Rudy Giuliani, in a new interview:

"If we don't talk about Sept. 11, you can't prepare to try to avoid another Sept. 11."

And, of course, if we don't talk about Sept. 11, we can't get elected President, either...

In the wake of questions from the blogosphere about the paper's political neutrality, two members of the Bangor Daily News editorial staff have agreed to recuse themselves from all coverage of the Maine Senate race.

On the right, executive editor Mark Woodward served as press secretary to Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) for ten months in 1996 and 1997. His wife, Bridget Woodward, is a local caseworker in the Senator's Bangor district office, though she is retiring at the end of the month. The paper first came under fire for this connection over an editorial hitting the campaign of Congressman Tom Allen, the Democratic Senate candidate, for sending a tracker to videotape Collins out on the campaign trail.

On the left, the paper's news editor in charge of political coverage is Tim Allen, a first cousin of Tom Allen.

Both Woodward and Allen have said in an editorial announcement that it is in the paper's best interests to remove any appearance of a conflict of interest, and thus Senate race coverage will be handled by other editors at the paper who do not have any personal or professional connections to the candidates.

Bill Richardson attacks his top three Democratic opponents by name in a guest column today for The Washington Post. In the piece, he promotes his stance that the United States must withdraw from Iraq as quickly as possible, without leaving a residual force — and excoriates his opponents for being too cautious:

In the most recent debate, I asked the other candidates how many troops they would leave in Iraq and for what purposes. I got no answers. The American people need answers. If we elect a president who thinks that troops should stay in Iraq for years, they will stay for years — a tragic mistake.

Clinton, Obama and Edwards reflect the inside-the-Beltway thinking that a complete withdrawal of all American forces somehow would be "irresponsible." On the contrary, the facts suggest that a rapid, complete withdrawal — not a drawn-out, Vietnam-like process — would be the most responsible and effective course of action.

Fred Thompson has so far avoided debating any of his Republican opponents, most notably skipping Wednesday's event on Fox News in order to go appear on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. Now Mike Huckabee wants to change that.

Huckabee is challenging Thompson to a series of one-on-one "Lincoln-Douglas" debates, citing Thompson's praise of the format Thursday night on Hannity & Colmes. "Senator, let's lead by example and get the ball rolling," Huckabee said in an open letter, which supporters are invited to co-sign. "I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this idea and debating you in front of the American people."

Thompson, however, was praising the format for a general election, while simultaneously eschewing primary debates with a glut of candidates. From Nexis:

"That is the way that you find out how somebody really thinks. I know it is difficult when you have that number of people running. And I don't know the answer to it in the primary. But I think certainly in the general election, something like that would be something I would gravitate to."

This begs two questions: Will Thompson accept Huckabee's invitation for a one-on-one primary debate? And if not, will he actually be going to any debates during the primary season?

Chris Dodd has taken a bold step in the presidential race: He is advocating for the repeal of the embargo against Cuba. From the campaign press release:

"Our Cuba policy has neither served America's interests nor brought democracy to Cuba. It has only served to strengthen the current regime. It has been an abject failure," said Dodd. "I am proposing these changes to the current policy because they make sense and are the right thing to do - for the Cuban people, but more importantly for America. And I refuse to let Fidel Castro or his successor determine the timetable for setting America's policy. Setting America's policy is for the American President to decide."

In a move that opens up another Senate seat for a possible Dem pickup, Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) will announce his retirement at a press conference on Monday, according to this morning's Omaha World Herald. He'll also take himself out of contention for the Presidency, the paper reports:

Hagel plans to announce that "he will not run for re-election and that he does not intend to be a candidate for any office in 2008," said one person, who asked not to be named.

Hagel has scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. Monday at the Omaha Press Club.

According to one person interviewed, Hagel told Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Friday morning that he had decided to retire. Hagel's staff learned of his decision that afternoon.

The news will set in motion a scramble to succeed him. Two Republicans -- Attorney General Jon Bruning and financial adviser Pat Flynn -- have already announced, and former Dem Senator Bob Kerrey has said he's interested in returning to the Senate.

A Kerrey entry into the race would give Dems a real shot at picking up another Senate seat and at the very least would add to the mounting 2008 Senate woes of the GOP. The party is already dealing with Senator John Warner's (R-VA) announced retirement and Senator Larry Craig's (R-ID) almost certain resignation, as well as the increased vulnerability of GOP Senators like Norm Coleman, John Sununu, and Susan Collins, all of whom face reelection next year and are badly weakened by the Iraq War. ( Via Think Progress.)

Late Update: The New York Times is now reporting the same thing, citing anonymous aides to the Senator.

Later Update: The paper adds that Kerrey declined to comment today on his intentions, but last month, he said: “These moments don’t happen very often. It’s a possibility.”

With Democratic Senate leaders suggesting they may drop their demand for withdrawal timelines, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have come under some pressure to show some leadership and use their high-visibility candidacies to press the point that the Senate leadership had best not cave on Iraq this fall.

Now Hillary's office has emailed out a statement reiterating her commitment to a withdrawal bill with teeth and calling on the Dem Congressional leadership to remain committed to that approach:

As General Petraeus prepares to testify before Congress next week, it is clear that the increase in U.S. troops in Iraq has simply not led to political reconciliation in Iraq. Rather than continuing the escalation, we must begin the immediate redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq, in order to end this war as soon as possible. I continue to support legislative efforts requiring the Administration to begin to withdraw our troops and to complete the redeployment of combat troops in 2008, and I encourage the Congressional leadership to ensure that we will have an opportunity to vote for such legislation.

The President continues to reject the findings of the National Intelligence Estimate, the Government Accountability Office report and the Jones Commission report, refuses to work with Congress to develop a strategy that will enable our troops to start coming home, and stubbornly denies the reality on the ground and the will of the American people.

We will continue to press him to follow the will of the people. I will continue to do everything in my power to convince the President to change course and to work with my colleagues in the Senate to bring an end to this war as soon as possible.

This obviously doesn't go as far as Chris Dodd, who's demanding that there be no Iraq funding bill whatsoever unless it contains strict withdrawal timetables, or John Edwards, who's insisting that Congress keep sending back the same withdrawal-mandating bill to the President again and again. But as Kos notes, it's a decent start.

Despite having multiple primary challengers, plus the recent leak of a Republican poll showing him losing to his 2006 Democratic opponent, scandal-tarred Congressman John Doolittle (R-CA) has made it clear he's not backing down from his 2008 re-election fight.

"I will not step aside," Doolittle told reporters in a conference call today. "I am running again. Period."

The medical examiner in the death of Congressman Paul Gillmor (R-OH), who was found deceased at his Northern Virginia apartment on Wednesday, said Gillmor died of head and neck trauma "consistent with a fall." The circumstances of his death, which is now ruled to have been accidental, were not considered suspicious.

Congressman Gillmor was 68 years old, serving his tenth term in the House.

Late Update: The Rothenberg Political Report has the news that Gillmor's widow has ruled out a run for his seat.

We've just obtained a private letter that DNC chair Howard Dean has sent out to DNC members in which he mounts a spirited defense of his party committee's position in the current jostling with rogue states over their efforts to leapfrog their primaries forward in the nominating calendar.

In the letter, Dean lays out the DNC's case in detail and all but calls these rogue states hypocritical for selectively following party rules that had been voted on and supported by committeemen from these same states in the first place. Dean also acknowledges that the ongoing battles have rubbed a lot of people raw, makes a plea for party unity, and seems to admit to some frustration with the process, repeatedly saying that party rules should "mean something."

"We do not believe that states can cherry pick which of these rules they choose to follow," Dean writes. "This process is not easy, and, no doubt, there are more than enough hurt feelings to go around. But none of us can forget that our shared ultimate goal is to select the nominee best prepared to lead us to victory on November 4, 2008 and out of the Bush wilderness. To do that, we must continue to work together."

For those of you who've been following this ongoing controversy, we've got Dean's full letter for you after the jump.

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So what do Nebraska Dems think Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) will say at his (R-NE) press conference on Monday?

They think he's retiring. That's what Eric Fought, communications director for the Nebraska Democratic Party, just told us by phone: "Well, I think the conventional wisdom is that he's going to announce that he's not seeking re-election, and that's where everybody thinks this is going to go."

Fought explained that Hagel's own recent behavior suggests a retirement. "He was almost invisible during the August recess, so that's one clue," Fought said. Normally, a politician who plans on running again will spend recesses going to town hall meetings and other public events, keeping in touch with constituents. Also, Fought noted, Hagel has not been raising money for a re-election bid — and this is despite the fact that he already has multiple primary challengers.

Hagel could still throw everyone for a loop and announce that he's running. But so far, there does seem to be good evidence that this will be an open-seat race next year. A Hagel retirement would be a big deal and another headache for the GOP, since it could clear the way for a Democratic pickup if former Senator Bob Kerrey (D) decides to make a comeback and run for Hagel's seat.

We've got the full text of the speech for you after the jump.

In addition to proposing CITO, a multilateral organization designed to promote cooperation between countries' counterterrorism operations, Edwards also took an implicit pop at Hillary for saying some time ago that we're safer than we were on 9/11.

"Some running for the Democratic nomination have even argued that the Bush-Cheney approach has made us safer," Edwards said. "It has not."

There's also this pithy line: "We need a counterterrorism policy that will actually counter terrorism."

The rest after the jump.

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Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), a conservative who has broken sharply with the White House on Iraq, will hold a press conference on Monday to announce his future political plans. He is up for re-election in 2008, and the Monday announcement could finally reveal whether he is retiring, as many expect, or will in fact be running again.

Hagel already faces pro-war primary challenges from Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, businessman Pat Flynn, and former Congressman Hal Daub — though in an ironic twist, having that many Republican challengers could actually help him if he is seeking re-election.

If Hagel does not run, former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey might seek a comeback, and would be a favorite to win the seat. If Kerrey does not run, Democrats have also been courting Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey. Neither of them will run if Hagel does.

Barack Obama's campaign announced today that he's received the endorsement of Federico Pena, a former mayor of Denver who served as Secretary of Energy in Bill Clinton's White House. The endorsement looks like a decent get for Obama, being from a Western-state Latino who worked in the Clinton Cabinet.

"For me, judgment and wisdom are far more important than experience," Pena told reporters in a conference call — obviously contrasting Obama's lack of experience with Hillary Clinton's vote for the Iraq War, a frequent Obama campaign theme. "But frankly, I like the experience that Senator Obama has."

Congressman Paul Broun (R-GA), a conservative activist who won a shocking upset victory in a July special election, already has a primary challenger for 2008. State House Majority Whip Barry Fleming has filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission to launch an exploratory committee, and a spokesman has indicated that Fleming will officially announce his candidacy in two weeks.

Broun ran as an anti-establishment Republican, defeating fellow GOPer Jim Whitehead by less than 400 votes in a runoff. Whitehead had been widely expected to win, but his campaign was derailed by a large vote for Broun in Athens, the district's liberal bastion. Broun, a lifelong Athens resident, was able to capitalize on Whitehead's joke about the town being bombed. If Fleming avoids those sorts of mean-spirited gaffes, then Broun could have to work very hard in order to get re-elected.

John Edwards gave a big foreign policy speech in New York today. Here's what he had to say about Pakistan:

As President I will condition future American aid on progress by Pakistan, including strengthening the reach of police forces, and working more effectively with tribal leaders and their members to ensure their acceptance of the government. But I want to be clear about one thing: if we have actionable intelligence about imminent terrorist activity, and the Pakistan government refuses to act, we will.

That's remarkably similar to what Barack Obama said in his big speech on August 1, and at the time he was sharply criticized as being very unserious for committing such a "gaffe." Obama said:

I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will.

Late Update: An Edwards supporter writes in to say that he's said similar things about Pakistan before, such as this.

The election is this Fall, but Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy has already been effectively re-elected — he is running unopposed. Candidate filing closed yesterday, and not one candidate from either party will attempt to unseat him.

Kennedy switched party affiliation from Democratic to Republican a week and a half ago, a move that was widely seen as the first step in challenging Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu in 2008. He previously ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2004, as a Democrat.

New Survey USA poll on what Idahoans think Larry Craig's next move should be:

What should Craig do?

52% Leave Senate
29% Serve Out Term, Don't Run
17% Serve Out Term And Run Again
2% Not Sure

Meanwhile, 54% say he should leave his guilty plea in place.

Could things get worse for Craig? Well, yes, actually. When asked to rate the respect they have for Craig on a scale of one to 10, the largest percentage, 30%, choose one. Yikes.

Here are some advance excerpts of the big counter-terrorism speech John Edwards will be giving today at noon in New York City.

Edwards will propose the creation of an organization called Counterterrorism and Intelligence Treaty Organization, a kind of NATO-knockoff devoted to coordinating anti-terrorism activities between countries "on all continents."

"CITO will allow members to voluntarily share financial, police, customs and immigration intelligence," Edwards will say. "The new organization will also create a historic new coalition. Those nations who join will, by working together, show the world the power of cooperation. Those nations who join will also be required to commit to tough criteria about the steps they will take to root out extremists, particularly those who cross borders. Those nations who refuse to join will be called out before the world."

We're not sure what that last line would mean in practice, but hopefully Edwards will elaborate in the speech. Meanwhile, here's another key line from the speech: "We need a counterterrorism policy that will actually counter terrorism."

More excerpts after the jump.

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Representative Mike Simpson (R-ID) lashed out at Senate Republican leaders for their treatment of his Idaho colleague, Senator Larry Craig (R).

"I hope I never stub my toe and they throw me under the bus," Simpson said in The Hill. "It kind of makes you wonder what party you want to be a member of."

Simpson also pointed out that there have been other scandals in the Senate GOP conference, and those members have not been forced to resign. "They have people over there in far worse trouble that they haven't said a thing about," he said, referring to Senators such as Ted Stevens of Alaska and David Vitter of Louisiana.

Simpson also said he does not want the appointment to Craig's Senate seat, and does not even wish to serve in the Senate.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who had kept speculation going that he would run for governor of Louisiana, did not file as a candidate by yesterday's deadline. However, Nagin did say that he intends to keep active and will try to affect the terms of the debate in the election. "I will expect any candidate who wants to be taken seriously to commit to the full recovery of New Orleans, this region and ultimately this state," he said.

The current frontrunner is Republican Congressman and 2003 gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal, who has enjoyed poll numbers over the 50% mark needed to avoid a runoff under the state's multi-candidate "jungle primary" system.

Norman Hsu, the big Dem donor and fugitive fraudster who vanished the other day rather than show up in a California court, has now been nabbed by the Feds in Colorado after falling ill on the lam:

Authorities said Hsu was taken into custody at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction at 7 p.m. local time. He had been on the lam for almost two days after failing to appear in a Redwood City courtroom Wednesday to surrender his passport.

Hsu was taken off a passenger train at the Grand Junction train station earlier in the day by paramedics who requested a backboard to move him, said Sgt. Lonnie Chavez with the Grand Junction Police Department.

Authorities received a request for medical assistance at the train station at about 11:15 a.m., but the exact nature of Hsu's condition was unclear, Chavez said. Staff at St. Mary's Hospital declined to comment.

The FBI will be shipping him back to California to face the 1992 charges against him. More detail on his alleged wrongdoing here.

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), the chamber's leading global warming skeptic, told CNSNews.com that Fred Thompson has been talking the right way on the subject, though he apparently stopped short of endorsing Thompson for now.

"The Republicans will need a nominee for president who is willing to tell the truth, and so far the one out there with the most courage is Fred Thompson," said Inhofe. "He is aware of all the issues I've raised on global warming, and right now he's the only one I see who is willing to take this on."

Thompson's own writings on the subject have alleged that global warming is part of a natural phenomenon affecting the whole solar system, and he has even compared skeptics of a human cause in global warming to Galileo.

A new CNN poll shows that a majority of Americans do not think the United States will be able to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden. Whereas a late 2001 CNN poll showed that 78% believed the United States could succeed in apprehending or killing him, only 42% believe it will be done now, compared to 54% who do not have confidence in America's ability to do so.

This 36-point decline in confidence is perfectly understandable — it has been almost six years to the day since 9/11, and he's apparently still out there.

A new Rasmussen poll shows that only 39% of likely voters think General David Petraeus will honestly present his own views in his upcoming progress report on Iraq. Thirty-five percent believe the report will not accurately reflect Petraeus' opinions, and 26% are not sure.

Also, 45% expect that the report will be positive, 24% believe it will be negative, and 31% are not sure.

Bottom line: The continued public relations campaigning by the White House, on behalf of the general and the report, have likely caused them to become intertwined with the president's own credibility or lack thereof.

Barack Obama is proposing a new bill to require campaigns to track and report the activities of bundlers. From his Senate office's press release:

Obama’s bill will require candidates for Congress to disclose all of the people who gather contributions from others in excess of $15,000 in any six month period and require presidential candidates to disclose people who gather contributions of others in excess of $50,000 anytime during the two-year period prior to Election Day.

Senator Obama fought for and won a provision in the Senate ethics reform bill that requires campaigns to disclose campaign contributions solicited by lobbyists from their friends and colleagues – a practice known as bundling. Obama’s bill introduced today will go further by requiring the disclosure of all the wealthy and connected contributors who play a critical role in campaigns by bundling contributions from their friends and associates.

Ben Smith suspects this could be "an oblique Hsu shot" against Hillary Clinton. But it could just as easily be damage control. Remember, Obama got money from Hsu, too, and also had to give it away to charity in an embarrassing campaign moment.

CNN has unearthed some interesting blog posts by Karen Hanretty, a GOP consultant who has signed on with Fred Thompson — writings that might damage his image in Iowa.

"Imagine there’s no first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus," she wrote for The Hill. "No need to pander to corn farmers. No politicizing ethanol for votes. No pressure to support hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded ethanol subsidies."

The Thompson campaign is brushing off any association with the comments. "What matters is that Fred respects Iowa's traditional role," said a top aide. "He is the candidate."

And where is Fred Thompson today? He's in Iowa.

Fred Thompson will be going on his first New Hampshire trip as an officially declared candidate this weekend. On Saturday, he'll stop by Stratham for the Seacoast Federation of Republican Women's annual chili festival, and on Sunday he'll campaign for Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta, who is up for re-election in November, and then later on Sunday he'll make a visit to Nashua.

Interesting side note: His host in Nashua, Mayor Bernie Streeter, is already supporting John McCain, even though he does meet-and-greets for other Republican candidates.

MoveOn is now contemplating a new, expanded mission in 2008, and wants its members' input on this question: Should the group support primary challengers against Congressional Democrats who have supported the Iraq War?

"Polls show that a majority of voters everywhere support an exit from Iraq," the group says in an e-mail to supporters. "That means that there isn't a single Democratic member of Congress whose constituents don't want to bring our troops home. Representatives who vote with President Bush on Iraq are voting against their districts."

However, the group is proceeding cautiously on whether or not to take such an aggressive step within the Democratic Party. Even if this is a worthy idea on its face, is it still the best use of resources? “Deciding to support primary challenges is a big step — some folks have argued that we should keep our focus on Republicans, the primary architects and supporters of the war,” the e-mail says.

So how about it? Will 2008 be marked by more races like Ned Lamont's 2006 campaign against Joe Lieberman? And furthermore, how will the Democratic presidential nominee feel about the inevitable public pressure to take sides in these races?

Great Virginia Hope Mark Warner says that he'll be announcing within a week whether he'll run for the seat of retiring Senator John Warner. That means we'll know whether he's running by next week at the latest.

If he does run, many analysts think he'll have a pretty easy time taking the seat -- which raises the extraordinary possibility that both of Virginia's Senate seats could end up flipping from red to blue in the space of two years.

Barely hours after the news broke of that new poll in Colorado showing Obama faring better against Rudy than Hillary in the state, the Obama campaign has already sent out a new memo arguing that Colorado in particular, and the west in general, presents a big opportunity for Obama and his "message of change."

The memo, from campaign manager David Plouffe, notes that Obama is staffing up and opening offices in the state and argues that Obama's "appeal to independents shown through countless national polls" is a key advantage in Colorado, because "unaffiliated voters are the largest block of registered voters in the state."

Colorado, of course, is a key swing state and was the site of recent Dem gains on the state level. It was chosen to host the Democratic National Convention, reflecting the belief of national Dem strategists after the gains of 2006 that the west offers major possibilities for expansion next year and beyond. By pointing Obama's appeal among indys and to the poll showing Hillary faring less well in the state, Camp Obama, obviously, is trying to make the case that (unlike Hillary) he is the Dem who can consolidate these gains and best exploit these expansion opportunities.

For those of you who like reading these things, we've got the full memo after the jump.

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A new poll conducted yesterday by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling shows Fred Thompson running well ahead in the North Carolina Republican primary, while Hillary Clinton and John Edwards are running close among Democrats:

Democrats:
Clinton 30%
Edwards 28%
Obama 21%

Republicans:
Thompson 34%
Giuliani 16%
Romney 13%
McCain 7%

Hillary wins her lead with Democrats by running relatively well among both white and African-American voters, while Obama is invisible among whites and Edwards barely registers with blacks. Among white Democrats, Edwards has 35%, Hillary 34%, and Obama 9%. Among black Democratic voters, Obama has 51%, Hillary 22%, and Edwards 6%.

Bill Richardson has a new ad running in Iowa, entitled "Offers," in which he jumps into the battle of idealistic ads offering change for the country. The ad is a sharp departure from his previous theme of comedic job interview-themed spots:

"George Bush has made a mess of almost everything," the narrator says. "Now we need experience and change. Bill Richardson offers both."

A new poll by Democratic firm RBI Strategies & Research finds that Colorado could be in play next year — it is a swing state that has been trending towards Democratic dominance recently — but Hillary Clinton might not be in such good shape for it:

Giuliani (R) 50%, Clinton (D) 44%
Giuliani (R) 46%, Obama (D) 45%
Clinton (D) 48%, Romney (R) 42%
Obama (D) 50%, Romney (R) 37%

Rudy Giuliani has a favorable/unfavorable rating of 53%-36%, Barack Obama 51%-38%, and Mitt Romney 34%-34%. Hillary Clinton is the only one of the four tested candidates to have a net negative rating there, at 43%-51%.

Fred Thompson only just officially declared his candidacy — but he's already fending off attacks from his foes. In a phone interview with The Hill, Mike Huckabee heavily implied that Thompson was trying to avoid facing the other candidates on the same stage and taking tough questions. "I think Fred should've come," said Huckabee. "What was it about that debate that he didn't want to be a part of?"

Huckabee's criticism of Thompson got more severe from there, discussing Thompson's Washington experience. "I've never been a Washington lobbyist," said. "I've never lobbied for an abortion rights group."

You might recall that Thompson's "testing the waters" campaign was forced to admit over the Summer that the candidate did lobbying work for a pro-choice organization in 1991 and 1992, when they were seeking to relax the gag rule on abortion for organizations receiving federal funds — not exactly the sort of thing that would go over well with the GOP base.

Here it is: The first of four short documentary videos about Rudy Giuliani by filmmaker Robert Greenwald has just been released. Don't miss it.

The first installment by Greenwald -- who made the well received Outfoxed about Fox News -- turns a fire-hose onto the notion, promulgated by Rudy himself, that his Masterfully Churchillian Performance after 9/11 demonstrates that he has the leadership skills to be President. It hits Rudy for failing to prepare the city for another terrorist attack and for personally profiting off 9/11 in speeches, among other things. Take a look:

In its response, the Rudy campaign, inevitably, took refuge behind 9/11. "It's unfortunate that a conspiracy theorist so disconnected from reality would launch a politically motivated hit video to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks," a spokesman told the Associated Press.

The remaining three installments from Greenwald are due out later this month. Meanwhile, you can get more info on the project at TheRealRudy.org.

A new Rasmussen poll shows Democrats having a strong advantage in the generic Congressional ballot, leading the Republicans 50%-32%. This is an increase from a month ago, when Rasmussen had the Dems ahead 47%-37%.

And on top of that, 69% of respondents say it is very likely or somewhat likely that Democrats will maintain control of Congress in the 2008 elections, compared to only 18% who think it is very or somewhat likely that Republicans can take it back.

Chris Dodd reacts to the news today that Senate Dems are now saying they're willing to "compromise" with Republicans on whether to attach a withdrawal timetable to war funding:

"I cannot and will not support any measure that does not have a firm and enforceable deadline to complete the redeployment of combat troops from Iraq. Only then will Congress be able to send a clear message to the President that we are changing course in Iraq, and a message to the Iraqis that they need to get their political house in order."

No withdrawal timetable, no war funding. Simple. And, as Dodd says, "clear." As in, Republicans support the war, Democrats want to end it.

Talk about one-upmanship.

Not long ago Barack Obama's campaign came up with the idea of raising money by selling prospective donors the chance to have a private dinner with him.

Earlier this week the Hillary campaign announced a similar idea, selling prospective donors the opportunity to have lunch with her.

And now comes the coup de grace from Camp Hillary -- it turns out that the lucky donor who wins that contest will be lunching not just with Hillary, but with Bill, too! Bill has just emailed out a fundraising letter containing this:

I hear you might be having lunch with Hillary -- do you mind if I drop in?

I know Hillary would be the best president, and you know she's ready to change America. So why not help her win today? The campaign will choose one supporter to have lunch with Hillary and me -- along with a guest -- and if you make a contribution by midnight Friday, September 7, it might just be you.

...if you give between now and Friday, you and your guest could have a meal and a conversation with Hillary. And I'll be joining you.

Somewhere, David Broder is grumbling.

John Edwards has picked up a fourth union endorsement, this time from the Transport Workers Union. The TWU has 130,000 current active members, with a total of 200,000 when retirees are counted.

Interestingly, TWU membership includes unionization within New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority — right inside of Hillary Clinton's turf.

For those of you who missed it when it premiered around midnight, here's Fred Thompson's Web announcement:

Thompson's stances in this speech — talking about private health accounts, education reform, and tougher border security — are all standard conservative positions, but generally better enunciated than we've seen from him before.

However, the most intriguing part would be this:

In this broader war with this different kind of enemy, our success cannot always be measures by battlefield victories. Success will depend upon the determination of the American people, and that's why we'll win. There's a courage that comes in unity. Now is the time to show that America united can overcome any danger, and America united can complete any mission.

Before the end of my Senate service in the year after 9/11, I saw the Congress of the United States at its best: Alert to danger, and focused on duty. We need to recover that clarity and conviction in matters of national security.

This is kind of fun -- it looks as if some GOP Senators chastised their leadership in a private meeting for being too quick to judge Wide Stance over his men's room conduct.

Amusingly, one of the key Senators who "wagged their finger" at the leadership, according to a GOP aide, was Sen. Ted. Stevens of Alaska. Stevens' home was recently raided in a federal corruption investigation -- which might explain his aversion to such rushes to judgment in general.

There's been yet another twist in the Saga of Wide Stance Larry -- now one of his top aides is saying that he's likely to resign, after all:

"The most likely scenario, by far, is that by October there will be a new senator from Idaho," Craig spokesman Dan Whiting told the Associated Press.

The only circumstances in which Craig might try to complete his term, Whit