decade-old comments he made that were supportive of gay rights. Now there's more. Today's Washington Post weighs in with a long piece on Romney's views, and it unearths the following Romney quote from 1994: "I'm not a partisan politician," he said in an interview with The Post that fall. "My hope is that, after this election, it will be the moderates of both parties who will control the Senate, not the Jesse Helmses." That's not going to make the "Jesse Helmses" very happy, is it?

Where does Mitt Romney stand on the question of whether more troops should be sent to Iraq? He's not saying. Asked yesterday during a trip to Iowa where he stood on the possibility of an increase, Romney affirmed his support for President Bush's handling of the war, but wouldn't answer the question, the Associated Press reports. Instead, Romney took refuge in saying that the decision should be left to the commanders. "I won't get into specifics about whether it should be 18,000, 20,000 or 15,000," Romney said. "That's for the generals and those on the front line to decide."

Okay, then -- here's the question. The commanders right now are leaning against an increase. If Bush calls for a boost in troop strength -- in defiance of his generals -- what will Romney do?

Governor and Presidential hopeful Tom Vilsack is moving aggressively to grab the high-profile meat-packing plant immigration raids as a signature issue, the Des Moines Register reports today. The paper says Vilsack fired off a letter to President Bush demanding info about loved ones arrested in the raid. “To this day, the whereabouts of some of these people are still unknown,” Vilsack wrote. “Considering the hardship this has on their families, silence as to their condition is not acceptable.”

By jumping into the fray on an issue that has riveted the nation, Vilsack, who's seen as a long-shot against higher-profile Dems, is continuing with his strategy of trying to make as much news as he can before Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama eclipse him by officially entering the race. Vilsack has also sought to win attention for his candidacy by speaking out forcefully against John McCain's call for an increase in troops to Iraq.

You can read Vilsack's letter here (PDF). For chapter and verse on the immigration raids, visit TPMmuckraker, which has lots more on this ongoing story.

More family fun with Rudy: Here's another entertaining example of Giuliani's rather creative approach to describing the state of his family.

As we reported below, Rudy forgot to mention the two kids he had from a previous marriage in the bio on his brand new Presidential exploratory committee, perhaps because it would attract attention to his divorce and damage him among social conservatives.

But over at Solutions America, his political action committee, Rudy hit on another, entirely different solution to this vexing problem. As Ben Smith of The Daily Politics reports, Rudy's bio there describes him and his current wife, Judith Nathan, as "the parents of three children: Whitney, Andrew, and Caroline." Go see it for yourself.

Andrew and Caroline are the children of Rudy and his previous wife; Whitney, meanwhile, is Nathan's child by a previous marriage. As Smith notes, the PAC's description, "while true, is a strained way to put it." Indeed.

Dem Senator Frank Lautenberg will be 84 when he runs for reelection in 2008, but one potential GOP challenger has ruled out a run against him: 36-year old Rep. Mike Ferguson. PoliticsNJ reports that Ferguson, who was seen as capable of mounting a formidable challenge to the Dem Senator, has decided to take a pass on the contest for unspecified reasons. Ferguson was narrowly re-elected to a fourth term this year, representing a suburban area with a slight Republican lean. The Republicans have not won a Senate race in New Jersey since 1972, but might be working hard to find a good candidate against Lautenberg in the hopes that his age will leave him vulnerable.

California Rep. Duncan Hunter has now become the first GOP Presidential hopeful to air TV ads. But he's running them in one of the least likely of states — South Dakota.

Copley News reports that Hunter has two new spots that are set to run this weekend in the important primary states of South Carolina and North Carolina, but also in the absolutely irrelevant state of South Dakota. Hunter hasn't declared he's running yet, so rather than tout his candidacy, they promote his Peace Through Strength PAC, and give him a platform to rail against trade with China: "They're cheating on trade, and they're buying ships and planes and missiles with our money, as well as taking millions of jobs."

As Copley News reports, "Hunter's decision to air the ads in South Dakota's Rapid City media market puzzled political experts, including GOP officials in that state." Nor did Hunter's aides explain the bizarre dicision. Maybe his campaign team meant to aim them at Iowa, but missed.

Displaying more of the subtlety that has characterized John McCain's outreach to the religious right, the Arizona Senator has just hired a former executive director of the Christian Coalition to work on his growing Presidential campaign. The McCain camp sent out a release a few minutes ago touting the campaign's hiring of Glenn Clark, who was the Christian Coalition's Michigan chief from 1994-1997. And just in case anyone missed the point of the hire, Clark's job title is Michigan's "state director of Social Conservatives for McCain."

Relatedly, the McCain campaign has also hired Steve Schmidt, a top operative on President Bush's reelection campaign and on Arnold Schwarzenegger's successful run for governor of California.

Here's the latest on the movements of some of those other Presidential candidates -- you know, the ones who are not named Hillary, Barack, Rudy, or John:

* Mitt Romney is visiting Iowa today, holding a fundraiser for a candidate for Dallas County sheriff and then attending a reception with State Senator Brad Zaun.

* John Edwards is expected to visit New Hampshire next Friday, soon after his planned campaign announcement in New Orleans.

* Bill Richardson will decide next month whether to run. On the possibility of competing with Barack Obama, Richardson told the Boston Globe that he is "not among those praying he doesn't get in," and addded, "He brings a measure of excitement that is really good for us as a party, and I think the party needs a free-spirited primary."

* Former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating is visiting South Carolina today, as he explores whether or not to enter the White House race.

On Rudy Giuliani's new exploratory committee website you can find a bio of the former Mayor and current frontrunner for the GOP Presidential nomination. The bio describes his current marriage as follows: "In May of 2003, Rudy married Judith S. Nathan. Mrs. Giuliani is a registered nurse with an extensive medical and scientific background." Yet intriguingly, Rudy's bio makes no mention of the two children he had from his second marriage to Donna Hanover, who similarly goes unmentioned. More after the jump.

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Another new Gallup poll is out this morning, and it finds that President Bush's approval rating is mired at 35%. Interestingly, Gallup finds that Bush's approval numbers have dropped three points since its poll last week -- that is, when all the talk of an increase in troops to Iraq started heating up. No numbers on Iraq in this poll, though.

"I'm leaving the country if this happens."

-- Dick Morris, quoted by Newsmax on what he'll do if Hillary Clinton is elected President. What a tremendous national loss that would be.

Barack Obama hasn't even said whether he's running for President yet, but he's already won a rare endorsement from Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, who's dropped his usual tradition of staying neutral in Presidential primaries to pick Obama over Hillary Clinton, today's Sun-Times reports. The key thing to note here is that according to the Sun-Times, Obama has been working hard "for months" behind the scenes to win Daley's endorsement -- another suggestion that Obama may be getting more serious about taking the Presidential plunge.

Yep, a lot of people really, really like Rudy (most of whom probably don't know the first thing about the guy). Gallup took a look at a bunch of its recent polls and concluded that Rudy Giuliani's general favorability rating far outstrips those of all of his rivals for the Presidency -- in both parties. Gallup says Rudy's rating is 77%, well ahead of second-place finisher Condolleezza Rice, who's liked by 61% of the poll's respondents. The full list:

Rudy Giuliani, 77% Condoleezza Rice, 61% John Edwards, 54% John McCain, 54% Hillary Clinton, 53% Al Gore, 48% John Kerry 43% Barack Obama, 42% Newt Gingrich Mitt Romney, 19% Sam Brownback, 10%

Interesting footnote: Clinton checks in as the one with the largest gap between the Republican and Democratic view of her, with 86% of Dems having a favorable view of her while only 18% of Republicans do. This, Gallup says, proves that she's "clearly the most polarizing" of the group. This strikes us as a pretty narrow way of measuring something as vague as how "polarizing" a candidate is, but it's an interesting number nonetheless.

So it looks as if we won't know where the Dems are going to hold their 2008 convention until next year. Torn between New York and Denver, top Dems have postponed the decision, and DNC chair Howard Dean will make the final call in early January, the Associated Press reports. Dems are divided between the two cities for both logistical and political reasons: While Denver is seen as likely to help the Dems continue their resurgence in the West, New York has a successful track record in hosting conventions, having launched the successful Presidential campaigns of the last two Dem Presidents, Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Bill Clinton in 1992.

So I just got off the phone with Newsweek editor Jon Meacham. As noted below, the mag's big cover story on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama this week is taking a beating in the liberal blogosphere because it failed to include poll numbers taken by the mag that showed Clinton beating John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in head-to-head matchups -- numbers you'd think are relevant to the story.

Rather than include the numbers in the story, the mag released them on PR Newswire yesterday -- where they were likely to go unseen by the great majority of Newsweek readers. The Clinton camp is privately demanding an explanation from Meacham.

Now Meacham has responded to all the criticism. In his interview with me, Meacham claimed the numbers weren't included mainly because they were well over a week old, and because horse race numbers this far out are meaningless.

Asked why the numbers weren't included, Meacham said:

"We routinely poll on the horse race numbers. Whether we put them in the magazine varies from week to week. We have tended not to use horse race numbers because we are so far out."

The rest of Meacham's comments after the jump.

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A day after a new Newsweek poll showed Hillary Clinton beating John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in head-to-head matchups, a new poll just released by CNN has similar findings: It shows Clinton tying McCain and just barely edging out Giuliani in a statistical dead heat. The poll shows Clinton tied with McCain at 47%, and finds her with a two-point, statistically insignificant lead over Giuliani, 48%-46%. Most recent polls have found the two GOPers with sizeable leads over Clinton. Meanwhile, the new CNN poll also has Barack Obama trailing both Republicans by four and seven points respectively.

On the heels of the news that former Sen. John Edwards will announce his 2008 presidential bid in New Orleans this month, the former Dem Veep candidate is expected to appear in New Hampshire on Friday, Dec. 29. According to the Boston Globe's Primary Source, Edwards' advance team has "been on the ground in New Hampshire for at least two weeks."

Could the Granite State be one of the first stops on Edwards' post-announcement tour?

"She's also had colds, she's had the flu, she's had stomach aches."

— Tony Snow, responding in today's White House briefing to complaints that the White House wasn't sufficiently open with the public about Laura Bush's skin-cancer treatment.

Tom Vilsack — the funny candidate? Though the Iowa Governor is known more for droning on about farm subsidies than cracking one-liners, Vilsack made an appearance last night on The Daily Show yesterday that proved that he does sport a brisk sense of humor, albeit a low-key, deadpan one. At one point, for example, he worked in a decent crack in his description of his trip to Iraq: "When you go over there it's a scripted trip, but every once in a while there's an unscripted moment — sort of like this show." Jon Stewart rejoined, "Did you just compare our show to Iraq? Because I will have you know there are a lot of stories about this show you don't hear about: The schools I'm building." To watch the full interview, click here.

Sen. John McCain may be rapidly building campaign infrastructure for an '08 presidential run, but it now looks as if the Arizona Senator is delaying the official announcement of his candidacy until February. According to McCain sources who spoke to Fox News, McCain's postponement of the campaign kick-off includes a plan to hold off on visiting crucial primary states such as New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Iowa until February, too. The stated reason for McCain's delay? He is using the start of the new Congress to guide his decision.

Fox also reports that McCain "is aiming to create a campaign organization that will rival, and possibly surpass, that of George W. Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns." And how much cash does the Senator think he will need for that operation? Fox reports that $25 million by June and $50 million by November are his 2007 fundraising goals.

As we reported below, Newsweek magazine yesterday released a poll showing Hillary Clinton beating both John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in head-to-head matchups -- but mysteriously didn't include the stunning numbers in this week's big cover story about the electability of both Clinton and Barack Obama.

Now Clinton's advisers are demanding an explanation for the glaring omission. A source close to the Clinton camp tells Election Central that her advisers have privately requested an explanation from Jonathan Alter, the author of the piece, and from Jon Meacham, the mag's editor. The source adds that Alter has yet to respond to the Clinton camp's entreaty. Meacham, meanwhile, has responded but has yet to offer any kind of explanation, the source tells us. The Clinton people are continuing privately to press their case.

More on this coming.

This is no doubt a coincidence, but this morning John McCain released a list of New York financial heavy-hitters backing his campaign -- on the same day that Rudy Giuliani is scheduled to have a major fundraiser in New York that is effectively the kick-off event for his Presidential exploratory committee. Here are the new New Yorkers throwing their weight behind McCain:

* Lewis M. Eisenberg, former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

* Woody Johnson, owner of the Jets

* Henry R. Kravis, finance chairman for the Republican convention

* Georgette Mosbacher, a major Republican fund-raiser

* Peter G. Peterson, chairman of the Blackstone Group

* John C. Whitehead, former head of Goldman Sachs

Intriguingly, McCain adviser John Weaver didn't quite deny that the two events were linked, telling The New York Times: "There are no coincidences in life, but I would guess this would be one."

Relatedly, today's Arizona Republic reports that McCain has more effectively tapped George W. Bush's donor network than any other candidate.

"If the Republican Party wants to send the social conservatives home for good, all they have to do is nominate Rudy Giuliani."

-- Southern Baptist Minister Rick Scarborough, as quoted by The Washington Post explaining why he thinks Giuliani has no chance at the GOP nomination

Rudy Giuliani is ready to run for President and may even have begun to develop a strategy to win over social conservatives, today's Washington Post reports. In a long article assessing the socially liberal Giuliani's chances in a GOP primary, unnamed advisers lay out the game plan for the paper:

Giuliani is reticent about how he would overcome these obstacles...His strategy will be to capitalize on his status as a tough and plain-talking hero of Sept. 11, 2001. He believes, say advisers, that his tough views on national security -- he supports the USA Patriot Act -- and on Iraq, where he opposes withdrawal of troops, will overshadow his liberal social views. He will frame some of those positions as libertarian -- government has no business interfering in the bedroom.

Of course, social conservatives believe the opposite -- that government has a moral responsibility to step in and regulate behavior. Either way, it looks as if we'll soon find out if this is going to work: The Post also reports that "members of his intensely loyal inner circle said they expect him to run and campaign aggressively."

Is former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer going to run for Congress? Human Events reports that "fellow New Yorkers who know him well bet that he will make the House race in ’08" against freshman Dem John Hall, the soft-rock singer who recently ousted GOP Rep. Sue Kelly and now represents Fleischer's home of Westchester County. Fleischer's main political activity since leaving the White House was serving a stint on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition — whose campaign to brings Jews to the GOP over Israel-related issues was an abject disaster.

So Newsweek has a new poll out showing Hillary Clinton beating both John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in head-to-head matchups. The poll, which is out on the PR Newswire, finds Clinton beating McCain by an astonishing seven points, 50%-43%, and finds her besting Giuliani by one point, 48%-47%. Yet here's something curious: Both Steve Benen and Atrios have been unable to find a mention of these numbers in Newsweek's current issue -- even though its cover story is on Hillary and Obama. Why?

Is Hillary beating both John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in head-to-head matchups? Yes, according to a poll done by Newsweek which hasn't been released by the mag and has yet to be posted on its web site. Ben Smith of The Daily Politics has gotten his hands on an advance copy of the poll, and it finds Hillary beating McCain by a surprising seven points -- 50%-43%. She's besting Rudy in the poll by one point, 48%-47%. We can't recall another poll showing her beating both GOPers. Meanwhile, the poll finds Barack Obama losing to both of them. To see the full poll, go read Smith's post.

"I'm not going to believe this president again."

-- Hillary Clinton, as quoted by the Associated Press on why she won't support an increase in troops to Iraq

A new CNN poll finds that approval of President Bush's handling of Iraq is at a new low: 28 percent. His overall approval rating remains mired at 36%, and disapproval of his handling of terrorism has soared to 55% -- the first time a CNN poll has found more than half of respondents disapproving of his performance on that front. We'll bring you the full poll when it's available.

Update: Here's the full poll.

The latest on Senator Johnson's post-surgery condition from a Johnson spokesperson:

"The Senator made it through the first 72 hours and we consider this positive. The next week or so will be our next target timeline. He is resting and remains in critical, but stable condition. He is still sedated."

Meanwhile, CNN reports that the Senator has been "conscious at times" since the surgery and that his doctors are cheered because they see the "72 hour mark" as a critical threshold.

Mitt Romney is hard at work building a political army in preparation for the South Carolina primary. The Spartanburg Herald-Journal reports that Romney's team now includes top local GOP operatives such as Warren Tompkins, George Ramsey, and Terry Sullivan. The interesting dynamic here is that these three operatives all backed George W. Bush in 2000 -- meaning that they were all involved in the bitter South Carolina primary battle against John McCain, one of the nastiest fights of that Presidential election. Now they'll be working against McCain again -- only this time, they're planning to do it on behalf of Romney. More on the politics underlying all this here.

Possible Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd, appears to be open to the idea of a “troop surge” in Iraq. The Hartford Courant reports that Dodd spent the weekend in Baghdad meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani. In a conference call with reporters Dodd sounded amiable to the idea of an increase in US troops, provided that Iraqi leaders make some political progress:

"Show me some demonstrable evidence that they're coming together as a people - Shias and Sunnis, sitting down and recognizing that they have an obligation to come together as a people - then I'd be willing to support some additional people if we needed it in order to get the job done."

Dodd, a possible 2008 presidential contender, added that he was not making a pitch for extra troops the cornerstone of his Iraq strategy.

"In the absence of the demonstrable evidence of that [unity]," Dodd added, "I will not be supporting surges in troops. That's a phony argument in my view; that's just delaying the inevitable."

Although he left the door open to an increase in troops, Dodd sounded pessimistic on prospects of Iraqi unification, saying of the Sunni/Shia divide: “I almost got the impression we're more willing than they are"

Is Hillary a polarizing figure in national politics? Not according to her pollster, Mark Penn. In an interview with Ben Smith of the Daily News, Penn makes the case against that conventional wisdom, arguing that the public polls actually show that -- sit down -- she's in fact the least polarizing figure of any leading Dem. "People always say, 'Hillary can't move up' or 'Hillary is divisive,'" Penn says. "Let me tell you: These polls all show Hillary is moving up, and she has the least polarizing numbers of any of the leading Democratic figures." Skeptical? You can read Penn's full case for Hillary as uniter, not divider, here.

A few other tidbits from Hillary Clinton's appearance (referenced below) on The Today Show. Asked the inevitable question about chief Democratic Presidential rival Barack Obama, Clinton said: "He's terrific. He's a friend and a colleague. I have very high regard for him." But she sidestepped a question about whether he would make a good President.

Relatedly, Newsweek has a very long take on the Hillary-Obama rivalry here.

Hillary Clinton has spoken out today against an increase in the American troop presence in Iraq, the Associated Press is reporting. The move appears to put Clinton at least partly at odds with Dem Senator Harry Reid, who yesterday agreed to a troop increase, but only if it were tied directly to a withdrawal in 2008. The AP story quoted Clinton as follows: "I am not in favor of doing that unless it's part of a larger plan. I am not in favor of sending more troops to continue what our men and women have been told to do with the government of Iraq pulling the rug out from under them when they actually go after some of the bad guys." We're not sure what "unless it's part of a larger plan" means; it may put her closer to Reid than it looked at first glance. We're seeking clarification.

If you want to know whether or not Newt Gingrich is running for President, well, you're going to have to wait awhile to find out. In an interview yesterday on Meet the Press, Gingrich said that if he enters the Presidential race, he'll do so late and only if none of the current GOP frontrunners appear to have the nomination locked up. From his interview with Tim Russert:

GINGRICH: Romney’s had a good year. He’s emerging as a serious player. Giuliani is wildly popular for national security reasons. John McCain has built a base for years of hard work. If one them seals it off by Labor Day, my announcing now wouldn’t make any difference anyway. If none of the three having from now to Labor Day can seal it off, the first real vote is in 2008. And there’s plenty of time in the age of television and e-mail between Labor Day and 2008.

Gingrich noted that both John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan announced their candidacies late and confirmed to Russert that he wouldn't announce his plans until September.

Newt Gingrich unveils new political action committee and new "contract with America; just in case you thought he's stuck in 1994, his new-and-improved contract specifies that it's "for the 21st century"...News of Barack Obama's land deal with a shady Chicago dealmaker goes national; Obama says he regrets deal and calls self "boneheaded"...Senator Tim Johnson remains in critcal condition after surgery, though he "has appeared to improve" since the operation... California GOP Rep. and Presidential hopeful Duncan Hunter goes to Iowa to tout his own strength, shoots pheasants to prove it...and finally, in a big, big scoop, the Washington Post reports that -- drumroll, please -- Hillary is married to Bill Clinton.