Report: Romney The Richest Presidential Candidate
The Associated Press reports that Mitt Romney's campaign is expected to report financial assets of the candidate between $190 million and $250 million. This would make by far the richest candidate in the current Presidential field — by contrast, John Edwards' net worth is estimated at between $12.8 million and $60 million as of 2003, the last year for which data was available, and John McCain's is estimated at $20-32 million. Romney has already loaned his campaign over $2 million, and could potentially tap even more for the campaign if necessary.

Romney Invokes The Bible In Discussion Of Gay Marriage
The Associated Press reports that Mitt Romney cited the Bible in an interview with "60 Minutes," set to air Sunday night, in talking about his opposition to gay marriage. "This isn't just some temporary convenience here on Earth, but we're people that are designed to live together as male and female and we're gonna have families," Romney said. "And that, there's a great line in the Bible that children are an inheritance of the Lord and happy is he who has or hath his quiver full of them."

McCain Camp Fires New Hampshire Campaign Manager
The Associated Press reports that staff shake-ups continue in the McCain campaign, with veteran McCain operative Jim Martin being fired as New Hampshire campaign manager, and replaced by former Vermont Republican Party chairman Jim Barnett.

Fred Thompson Speaking To Council for National Policy
The Hotline reports that Fred Thompson is speaking today at closed meeting of the Council for National Policy, a conservative activist organization founded in 1981 by Christian Right leader Tim LaHaye, best known to the public at large as co-author of the Left Behind novels.

Grassley Aide Attacks Obama — Feuding Continues Over Veto and Phone Calls
The Des Moines Register reports that Beth Levine, press secretary for Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), criticized Barack Obama for continuing to call on Iowans to contact Grassley's office and urge him to change his votes on Iraq, along with more general calls for all Americans to contact their pro-Administration Congressmen and Senators. Levine said that Obama's move against Grassley is pointless, since there are not enough votes in the House to overturn a veto. "Sen. Obama might want to sign up for American Government 101 to learn about the veto process," Levine said. "Or, he could learn the job he has in the U.S. Senate before thinking he ought to be President."

Booker Endorses Obama
The New York Times reports that Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker, a moderate Democrat considered to be the most prominent black elected official in the state, has endorsed Barack Obama. "I think Hillary is an excellent candidate, and I believe the same about a number of Democratic contenders," said Booker, who had left the press speculating about whether he would endorse Clinton or Obama. "But I really believe Obama has a rare opportunity in our history to be a prophetic voice for change in America. I think after years of America being divided, he has the ability to bring us together around our common ideals and our greatest aspirations."

Ron Paul Gets Endorsement From New Hampshire Pro-Life Activist
Ron Paul has picked up a prominent endorsement in New Hampshire, The Boston Globe reports. Barbara Hagan, a pro-life activist and former state Representative from Manchester, has endorsed Paul and will organize outreach for his campaign to the pro-life community.

Kucinich's Cheney Impeachment Bid Picks Up Fourth Co-Sponsor
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Dennis Kucinich's proposed articles of impeachment against Vice Pres. Dick Cheney have picked up a fourth co-sponsor. Rep. Al Wynn (D-MD), who has received a close primary challenge in his home district because of his past support for the Iraq War, has signed on with Kucinich's anti-Cheney initiative. The two other co-sponsors with Kucinich and Wynn are William Lacy Clay (D-MO) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).

Senator John McCain put in a personal call today to an Iowa woman that was snubbed by Rudy Giuliani's campaign, asking to meet with her and apologizing to her on "behalf of all politicians," the woman told me this evening.

"John McCain personally called me -- today, this afternoon," the woman, Deb VonSprecken, told me. "Wow. He said, `I want to come and meet you.'"

As we reported yesterday, Deb and her husband, Jerry vonSprecken, had gone to great pains to organize a political event for Rudy on the Giuliani campaign's request. But according to the local Anamosa Journal-Eureka, the Rudy campaign canceled the event once it learned that the VonSprecken family were not millionaires -- meaning that they were not suitable for the Rudy camp's anti-"death tax" campaign purposes.

In his call to Deb, McCain apologized to her on the Rudy campaign's behalf and asked if he could come see her, the woman says. "He apologized on behalf of all politicians," she told me. "He just apologized in general. He was really sweet. I recognized his voice from TV. He was very, very polite, funny."

In asking to come visit with her, "He started teasing me and saying, `We're doing a security check. I'm homing in on satellite,'" Deb tells me. "I said, `No, no, don't do it.' We were laughing. It was incredibly nice."

Apparently, Deb's experience with the Rudy campaign -- her giddy anticipation of his visit, followed by the harsh letdown that followed -- was so jarring that she turned down McCain's request for a visit. For now, anyway.

"I said, `No go, I'm not doing it again,'" she told me. "He can call me if he's in the area, but no go as far as any kind of meeting goes. I'm not doing it again."

After she spoke to McCain, "his people called me and asked if he called and I confirmed Yes," she said. "They wanted to let me know that they were not going to do anything to stress me out further." They suggested the possibility of a private meeting in the future, she says.

Her overall take on McCain's call: "I found it incredible."

I've put in a request for comment to McCain's campaign -- I'll keep you posted.

Update: The Rudy campaign's original snub of the VonSpreckens is the lead story today in the Des Moines Register (though they don't have the stuff about McCain's call).

When will the national political press corps pay attention to this story? Can anyone imagine the media attention that would rain down on this little corner of Iowa if John Edwards had done this?

Update II: Ana Marie Cox has an astute line today about this story:

Undoubtedly, the McCain campaign is attempting to turn Rudy's mistake into a net gain for them -- apologizing "on behalf of all politicians" is the kind of platitude usually reserved for Clintonesque feeling of others' pain -- but the old guy at least has the decency to treat the snubbed woman like a human and not a piece of scenery.

Yeah, seriously.

• Rudy Giuliani faced up to his social liberalism today, telling the conservative crowd at Houston Baptist University that he is pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and pro-gun control: "I should honestly tell you the things that I can evolve on and the things that I can’t and then you should decide."

• Barack Obama spoke to the Federation of State and Provincial Firefighters Association convention in New Hampshire — but by phone, from Iowa. In fact, he even said that he chewed out his staff for the scheduling conflict that put him in this position.

• Obama also reiterated his call in Iowa for Americans to call their Congressmen and Senators and urge them to vote against Bush Administration policies on Iraq — after the state's Republican Senator, Chuck Grassley, directly criticized Obama for it and called him "not Senatorial."

• Mitt Romney is apparently changing his story on whether or not he actively sought a draft deferment during the Vietnam War — he now says he felt a crisis of conscience over the deferment he received in order to go on his Mormon mission work.

• The Associated Press estimates that John Edwards' social program proposals would cost over $125 billion per year.

• One reason that Fred Thompson is not in a rush to declare a candidacy: He thinks modern campaigns are too long and expensive.

• The New Jersey Republican Party is on the verge of enacting a rule change so that their February 5 primary will be winner-take-all — a move that is viewed as being meant to help Rudy Giuliani amass all 52 delegates from the state.

• According to a poll taken in March, only 25% of American Latinos knew that Bill Richardson is a Latino running for President.

• At the firefighters' convention in New Hampshire, Joe Biden expressed his gratitude for the firemen who saved his sons from dying in the 1972 car accident that killed his first wife and daughter: "I wouldn't be a United States senator were it not for the Delaware firefighters. That's no malarkey, that's flat-out no malarkey."

• John McCain will go to the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 race in North Carolina on May 27, where he will be the race's honorary starter.

• Congressman Scott Garrett (R-NJ) will co-chair the exploratory committee of conservative Assemblyman Michael Doherty, a potential opponent of Dem Senator Frank Lautenberg in 2008.

• Al Sharpton is taking a beating from Mormons, who are outraged at his comments about Mitt Romney. Now even Marie Osmond is calling his remarks bigoted.

Is this a first? Mitt Romney isn't pandering to religious right voters or flip-flopping on an issue important to them in this interview, in which he reveals that he opposes the teaching of intelligent design:

"I believe that God designed the universe and created the universe," Mr. Romney said in an interview this week. "And I believe evolution is most likely the process he used to create the human body."

He was asked: Is that intelligent design?

"I’m not exactly sure what is meant by intelligent design," he said. "But I believe God is intelligent and I believe he designed the creation. And I believe he used the process of evolution to create the human body."

While governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Romney opposed the teaching of intelligent design in science classes.

"In my opinion, the science class is where to teach evolution, or if there are other scientific thoughts that need to be discussed," he said. "If we’re going to talk about more philosophical matters, like why it was created, and was there an intelligent designer behind it, that’s for the religion class or philosophy class or social studies class."

How about that?

An interesting moment in Joe Klein's piece on Hillary in Time mag:

I once asked a well-known general if there were any Democrats running for President who understood the way military leaders think, and he said, "You mean, aside from Hillary?"

Dick Cheney in a speech today to American servicemen:

“I want you to know that the American people will not support a policy of retreat,” Mr. Cheney said. “We want to complete the mission, we want to get it done right, and then we want to return home with honor.”

But poll after poll after poll finds...

...oh, never mind. You know the drill.

Sobering news for the Dem Congress? A new AP-Ipsos poll finds Bush's approval rating mired at 35% -- but also finds Congress' approval number stuck at exactly the same level, a drop of five points since last month. A Dem spokesman explains things by saying that "voters are frustrated by the fact that the president refuses to change direction on Iraq."

The internals of the poll aren't available yet, but one explanation of this may be that Dems aren't doing a good enough job explaining to the public that there's little Congress can do short of defunding the war to force the commander in chief to change course. The numbers suggest that perhaps the public is assigning similar levels of blame to Bush and Congress for the failure to change our Iraq policies.

In one bright spot for Dems, the poll also found that Nancy Pelosi's approval rating is holding steady at 45%, 10 points higher than that of Bush.

Update: Commenter Redshift X points out that this Congress approval number doesn't break out what the public thinks of Republicans and what it thinks of Dems. Indeed. Other polls I've seen show a higher approval number for Congressional Dems than for Congress as a whole -- suggesting that it's at least possible that Congress' numbers are being dragged down by the GOPers. Let's hope the internals give us a breakdown.

Update II: The internals are here. No breakdown, unfortunately.

Here's a list of the "moderate" Republican members of Congress who made a big show of parading into President Bush's office a few days ago to inform him that the American public wants out of Iraq:

Charles W. Dent, Pennsylvania Tom Davis, Virginia Ray LaHood, Illinois John Boehner, Ohio Fred Upton, Michigan Mark Kirk, Illinois Jim Gerlach, Pennsylvania James T. Walsh, New York Jo Ann Emerson, Missouri Jim Ramstad, Minnesota Mike Castle, Delaware Todd Platts, Pennsylvania

Guess how many of them voted yesterday for the House short-term bill that would tie funding to progress of the war? Exactly zero.

This isn't all that surprising, and doesn't say a great deal, but it does remind us that we shouldn't take the protestations of these GOP moderates all that seriously until they actually do something in practice, anything at all, to rein in this President and his war.

Update: It's worth adding that there may be a very good reason those GOPers leaked word of the "private" meeting with Bush: It sent a message back to their districts saying, in effect, that they're working hard to get this President to see reality -- really they are!

House Passes Two-Month Funding Bill
The House of Representatives passed a two-month Iraq funding bill last night, by a margin of 221-205. The Democratic Caucus lost only 10 members on the vote — almost all of them from the left wing, who object to any continued funding of the war at all. The Bush Administration has indicated that it will veto the measure, on the grounds that funding the war for only two months is a limitation on the President's authority. The Washington Post has more information.

White House Chews Out House GOP Critics For Talking To The Press
The Hill reports that two House Republicans were personally reprimanded by Bush Administration officials for talking to the press about their meeting with the Administration on Wednesday, in which they discussed the damage being done to the GOP by the President's Iraq policies, and the resulting divisions in the country. Dan Meyer, the President's liason to the House, reproached Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL), while Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) was castigated by Karl Rove himself.

Romney Speaks Before Massachusetts Pro-Life Group
The Boston Globe reports that Mitt Romney spoke before Massachusetts Citizens For Life last night, accepting an award and calling himself a "convert" to the pro-life cause. "I am evidence that your work, that your relentless campaign to promote the sanctity of human life bears fruit," Romney said. Pioneer Valley chapter president Kevin Jourdain said Romney's donation of $15,000 to the Boston chapter did not influence the decision to give him an award, as it was the Pioneer Valley chapter that made the decision.

Michelle Obama Leaving Job To Campaign Full Time
The Washington Post reports that Michelle Obama will be leaving her position as vice president of community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals, marking the first time that the professional working mother will be without formal employment in her adult life. "It's a bit disconcerting," Mrs. Obama said. "But it's not like I'll be bored."

Massachusetts Republicans Critical Of Romney
The Hill reports that some high-ranking Republicans in Massachusetts are upset with Mitt Romney for having made the state GOP worse off than when he found it. After his tenure as Governor, the party's registration was down by tens of thousands, and they were over $100,000 in debt — all while Romney was travelling the country and building his own national profile. "The last two years of his term, he was really running for president," said GOP State Treasurer Brent Andersen, who is supporting John McCain. "His first two years he did give it a go, and then he gave up on us."

McCain Steps Up Fundraising
CNN reports that John McCain's campaign is ramping up their fundraising efforts for this quarter, with a tour of at least 12 high-dollar fundraisers scheduled for this month, with attendees required to contribute the maximum primary donation of $2,300 and/or pledge to raise even more from others.

Romney Acknowledges Polygamous Ancestors
CNN reports that Mitt Romney, in a "60 Minutes" interview set to air on Sunday, acknowledged and condemned the past tradition of polygamy within the Mormon church."I have a great-great grandfather. They were trying to build a generation out there in the desert and so he took additional wives as he was told to do," Romney said. "And I must admit I can't imagine anything more awful than polygamy."

Tancredo Uses Fort Dix Arrests As Basis For Fundraising E-Mail
The Hotline reports that Tom Tancredo's Presidential campaign used the arrests of the alleged Fort Dix attack conspirators as an occasion to send out a fundraising e-mail. From the e-mail: "If the President, 'open borders' supporters in Congress and the other presidential candidates have their way, future terrorists will keep coming into our country ... and once they’re here, they will be eligible for a 'path to citizenship!'"

• The straight up-or-down vote on whether to end the war in nine months just went down to defeat in the House, 255-171. The vote on the short-term funding bill is set for tonight.

• Rudy Giuliani will give a speech next week in which he will outline his pro-choice position in greater detail.

• Ben Smith reports that John Edwards is doing some pretty aggressive money poaching on Barack Obama's Chicago turf.

• Barack Obama and John McCain reportedly left the crowd at March's International Association of Fire Fighters forum feeling underwhelmed.

• Mitch McConnell says the Democrats would like 2008 to be another referendum on Iraq, as was 2006 — and Republicans don't want that to happen.

• Fred Thompson is reportedly retooling his stump speech after going over flat in California last week.

• Chuck Todd wonders if the Feb. 5 national primary will be meaningless — with the nominations being decided in Iowa and New Hampshire, as usual.

• Rudy Giuliani's consulting firm served as a key adviser to pharmaceutical firm Purdue Frederick, which has pled guilty for misleading doctors and patients about the risks of addiction to OxyContin.

• If Florida goes ahead with its plans for a Jan. 29 primary in defiance of national party rules, Democratic officials are considering awarding no delegates at all that day — rendering the votes of Democratic primary-goers completely non-binding — instead dividing up the state's Democratic delegates at a later date

• John McCain said the White House should veto a two-month Iraq funding bill — joining the White House's already-stated position that funding should only be in the form of long-running clean/blank-check bills.

• Nine Iraq War protesters were arrested for refusing to leave the Manchester district office of Sen. John Sununu (R-NH).

• Rep. Shelly Moore Capito, the lone Republican in West Virginia's Congressional delegation and the state's top-ranking GOP'er, will not challenge Dem Senator Jay Rockefeller in 2008.

• Mike Huckabee's most recent music purchase is an odd choice for a middle-aged Southern conservative: Goth rock band Evanescence, who are Arkansas natives.

• Dave Obey is not apologizing for blowing up at Dennis Kucinich over Iraq funding, and whether or not Iraq's oil would be privatized. "I told him to read the goddamn language," Obey said. "If someone's ears are too tender for that language, that's too bad. I did it on purpose."

• This may be a famous first: Al Sharpton is seeking a meeting with somebody — namely Mitt Romney — in order to give an apology for bigoted remarks!

Toward the end of Ben Smith's must-read rundown today on the Internet and free speech issues, there's an interesting tidbit about Jeff Lord, the co-creator of QubeTV, the right's anti-YouTube.

It seems Lord had to repeatedly remove a video inciting the assassination of Barack Obama:

"It was still pictures about Barack Obama, and it had a picture of him. They had a target drawn on his head, and the F-word and the N-word, saying he needs to be assassinated," said Lord.

He said he removed the video four times, though he didn't report it to the authorities.

"Finally, I e-mailed (the video's creator) that it's a federal offense to threaten the life of a United States senator," he said.

So QubeTV's co-creator was confronted with repeated and graphic threats to Obama's life and he didn't call the cops?

Doesn't seem like it. Check out Smith's piece for yourself right here.

Nancy Pelosi's reaction to Bush's willingness to negotiate "benchmarks":

“The President has long said he supports benchmarks; what he fails to accept is accountability for failing to meet those benchmarks. Benchmarks without consequences and enforcement are meaningless, a blank check."

Pretty much.

President Bush informed us earlier today that, yes, he is open to negotiating benchmarks to assess things in Iraq.

But what's the point of benchmarks if there are no consequences for not meeting them?

Harry Reid's response, just out:

“While we welcome the President’s comments today, a bipartisan majority of Congress has already concluded that we need more than simple benchmarks without any consequences to accomplish this goal.

“In addition to fully funding the troops, Congress believes the best way to change course in Iraq is to redeploy our forces from Iraq; refocus the mission of the remaining forces on security, training and counter-terror operations; launch a diplomatic, economic and political offensive; and hold Iraq accountable, including meaningful benchmarks for the Iraqi government and security forces -- and consequences if they do not.”

Bush will almost certainly veto any bill with any meaningful consequences for not meeting benchmarks that even he agrees to. That's where we are now.

Did Rudy Giuliani snub an Iowa farmer's family because he isn't a millionaire?

Check out this unbelievable story from the Anemosa Journal-Eureka in Jones County, Iowa:

OLIN–Last weekend Deb and Jerry VonSprecken of Olin received a call from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s campaign office asking them if they would be interested in holding a campaign rally on May 4, after she had donated to his campaign.

“We thought it would be an honor and agreed,” said Jerry.

Deb and Jerry then set about doing a bunch of work t organize the event. They underwent a security check and called a bunch of local friends and acquaintances and proudly invited them to event.

But then...

On Tuesday Deb received a call from Giuliani’s Des Monies office and was asked to call New York.

“They wanted to know our assets,” she revealed, and added that she and Jerry have a modest 80 acre farm and raise cattle.

Later she received a call from Tony Delgado at the Des Monies location.

“Tony said, ‘I’m sorry, you aren’t worth a million dollars and he is campaigning on the Death Tax right now.’ then he said they weren’t going to be able to come,” Deb continued.

The Death Tax is a federal version of the Iowa Inheritance Tax.

The VonSpreckens then called Delgado back and told him how upset they were that the event had been cancelled, how much work they had done and that they had been expecting 75-100 people at their farm.

“I invited him into my home,” Deb said of Giuliani, fighting back tears.

Best of all, the campaign called them back later that day and offered them the priceless opportunity to get their picture taken with Rudy -- something that the family dismissed as an effort to "cover their butts." Think perhaps the campaign was hoping they wouldn't go to the media, or something?

A Giuliani campaign spokesperson declined to comment to the paper on the canceled event. In other words, no denial.

Question: Does anyone doubt that if John Edwards or any other Dem did this it would be covered by all the major networks and chewed over endlessly by cable chat-show hosts for days and days and days?

A senior Democratic aide tells us that the short-term Iraq funding bill is likely to get the support of at least as many conservative Blue Dog Dems that backed the last Dem House Iraq bill.

There's been some concern swirling in the blogosphere that many conservative Dems are preparing to bail on today's bill. So we checked in with a senior Dem aide to ask whether Dems are expecting to lose more Blue Dogs than they did last time. The aide writes: "Not any more than we lost before."

Last time 36 of 44 Blue Dogs voted with the Dem leadership. On top of that, the aide tells us that leadership may actually pick up two more who voted against last time -- Lincoln Davis and John Barrow.

That would bring it to 38 out of 44 Blue Dogs voting for the bill.

Update: Looks like Barrow's leaning towards a Yes. "The bill in its current form, he is leaning towards," Barrow spokesperson Harper Lawson tells us. That's one convert.

As noted below, there's some worry swirling that conservative Blue Dog Dems are preparing to break ranks and not vote for the short-term Iraq spending bill — and we're calling around to try to nail down their positions. Here are a few quick updates:

1) New York Rep. Steve Israel plans to vote for the bill, his communications director, Meghan Dubyak, tells us.

2) Louisiana Rep. Charlie Melancon will vote yes as well, according to press secretary Robin Winchell — in part because the bill also contains $6.8 billion for Gulf Coast disaster relief.

3) Conservative Georgia Rep. Jim Marshall, who voted against the previous timetable bill, is leaning towards a yes vote. "Right now he doesn't have any objection to it," said communications director Doug Moore, through Marshall still wants to see the final version before making up his mind.

More soon.

Update: Rep. John Salazar (D-CO) is undecided, according to spokeswoman Tara Trujillo.

Joe Trippi -- the former Howard Dean Web guru and now top Web adviser to John Edwards -- doesn't think much of the things Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are doing in the Senate to end the war -- he calls those efforts "baloney, and everybody knows it."

Nor does Trippi think much of Hillary's proposal to deauthorize the war. "Like we didn't do that in Vietnam?" he says scathingly. "I mean, come on."

Trippi made the comments in a long interview I did with him yesterday. When I asked him if it was really fair to say that Edwards was more antiwar than his Presidential rivals, Trippi unloaded:

"Not by a long shot. It's not even a close call. I mean, they are sitting around wondering how they're going to find sixteen Republican Senators to override the President's veto. That's baloney and everyone knows it. But that's what they're working to do. You have deauthorization of the war. Like we didn't do that in Vietnam? I mean, come on."

"There's only one candidate who's saying, `Send the President the same bill again and again, he's the one who's not funding the troops," Trippi continued, in a reference to Edwards. "That's a far, far cry from, `Hey, let's go find sixteen phantom Republican Senators,' or `Hey, let's deauthorize the war.' Sixteen words got us into this war, and sixteen phantom Republican Senators aren't going to get us out."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton dismissed Trippi's broadside: "Obama opposed the invasion of Iraq from the very start, back in 2002 when it wasn't popular to be against this war," Burton said. "And he introduced a plan in January that would have begun withdrawing our combat forces on May 1st and would have brought them home by March 31st, while forcing the Iraqi government to meet its obligations." The Clinton camp declined comment.

Much more from Trippi's interview with me on a bunch of topics, including the new netroots landscape, after the jump.

Read more »

Here's something to keep an eye out for when the House votes on the short-term Iraq funding bill today. This is the list of Dems that broke ranks and voted against the last House bill on Iraq (pre conference):

John Barrow, Georgia Dan Boren, Oklahoma Lincoln Davis, Tennessee Dennis Kucinich, Ohio Barbara Lee, California John Lewis, Georgia Jim Marshall, Georgia Jim Matheson, Utah Mike McNulty, New York Mike Michaud, Maine Gene Taylor, Mississippi Maxine Waters, California Diane Watson, California Lynn Woolsey, California

Some of the above opposed the bill from the right; some from the left. Will more Dems break ranks this time and vote against today's bill, or will less Dems vote against it? Over at AmericaBlog, John Aravosis says many more than the above are poised to bail on the current bill. We're gonna try to put in calls to select members to see which way they're voting today.

Meanwhile, here are the two GOPers who broke ranks last time to support the Iraq bill:

Walter Jones Wayne Gilchrest

Be interesting to see if that changes this time in any way.

House Republican Moderates Confront Bush On Iraq
House GOP moderates were reportedly very blunt with President Bush yesterday, meeting him and discussing how his Iraq policies are dividing the country and hurting the Republican Party, according to The Washington Post. Attending the meeting were Reps. Charlie Dent (PA), Tom Davis (VA), Ray LaHood (IL), Mike Castle (DE), Todd Platts (PA), Jim Ramstad (MN), Jo Ann Emerson (MO) and others, who listed their objections to President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, White House adviser Karl Rove, and press secretary Tony Snow. "People are always saying President Bush is in a bubble," said Davis. "Well, this was our chance, and we took it."

Romney: My Wife's Planned Parenthood Donations Are Not Relevant
The Des Moines Register reports that Mitt Romney said his wife's past donation to Planned Parenthood has no relation to his own position on abortion. Ann Romney made the donation of $150 back in 1994, when her husband was running for the Senate as a socially liberal Republican. Romney also said that his wife has since become co-chair of Massachusetts Citizens For Life, to which they donated $15,000 last year. "Her contributions are for her and not for me, and her positions I do not think are terribly relevant to my campaign," Romney told reports. "My positions are what I think is relevant for my campaign."

Snow: Bush Would Veto A Temporary Funding Bill
The Washington Post reports that White House press secretary Tony Snow said President Bush would veto a temporary Iraq War funding proposal currently being considered by the Democratic leadership. "There are restrictions on funding and there are also some of the spending items that were mentioned in the first veto message that are still in the bill," Snow said. This leaves the Bush Administration's position clear: Give us a "clean bill" — or a blank check, to detractors — or we will veto it and blame you for not funding the troops.

Rudy To Stand By Abortion Rights — And Possibly Change Primary Strategy
The New York Times reports that Rudy Giuliani's campaign, after several months of hedging on the question of abortion, have concluded that they will stand by his pro-choice positions despite the potentially negative consequences among the GOP base. Perhaps most importantly, the campaign is considering a rewrite of their primary strategy, de-emphasizing socially conservative states like South Carolina and the all-important Iowa, in favor of more socially liberal February 5 states like New York, California and New Jersey. Can it work?

Report: Rudy's Free Yankees World Series Rings Possibly Against The Law
The Village Voice reports that Rudy Giuliani — who helped secure lucrative deals with the City for his favorite baseball team, the New York Yankees, during his term as Mayor — is in possession of four World Series rings, with his name engraved on them, given to him by the team. The rings, one for each Yankee World Series win during his time as Mayor, are reportedly valued at least $200,000 — and Giuliani only paid $16,000 of them. City law forbids officials from accepting gifts worth over $50 from individuals doing business with the city. And Giuliani, who received the rings during his time as Mayor, enforced that law vigorously against others.

McCain Leads Presidential Field — In Missed Votes
The Denver Post notes that John McCain has missed the most votes in Congress out of the Presidential field. McCain's absenteeism weighs in at a whopping 43% of votes, including many votes pertaining to the Iraq War, an issue where he has taken the lead among GOP candidates in supporting the current White House policy. Hillary Clinton has the lowest score of all, missing a mere two percent of votes.

Report: Rudy Made Even More Money Than Bill Clinton Last Year
The New York Post reports that Rudy Giuliani made over $11 million last year, mainly from roughly 125 paid speeches in over 30 countries. Rudy outpaced even Bill Clinton, who earned about $10 million last year.

Pombo Will Not Run Again
Roll Call reports that former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), a former committee chairman who lost re-election to Democrat Jerry McNerney in an upset last year, has announced that he will not make a comeback bid in 2008, and has instead accepted a position as spokesman and honorary chairman for the conservative group Partnership For America. Several local Republicans are considering a bid in McNerney's GOP-leaning district, and he is expected to be a top target for the Republicans next year.

Webb Getting Involved In Local Dem Race Against Incumbent Who Endorsed Allen
Roll Call reports that Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) is getting heavily involved in a local Democratic primary for the State Senate in Virginia, in a proxy fight against the state Republicans and his former opponent George Allen. Webb has endorsed challenger Donald McEachin, a State Delegate who was the 2001 Dem nominee for State Attorney General, against incumbent State Senator Benny Lambert. Lambert, a longtime black state legislator, angered many among the Democratic base by endorsing Republican Senator George Allen's failed re-election bid last year. While Webb is campaigning and raising money for McEachin, Lambert is also taking in a lot of money from some of the same conservative money sources who backed Allen.

Here's the latest on the back-room negotiations over the Iraq short-term funding bill House Dems are to vote on today: It looks as if for the first time, the House is also going to hold a straight up-or-down vote on whether to end the war.

Last night, Nancy Pelosi called a bunch of liberal members into a meeting and told them that she didn't have the votes to pass the bill, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

So she told the liberal members that in hopes of getting enough votes for passage, she would also schedule a vote on a bill crafted by Dem Rep. James McGovern, the source said.

McGovern's bill would mandate that within three months of passage, military withdrawal would have to commence, to be completed within six months of then. After that, the bill mandates, no Congressional money can be used for military operations -- though there's an allowance for certain types of special ops activities. McGovern's bill was introduced in the rules committee last night.

Here's why this is important. While the chances of passage of the measure are virtually nonexistent, it's the first time that House liberals have been able to leverage a straight yes-or-know vote on withdrawal. "It's huge," said one legislative aide. "It changes the dynamic. It means there will be more and more votes on straight measures like this."

Apparently there's some effort underway this morning to block this vote from coming to the floor, so it's still possible that it might not happen, but at any rate, it's a key development.

Meanwhile, the vote on the short-term spending measure is also set for today.

More to come...

Update: The McGovern bill mandating withdrawal is here. Again, this will not pass today. But it's significant both because it's the first straight, yes-or-no vote on withdrawal in the House, which means there will be more votes like these to come.

And it's also significant because it's the first time the liberal members have been able to use their clout to force a "vote on something they believe in," as one aide put it to me.

Update II: I also should have made it clearer that Dems think they now do have the votes to pass the short-term funding bill.

• Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) says Barack Obama was not acting properly by urging Iowans to call Grassley's office and urge him to change his votes on Iraq. "Let's say — pretty much — that it's not Senatorial and if you can't be Senatorial, how can you be Presidential?" said Grassley. So is Grassley against constituents calling their Senators and commenting on major issues?

• Bill Donohue, in possibly the most brutal rhetoric that we've seen so far from a high-profile conservative about Rudy's abortion stance: "If helping pregnant women make choices is the supreme issue for Rudy Giuliani, then he should be able to document all the checks he’s written to support Crisis Pregnancy Centers—not just Planned Parenthood. If he can’t, it is logical to conclude that the only real choice he thinks is worthy of his money is the one which results in the death of innocent human beings. And that would make him a fraud."

• Ann Romney, wife of conservative candidate Mitt Romney, donated to the group back in 1994, when her husband was running for the Senate as a socially liberal Republican.

• Robert Novak says Fred Thompson significantly deviated from his prepared script at his speech Friday in California — and the original script was much better.

• Rudy Giuliani has tapped the executive director of the Indiana GOP, Jennifer Hallowell, to run his New Hampshire campaign. She has no prior experience in New Hampshire.

• Mitt Romney will accept an award tomorrow at the Massachusetts Citizens for Life Mother's Day Dinner. Ryan Sager notes that in Romney's 2002 race for Governor, he publicly distanced himself from their endorsement — but more recently donated $15,000 to them.

• Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL), the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said the parties may need to consider having an official national primary day, in light of states moving up their primaries to Feb. 5 or — like Martinez's home state — breaking the rules and moving up their contests even sooner.

• In Wisconsin, GOP pollster Strategic Vision has Hillary leading Obama 38%-25%. On the Republican side, Rudy Giuliani has 22% against Wisconsin native Tommy Thompson and John McCain, both at 16%.

• In Oregon, Governor Ted Kulongoski (D) has signed legislation granting some of the rights of marriage to gay couples in the form of "domestic partnership," as well as a separate bill forbidding discrimination against gays.

• Sam Brownback is disputing Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius's (D) contention that the state National Guard is underpowered because of the Iraq War. "So I asked, privately and publicly, the adjutant general, do you have the equipment you need?" Brownback said. "Because if you don't, we're going to hit Fort Riley and McConnell and other places to make sure we have all the equipment we need to respond to disasters. Everybody there said no, we have the equipment we needed."

• The Congressional Black Caucus is actively reaching out to business interests. And businesses have a reason to reach back: Thanks to their safe districts and resulting seniority, many Black Caucus members chair powerful committees.

• Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA) has officially tendered his resignation, effective July 1, to become chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

• Al Sharpton says he did not mean to demean Mitt Romney's belief in God. Romney said Sharpton's remark "shows that bigotry still exists in some corners."

Okay, here's an interesting little bit of news from the behind-the-scenes negotiating among House Dems over what to do next about the war.

Apparently some liberal members are batting around an idea which, while definitely a long shot, is interesting: To try to persuade the House Dem leadership to allow a House vote soon on whether to deauthorize the war, in a similar manner to the approach now favored by Hillary.

Last night a dozen or so liberal members -- Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee, Dennis Kucinich, etc. -- gathered behind closed doors and at the meeting someone floated the deauthorization concept, a source who was present tells me. In the meeting, the source says, there was a fair amount of dissatisfaction expressed with the House leadership's current favored approach, which would fund the war through July and require another vote to release further short-term funds.

One member then suggested that since many in the room were cool to leadership's approach, why not get something in return for their support?

Read more »

woolsey, waters, lee, kucinich, defazio,

xavier becerra...rep l.a., he was there he said, look, I dont wanna make anyone unc I'm not here to spy for leadership, teh dynamic ... explaining leadership thinking offering counsel....it got hung up, it was really frustrating. the leaders of the lib...there were people at the meeting who we haven't seen before...the lack of timetable. there was nothing particularly rational abut being what was being discussed. a staffer raised me a quesiton as to whether the possibliity that another grouping of progressives could emerge and work around...there was a disc of the supplemental, many of the more central and further left memb of prog lib coal expressed discontent with th overal shape of it partic timelines...

some of the newer, the partic raised the possib of asking...there were ten people in attend who had voted for either the sup or the conf. raied the poss of those people speaking with leadership and basically in exchange for their support of this, ask them to sched a vote on a measure to rec or allow to expire the warmaking authoiryt in iraq..the point would be that a you would be forcing reps to vote on whether or not effect to extend the war making authority. b. you'd put moderate dems reg giving bush the auth to correct that historical wrong...the idea as it was expressed by rep inslee, who was putcing this idea, was that, without a legal, it changes the dynamic of teh debate. right now ther's a wra....changes...adm is in posish to legit call on congr to fund the war that it has authorized. but if cong takes away the author...in order to keep our supp for this more watered down version...

If you think Bill Richardson is the most qualified Democratic Presidental candidate despite his underdog status, you'll love these two new Richardson campaign ads, set to start running in Iowa tomorrow.

Built around a theme of a job interview, with all of Richardson's qualifications listed, the ads then end with Richardson being dismissed by his interviewer for being over-qualified for the job:

There's a number buried in the new Marist poll finding Hillary ahead that we're genuinely not sure what to make of -- and we were hoping for your help on that score. Here it is:

Does Hillary Clinton's position on the war in Iraq make you more likely or less likely to support her, or does it make no difference to you?

Democrats:

More likely, 48%

Less likely 9%

No difference 43%

This is a very crudely put question. But it's still interesting. The conventional wisdom has held for a while now that Hillary's current refusal to term her vote for the war a "mistake" is creating problems for her among Dem primary voters. Yet here only 9 percent of Dems say her "position" on the war makes it less likely that they'll back her.

What's the story here? Has Camp Hillary succeeded in its mission to steer the current discussion away from the initial vote? Do Dem voters care more about her current policy positions to the exclusion of her refusal to say the word "mistake"? Do Dems simply care less about her "mistake" thing than the pundits said they would? Is the current standoff with the White House over Iraq sharpening the Dem primary electorate's focus on the present and obscuring past Dem differences?

Thoughts?

Over on his site Ben Smith has posted a big and nifty chart drawing on a bunch of recent polls. In total, it finds that, well, Hillary is beating Barack Obama. By a sizeable margin. Opines Smith: "The rise of Barack Obama is such a fun story for reporters to tell, that it's worth stepping back for a minute to note that there's no longer any evidence that that's happening." Take a look.

Last night a bunch of longtime aides to Al Gore held a much-ballyhooed reunion dinner that had prompted speculation about a Gore run in 2008 -- but the gathering in fact turned out to be an at-times personal and emotional gathering suffused with an acceptance among many that Gore won't run for President, a person who was there tells me.

"There was a consensus there that Al is not planning to run," this attendee says. "I wouldn't say that there are recriminations or that people are angry at him for not running. People are just accepting it. There was just an acceptance of the fact that they don't think he's going to run."

The tone of the dinner, which was held at the D.C. home of longtime Gore close friend and political ally Peter Knight, might prove disappointing to some. When word of the planned reunion broke last month, it was played in the press as a possible strategy powwow designed to assess a future run. But no such thing took place, our source says.

Indeed, Gore himself wasn't in attendance. "It would have given the dinner a political overtone and media attention" if Gore had attended, our attendee says. Indeed, several of those present even teased one longtime Gore backer, H.E. "Sonny" Cauthen Jr., for being quoted recently in The Washington Times saying he was holding out to see whether Gore was running, the source says.

Among those longtime Gore loyalists who munched on a buffet of sandwiches and salmon at the Knight home: Longtime powerhouse Dem fundraiser and Democratic National Committeeman Robert Zimmerman; Knight's wife, Gail Britton; Tom Hendrickson, the former North Carolina Democratic Party chair; Mary Pat Bonner, founder of the Bonner Group; Dr. Richard Boxer, a Gore adviser on health care; Alan Kessler, a former Gore fundraiser; and Roy Neal, former Gore chief of staff.

"Many of the people there were already committed to other candidates," our attendee says. "But don't underestimate the loyalty these people still feel towards Al." Asked if anyone discussed the possibility of deserting their current candidates should Gore get in the race, the attendee said: "It wasn't even discussed."

Speaking of ads, here's a new one from Mitt Romney that's going up on the air in Iowa in New Hampshire. In it, Romney says that "now is the time" for us to do...something or other that involves conservatism and strength and America.

Intriguingly, there's no biographical info whatsoever in the spot, which is strange given his lag in the polls and his enduring need to introduce himself to voters. There nothing but a focus-grouped-sounding fusillade of words that are supposed to appeal to GOP primary voters -- "strength," "forge," "superpower," "military might," "conservative principles," etc. I could mumble something about how Romney's ad tries to position him as the "true conservative" in the race, but, really, why bother.

Here's the new VoteVets ad starring retired General John Batiste, who's described by The New York Times as "the commander of the First Infantry Division [in Iraq] from August 2002 to June 2005." Bastiste accuses Bush of "breaking" our military with the Iraq War and demands that Congress act now against the White House in order to "protect our fighting men and women":

The ad will begin running today in markets targeting GOP Senators John Sununu, John Warner, Susan Collins and Norm Coleman, as well as in the districts of Reps. Mary Bono, Randy Kuhl, Mike Castle and others. The ad doesn't name any of these targets and focuses its firepower squarely on Bush and "Congress" in general -- the game plan obviously being to erode GOP Congressional support for Bush and make GOP unity tougher and tougher to maintain.

Report: Pelosi Threatens To Sue Bush Over Signing Statements
The Hill reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reviewing options in the case of President Bush using signing statement to circumvent legislative limits on his Iraq policy — and even told a group of liberal bloggers, "We can take the president to court," to put the constitutionality of signing statements to the test. A spokesman for Pelosi apparently finessed the situation by saying that a lawsuit is just one option: "Whether through the oversight or appropriations process or by enacting new legislation, the Democratic Congress will challenge the president’s non-enforcement of the laws."

Washington Post Profiles NRCC Head Tom Cole
The Washington Post has an interesting profile of Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Before entering Congress, Cole had been a high-profile Republican consultant, serving in high-ranking positions for the Oklahoma GOP, as well as serving as the executive director of the NRCC itself, and chief of staff for the Republican National Committee. Republicans think a man of his experience is just what they need to recapture the majority. "A guy with that kind of résumé, we'd be paying millions of dollars for him as a consultant," said Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI).

Rudy Getting Hit On Abortion
The Washington Post reports that Rudy Giuliani is taking a beating from conservative activists over his pro-choice stance, especially in light of his past donations to abortion provider Planned Parenthood. Appearing on Laura Ingraham's radio show yesterday, Rudy tried to change the subject by saying "most citizens ask me about" issues like security and the economy — to which Ingraham replied forcefully, "Well, conservatives are citizens, too, Mayor Giuliani!"

McCain: Global Warming Is Real — But We Shouldn't Force People To Change
The Quad-City Times reports that John McCain told Davenport crowd, "Climate change is real. Climate change is a fact" — a position that puts him to the left of many in the GOP fold. On the other hand, he stressed that he favors a "free-market, capitalist approach" — creating incentives for cleaner energy, such as the use of renewable sources and nuclear power — rather than "forcing you to do some things that might change your lifestyle."

Obama Drastically Overstates Kansas Tornado Deaths
The Associated Press reports that Barack Obama wildly overstated the death toll in the recent Kansas tornadoes. Obama told a crowd in Richmond, "In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed." The actual death toll was 12. Obama apologized for the error: "There are going to be times when I get tired. There are going to be times when I get weary. There are going to be times when I make mistakes." A spokesman said later that Obama meant to say the death toll was over 10, rather than 10,000.

Report: Fred Thompson Used To Be Pro-Choice
Project Vote-Smart has unearthed potential conservative Presidential candidate Fred Thompson's old questionnaire responses on the question of abortion, from his first run for the Senate in 1994. While Thompson supported various restrictions on abortion, and opposed any federal funding, the fact that he checked off this particular answer could potentially give pause to pro-live absolutists: "Abortions should be legal in all circumstances as long as the procedure is completed within the first trimester of the pregnancy."

John Warner Inches Towards Running Again
The Virginian-Pilot reports that Senator John Warner (R-VA) seems to be getting closer and closer to running for another term in 2008, saying he is in good health and his experience in working in the Senate and with the White House — whoever is occupying it — make him useful to the state. He said a final decision will be made this summer, but also said, "I’m very interested in staying."

Huckabee's Dem Successor: Huckabee Is Wrong On Evolution
The Associated Press reports that Governor Mike Beebe (D-AR) says his predecessor Mike Huckabee was wrong to reject the theory of evolution at last week's debate. "I don't think that believing in God and believing in evolution are mutually exclusive. I think you can believe in both," Beebe said. "Obviously, I believe in God. I think he started it but then I think there's all kinds of scientific evidence that we've had evolution. That's just my belief. I guess he's entitled to his."

• John Edwards has an explanation for having worked at a hedge fund: It was an effort to learn more about hedge funds and the overall financial markets, and their relationship to poverty. "It was primarily to learn, but making money was a good thing, too," Edwards said.

• A new WNBC/Marist poll finds that Hillary is beating Barack Obama nationally by 18 points and for the first time edges both Rudy Giuliani and John McCain in head-to-head matchups.

• More movement on the Iraq war funding battle, as per the Associated Press: "House Democratic leaders briefed party members Tuesday on new legislation that would fund the Iraq war through July, then give Congress the option of cutting off money if conditions do not improve. If members agree to back the plan as expected, a vote on the new war spending bill could come as early Thursday."

• The Democratic plan to fund the Iraq War for two-three months at a time is being panned by GOP leaders — meaning it could potentially be defeated by a coalition of pro-war Republicans and anti-war Democrats.

• In the wake of news that Rudy Giuliani donated to Planned Parenthood in the 1990's, his campaign is standing by his position of being personally opposed to abortion, but respectful of a woman's choice. "Ultimately this election is about leadership and it's a sign of leadership to stand by your position in the face of political expediency," said campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella.

• Some of Al Gore's old fundraisers are currently refraining from backing any of the present Democratic candidates.

• In addition to rumored consideration of a run for President, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg (R) is said to be looking at a run for Governor of New York State in 2010. Maybe he's planning to run for Governor from the White House?

• Ted Kennedy Jr., a resident of Connecticut, might challenge Congressman Chris Shays, the sole remaining Republican House member from New England.

• After some delay, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer (D) is endorsing home-state candidate Hillary Clinton.

• Hillary will also be endorsed by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley.

• Governor Jon Corzine's (D-NJ) ratings have not been damaged by his recent near-death car accident, in which he was not wearing his seatbelt while his state vehicle was speeding.

• Tom Tancredo says Rudy's pro-choice views render him unfit to be President: "if a Republican President of the United States won’t vigorously fight to protect the life of the unborn, how long before the trend toward the culture of death becomes irreversible?"

• With the victory of conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy for President of France, a lot of Republicans have stopped badmouthing the French.

Fifty four percent of Americans oppose President Bush's veto of Congress' Iraq withdrawal bill, and a solid majority wants Congress to send Bush another Iraq bill containing withdrawal timetables, according to a new CNN poll that has some really, really interesting numbers:

Now that the veto has been cast, 57 percent of Americans said they want Congress to send another spending bill with a timetable for withdrawal back to the White House, the poll found -- but 61 percent would support a new bill that dropped the timetables in favor of benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet to maintain American support.

Slightly more support for benchmarks than for timetables, but a solid majority is clearly behind either approach. There are also lots of numbers measuring how the Dems are doing image-wise with the American people:

Do you think the Democrats in Congress strongly support, only moderately support, or do not support the U.S. troops currently stationed in Iraq:

Strongly supports 31%

Moderately supports 42%

Does not support 25%

Bush does beat them solidly in this category, with 57% saying he supports the troops strongly. The Dem number here seems mixed -- while three out of four say Dems support the troops strongly or moderately, a respectable number given the nonstop barrage of attacks directed against them on this front, it's also worth pointing out that less than a third say Dems support them strongly. Not great.

There are also these numbers on the Dems' general performance:

Do you approve or disapprove of what the Democratic leaders in the U.S. House and Senate have done so far this year?

Approve 49%

Disapprove 44%

And:

Do you think it is good for the country or bad for the country that the Democratic party is in control of Congress?

Good for country 51%

Bad for country 37%

That's a good number, but there's a caveat: The 51% is an eight point drop from March.

It also looks like a majority of 55% in this poll disagree with Harry Reid that the war is lost. And more (44%) say Dems are responsible for the troops not receiving additional funding than say Bush is (34%), though it's unclear whether that's seen as a bad thing.

All in all, the numbers seem to suggest continuing general approval for the Dem approach to ending the war, though they also suggest some possible public misgivings about some aspects of the Dems' performance in very recent days.

Seriously. Via Steve Benen, Check this out from Matt Towery, the CEO of the polling firm Insider Advantage:

Few serious observers think things will ever get to actual impeachment. And yet the American public seems more open to the concept than many imagine, according to a new national poll. The implications of this public sentiment could be huge for the 2008 presidential elections.

Our InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion poll asked this:

"Would you favor or oppose the impeachment by Congress of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney?"

Favor: 39 percent.

Oppose: 55 percent.

Undecided/Don't Know: 6 percent.

The biggest news from this survey is not the overall results, but the opinions of independent voters, who usually decide presidential elections. Forty-two percent of independents want Bush and Cheney impeached.

Despite these numbers, impeachment just isn't on the menu, as Benen notes: "I was on a conference call with Speaker Pelosi recently and someone mentioned the issue. She didn’t hesitate to shoot down the idea quickly, saying, `Bush isn’t worth' the time and energy that would go into impeachment proceedings."

Still, the numbers are eye-opening and could have far-reaching implications for the Presidential race, particularly for those GOP candidates who are pondering just how closely they want to be identified with the man they want to inherit the Presidency from. And consider that the numbers aren't coming from any sort of lefty: Matt Towery is a former aide to Newt Gingrich, though he's worked for pols in both parties. We'll bring you the poll itself when it's available.

The New York Times's political blog has the goods on a private meeting of Hillary donors and supporters at which top Iowa backer Tom Vilsack had some blunt words on how Hillary has been doing lately in the state:

At a meeting of 200 Clinton donors and supporters in Washington last Tuesday, Mr. Vilsack warned that the campaign had a lot of work to do in order to win the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses in Iowa next January.

“We’re not winning Iowa today,” Mr. Vilsack told the audience, according to two people who attended.

Mr. Vilsack did not return phone messages requesting an interview. Clinton campaign advisers, however, did not deny the comment attributed to Mr. Vilsack, who spoke at a “major supporters briefing” that the campaign held last Tuesday.

Though some polls show Hillary trailing in Iowa to John Edwards, who went up on the air with his first Iowa ad today, Vilsack nonetheless told the assembled Clintonites that he was confident she could and would ultimately win there. But for now, Vilsack says, she's "not winning."

Here's John Edwards' first TV ad in the primary states. It's running statewide in Iowa starting today, and it replicates an earlier ad he ran in D.C. quoting various folks prodding Congress to keep standing up to the White House on Iraq. Only this time, it's quoting Iowans:

It's pretty interesting that Edwards' first ad of the campaign is focussed wholly on ending the Iraq war and sending a message to Congress about it. Of course, having run as Veep last time he hardly needs to introduce himself to voters, and the ad is in keeping with his strategy of pushing Congress on Iraq to differentiate himself on the war from the two sitting Senators who are his key rivals.

Looks like GOP Senator Susan Collins, a top target for Senate Dems in 2008, officially has a challenger. From WCSH-TV in Portland:

Congressman Tom Allen has made no secret of the fact that he has been "considering" a challenge to Senator Susan Collins. Tuesday, he made it official and filed federal election paperwork. Allen, who is from Portland, has been in the house since 1996.

Collins has served two terms in the senate, rising to national prominence as the chair of the homeland security committee.

Several democrats are already lining up to run for Allen's seat. Among those who have said they will run: Chellie Pingree, former state senator Michael Brennan and York county district attorney Mark Lawrence. Iraq war vet Adam Cote of Sanford has also said he will run.

Allen is planning a campaign tour across Maine during the Memorial Day weekend.

Allen's campaign web site is here.

It should also be pointed out that pressure of this sort on vulnerable Senate GOPers is just the thing the Dem Congress needs to peel off Republicans and turn them against the war. In other words, Allen's entry is fortuitous timing for Congressional Dems.

the worry is that his prevoius donor base...how does he online get his numbers up to 16, 17 18 million?

he did 14 total. in order to show mom going into the next cycle he has to do better than 14. and if he did 3 mill on online and 11 mill on offline donations, is he going to be able to do another 11, 12 in offline donations? his donor base isn't that deep...

in 2004, how does he go

how is he going to get from point a to point b? point a is 11 mill, total 14, if they need to show mom they need to put up more than 14 mill in the next cycle...

do they have 22 million off line? how can they do 22 mill...his total offline was 15

it's clear that they're gonna accel their online fundraising in order to put up more num...their donor base of off line don is lim to a total of about 15 or 16 million...

one of the reaosns why trippi was hired was to accel their onlin fundraising because they have to agg inc their online donations, augment their offline abil, in order to show mom in the next

the worry is, the fact...that they hired joe trippi is a sign that they're concerned...the reason was to obv bolster their online capab...the ed camp putting their...prob beause their offline fundr have lack of depth...one of the reaosns why we need o joe tripp is that on line fund

limits to their off line fundraising...

Okay, everyone is rightly focused on today's Washington Post piece reporting on the new Iraq plan being debated by House Dem leaders. The proposal would fund the bill through September but withhold half those funds until July, at which point the second chunk of funding would be contingent on President Bush reporting political progress in Iraq.

But here's another question: Why exactly is the Senate leadership wary of this approach, as has been reported here and elsewhere? Here's a clue buried in The New York Times today:

Rudy Donated To Planned Parenthood
This should hurt: The Politico reports that Rudy Giuliani and then-wife Donna Hanover donated to Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, several times in the 1990's, totaling $900. Giuliani has attempted to assuage the doubts of pro-life conservatives by stressing that he personally abhors abortion — and this news surely can't help. A key passage from The Politico's Jonathan Martin: "The returns have been on the public record for years, but the detail about Giuliani's support for Planned Parenthood — along with e-mailed copies of the returns — was provided to The Politico by aides to a rival campaign, who insisted on not being identified."

Report: Congressional GOP Wants To See Results In Iraq This Fall
Congressional Republicans need to see results from President Bush's Iraq policies by the fall — so says none other than Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS), the Associated Press reports. Lott told the AP: "I do think this fall we have to see some significant changes on the ground, in Baghdad and other surrounding areas." A caveat: Lott declined to go into details what might happen if members do not see results. Meanwhile, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), who has recently begun voting with the Democrats on Iraq withdrawal, told The Washington Post: "I won't be the only Republican, or one of two Republicans, demanding a change in our disposition of troops in Iraq at that point. That is very clear to me." So does this actually mean anything?

Gallup: Hillary Pulls Away
Hillary Clinton has pulled away from Barack Obama, according to a new Gallup poll. Hillary leads with a solid 38% of the vote, followed by Obama's 23%, non-candidate Al Gore at 14%, and John Edwards with 12%. In a Gallup poll three weeks ago, Clinton led by a mere five points, with 31% to Barack Obama at 26%.

Romney: Criticism Of My Abortion Switch Is Unfair
The Associated Press reports that Mitt Romney said that criticism for his change on the abortion issue is unfair. "What I find interesting is, had I been pro-life and then changed to pro-choice, no one would ask the question," Romney said, in an interview with Sean Hannity. "But if you go the other direction, as I have and as Ronald Reagan did and Henry Hyde and George Herbert Walker Bush, it's like the media can't get enough of it: 'Oh, well, why did you change?'"

Conservative Activist: McCain "Dying A Slow Political Death"
NewsMax reports that longtime American Conservative Union head David Keene offered a bleak appraisal of John McCain's campaign: "I can be proven wrong, but McCain is dying a slow political death right now." According to Keene, McCain's problems are rooted in the distrust that conservative activists harbor against McCain, plus his overgrown, top-heavy campaign organization — likening McCain's campaign to the Spanish Armada. "It can't move, and half the admirals aren't sure that the battle is going to be won anyway," Keene said.

Hillary: I'll Compete In Chicago
The Chicago Tribune reports that Hillary Clinton brought her campaign to Barack Obama's stomping grounds in Chicago, holding an elaborate press conference featuring 100 black ministers — a strong message that she intends to go straight after Obama's base in the black community. "I am not ceding any voter, anywhere, to anyone," Clinton said. "I want to run a broad-based, inclusive campaign that represents the full diversity of our nation."

Senate Dems Donating Big, Targeting Red States
Roll Call reports that Senate Democrats plan to target incumbent Republicans and potential open Republican seats in normally deep-red states like Kentucky — home of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — plus Oklahoma, Mississippi, Nebraska and others. Meanwhile, Roll Call also notes that Senate Democrats are far outpacing the Republicans in donating to their respective party campaign committees. Three Senators alone, Max Baucus (D-MT), Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Tom Carper (D-DE) have raised over $100,000 each to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, while the entire Republican caucus have only donated about $250,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

GOP Recruiting Relatives Of 9/11 Victims For House Races
The Hill reports that the National Republican Congressional Committee has so far recruited two House candidates who lost relatives on 9/11: Air Force Lt. Col. Jim Ogonowski, who is running in the upcoming special election to succeed Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA), and former Navy pilot Marc Flagg, who is running against freshman Rep. Ron Klein (D-FL). A GOP win would be a surprise in Meehan's solidly Democratic district, while Klein's district is narrowly Democratic and is possibly vulnerable to a challenge. "They truly understand the nature of the post-Sept. 11 world that we live in because of the tragic experiences they have had to endure," said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain. "Their motivation for running is fueled not by partisan politics, but by conviction and sacrifice, and those are the qualities that voters long for in a candidate."

Biden: The Republican Era Is Over
The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that Joe Biden made a bold remark to an Iowa Democratic crowd: The Republican era of the last 25 years is over. However, Democrats still have to work hard to close the deal with the American people. "The American people have closed a chapter on conservative, compassionate government that has been in ascendancy from 1980 until the year 2006," Biden said. "They have now closed a chapter on this party, the Republican Party. Now, they're wondering who we are."

• Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick reportedly challenged Barack Obama's bona fides in the black community. When Obama called and asked for support, Kilpatrick defiantly asked if Obama would be comfortable being seen standing next to a six-foot four-inch black man from Detroit (Kilpatrick himself). Obama's response: No problem, but get rid of the earring. Kilpatrick ultimately gave Obama a warm, friendly introduction at today's speech before the Detroit Economic Club, though he has not committed to endorsing any candidate for President.

• In the Kentucky Gubernatorial race, State Treasurer Jonathan Miller has dropped out of the race, and will support former Lt. Governor Steve Beshear in the Democratic primary. Miller had been lagging in the polls, while Beshear has been moving into second place against businessman Bruce Lunsford. Had Miller been elected, he would have been Kentucky's first Jewish Governor. The first round of primary voting will be on May 22, with a runoff if no candidate gets over 40% of the vote.

• David Brody at Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network wants a straight answer from Mitt Romney, over whether or not Romney believes in evolution vs. creationism.

• The McCain campaign's national political director, Michael Dennehy, is stepping down, saying he wants to spend more time with his family. Rob Jesmer, a former staffer at the RNC and NRCC, is taking over.

• John Edwards said his wealth does not subtract from his concern for America's poor, noting the concern for poverty displayed by well-to-do liberals Franklin Roosevelt and Bobby Kennedy. And unlike Roosevelt and Kennedy, who were born into money, Edwards born in the working classes and fought his way upward. "Would it have been better if I had done well and didn't care?" Edwards asked rhetorically.

• At a stop in Iowa, Barack Obama called upon supporters to lobby their GOP Senators and Congressman to favor a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq — which some interpreted as a shot against Iowa's Republican Senator, Charles Grassley.

• John McCain has been endorsed by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, a major name that could give McCain a boost in the California primary.

• Although last week Rasmussen had the first and so far only poll showing Barack Obama leading Hillary Clinton, they now have Hillary back in the lead by a margin of 34% for Clinton, to 26% for Obama.

• A new Hotline/Diageo poll shows Barack Obama and John Edwards being stronger general election candidates than Hillary Clinton. Clinton trails Rudy Giuliani and ties John McCain, while both Obama and Edwards beat McCain and Giuliani by 6-11 points.

• Both parties are planning for tough fights in Connecticut's three swing House districts. Last year Democrats Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney defeated GOP incumbents, and will now be targeted by the NRCC. Longtime GOP Rep. Christopher Shays was narrowly re-elected, and Democrats are planning to give him a tough race again.

• Mike Huckabee appears to be hedging on his espoused creationism: "I believe that the Creation has a creator. I believe there is a God. And I believe God put this whole creative process in motion. How he did it and the time frame in which he did it, I honestly don’t know. Nor do I think it’s relevant to being president of the United States."

• On Saturday, Mitt Romney warned the graduates at Pat Robertson's Regent University: "In France, for instance, I'm told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up. How shallow and how different from the Europe of the past." There is no truth whatsoever to the allegation that marriage is contracted for seven-year terms in France. (The institution of marriage is indeed facing a different kind of change in France — many couples live in stable relationships for decades without officially marrying, such as failed Presidential candidate Ségolène Royal and partner François Hollande. But Romney's notion is simply untrue.)

The other day we told you that a senior Congressional leadership source had confided to us that the short-term war-funding measure favored by Dem Rep. David Obey was going to face some serious reluctance in the Senate.

The Obey measure -- which would fund the war through July but make further funding contingent on progress in Iraq -- had stirred optimism among some Dem House staffers because it would allow Dems to keep standing up to the White House on Iraq while ducking Bush's charges that Dems weren't funding the troops.

Well, now Senate leader Harry Reid's spokesman has confirmed it: The plan is a non-starter in the Senate. From CQ Congress Daily (sub. only):

A House-backed plan to send President Bush a supplemental spending bill to fund the war only through July is not likely to get through the Senate, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Reid said today. "It's not anything that will fly in the Senate," spokesman Jim Manley said. Manley's comments and earlier opposition from Senate Armed Services Chairman Levin are likely to complicate efforts by the White House and congressional leaders to wrap up a new spending bill before the Memorial Day recess later this month.

No word yet on why. Now what?

Update: Just heard back from Reid spokesman Manley. It seems that the Senate hasn't ruled out this approach in general; just this specific one floated by Obey. Manley: "This is one of a number of options. There hasn’t been a decision on how to proceed."

Update II: Let me make that a bit clearer. It seems that the basic idea in principle of a short-term funding option isn't yet completely dead; it's merely the specifics of Obey's proposal that have been ruled out. It seems that Reid's office wants to hear more from members of Congress about possible revised versions of that same approach. I wish Reid's office was saying more, but that's all we're getting for now...

Update III: Now Reid spokesman Manley is saying that he is open to the Obey proposal. Lots of maneuvering happening on this.

New CNN poll just in: It finds that John McCain has closed to within two points of Rudy Giuliani -- a lead that's dwindled from a 16-point lead Rudy held in March. Today's numbers:

Giuliani 25% McCain 23% F. Thompson 13% Romney 10%

Of course, the March poll didn't include Thompson, so that may partly explain Rudy's sharp drop in support, though without Thompson in the race CNN finds Rudy's lead growing to a mere five points. Also worth noting: The poll was taken after the GOP debate last week.

Meanwhile, Hillary's lead over Obama is a solid 14 points:

Clinton 38% Obama 24% Gore 12% Edwards 12% Richardson 5%

The numbers show an eight point spike for Hillary since last month, bringing her back to where she roughly was in March. Bush's approval rating, meanwhile, is 38%.

"I will be looking for work in 2011. I would be one heckuva rabbi."

The fourth largest circulation daily in the country, the Los Angeles Times, had the following to say in an editorial yesterday entitled "Bring Them Home":

After four years of war, more than $350 billion spent and 3,363 U.S. soldiers killed and 24,310 wounded, it seems increasingly obvious that an Iraqi political settlement cannot be achieved in the shadow of an indefinite foreign occupation. The U.S. military presence — opposed by more than three-quarters of Iraqis — inflames terrorism and delays what should be the primary and most pressing goal: meaningful reconciliation among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

This newspaper reluctantly endorsed the U.S. troop surge as the last, best hope for stabilizing conditions so that the elected Iraqi government could assume full responsibility for its affairs. But we also warned that the troops should not be used to referee a civil war. That, regrettably, is what has happened...

Having invested so much in Iraq, Americans are likely to find disengagement almost as painful as war. But the longer we delay planning for the inevitable, the worse the outcome is likely to be. The time has come to leave.

As the editorial notes, the LA Times endorsed the "surge," and as Think Progress points out, it blasted the Dem Congress's withdrawal plans not long ago. This is quite a turnabout.

What's more, there are only three papers that top the LA Times in circulation:

USA TODAY 2,278,022; (+0.23%) THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2,062,312; (+0.61%) NEW YORK TIMES, 1,120,420; (-1.93%) LOS ANGELES TIMES, 815,723; (-4.24%)

With this editorial, a call for withdrawal has been sounded by the first of the elite, top-tier newspapers.

Update: While The Times has basically endorsed Congress' approach, the paper has stopped short of the LA Times's outright call for withdrawal, independent of any specific legislative approach.

Potentially big news out of New Hampshire: For the first time, a poll has Mitt Romney with a solid lead in the state over his GOP rivals. The SurveyUSA poll finds Romney leapfrogging to first place with 32%, followed by Rudy Giuliani with 23% and John McCain at 22%.

Some caveats: This is just one poll, and other New Hampshire polls in our Election Central Poll Tracker show John McCain, or occasionally Rudy Giuliani, leading the pack. Is this just an outlier, or is it a sign of more trouble for Rudy and McCain, both of whom dropped roughly 10 points in this survey?

It's a question that's been bugging us for a bit. Our take on the whole thing is here.

Novak: Thompson's Speech On Friday Dull, Uninspiring
Robert Novak writes in his latest column that Fred Thompson's much-anticipated performance at the Lincoln Club of Orange County on Friday turned out to be a letdown for many in the audience. "'It was not Reaganesque.' 'No red meat.' 'Too low key.' That was the preponderant reaction I heard to Thompson's half-hour presentation (leavened by a few favorable comments, mostly by women, that he was more 'statesmanlike' and 'presidential' than the announced candidates)," Novak writes. "Lincoln Club members, like many conservative Republicans, had been unimpressed by the existing field of Republican hopefuls and envisioned Thompson as the second coming of Ronald Reagan. They did not get it Friday night."

California's Clout Influencing The Primary Races
The New York Times reports that the Presidential candidates are having to increasingly focus their messages to appeal to California, the largest state in the country and probably the greatest prize to be won on February 5, influencing the dialogue on issues ranging from global warming to gay marriage. "I am only interested in one thing," said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, "That we do everything that we can do here to use that opportunity that came of us having moved the primary date to our advantage. How can we make this work really well for California."

Obama Attracting Record Student Support
Bloomberg reports that large numbers of Barack Obama's massive crowds are students, a sign that Obama is becoming the candidate who attracts young activists better than the rest of the crowd. For example, the Obama Facebook.com network has over 325,000 supporters signed up — compared to Hillary Clinton's comparatively measly 19,000 members. Student activist support for Obama is outpacing even Howard Dean's campaign in the 2004 cycle, which was considered to be a phenomenon at the time.

Nevada — And Las Vegas — Present Campaign Pitfalls
The Boston Globe notes that Nevada, with its caucus located crucially between the Iowa and New Hampshire contests, is a must-have for the Presidential campaigns, but it presents two difficulties. First of all, the moral temptations of Las Vegas and the desert brothels could potentially result in any number of scandals for campaign staffers, and the state's rapid population growth — 5,000 people per month relocating there — means candidates will have to keep visiting the state frequently simply to meet new voters who just moved in.

Longtime Bush Donors Deserting The GOP
The Sunday Times of London notes that many longtime Bush donors are leaving the Republican ranks and supporting Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or other Democrats. A notable name in Obama's camp is Tom Bernstein, a Bush classmate at Yale and former co-owner with the President of the Texas Rangers baseball team. And Hillary Clinton's camp includes former Bush fundraising "ranger" John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley.

In North Carolina, Dems Court Atty. Gen. To Run Against Dole
Roll Call reports that Democrats are courting state Attorney General Roy Cooper — who recently gained fame and positive press from his press conference exonerating the Duke Lacrosse players — to run against GOP Senator Elizabeth Dole in 2008. Also being approached about a bid is Congressman Brad Miller. In case both Miller and Cooper bow out — Miller has yet to announce any plans, and Cooper is publicly committing to seeking re-election as Attorney General — other possible Democratic candidates include retired General Hugh Shelton, who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, plus State Sen. Kay Hagan and State Rep. Grier Martin.

Corzine Returning To Work
The Associated Press reports that Governor Jon Corzine (D-NJ) is returning to work as Governor today, weeks after a car accident put him in the hospital with severe injuries. Corzine will continue to undergo physical therapy from the Governor's mansion, and also deal with the public fallout over his state vehicle having been speeding, and him not wearing his seat-belt.

CNN: No Copyright Restrictions On Our Debate Footage
CNN has announced that video footage from their Presidential debates will be available without restrictions, enabling users on the Internet to easily disseminate excerpts for further review. CNN's first debate will be held in New Hampshire on June 3, featuring the Democrats, followed by a Republican debate on June 5.

Romney Courts Evangelicals At Regent — Blames Virginia Tech On Culture
The Washington Post reports that Mitt Romney's commence speech yesterday at Pat Robertson's Regent University contained themes sure to appeal to the evangelical right — though notably absent was any direct reference to his Latter-Day Saints religion. Instead, Romney focused on issues such as marriage, the traditional family, and the culture war. For example, Romney remarked about the Virginia Tech massacre: "Pornography and violence poison our music and movies and TV and video games. The Virginia Tech shooter, like the Columbine shooters before him, had drunk from this cesspool."

Giuliani: Increase Troop Levels, Forget A Peace Dividend
The Associated Press reports that Rudy Giuliani called for increasing the size of the Army by 35,000 troops. "President Bush has increased our military strength and further increases are planned, but we need to do more — much more," Giuliani said. "We need a force that can both deter aggression and meet many challenges that may come our way." Giuliani also dismissed the notion of a "peace dividend" — a reduction in military might and spending following the end of the Cold War or other conflicts — as idealistic. "The idea of a peace dividend was always intellectually flawed. It was also strategically flawed," he said. "We need to not only win the war, we have to win the peace as well."

Poll: Divided GOP Field In Nevada — Rudy In Fourth
A new Mason-Dixon poll in Nevada shows the Republican field dividing, in part due to the expected entry of Fred Thompson to the race. John McCain has a narrow first-place showing with 19%, followed by Mitt Romney at 15%, Fred Thompson at 13%, and national front-runner Rudy Giuliani in fourth place with 12%. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has a strong lead with 37%, followed by John Edwards at 13% and Barack Obama with 12%, and non-candidate Al Gore at 9%.

Brownback: Rudy's Response On Abortion Will Hurt Him
Radio Iowa reports that Sam Brownback is commenting bluntly about Rudy Giuliani's remark that an overturning of Roe v. Wade would merely be "okay," plus his offering of a defense of his pro-choice position at Thursday's debate. "I don't know how you get the nomination of this party with that type of response," Brownback said. "...And I think you're going to start seeing the field jumbled by that. It's been sort of presumed that there's a front three, but I think that's going to start jumbling."