Democrats are still struggling to choose between Denver and New York as the site to host their 2008 Presidential convention, and have now postponed a decision until mid-January, the Associated Press reports. While Denver is fraught with labor and logistical problems, New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is hinting that he may not be able to raise the money to host a convention, having squeezed New York donors hard for other causes in the recent past, such as the World Trade Center memorial.

Meanwhile, an interesting dynamic surrounding the convention question has taken hold in New York: It turns out that the fact that New York is home to influential Dems like Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer may not be helping the city's bid. Both Clinton and Schumer have other fundraising commitments -- Clinton is raising cash for her likely Presidential run, and Schumer continuing as chair of the DSCC. What's more, while New York is generally seen as having a track record in staging successful conventions, many Dems think Denver would be the ideal location to continue building on the Dems' dramatic gains in the west in the 2006 midterms.

So Sam Brownback's definitely in. Or so says his spokesman, who gave the following statement to the AP late yesterday: "He will be fully announcing on January 20 in Topeka, Kansas."

Brownback, a Catholic who's revered by the religious right for his adamant opposition to abortion and gay rights, will fly to Washington after his Kansas announcement to join an anti-abortion march noting the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling. Brownback, who wants voters to see him as the only "real" conservative in the race, is clearly hoping to capitalize on the troubles of Mitt Romney, who's struggled to justify his shifting positions on issues important to social conservatives.

As we previously reported, Oliver North has a new column vigorously opposing a proposed "surge" or escalation of troops in Iraq. North was very blunt, saying, "Sending more U.S. combat troops is simply sending more targets."

But check out what North had to say in his September 17, 2004 syndicated column: He blasted John Kerry for describing the troops in Iraq as "targets" — exactly the same language as North is using now. North quoted Kerry, then laid into him:

"President Bush has failed to '... take the target off American troops ...' Kerry should take a few minutes on Sunday evening to listen to some of the scores of 'American troops' I interviewed in Iraq just a few weeks ago. They tell a much better story than Dan Rather — and it would give the Massachusetts senator an idea of what combat is really like. Not one of them complains about being a 'target.' Instead, they all believe that the terrorists are the 'targets' — and explain that they would rather fight them in Iraq than here."

"Just as Congress passed legislation to help residents suffering economic losses in the wake of hurricanes throughout the South, I introduced this bill to aid ranchers in our region of the country devastated by back-to-back blizzards."

— Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-CO, comparing the damage from the recent Colorado blizzards to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in a new press release.

Keith Olbermann yesterday declared that there are "two" John McCains -- and awarded them both his coveted "worst person in the world" award on the same night. On last night's Countdown, Olbermann detailed some flip-flops and reversals performed recently by McCain. He pointed out that McCain recently said that he always knew the war was "probably going to be long and hard and tough." Then Olbermann detailed quotes from the Senator from 2002 and early 2003, in which the Senator insisted it would be "fairly easy." In a reference to the Senator's two positions on Iraq, Olbermann closed: "Senator John McCain of Arizona — both of him — today's Worst Persons In The World!"

Here are some quick updates on the Presidential candidates:

* Tommy Thompson, undoubtedly toward the back of the GOP pack, launched his Presidential exploratory Web site. And to attract some attention, he has pledged to visit Iowa at least once every week.

* John McCain has cornered the market for top GOP donors in South Carolina — the site of his key defeat by George W. Bush in 2000.

* Some bad news for Tom Vilsack: he's enough of an anonymous figure even in his home state of Iowa that people mistake his successor as Governor for him.

* Bill Richardson is heading to Sudan, where he'll try to persuade officials to allow a peacekeeping force in Darfur — and have an ample opportunity to show off his credibility on foreign policy.

* Mike Huckabee's fifth book, From Hope to Higher Ground: 12 STOPS to Restoring America's Greatness, was released yesterday. It's a safe bet that it is a more campaign-related read than his previous release, Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork : A 12-Stop Program to End Bad Habits and Begin a Healthy Lifestyle.

* Potential candidate Chris Dodd's Senate campaign site has a new feature: Asking readers to submit suggestions for new downloads to his iPod.

And on another note:

* Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel that he's open to the VP nomination. On the one hand, Salazar's presence would be a plus for attracting Latino voters, but on the other hand his open endorsement of Joe Lieberman's independent re-election bid would probably rankle the Democratic base if he were nominated.

The change of majority power in the House normally involves ceremonial handovers of objects of power from an outgoing official to his successor — but in Jim Clyburn's case, his racial sensitivities overwhelmed his desire to observe protocol. McClatchy News reports that GOP Whip Roy Blunt was supposed to publicly hand a whip to Dem Whip Clyburn to commemorate the transfer of power. But Clyburn, who's black, reportedly felt uncomfortable receiving a whip from a white man. So rather than take the whip from Blunt, Clyburn instead held a whip ceremony with former Rep. William Gray, D-PA, who preceded Clyburn in the late 1980's as the first black House Majority Whip. Clyburn's office had previously issued a press release saying the transfer would take place the usual way. A Blunt spokeswoman declined to go into detail on the matter, saying only, "you'd have to check with Mr. Clyburn's office," to find out why it ultimately didn't happen.

Did Mitt Romney's fundraising team violate campaign finance laws? That's what The Boston Globe claims today. In general, one of the first steps of a Presidential exploratory committee is to convert the infrastructure of the candidate's leadership PAC toward the main campaign. That's what the Romney team did — but the Globe alleges that it was done improperly. The paper points out that Romney's exploratory site links to a page for their National Finance Team members to log in — but that page is apparently paid for and run by his Commonwealth PAC.

This is a violation, the Globe says, because activities by the Presidential campaign, especially fundraising, should only be paid for by the exploratory committee, not the PAC.

It looks as if another wingnut tall-tale is going to go down in flames today: The story of the "lonely Kerry" photo.

For days and days now, the following photo of Senator John Kerry has been making the rounds in the conservative blogosphere:

This photo has been triumphantly pointed to by conservative bloggers who claim that it shows that Kerry was "snubbed" by the troops during a recent visit to Iraq. This story was promoted by Powerline Blog's John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson, Michelle Malkin, Instapundit, Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, and many others. To the wingers this photo demonstrated, in the words of Malkin, that "lonely John Kerry" had been "spurned by the troops in Iraq."

The wingers spent many, many hours on this photo, trying to prove its authenticity. I'm not going to dispute that it's authentic. Rather, I'm here to report that I've now contacted at least two people who say they were at the table with Kerry. And it's clear that the winger characterization of the photo is entirely bogus.

Specifically, it turns out that Kerry was at that table to conduct an off-the-record breakfast discussion with two reporters, so there would have been no reason whatsover for troops to be sitting with them. In fact, Kerry and the reporters even sought out empty seats, I'm told.

The two reporters who met with Kerry that morning are Marc Santora of The New York Times and Mark Danner of The New York Review, The New Yorker and other publications. Both Santora and Danner confimed to me that they met with Kerry -- on the morning of Dec. 17, according to Kerry's office and to Danner. (The person who posted the photo also confirmed that it was taken that morning.)

Danner confirmed to me that he's the guy with his back to the camera, saying his jacket and the back of his head looked the same as in the photo. He added that his position in relation to Kerry was the same as the photo showed. And here's what Danner had to say to me about the empty seats: "If there were empty seats it's because we sought them out. We wanted an empty table so we could talk. It's that simple."

Let me back up a sec. No question, this is a silly, trivial affair, and in a way it's embarrassing to spend so much time on it. But it's important to knock these things down whenever they come along -- and it's fun, too. More after the jump.

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It's official: Dems are coming out forcefully against a "surge" -- and calling for an end to the war. An advance copy of a letter to President Bush Democratic leaders will soon be releasing against escalation has just landed in our in-box. Dems Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi argue that "surging is a strategy that you have already tried and that has already failed." Reid and Pelosi conclude: "After nearly four years of combat, tens of thousands of U.S. casualties, and over $300 billion dollars, it is time to bring the war to a close. We, therefore, strongly encourage you to reject any plans that call for our getting our troops any deeper into Iraq...we do not believe that adding more U.S. combat troops contributes to success." Full letter after the jump.

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"A 'surge' or 'targeted increase in U.S. troop strength' or whatever the politicians want to call dispatching more combat troops to Iraq isn't the answer. Adding more trainers and helping the Iraqis to help themselves, is. Sending more U.S. combat troops is simply sending more targets."

— Oliver North, coming out against a surge/escalation of troops in Iraq in his syndicated column.

This should be interesting: Democratic leaders are planning to release a tough statement today on plans to escalate the Iraq war. Plans for the statement were first reported by The Huffington Post, which said the statement would be "laying down a marker and establishing the Democratic position" on escalation. The plans for the statement have now been confirmed to me by a leadership aide, who emailed me the following: "we are trying to get something out this AM." It's unclear as yet what exactly the statement will say. We'll keep you posted.

Update: We hear the statement is coming in about an hour.

Joe Biden said in an interview yesterday that he believes key White House officials have privately concluded that the Iraq war is lost and that they're simply trying to postpone disaster so President Bush won't "be the guy landing helicopters inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof" in a scene reminiscent of Vietnam. Biden made the comments in an interview with Washington Post.

"I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost," Biden told the paper. "Therefore, the best thing to do is keep it from totally collapsing on your watch and hand it off to the next guy -- literally, not figuratively."

Biden -- somewhat surprisingly, given his "hawkish" credentials -- has been one of the more outspoken Dems opposing plans for an escalation of the Iraq conflict. And in what appears to be at least partly a bid to boost his profile among Dem primary voters, Biden plans to use his position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to hold a series of hearings on every aspect of Iraq policy.

The three leading candidates for the GOP nomination -- Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney -- are quietly jockeying for position behind the scenes in the key primary state of New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Union Leader reports that Giuliani invited Granite State GOP activists to sip cocktails and watch the ball drop on New Year's Day from the Times Square offices of his firm, Giuliani Partners.

Meanwhile, the paper also reports that McCain's New Hampshire campaign manager, Jim Martin, has moved into an apartment in Manchester and is close to "securing a rental of about 5,600 square feet of space" to house McCain's New Hampshire operation. And the Romney camp, too, is laying the groundwork for a New Hampshire campaign: "Key New Hampshire staff" will be announced "in a few weeks."

Americans are optimistic about the Democratic Congress, even though they're generally pessimistic that it will be able to work with President Bush to solve the Iraq problem, according to a new CBS News poll. The survey finds that 68 percent say they have "optimistic feelings" about the new Congress, while 25 percent are pessimistic about it. Meanwhile, 41 percent think the Dem Congress will succeed in working with Bush on Iraq, while 51 percent think it won't. Bush's approval rating has dropped to an anemic 30 percent. Full poll here.

Just hours after walking out of the Massachusetts Governor's office and into the GOP primary, Mitt Romney unveiled a list of top fundraisers today for his Presidential exploratory committee. Here they are:

Christopher Collins, Managing Member of First Atlantic Capital, LLC, Massachusetts Mark Guzzetta, President of Gemstone Development, Florida Jon Huntsman Sr., Chairman of the Huntsman Corporation, Utah John Miller, Founding Member of National Beef Packing Company, LLC, Kansas City, Missouri John Rakolta, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Walbridge Aldinger, Michigan Ambassador Mel Sembler, Chairman of the Board of The Sembler Company and former ambassador to Italy, Australia, and Nauru, Florida Tom Tellefsen, President of Tellefsen Investments, California Ted Welch, Owner of Ted Welch Investments, Tennessee Meg Whitman, President and CEO of eBay, California

Meanwhile, The Hotline notes that the Giuliani campaign has enlisted two new communications aides: Katie Levinson, a former White House aide who was communications director for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election campaign, and Maria Comella, who's worked in Iowa as communications director for ex-Rep. Jim Nussle's gubernatorial campaign, and in New Hampshire as the state communications director for Bush-Cheney 2004.

The announcement of the hires by Giuliani seems conspicuously timed to tamp down growing chatter to the effect that the recent leak of a Rudy strategy memo signals that the campaign is woefully out of its depth. For an example, see this article in Newsweek, a piece which likely sent waves of panic through Rudy's camp, as it is just the sort of thing that can slow fundraising and make it tougher to hire quality campaign staff.

Meanwhile, Election Central's massive and comprehensive to all staffers on all the campaigns is here.

"If the President is going to stand up on his own Mount Olympus and just throw thunderbolts, he'll lose, the Congress will lose, and the American people will lose."

-- Chuck Schumer, writing on The Huffington Post on why the President needs to show genuine bipartisan cooperation with the incoming Dem Congress

It's unfortunately a slow news day for Presidential candidates — most of them are back in Washington today, actually doing their jobs. But there's still some news popping up:

* Mitt Romney took his ceremonial "lone walk" last night, and Democrat Deval Patrick was sworn in today — making Romney officially the former Governor of Masschusetts.

* Hillary Clinton was upstaged at her swearing-in today by her husband, as Bill loudly glad-handed with reporters.

* Mike Huckabee's fifth book, From Hope to Higher Ground: 12 STOPS to Restoring America's Greatness, is being released today. It's a safe bet that it is a more campaign-related read than his previous release, Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork : A 12-Stop Program to End Bad Habits and Begin a Healthy Lifestyle.

* Tom Vilsack is still working hard to nail down his home state, appearing yesterday in Sioux City.

* Tommy Thompson, undoubtedly toward the back of the GOP pack, has pledged to visit Iowa at least once every week.

* Potential candidate Chris Dodd's Senate campaign site has a new feature: Asking readers to submit suggestions for new downloads to his iPod.

And on another note:

* Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel that he's open to the VP nomination. On the one hand, Salazar's presence would be a plus for attracting Latino voters, but on the other hand his open endorsement of Joe Lieberman's independent re-election bid would probably rankle the Democratic base if he were nominated.

It looks as if Virgil Goode's attack on Rep. Keith Ellion's use of the Koran for his swearing in hasn't gone over well with at least one of his constituents: Goode's district office in Charlottesville, Virginia, was vandalized. A local paper called The Hook reports that his office window sported a curious new addition: The word "BIGOT" stenciled on it in gold paint. Interestingly, the word was very carefully stencilled on, just under his name and title and in a similar shade of gold, so as to make the word "BIGOT" look almost like an official part of his job description. Asked by the paper if it might be a reaction to his anti-Muslim comments, a Goode spokesperson declined to comment. View a picture of the vandalized office here.

Update: Hook senior editor Courtney Stuart has informed Election Central that the graffiti is not there anymore — but was there for several days straight. "Our reporter first noticed it on December 29 and it was still there the morning of Tuesday, January 2. It was removed later that day after our paper went to press," Stuart told EC by e-mail. Our original post implied that the vandalism was still there.

Senator Sam Brownback just picked up a key Iowa endorsement, one that will help him make the case that he's the only "real" conservative in the GOP primary. CNN is reporting that Kim Lehman, the current president and executive director of Iowa Right to Life, has "signed on to Brownback's upcoming Iowa leadership committee."

Brownback's new supporter wasted no time taking a veiled shot at the other GOPer who's making a bid for the same socially-conservative voters coveted by Brownback: Mitt Romney. In a statement, Lehman said: "While other candidates are in the process of defining and refining their position at the start of this campaign, Senator Brownback has been principled, consistent and unwavering in his support for the right to life."

This is, of course, a less-than-subtle dig at Romney's recent tortured flip-flopping on issues important to conservatives, such as abortion and gay rights. Game on!

The anti-war rally held at the Democratic Caucus press conference yesterday — puncuated by chants of, "Don't escalate! Investigate!" — is getting some coverage in the mainstream press. Just this morning it received exposure on MSNBC. Here's some video of it:

The low comedy continues around the "stolen" Giuliani campaign memo. Here's the latest: The Rudy camp is now saying that it emphatically doesn't believe that aides to GOP Florida Governor Charlie Crist are behind the caper.

Yesterday, however, the Rudy camp appeared to be suggesting just that.

Today's New York Times quotes Rudy's campaign as follows:

“We have no question that whatever happened had nothing to do with Governor Crist or his staff,” said the statement from Anthony Carbonetti, a senior political adviser to Mr. Giuliani. “The mayor has the highest regard for Governor Crist.”

Yesterday's New York Post, however, reported:

Suspicion ran high yesterday that Rudy Giuliani's lost White House campaign playbook was swiped by aides to Florida's new governor -- while the ex-mayor was helping him win election, sources told The Post...

But operatives outside Giuliani's camp said the book was taken during a campaign swing for Crist -- a Republican, like Giuliani -- whose inauguration to replace Jeb Bush as Florida's governor took place yesterday.

Note the artful wording: "Sources" and "operatives outside Giuliani's camp" fingered aides to Crist. But come on -- is there anybody "outside" Giuliani's camp that would have any inkling whatsoever who took the dossier, aside from the thieves themselves?

It's obvious that Rudy's aides fingered Crist's aides to the Post on condition that they were described as being "outside" Rudy's camp, in order to cover their tracks. Now, all of a sudden, Rudy's aides are backing off the claim. And no word yet on who they do suspect now.

Lamer and lamer.

Barack Obama continued with his efforts to present himself as "post-partisan" today, publishing an Op-ed piece in this morning's Washington Post that warned Democrats that they'd better get serious about ethics reform now that they're in the majority.

Obama opines that it would be a "mistake" to conclude that the Election Day routing of the GOP was a message that "was intended for only one party or politician. The votes hadn't even been counted in November before we heard reports that corporations were already recruiting lobbyists with Democratic connections to carry their water in the next Congress."

Obama concludes: "The truth is, we cannot change the way Washington works unless we first change the way Congress works. On Nov. 7, voters gave Democrats the chance to do this. But if we miss this opportunity to clean up our act and restore this country's faith in government, the American people might not give us another one."

Obama's full Op-ed is here.

Senator Tim Johnson's condition following emergency brain surgery has improved steadily, but his recovery is expected to take months and his long term prognosis is unclear, the Associated Press reports. Johnson's lead surgeon says in a statement that he "continues to be responsive to both his family and physicians -- following commands, squeezing his wife's hand, and understanding speech." Meanwhile, doctors hope to remove the ventilator completely within the next week and then will test his speech, Johnson's spokesperson adds.

Oh, man -- first CNN, now Yahoo News. As you know, CNN has apologized to Barack Obama for putting his name on a picture of Osama Bin Laden. Now Yahoo News has committed the opposite blunder: On their photo page, the caption on their photo of Obama reads, "Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida."

Hat tip: Corey Anderson at American Idle.

Click through on Yahoo's photo of "Osama bin Laden" and you get this:

The subject heading above the photo of Obama is still "Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida" -- which is pretty funny, especially considering that off to the right, you can see a link to a story about CNN making the same mistake. But hey, at least on this one they got the caption right.

Great Moments in Fox News. Most self-described journalists aren't proud of the softball questions they've lobbed at politicians at various points in their career — but Fred Barnes apparently is. While discussing the Gerald Ford years on Fox as the memorial motorcade went through Washington, Barnes positively bragged about a day in 1975 when then-White House Correspondent Barnes asked the ultimate in softball questions of President Ford: To what did Ford attribute his increase in popularity? With no irony whatsoever, Barnes then gushed that Ford had hit his question "out of the park, giving himself credit for a lot of things, most of which he deserved." Hume replied sarcastically, "What the matter with you, Barnes? You're supposed to be tough!" To watch the video, click here.

Hillary Clinton views Barack Obama as her primary rival for the Democratic nomination for President, but she believes that the threat of Obama will "diminish," according to Democratic sources who spoke to The New York Times. The piece, which was just posted on the Times's web site, reports that Clinton has been holding extensive consultations with Democratic leaders in key primary states and elsewhere, and says that Dems who have met with her describe her as "leaving little doubt that she plans to run, without saying so directly." The paper adds that the sources say that she views Obama "as her biggest obstacle to the nomination, but that she believed the threat of his candidacy will diminish as voters learn how inexperienced he is in government and foreign affairs."

As Al Franken is publicly mulling a bid for the Senate from Minnesota in 2008, his latest public pronouncements on the Iraq war sound more and more like the words of an active candidate. In a column published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Franken discusses his latest trip to Iraq with the USO. Franken explains that in addition to simply entertaining the troops, he's used his trips to talk to troops, JAG officers and others on the ground in order to learn more about the complexities of the situation. In one key paragraph, Franken employs the standard device of discussing an encounter with specific individuals — in this case, attending a memorial service for a dead soldier — and the feeling that, "More than anything, I didn't want there to be even one more widow made to raise three girls who'd lost their dad."

Should Franken run — and this column is certainly an indication that he'll do it — expect his candidacy to be based solidly on opposition to the Republicans' record on the war.

Here are some quick updates on the latest movements of some of the 2008 Presidential hopefuls:

* Tom Vilsack, campaigning in his home state of Iowa last night, summed up his image — and his lack of star power in comparison to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — in one perfect sentence: "I’m not a rock star, but I’m rock solid."

* John Edwards, who's making a strong bid to be the leading populist candidate in the Dem primary field, says that universal health care would be a greater priority for him as President than deficit reduction.

* Mitt Romney filed papers today creating his exploratory committee for President. He added that "the process is moving forward on that front." Romney also has scheduled a big fundraiser in Boston this coming Monday.

* Dennis Kucinich has scheduled his first trip to New Hampshire for his second Presidential campaign. He will be in the state in early February.

* Barack Obama has received a public apology from CNN for on-screen text of "Where's Obama?" to accompany a story about Osama bin Laden.

Hillary Clinton may have more than $10 million on hand after raising and spending an astonishing amount of money on her reelection campaign -- but that hasn't stopped her from shaking up her fundraising operation in preparation for a possible run for President. The Politicker blog reports that six of her fundraising staff members are no longer there, and her top fundraiser, Jonathan Mantz, is looking to hire two "mid-Atlantic" finance directors. The Politicker speculates that the shake up could either reflect natural post-election staff turnover or Mantz's desire to bring in his own team. No word yet from Camp Hillary on any of this.

"I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear. The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that."

-- Pat Robertson, quoted by the Associated Press explaining that God told him a terrorist attack is imminent (via Tapped)

Today's New York Post adds still more detail to the story about Rudy Giuliani's leaked campaign memo. But if anything, the new info makes the Rudy camp's explanation appear even more questionable, not less.

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This morning, The Washington Post put the news that Barack Obama did coke decades ago on its front page. The Post's source? Obama's 11-year-old memoir, Dreams from my Father. The Post story's first paragraph quotes Obama writing the following: "Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man."

The paper justifies its high-profile front-page treatment of something that's been publicly known for many years by casting it this way: "Obama's revelations were not an issue during his Senate campaign two years ago. But now his open narrative of early, bad choices, including drug use starting in high school and ending in college, as well as his tortured search for racial identity, are sure to receive new scrutiny." It will now, anyway.

It's getting harder and harder to keep track of the Giuliani camp's story on the leak of a campaign memo laying out Rudy's fundraising and political plans. The Rudy campaign's been trying to change this embarrassing story into one in which it's playing the victim rather than the buffoon by alleging that the document was stolen. But something doesn't add up.

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Rudy Giuliani's campaign -- stung by the embarrassing leak of a campaign memo laying out his fundraising and political plans -- is now claiming that the document was stolen. The Associated Press reports:

Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel claimed it was actually pilfered from luggage from a private flight.

"This wasn't left in a hotel," Mindel told The Associated Press. "This is clearly a dirty trick. The voters are sick and tired of this kind of thing."

Mindel said that while working on the 2006 campaign trail, a Giuliani aide lost a piece of luggage containing the paper.

"After repeated requests over the course of a few days, the bag was finally returned with the document inside. Because our staffer had custody of this document at all times except for this one occasion, it is clear that the document was removed from the luggage and photocopied," she said.

This explanation, of course, raises more questions than it answers. If this doc was "stolen" from a piece of luggage, who stole it? An airline baggage handler? Why would an airline baggage handler be interested in this document -- unless, of course, the baggage handler was also moonlighting for the campaign of one of Rudy's rivals?

Recall that the News reporter who broke the story, Ben Smith, wrote that the source who provided the doc was "sympathetic" to a rival candidate. How did the doc find its way from whoever "stole" the document from the lost bag to a rival's supporter?

What's more, let's look at Mindel's claim that the fact that this doc was in possession of the campaign staffer at all times except when it was missing proves that this is how it leaked. The only way this could constitute proof of this scenario is if there were only one copy out there of this memo. Are we really to believe that there's only a single copy of this memo in circulation?

And finally, if this document was stolen, has the Giuliani camp filed a criminal complaint of some kind? And against whom?

We're seeking answers to these questions. Stay with us.

Here's one thing Dems can take solace in as they prepare to take control of Congress: Voters overwhelmingly support their goals. A new Associated Press-AOL poll finds that the public strongly backs two key Dem objectives: Raising the minimum wage and taking governmental steps to make it easier to buy prescription drugs from foreign countries. A full 80 percent of the poll's respondents favor a minimum wage hike, while nearly seven in 10 favor action on prescription drugs. Some 56 percent also favor the key Dem goal "easing restrictions on using federal money to pay for research on embryonic stem cells." Meanwhile, voters haven't yet rendered any kind of verdict on incoming House leader Nancy Pelosi: Well over half say they don't know enough about her to form an opinion.

In today's big New York Times piece on the unraveling of President Bush's Iraq strategy, unnamed White House officials are quoted claiming that Bush lost confidence in General George Casey over the past year or so. So we thought it would be interesting to go back and see what sort of things Bush and company were saying about Casey during that same period. And wouldn't you know it, but we found repeated examples of Bush and Dick Cheney praising Casey to the skies! Of course, it's not terribly surprising to find these guys lying again, but this contradiction's so egregious -- so easily exposed -- that you almost have to marvel at the audacity of it. Either they were lying then, or they're lying now -- and our vote is for "now." Check out all the details after the jump.

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Mitt Romney's last priority in office has been to get an amendment against gay marriage on his state's ballot in 2008 — a move that would certainly impress national GOP primary voters. Despite his repeated failures to force action, it appears the effort has won for now. The Boston Globe reports that 61 legislators — more than the minimum 50 out of 200 needed in order to validate the petitions that have already circulated statewide — voted to send the amendment to the people in 2008. However, this is only a first vote; it will need a similar vote in the next legislative session. And with Governor-Elect Deval Patrick opposed to the amendment and having lobbied the legislature against it, the debate will still be ongoing in Massachusetts after Romney leaves. In the end, Romney's final triumph in Massachusetts could potentially go nowhere after he's gone.

John McCain's transformation from outsider candidate in 2000 to establishment favorite for 2008 continues — and the latest signs of it are now clear in the most unlikely of states: South Carolina. McClatchy News reports that McCain will unveil this week his state finance committee in South Carolina, and it will include several prominent businessmen who supported George W. Bush in 2000. South Carolina, of course, was the site of Bush's brutally negative campaign against McCain in 2000, a defeat that many analysts think ended McCain's candidacy. The fact that McCain is making gains among, of all people, South Carolina establishment Bush backers suggests that the Senator's pro-escalation stance is succeeding in turning him into the candidate of choice for the pro-Bush money crowd.

One of the more revealing things in the leaked Giuliani campaign memo we wrote about below is the extent to which it reveals the Giuliani camp plotting to steal away John McCain's top donors. According to the Daily News's big scoop on the memo today, it says:

The detailed fund-raising plans depict a campaign scrambling to catch up with the organizational advantage of Giuliani's Republican rivals, particularly Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Some of the leading figures in American business and finance appear as the "prospective leadership" of Giuliani's campaign, and their names appear elsewhere with instructions for Giuliani to call and seek their support. Two of the top figures on Giuliani's list, New Jersey mega-fund-raisers Lew Eisenberg and Larry Bathgate, have already signed on with McCain, as has another Giuliani target, FedEx CEO Fred Smith.

In a memo that appears in the dossier, Giuliani aides Dickerson and Roy Bailey urge him to court financier Henry Kravis particularly avidly.

"You need him to be a Wall Street industry leader," the memo says.

McCain announced Kravis' support last month.

Now a McCain aide has taken a shot back at Rudy over the memo. Asked by The Politicker blog what he thought of the leak, top McCain strategist John Weaver says he was stunned by the Giuliani camp's slip-up. "There is nothing in there that is particularly surprising to me other than the nature by which it became public," Weaver tells The Politicker, adding that the moral of the whole affair is: "Don't put pen to paper."

Rudy Giuliani has just suffered his first major setback of the Presidential race: A detailed dossier laying out his fundraising and political plans for a Presidential campaign has just been revealed by the Daily News's Ben Smith:

It's clearly laid out in 140 pages of printed text, handwriting and spreadsheets: The top-secret plan for Rudy Giuliani's bi