As a reminder, tonight is the Iowa Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, which will feature six presidential candidates — Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd — courting the party activists in the key caucus state.

The event will be shown live on C-Span 1, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

House Parliamentarian John Sullivan has nixed a campaign by Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) to have his fellow members wear buttons saying "Article 1" on the House floor.

The buttons are meant as a statement that the Founders intended for the Congress, and not the White House, to be the superior branch of the government. Sullivan's office ruled that wearing the buttons violates a House rule that forbids members from "wearing of badges by members to communicate a message."

Yarmuth sent the parliamentarian's office a sternly worded letter. "If a simple mention of the founding document of the country constitutes a message, how does it differ from the wearing of the American flag?" Yarmuth wrote, then asking rhetorically if a button saying "U.S. Constitution" would be banned from the House floor.

The McCain campaign has asked an independent group of supporters, calling themselves the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, to stop running ads on the candidate's behalf in South Carolina.

"If anyone considering an outside expenditure thinks they are benefiting me, I would prefer they do not air the ads," McCain said in a statement, according to The Hill. "If there are ads up, I believe they should come down."

In the wake of Dennis Kucinich's attempt to have Dick Cheney impeached, which was scuttled by the House Democratic leadership, a new Rasmussen poll shows that 31% of likely voters agree that the vice president should be impeached, while 41% do not agree.

Hillary Clinton's campaign has admitted that they pulled aside a young college student before a campaign event in Iowa, and then gave her a question to ask the candidate. However, they deny that Hillary herself had any knowledge of this, or that she had been prodded to call on that particular student.

"On this occasion a member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Senator Clinton's energy plan at a forum," a campaign spokesman has said in a statement. "However, Senator Clinton did not know which questioners she was calling on during the event. This is not standard policy and will not be repeated again."

Interestingly enough, the original college paper report of the incident recounts that Hillary began her answer by remarking that young people often ask her this very question.

New Mexico political columnist Heath Hausaman reports that Congressman Tom Udall (D) has informed party leaders that he will run for the Senate, and will announce his decision within the next two weeks. Udall would be seeking the seat of GOP Senator Pete Domenici, who is retiring.

Udall had previously backed out of the race, then informed party leaders that he was reconsidering it. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez, a centrist, is already in the race.

Polling has consistently shown Udall defeating the two Republican candidates, Representatives Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce, by wide margins.

Late Update: It's official. Udall's chief of staff has confirmed the news with the Associated Press.

Here's some more on what exactly happened in the negotiations that led up to the rushed confirmation of Michael Mukasey yesterday.

According to sources inside and outside the Democratic leadership, Harry Reid allowed a vote on Mukasey because in exchange the Republican leadership agreed to allow a vote on the big Defense Appropriations Bill, which contains $459 billion in military spending but doesn't fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reid had wanted to get this bill passed before the end of this week, and in fact, the defense bill did come up for a vote late last night and was passed after the Mukasey vote.

One key reason Dem leaders wanted this defense approps bill passed, sources tell me, is that they wanted to be able to argue that they had sent a bill to the President funding the military, if not the war itself. The idea was that doing this would allow them to protect themselves in the days ahead when the battle over Iraq funding heats up and Republicans inevitably charge that Dems are refusing to fund the troops.

"This lets us argue, `Hey, we just sent $450 billion to the military," one leadership source tells me.

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In a sign that the Democratic leadership is ready to give the liberals their day, the Huffington Post reports that the leaders in both houses of Congress are preparing to back the strongest pro-withdrawal funding legislation yet — but it still has little chance of passing.

A draft of the bill states, "Within 30 days after enactment of this Act, the President shall commence an immediate and orderly redeployment of United States Armed Forces from Iraq." It would also order the president to come up with a plan to finish the withdrawal by December 2008.

An anonymous Dem aide told the HuffPo that the leadership "is committed to pushing this as far as it can go. But it will get filibustered or vetoed. Regardless, this will be the last funding bill in 2007."

The ultimate effect, then, will be to push the funding battles back to February 2008.

The McCain campaign is trying a new tactic to boost their funds, reportedly negotiating a $3 million loan in order to obtain the seed money they'll need to turn his currently boost in the polls into some real progress on the ground.

The campaign has also been considering taking matching funds, but they don't want to be encumbered by the per-state spending restrictions that come with the public money.

Meanwhile, the campaign finance reform advocate will be getting some help from a curious outside source, with an new independent group about to run ads on his behalf in South Carolina. The ads are being produced by longtime GOP ad man Rick Reed, who also co-produced the Swift Boat ads in 2004. McCain's aides said they have no involvement or knowledge of the ads.

The group making them, calling itself Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, is being finance mainly by McCain supporters, and Reed himself was a volunteer with the McCain campaign earlier this year.

Hillary Clinton has a new ad out, in which the candidates speaks before a crowd about her plans for alternative energy sources:

Rudy Giuliani's campaign has hit back at the McCain team's criticism of Rudy's association with Bernie Kerik.

Giuliani surrogate Randy Maestro, who served as Rudy's deputy mayor and chief of staff, has responded by airing some of McCain's own dirty laundry.

"It’s no more fair to judge Rudy Giuliani on the basis of one issue than it is to judge John McCain on the Keating scandal," Maestro said in a phone interview with Jonathan Martin. The message to McCain: Back off.

The Romney camp, meanwhile, put out an e-mail that did not directly mention Giuliani or Kerik, but seemed curiously timed given its contents.

"Governor Romney believes the American people want and deserve change in Washington," wrote campaign spokesman Kevin Madden, listing some of Romney's ethics proposals. "They want strong ethics and accountability in government."

Roll Call is reporting that Congresswoman Barbara Cubin (R-WY) will reportedly announce her retirement tomorrow.

Cubin has been absent from the House for much of the year, caring for her ill husband back home in Wyoming. Cubin had already been facing a primary challenge from state House Majority Leader Colin Simpson, the son of former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY), as well as a second campaign from 2006 Democratic nominee Gary Trauner.

In Cubin's special case, the open seat might actually improve the GOP's chance of holding the seat. Despite representing an overwhelmingly Republican state, Cubin barely won re-election last year after she threatened to hit the Libertarian candidate — who was himself in a wheelchair.

One of the weirder aspects of last night's rush vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as AG is that none of the four Senators running for President voted on this -- despite the fact that his confirmation was a big issue in the Dem Primary. So what happened?

The question is being asked today because many opponents of Mukasey feel that his confirmation could have been stopped -- or at least slowed -- by a filibuster. Since the Senators running for President -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Chris Dodd -- all oppose Mukasey, they might have been likely candidates for that filibuster, or at least would have added "No" votes to the No column.

So why weren't they on hand for the vote? The answer is pretty straightforward -- but it also deepens the mystery of what really went down here.

Read more »

Republicans will apparently have yet another vacant House seat to deal with this cycle. PolitickerNJ reports that 12-term Congressman Jim Saxton (R-NJ) will not seek re-election.

President Bush carried this district by only three points against John Kerry — the same as Bush's national margin that year — so expect the Dems to make a major push for the open seat in what is expected to be a much more Democratic year.

Saxton had already attracted a strong challenger in state Senator John Adler, a leading South Jersey Democrat.

Late Update: It's official.

Bill Richardson's campaign has put out a press release condemning the Senate for confirming Michael Mukasey — and condemning four of his opponents for missing the vote.

"The Senate could have rejected this nomination with a filibuster," Richardson says in the release. By showing up and speaking out, Senators Biden, Clinton, Dodd, and Obama might well have stopped his confirmation. Instead, they chose to sit on the sidelines and watch history pass them by."

The full statement is available after the jump.

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Mitt Romney has a new ad airing in both Iowa and New Hampshire, in which the candidate promises to take a hard line against illegal immigration — and in a subtle hit against John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, warns Republicans against sounding like the Democrats on the issue:

Mike Huckabee has been struggling to gain high-profile endorsements, but the ex-governor and Baptist minister might be on the verge of landing one of the biggest possible Christian right endorsements: James Dobson.

"We are continuing discussions with people who are close to him," an anonymous Huckabee aide told Jonathan Martin. The aide downplayed rumors, however, that the endorsement could be coming as soon as within the next ten days.

Fred Thompson is now taking his "consistent conservative" ad campaign, already running in Iowa and on Fox News, to South Carolina. Jonathan Martin reports that the ads will begin running in the first Southern primary state starting next week.

The media campaign will cover all of the state except for some border counties that are in Georgia or North Carolina media markets.

Here's the one-minute ad:

The 30-second version can be seen after the jump.

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The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's new Web ad against Mitch McConnell shows that they might be serious about mounting a challenge against the Senate Minority Leader. And what's more, DSCC spokesman Matt Miller told the Herald-Leader that the DSCC is considering buying air time to show it on Kentucky TV:

Successfully taking on McConnell would be for the Democrats a revenge of sorts against the Republicans for 2004, when they defeated then-Senate Dem Leader Tom Daschle.

Ben Smith has a source who says that the "mystery endorsement" that Camp Hillary has been promising today is none other than Ohio governor Ted Strickland. A big get in a big state.

In the wake of Bernie Kerik's indictment, I'd been wondering whether Rudy Giuliani's GOP rivals would emphasize the fact that Rudy, who says he's the candidate best equipped to defend us from the terrorists, had not just picked Kerik as top cop but also recommended him for the post of Homeland Security chief.

Well, on a campaign stop John McCain has now done just that, and brought up yet another episode from Kerik's past that many have forgotten, chiefly that he abruptly pulled out of Baghdad back when he was training the Iraqi police. McCain:

"That's why I never would've supported him to be the head of homeland security because of his irresponsible act when he was over in Baghdad to try and help train the police. One of the reasons why we had so much trouble with the initial training of the police was because he came, didn't do anything and then went out to the airport and left."

McCain added of Rudy's alleged national security credentials that he suffered from "a fundamental lack of experience."

Rudy was criticized even more harshly by McCain supporter Tom Ridge, the former Homeland Security chief, who implicitly pointed out how ludicrous Rudy's effort to install Kerik as DHS chief really was: "We're not talking about some urban city patronage job. That's not what a Cabinet secretary's about."

Ouch.

Chris Dodd is trying to get the other campaigns to pledge that their Iowa staffers and volunteers — many of whom live temporarily in the state and become eligible to vote — will not participate in the caucuses. No other campaign has yet signed the pledge.

"I've been here long enough to register to vote and be involved, but I shouldn't be," said Taylor West, a Dodd staffer from Virginia. "That violates the spirit of what the caucuses are about."

Carrie Giddins, the communications director for the state Democratic Party, said the party's rules would seem to eliminate anyone who comes to Iowa in the final days of the caucus specifically to participate.

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), who has been the subject of retirement rumors in recent weeks, has still not decided if he will seek a sixth term in 2008, but is telling local media that he will announce his plans in "a few weeks."

Republicans maintain that Tuesday night's re-election of Gov. Haley Barbour (R) underlines Mississippi's Republican trend, but Democrats have a bench of former statewide office holders here and would like to mount a serious challenge for Cochran's seat should it open up.

Here's the top story out of the South Carolina local press: The state's Republican primary has also been subjected to sanctions from the Republican National Committee, having their delegate count cut from 47 down to 24.

State GOP chair Katon Dawson has previously indicated that the state party would consider filing a lawsuit to have all the delegates restored, but RNC chairman Mike Duncan thinks the national party can win any court challenge.

"No one wants to be in a position to penalize anyone, but our rules are self-enforcing," Duncan told reporters. "They give me no options."

Here's the top story out of the New Hampshire local press: The state GOP is reacting to the Republican National Committee's decision to strip them of half their delegates, as a punishment for holding their primary before February 5.

State GOP chairman Fergus Cullen is standing by his state's position. "There will be a time, after the primary, to make the case that the full delegation should be seated, but now was not that time," he said.

This marks the first time ever that the national GOP has sanctioned New Hampshire over the primary.

Here's the top story out of the Iowa local press: Rudy Giuliani told an audience at Iowa State University that the American military needs to be bigger, and he lashed out at Bill Clinton for cutting the military during the 1990's.

"Our military is too small to deal with the Islamic terrorism threats," Giuliani said, "but it really is too small to deter would-be aggressors to even think of challenging us. And that's due to Bill Clinton."

Instead, Rudy called for a massive military buildup in order to "send a very strong signal to China and then Russia ... that it doesn't make sense to challenge us."

A new poll from Middle Tennessee State University finds that the state could potentially be close in 2008, though the Republicans do seem to have an edge.

In a match-up between favorite son Fred Thompson and Hillary Clinton, Thompson just reads 50%, with Hillary 42%. Against Barack Obama, Thompson has a much greater 55%-34% lead.

In a match-up between Hillary and Rudy Giuliani, the two are tied at 43% each. Giuliani leads Obama 44%-36%

John McCain leads Hillary by a statistically insignificant 45%-42% margin, and tops Barack Obama 44%-35%.

A new CNN poll shows the Democrats leading the Republicans in the generic Congressional ballot by a 53%-42% margin.

On the other hand, a 53% majority also say that most members of Congress do not deserve to be re-elected, the highest number since 1991, when the question was first asked.

Barack Obama's campaign told the Hotline last night that he would be missing the Mukasey vote, as he was busy on a bus tour through Iowa yesterday when the vote was called on short notice.

"Sen. Obama won't be going back to DC tonight to vote for Mukasey," said Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs. "He's already announced his position on it. I don't think the vote will be close."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN yesterday that the Iraq War is "winding down," and it won't be a factor in the 2008 race.

"The war is winding down," he said. "Next year's election is going to be about this Congress and what it failed to do."

McConnell cited recent reports of lower death tolls, and predicted "fewer and fewer troops in Iraq, fewer and fewer casualties, more and more ... return to normalcy."

In an interview with the Washington Post, Barack Obama questioned Hillary Clinton's electability and overall ability to build a broad coalition.

"Whatever arguments you want to make for Hillary Clinton," Obama said, "I don't think anybody believes that somehow the election is going to be significantly different than 2000 or 2004, that different states or different congressional districts suddenly come into play, that she brings in a whole new group of voters that might not have voted before."

And as for his other main rival, Obama doubts just how genuine John Edwards is, contending that Edwards "wasn't this raging populist" when he ran last time. "He was in the U.S. Senate for six years, and as far as I can tell wasn't taking on the lobbyists and special interests. It's a matter of, do you walk the walk that you talk?"

In all, seven Democratic Senators voted to confirm Michael Mukasey:

Evan Bayh (Indiana)
Tom Carper (Delaware)
Dianne Feinstein (California)
Mary Landrieu (Louisiana)
Joe Lieberman (Independent-Connecticut)
Ben Nelson (Nebraska)
Chuck Schumer (New York)

During last night's Senate confirmation of Michael Mukasey — which passed 53-40 — every presidential candidate currently in the Senate missed the vote. Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, plus Republican John McCain, were all absent.

I've just learned from several sources that John Edwards will be endorsed by the fiscal group Iowans for Sensible Priorities, a very good get for Edwards in the key early-primary state.

A source on a rival campaign confirmed that the group decided to endorse Edwards; the decision will officially be announced tomorrow morning. The endorsement is a key one because it could potentially deliver a large block of thousands of caucus goers to Edwards.

Peggy Huptert, the head of the group, refused to confirm or deny whether the group had decided to back Edwards. But she did agree to discuss the general importance of the endorsement with Election Central.

"We have 10,000 Iowans who have taken a pledge saying they will vote in the caucuses and only support a candidate who supports shifting 15% of wasteful Pentagon spending into other priorities," Ms. Huptert said, describing her group's litmus test issue. I was unable to immediately confirm whether Edwards had in fact made this pledge.

Ms. Huptert added that all the main candidates had submitted questionaires to the group in search of its support. She noted that the winner of the group's endorsement (who she declined to confirm) would in effect get the support of all these members in one fell swoop. But others in Presidential politics pointed out that this is the first time the group is endorsing in this manner, so its ability to move votes remains untested. We won't know the full significance of Edwards' get until the votes are cast.

Still, the Edwards campaign -- which also declined to confirm the group's decision -- are already announcing a mystery event for tomorrow and are already looking to build excitement around it. The campaign already has an advisory out promising an "Important Campaign Announcement" for tomorrow in Des Moines.

In a widely expected move, the Republican National Committee officially announced today that it is stripping half the delegates from five states, as punishment for holding their primaries before February 5: New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina, Michigan and Wyoming.

Iowa and Nevada escaped sanctions because their early contests will be caucuses, not primaries.

The Democratic National Committee has been even more severe, stripping all the delegates from the offending states.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has a new pair of 60-second ads set to go on TV tomorrow — one for each of Kentucky's media markets — extolling the incumbent's virtues.

Going up on the air this early is a sign that McConnell is taking his re-election effort seriously, even though he doesn't yet have any official opponent. Outgoing state attorney general Greg Stumbo is exploring the race, while some Democrats are trying to recruit state Auditor Crit Luallen, who was re-elected by a landslide this week.

The ads compare McConnell to the late Kentucky Senator Alben Barkley, who served as the Democratic Leader during the New Deal era and became Harry Truman's vice president, and even feature the support of Barkley's grandson.

Here's the Louisville version:

The Lexington version can be seen after the jump.

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Mike Huckabee has picked up a Christian right endorsement of his own, albeit one that's not as high profile as Pat Robertson or Bob Jones III.

American Family Association chairman Donald Wildmon, has endorsed the former governor and Baptist minister, saying that Huckabee "understands the needs of our country and has the ability to lead us in meeting those needs."

Wildmon's activism has included organizing boycotts against the entertainment industry, as well as the Ford Motor Company, for sponsoring the homosexual agenda.

This is fun. The Obama campaign is blasting out a new Web video to Iowa supporters calling on them to flock to his upcoming appearance headlining the pre-rally at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner this coming Saturday in Des Moines. It's worth a watch:

The vid features old newsreel-style footage of crowds of men in hats filling the streets of what presumably is supposed to be Des Moines as an old-fashioned-style radio announcer calls on Iowa Dems to come see Obama. There really is something kind of weirdly compelling about seeing pics of Obama in the context of this old footage -- a juxtaposition that serves as a perhaps unintended reminder of the historic nature of his candidacy, something that is easy to forget amid the day to day brawling of the campaign.

Top Hillary Clinton advisor Mark Penn has said that the executive at his public relations firm who generated some controversy by taking an assignment for Blackwater is no longer with the firm, and that he himself was not involved in any dealing with the private army.

In his own personal defense, Penn said he hasn't actually been working on the individual cases at the firm, Burston-Marsteller, since he began giving almost all of his attention to the Hillary campaign.

"The Blackwater [client] was actually I think either a nine-day or two week assignment by somebody who had a personal relationship with them, who actually doesn't continue to work at the firm," Penn said during a radio show appearance. "And so there are 2,000 clients. I'm really focused on some of the management, but really my focus is on Senator Clinton's campaign."

The Huffington Post confirmed the departure of Robert Tappan, and also report that Burston-Marsteller say Tappan was not fired. Instead, Tappan left to accept a position as president at another firm.

This really is a feat: Open Left, the liberal blog that's leading the charge on behalf of netroots heroine Donna Edwards' spirited primary challenge to Dem incumbent Al Wynn in Maryland's 4th district, has just sent out a release claiming that the netroots raised $100,000 for Edwards in just this week.

Wynn, who's been targeted by the bloggers in part over his vote for the Iraq War, has the backing of Nancy Pelosi and the Dem Congressional leadership. But Wynn -- who barely survived a challenge from Edwards in 2006, is getting targeted even more aggressively by the netroots this time around, suggesting the possibility of a netroots-fueled upset over the Dem leadership.

Kentucky Democrats are already feeling emboldened by their big win in the gubernatorial race this week, and are looking for more Republicans to challenge. Democratic state Senator David Boswell has told the Herald-Leader that he is planning to run against GOP Congressman Ron Lewis.

Lewis won his first race for Congress in the very Republican year of 1994, and did not face any remotely competitive challenger until 2006, when he defeated a conservative Dem by a 55%-45% margin.

The new Zogby poll in Iowa shows that Mike Huckabee has now moved into second place in the Republican caucus — though Mitt Romney continues to hold a comfortable lead:

Romney 31%
Huckabee 15%
Giuliani 11%
Thompson 10%
McCain 8%

The margin of error is ±5%, so Huckabee's lead over Rudy is within the margin. But the momentum is clear — Huckabee has gone up seven points since August, while Rudy has fallen by three.

Here's still more on Rudy's acceptance of Pat Robertson's endorsement despite his agreement that America "deserved" 9/11.

A rival campaign points out that back in 2001, Rudy very publicly turned down a $10 million donation for disaster relief from a Saudi prince because the prince had suggested that U.S. Mideast policies had contributed to the 9/11 attacks.

During a visit to Ground Zero shortly after the disaster, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal offered condolences to Americans and handed Rudy a $10 million relief check. But the Prince also said that America "must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack." In response, Rudy rejected the money because of the prince's suggestion that the U.S. was in any way remotely responsible for the disaster, saying:

"I entirely reject that statement," Giuliani said. "There is no moral equivalent for this [terrorist] act. There is no justification for it. The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification for it when they slaughtered 4,000 or 5,000 innocent people."

The rejection of the Saudi prince's $10 million is a big point of pride for Rudy, something he currently brings up as proof of his anti-terrorism zeal.

Yet here he is cheerfully accepting the endorsement from Robertson, who went even further than the Saudi prince, agreeing that America deserved 9/11 not because of policies but because of its sinful ways.

There are two morals to this tale. The first: Rudy will turn away $10 million in relief for other people from someone who sort of blamed America for 9/11 if it gives him a chance to do a bit of garden variety political grandstanding and get big tabloid headlines. But he'll overlook such comments if it will allow him to help himself politically, as the Robertson endorsement does.

The second moral: If an Arab sort of blames America for 9/11, it's despicable. If a Christian fundamentalist/extremist does it, it's not a problem at all.

Research 2000 has released a new poll, commissioned by the Daily Kos, showing Congressman Tom Udall to be the strongest Democrat for the open Senate seat in New Mexico:

Wilson (R) 45%, Chávez (D) 42%
Wilson (R) 44%, Denish (D) 43%
Udall (D) 55%, Wilson (R) 38%
Pearce (R) 40%, Chávez (D) 39%
Denish (D) 45%, Pearce (R) 39%
Udall (D) 54%, Pearce (R) 37%

Udall had previously passed on the race, but recently informed party leaders that he was giving the race another look.

Lt. Governor Diane Denish has already announced that she is not running, and Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez is already threatening a rough primary if Udall gets in.

The prospect of a Rudy presidency is stirring deep fear and unease among a particular group of U.S. citizens: Arab-Americans.

The Huffington Post reports on some of the discomfort felt among many Arab-Americans over Rudy's record on civil liberties, as well as the sheer bellicosity of many of the people on his foreign policy team.

Randa Fahmy Hudome, who works in government relations and is a self-identified Arab-American Republican, told the HuffPo, "on the foreign policy issues I think there is a great deal of concern, and not just because of his rhetoric. I think there is a lack of foresight on his part."

The feeling was perhaps best summed up by James Zogby, a Democrat who founded the Arab American Institute, who went so far as to characterize a Rudy Administration as a "doomsday scenario" for Arab-Americans: "He is like the kid who grew up in the tough neighborhood who wasn't tough and now has the chance to sound tough ... You would be correct to call his administration a doomsday scenario."

The primary wrangling in Michigan has taken another turn, with a county judge invalidating the law setting up their rogue January 15 primary, on a technical clause.

The judge's ruling is based on the fact that the law makes information about which voters requested Republican or Democratic ballots only available to the state parties, and not to the public. The judge decided that this was not allowed under the state constitution.

The state GOP chairman called the ruling a "hiccup" that would not derail the primary. But with only 10 weeks until the primary, the parties don't have much time left to appeal the ruling or rewrite the law.

As noted below, Rudy has now defended accepting Pat Robertson's endorsement by saying that Robertson some time ago "explained" his controversial comments, in which he agreed with Jerry Falwell that America "deserved" to be attacked on 9/11.

Rudy's suggestion is that Robertson somehow admitted that this was a verbal screw-up that he's now repudiated.

But what, exactly, was Robertson's "explanation"? Did Robertson really explain anything, as Rudy claimed? Not by our reckoning -- in fact, Robertson has since stuck by the fundamental point that caused the controversy.

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A new Rasmussen poll shows that Mitt Romney continues to have a healthy lead in New Hampshire:

Romney 32%
Giuliani 17%
McCain 16%
Huckabee 10%
Thompson 7%
Paul 4%

Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey (D) has promised Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Chuck Schumer that he'll take the next "4 to 6 weeks" to consider running for the open seat of retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) next year, but that it's "unlikely" that he'll enter the race against former Gov. Mike Johanns (R).

A Fahey candidacy is the "Plan B" for Senate Democrats, who had hoped that former Sen. Bob Kerrey would enter the race.

A new AP/Ipsos poll shows that Hillary Clinton has yet to feel any damage at the national level from last week's debate. She has 45% support among Democrats, with 22% for Barack Obama and 12% for John Edwards. The results are about the same as what they were last month.

On the Republican side: Rudy Giuliani 29%, Fred Thompson 19%, John McCain 13%, Mitt Romney 12%, and Mike Huckabee 10%. In short, Rudy continues to lead the divided field, with Huckabee's rise only muddying the situation further.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is shifting its strategy, warning some of their potentially vulnerable House incumbents that they won't spend money in their districts unless Republicans make the first move. The plan, described as a "gamble" by some DC insiders, is an attempt by the DCCC to free up the necessary funds to challenge 40 Republican-held House seats next year.

Finally! Rudy Giuliani has been asked to expain his acceptance of an endorsement from Pat Robertson, despite Robertson's agreement that America "deserved" to be attacked on 9/11. The State of South Carolina has his answer:

Giuliani defended Robertson’s past controversies, including statements after the Sept. 11 attacks that God was “lifting his protection” because the U.S. was allowing abortion and removed prayer and the Ten Commandments from public schools.

“I think the comments he explained a long time ago,” Giuliani said. “I’ve had to explain lots of comments of mine.”

We'll bring you more on Robertson's "explanation" soon. For now, suffice it to say that Robertson's press release making similar claims is still on his Website -- without any disclaimer or repudiation. And Robertson actually said something similar two years ago -- but more on this in a bit.

Mike Huckabee has been trying out a new sales pitch before Iowa audiences who are afraid of HIllary Clinton — that his victories in Arkansas show that he can take on the Clintons.

"There's no one running for president that has run against the Clinton political machine and beat it not once, not twice, not three times, but four times. I have," Huckabee is telling crowds.

Meanwhile, Huckabee will reportedly be spending most of the next 65 days on the ground in Iowa, putting it all on a strong showing in the first caucus.

In a possible effort at courting right-wing Iowa Congressman Steve King, Fred Thompson has endorsed a proposed bill from King against illegal immigration.

The bill would forbid businesses from taking a tax deduction on wages paid to an illegal immigration. In practice, such a law could be enforced retroactively after the discovery that a business was paying an illegal worker, adding a tax penalty to any other sanctions.

A new Quinnipiac poll has some bad news for Chris Dodd: He's polling at 5% in the Democratic primary for his home state of Connecticut.

Hillary Clinton leads with 45%, with Barack Obama in second place at 19%. John Edwards has 7%, statistically tied with Dodd's 5%.

Rudy Giuliani dominates the Republican field here with 41%, followed way behind by Mitt Romney at 13% and John McCain with 12%.

The general election numbers, available after the jump, also show that Rudy might be able to make this normally blue state competitive.

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Barack Obama's new Iowa ad, entitled "High And Dry," featurs a retired Cedar Rapids worker whose pension fund was raided and depleted by the executives at Farmstead, the company where he worked for 33 years:

"I'm telling the CEOs it hurts America when they cash out, and leave workers high and dry," Obama says in the ad. "It's an outrage. You've gotta have somebody in the White House who believes it's an outrage."

Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez, who has already declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Senate, is fuming after national and local Dems have attempted to recruit Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM) to enter the primary against him.

“This will not be a sweet primary. It just won’t,” Chávez told Roll Call. “The contrast in records between me and the Congressman won’t situate him well for the general election.”

This comes only days after Chávez praised Udall as a "great congressman" in a conference call with local progressive bloggers, and adding that he would attempt to mimic Udall's voting record in Congress: “If you look issue by issue I doubt you’ll find much difference ... You will find that we will vote together almost all the time.”

A survey by the New York Times finds that Hillary Clinton already enjoys a 100-delegate lead over Barack Obama — that is, a 100-vote lead among super-delegates, the officeholders and other party officials who are ex officio delegates. Hillary has 159 votes, Obama 59, John Edwards 29, and Bill Richardson 25. The single largest contingent are the 291 who are currently uncommitted.

A word of caution: Before the Iowa caucus in 2004, Howard Dean had a big lead in the super-delegate count.

The new NBC/Wall St. Journal poll finds that a generic Democrat for president is at 50% against a generic Republican, who has only 35% support. Democrats also enjoy a 46%-37% lead in the generic Congressional ballot.

In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton has 47%, Barack Obama 25%, and John Edwards 11%. For the Republicans: Rudy Giuliani 33%, John McCain 16%, Fred Thompson 15%, Mitt Romney 11%, Mike Huckabee 8%, and Ron Paul 4%. Clearly, Rudy continues to benefit from the divided field.

In a match-up between Hillary and Rudy, it's a statistical tie with Hillary at 46% and Rudy with 45%. In other words, Hillary lags behind a generic Democrat, and Rudy well outperforms a generic Republican.

In the wake of a one-day fundraiser by supporters that netted over $4 million, Ron Paul told the Associated Press that his campaign will be beefing up his presence in New Hampshire.

"I will be here a lot more," Paul said, "but I think there's something in the air that says people are starved for a different message, and I have that message."

Stop the Arms Race Political Action Committee (STAR PAC), an Iowa peace activism group founded in 1980, has endorsed Bill Richardson for president, citing the candidate's promise to pull all American troops out of Iraq within his first year in office.

His message is the same wherever he speaks - to a military audience in Georgetown, a New Hampshire town meeting, in a rural Iowa community or at STAR PAC's candidate forum with the governor in August," said STAR PAC chair Harold Wells.

Here's a top local story out of South Carolina this morning: During a campaign stop yesterday in the state, Mitt Romney told the crowd about his strong support for school choice — and he went a bit further in his courting of religious right voters.

Beside supporting government vouchers to help parents send their children to private schools, Romney also reportedly said that he supports public money for parents who home school their children. Home schooling enjoys a measure of popularity among Christian conservative activists, who feel that the public schools are dominated by secularism.

Bill Richardson's campaign has announced that they're moving a lot of senior staff out of South Carolina and into Iowa — even including the South Carolina state director.

This comes on the heels of news yesterday that the Richardson camp is also relocating personnel from Nevada into Iowa.

A new Pew poll released today shows a clear jump in the number of Americans who want the Dem Congress to get tougher with Bush in ending the Iraq War.

The survey finds that nearly half -- 47% -- say that Dems aren't doing enough to challenge the President over Iraq. That's a seven-point jump from last spring. In contrast, barely one-fifth think Congress has gone "too far." And tellingly, nearly half of independents -- 48% -- want more action from Congress on ending the war, too.

The poll also contains some bad news -- but also some good -- for the Dem Congressional leadership. While overall approval of the whole Congress has fallen to 31%, a solid majority of 54% says they remain happy that Dems won control last year, suggesting that GOP claims that the Dems have blown it with the public are not supported by the numbers.

Here's Fred Thompson's new 60-second ad, set to begin airing today in Iowa and on national cable TV — Fox News, to be precise — in which he lays out his conservative beliefs and credentials in a calm, folksy manner:

The 30-second version can be seen after the jump.

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During a campaign stop in South Carolina today, Mitt Romney saw a familiar face in the audience: His second cousin, Heather Krueger, who he hadn't seen since a family funeral ten years ago.

There's a catch, though. She wasn't there to cheer him on — she was there to make up her mind, as she's still undecided.

She did tell the Associated Press, however, that she's "getting more and more excited" about Mitt's candidacy.

"I'm staying open," said Krueger.

Mitt Romney was asked today in South Carolina whether he thinks Pat Robertson's endorsement of Rudy Giuliani will have an impact in attracting Christian conservatives to the Rudy camp. His answer, Jonathan Martin reports: "Not at all."

"I don’t think that the Republican Party is going to choose a pro-choice, pro-gay civil union candidate to lead our party," Romney added.

Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO), a relatively moderate Democrat, has announced his opposition to Michael Mukasey, the Denver Post reports.

"Waterboarding is torture," said Salazar, a former state attorney general. "This is not a complex issue. It is not open to interpretation."

With more senators now coming out against Mukasey, here's our vote chart:

Rudy's willingness to accept Pat Robertson's endorsement -- despite his agreement that America "deserved" to be attacked on 9/11 -- is discomfiting at least one major social conservative group that disagreed with Robertson over his interpretation of the disaster.

In an interview with Election Central, a top official at the Family Research Council, one of the most prominent religious-conservative groups in the country, suggested that Rudy's acceptance of Robertson's endorsement should make one wonder whether Rudy agrees with Robertson's interpretation of the event that killed nearly 3,000 of Rudy's constitutents and now forms the basis of his campaign.

"9/11 is what Rudy's campaign is fundamentally based on," Charmaine Yoest, a vice president at Family Research Council Action, told us. "This does beg the question -- does Rudy agree with Robertson's comments about 9/11?"

Yoest also added that it should be asked whether Rudy agrees with Robertson on a whole host of other issues, such as Robertson's defense of China's one-child policy.

Good questions. Will anyone else ask them?

Montana Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester — two Democrats from a state that reliably votes Republican for president — have announced their opposition to Michael Mukasey for attorney general.

In a joint press release, the two declare, "We are deeply troubled by Judge Mukasey's refusal to acknowledge what our courts, our military and every single previous administration has recognized: waterboarding is torture and it is illegal."

The full statement is available after the jump.

Now that more Senators are coming out against Mukasey, it looks like his confirmation may not be assured, after all. So we're hauling out our chart of where the individual Senators stand on this:

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The new Zogby poll in Iowa shows the Democratic race to be a close one between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — and when the ±4.5% margin of error is figured in, it's a tight race between all top three Dems:

Clinton 28%
Obama 25%
Edwards 21%
Richardson 9%

During his press conference today with Sam Brownback, John McCain was asked what his thoughts were on Pat Robertson's endorsement of Rudy Giuliani.

"Every once in a while, I am left speechless," McCain said. "This is one of those times."

McCain later told the New York Times that he had never even tried to court Robertson — and he's surprised that such a staunch pro-lifer would go for Rudy.

"Pat Robertson has never had many flattering things to say to me," he said. "So I didn't think that I would ever be considered, but I must say I am a little surprised because of his pro-life record. I don't know him very well, I have never met him. I have never encountered him in my life."

At a press conference today to announce his endorsement of John McCain, Sam Brownback explained why he picked McCain — and also talked about some of the entreaties that Rudy Giuliani made towards him.

"Giuliani pitched a much more pro-life message," Brownback said, discussing Rudy's oft-repeated promise to appoint "strict constructionist" judges. He said Rudy told him, "I come at it in a different angle but I get to the same position you do."

"What he [Rudy] is articulating in private is a much more pro-life record," Brownback said, "and with John you have somebody who has voted that way for 24 years."

Today 9/11 hero Rudy accepted the endorsement of Pat Robertson despite the fact that Robertson agreed that America "deserved" to be hit by the attack.

In light of that, we thought it would be a good idea to remind you all of this moment from a recent GOP Presidential debate, in which Rudy aggressively attacked GOP Presidential candidate Ron Paul for saying that America's foreign policies were to blame for 9/11:

Note that Rudy said of Paul's comments the following:

"I don't think I've ever heard that before...I would ask the Congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn't really mean that."

Actually, Rudy has heard something similar to that before. And far from asking the fellow who said it to withdraw his comment, today Rudy cheerfully accepted his endorsement. Go figure.

In light of that, it's instructive to watch the vid and ponder the extreme umbrage and outrage that poured forth from Rudy here. Pretty unsettling, really. Or at least it should be.

A new poll in North Carolina from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling shows the Democratic primary to be a tie between Hillary Clinton and favorite son Senator John Edwards, with each at 30%. Barack Obama comes in third with 22%. Although Edwards served one term as a U.S. Senator from the state, he has been unable to secure a commanding lead in the primary.

On the Republican side, Fred Thompson has a 24% plurality, with Rudy Giuliani at 19%, Mitt Romney with 10%, and John McCain at 8%.

In the Democratic primary for Senate, state Senator Kay Hagan leads businessman Jim Neal 24%-13%, with 8% going for frequent candidate John Ross Hendrix, and an astonishing 55% undecided. Clearly, both Hagan and Neal still have a lot of work to do in simply building up name recognition.

Late Update: A SurveyUSA poll released yesterday paints an even bleaker picture for Edwards — it has Hillary leading him in North Carolina by a 43%-25% margin, with Obama at 19%.

In an interview with Texas Monthly, former White House communications director Dan Bartlett said he's more worried about the idea of Democrats nominating Barack Obama than he is about facing Hillary Clinton.

"I think he poses a different set of challenges," Bartlett said. "When it comes down to it, Hillary Clinton will very much excite the Republican faithful to get out and work hard in the election. I don’t know if a similar case can be made if Obama were the candidate."

(Via Mark Halperin.)

Here's some video of Pat Robertson agreeing that America "deserved" 9/11:

Note that Robertson says here that he "concurs" that abortionists and other secular heretics are to blame for the disaster. Rudy still claims that a woman should have the right to choose an abortion. So how hard will he be pressed to say whether he agrees with Robertson's views?

On that score, Steve Benen has a good rundown of some other of Robertson's greatest hits.

Barack Obama gave a speech today in Iowa outlining his economic proposals — or in campaign parlance, the "American Dream" — containing tax cuts and credits for low-income workers and retirees, bankruptcy reform to deal with the problems in the housing market, and more spending on access to college and early childhood education.

The speech draws heavily from Obama's own experience, having been raised by his single mother and maternal grandparents.

"What is unique about America is that we want these dreams for more than ourselves," Obama says, "we want them for each other."

The full speech, from the prepared remarks, is available after the jump.

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In addition to saying during a TV appearance with Jerry Falwell that America "deserved" 9/11, Pat Robertson also put out a press release shortly after the disaster reiterating that point. Amazingly, the release is still on his site and was unearthed by TPM's Eric Kleefeld. Key quotes:

We have imagined ourselves invulnerable and have been consumed by the pursuit of financial gain. The focus of many in America has been on the pursuit of health, wealth, material pleasures and sexuality. Sadly, those in the churches have been as self-indulgent as those in the world.

We have allowed rampant pornography on the Internet, and rampant secularism and the occult, etc. to be broadcast on television. We have permitted somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-40 million unborn babies to be slaughtered by our society.

We have a court that has essentially stuck its finger in God's eye and said, "We are going to legislate You out of the schools and take Your commandments from the courthouses in various states. We are not going to let little children read the commandments of God. We are not going to allow the Bible or prayer in our schools."

We have insulted God at the highest level of our government. Then, we say, "Why does this happen?" It is happening because God Almighty is lifting His protection from us....

Don't ask why did it happen. It happened because people are evil. It also happened because God is lifting His protection from this nation and we must pray and ask Him for revival so that once again we will be His people, the planting of His righteousness, so that He will come to our defense and protect us as a nation. That is what I want to see and why we say we must have revival.

Former New York City Mayor gladly accepted Robertson's endorsement today. Will anyone ask Rudy whether he agrees with Robertson's interpretation of 9/11?

More soon.

In light of Pat Robertson's endorsement today of former NYC Mayor and Churchillian 9/11 hero Rudy Giuliani, it seems worth recalling that even as the smoke was still rising from the site a few days later, Robertson had this to say about the disaster in a TV appearance with Jerry Falwell:

"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," said Falwell, appearing yesterday on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club," hosted by Robertson.

"Jerry, that's my feeling," Robertson responded. "I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population."

Falwell said the American Civil Liberties Union has "got to take a lot of blame for this," again winning Robertson's agreement: "Well, yes."

Subsequent to that, Falwell placed some of the blame for 9/11 squarely on a range of Americans -- civil liberties groups, feminists, homosexuals, abortion rights supporters -- who have tried to "secularize" America. Robertson didn't disagree. Today Rudy gladly accepted his endorsement.

More in a bit.

Here's the main local story out of South Carolina today: The State has an article noting that Mitt Romney is starting to catch up in the key Southern state, where his Mormon religion could pose a hindrance among conservative evangelicals.

"I don’t think there’s any question he’s put together the best ground game in South Carolina of anybody in the race right now," a Republican consultant told the paper.

Pat Robertson -- yes, that Pat Robertson -- just endorsed Rudy at an event moments ago. Here's some video:

What about Rudy's views on abortion and gay rights? They don't matter, because, as Robertson says, "to me the overriding issue before the American people is the defense of our population from the bloodlust of Islamic terrorists." Translation: Rudy is the candidate most likely to deliver the holy war with Islam that I've coveted for so long.

Here's the main story out of Iowa today: In an interview with the Des Moines Register, Barack Obama hit Hillary Clinton where it hurts with many Iowa voters — he's saying she was against ethanol in the past, and is only switching to support for it now.

"It’s hard to believe that she is a strong ethanol supporter given her track record and this is something that represents a major reversal, and what we need is consistency on these issues," Obama said. "If she’s willing to shift this quickly on this issue, we don’t know whether she will shift back when it gets hard."

A new Rasmussen poll in New Hampshire finds that Hillary Clinton's lead in the New Hampshire primary has slipped by several points, although the changes are still within the margin of error.

The numbers: Clinton 34%, Barack Obama 24%, John Edwards 15%, Bill Richardson 8%. Two weeks ago, Hillary had 38%, Obama 22%, Edwards 14% and Richardson 7%. With a margin of error of ±4%, this could just be statistical noise, or it could be evidence of a real trend in the wake of last week's debate.

In the special election primary yesterday for Ohio's Fifth Congressional District, state Rep. Bob Latta narrowly defeated state Sen. Steve Buehrer in the Republican primary, winning by a 44%-40% margin. The primary had been a very rough one, with the Club For Growth spending heavily on behalf of Buehrer.

Latta, whose father Del Latta served in the same Congressional seat from 1959 through his retirement in 1988, will now face 2004 and 2006 Democratic nominee Robin Weirauch. Latta starts out in this race as the favorite.

The seat became vacant in early September, due to the death of ten-term incumbent Republican Paul Gillmor.

Here's the top news in New Hampshire: First-term Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta (R) was re-elected with 54% of the vote against Democratic opponent Tom Donovan — a possible sign that the New Hampshire GOP isn't quite dead yet after their devastating losses last year.

Guinta's endorsement will be very highly valued in the Republican presidential primary, while Donovan's support could still have some weight with the Democratic candidates.

Rudy Giuliani is scoring a huge endorsement from the Christian right. The Washington Post reports that Rudy will be endorsed today by none other than Pat Robertson — the televangelist, 1988 candidate for president, founder of the Christian Coalition, and self-proclaimed redirector of hurricanes.

The endorsement is a definitely a coup for Rudy, who has been working to assuage fears from Christian conservatives about his pro-choice stance and other socially liberal positions. Indeed, it's hard to even think of a leading televangelist endorsing a pro-choice Republican candidate.

This does beg an important question for Rudy: How does the former mayor of New York City feel about courting and accepting the endorsement of a man who said after 9/11 that America deserved it, on account of our sinful ways?

Sam Brownback, the staunchly conservative Senator who exited the presidential race a few weeks ago, will reportedly endorse John McCain for president.

Brownback had battled with Mike Huckabee for Christian right support in Iowa, but ultimately had to drop out due to poor fundraising and an inability to get any traction after Huckabee beat him for second place in the Iowa Straw Poll.

HIllary Clinton has admitted it: Her performance at last week's debate was lacking.

"I wasn't at my best the other night," Clinton told CNN. "We've had a bunch of debates and I wouldn't rank that up in my very top list.

"But I've answered probably, I don't know, more than 5,000 questions over the last 10 months and I have been very clear about where I stand and what I want to do for the country."

An 800 number that has been identified as the source of the bogus anti-gay robocall in the Kentucky governor's race is one of the 800 numbers used by the same telemarketing company that does robocalls for the campaign of Gov. Ernie Fletcher and the Kentucky Republican Party. However, the company denies being responsible for the bogus robocalls that purported to come from a gay rights organization in Kentucky, praising Democratic nominee Steve Beshear for his support from the "homosexual lobby."

A source involved with the telemarketing end of the campaign, who spoke on condition that neither they nor the company be identified, confirmed to Election Central that the number, 800-611-0244, was indeed used by the company, and that the company has made robocalls for the state GOP and the Fletcher campaign — including another anti-gay call featuring Pat Boone — but the source denied that the company was in any way responsible for this new robocall. All of the calls that the company handled, we were told, clearly identified themselves as being paid for by the Fletcher campaign or the Kentucky GOP. The bogus call did not do so.

The source asserted that the originating phone numbers for robocalls can be easily faked, and that the company has previously run into trouble with other calls in at least two other states in which they say calls were faked as originating from some of the same 800 numbers that the company uses.

Rudy appears to have hit a trifecta of sorts: He may have told three lies in one sentence.

In an interview with the Associated Press yesterday, Rudy defended his appointment of embattled former top cop Bernie Kerik as follows:

"There were mistakes made with Bernie Kerik. But what's the ultimate result for the people of New York City? The ultimate result for the people of New York City was a 74 percent reduction in shootings, a 60 percent reduction in crime, a correction program that went from being one of the worst in the country to one that was on '60 Minutes' as the best in the country, 90 percent reduction of violence in the jails."

"Sure, there were issues, but if I have the same degree of success and failure as president of the United States, this country will be in great shape," Giuliani said.

Rudy is very clearly saying that these statistical crime drops occurred on Kerik's watch. So let's take these one by one.

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Barack Obama says that he is "stunned" that former President Clinton compared the skirmish over Hillary's stance on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants to the "swiftboating" that John Kerry received in 2004 in a recent speech in Nevada.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Obama said that Hillary "seemed to contradict what she said previously."

"How you would then draw an analogy to distorting somebody's military record is a reach," Obama said.

In a statement sent our way moments ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just came out and opposed Mukasey's confirmation as AG. Key quote:

“I was profoundly disturbed by statements Judge Michael Mukasey made during his confirmation hearings concerning executive power, and about the legality of the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique. As a result, I cannot in good conscience vote to approve his nomination to be Attorney General of the United States."

Reid's opposition, of course, won't stop Mukasey's confirmation. Reid had earlier refused to declare his opposition to Mukasey, claiming that he didn't want to get out front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which voted today to send the confirmation to a full Senate vote. Reid is holding a presser as we speak.

Meanwhile, Reid will have another chance ahead to prove his opposition to waterboarding. Congress is considering a bill that would explicitly ban this and other extreme interrogation techniques, and Reid can ensure that this bill comes to the floor for a vote.

More details on that here. Reid's full statement after the jump.

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Rudy Giuliani has been embellishing his record on torture and "intensive questioning," says former New York City director of emergency management and frequent Giuliani critic Jerry Hauer in a conversation with the Huffington Post.

"If Rudy is suggesting in any way that they used torture or aggressive interrogation in New York City then he is absolutely unfit to be president," Hauer said, "because torture in a local jurisdiction is, first of all, illegal. Secondly, it is inhumane. It is not something that is done at the local level."

In an interview over the weekend, Rudy implied that he employed "intensive questioning" as Mayor in order to fight the mafia. Hauer is rejecting those claims outright, saying: "That would have been absolutely disgraceful and a downright violation of everybody's constitutional liberties... even when they caught the terrorists that were going to blow up the subways [in August 1997], obviously there was interrogation but I never heard of anything involving aggressive techniques."

A source in the Beshear campaign tells Election Central that the bogus "homosexual lobby" robocall was traced to a location outside of the state, and the right-wing site KYPolitics.org reports that the number making the call has been identified as 800-611-0244.

Calling that number directly simply brings up a recorded voice that says, "Thank you for calling. Goodbye." Telemarketing firms will rent out a number like this for robocalls on anything from politics to cable TV packages.

That number also shows up on two of the Web sites that track phone numbers used for telemarketing calls, with some commenters claiming to have received messages from political campaigns before — although the reports submitted to those sites cannot be confirmed.

Bill Richardson may be pegging his hopes on a strong splash in Iowa. The Richardson campaign has recently moved 10 staffers from Nevada and a number of "low level field organizers" in New Hampshire to Iowa.

The move comes only a few months after Richardson chided the campaign of John Edwards for pulling staffers from Nevada. "Though other campaigns may waver, I remain committed to campaigning in Nevada," Richardson said in a statement in August.

Hillary's "inevitability" argument appears to be working -- at least in New Hampshire. A new poll out of that state finds that a surprising seventy-one percent of the state's voters are convinced Hillary will win the Dem nomination -- far more than say they actually support her.

The survey also finds that Dems are far more confident that their frontrunner will ultimately win the White House: 56% of Democrats say Hillary will win the Presidency, while only 23% of Repubs think Rudy Giuliani will. Meanwhile, the survey also has good news for Mitt Romney, finding that he has steadily strengthened his position in the all-important early primary state.

Full poll results here.

It looks like Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and his family are serious about spending time in Iowa — the Dodds have gone so far as to enroll their six year-old daughter Grace in kindergarten at Hanawalt Elementary School in Des Moines.

Governor Ernie Fletcher's (R-KY) campaign has denied any involvement with the fraudulent robocall going out against Democratic nominee Steve Beshear.

"Absolutely not," communications director Jason Keller told Election Central. "That call that went out is in no connection and by no authorization of our campaign."

He also added, "We have no idea who might have done that call."

"To be honest with you, I haven't heard the call myself," said Keller. "If I had, I don't recall what it said."

Keller also denied that there was any sort of innuendo when Robbie Rudolph, Fletcher's running mate, referred to the Democratic ticket as "a couple of San Francisco treats." Keller said the line "was not in any way an allegation of them being homosexuals. That was an allusion that the Beshear/Mongiardo campaign, and Steve Beshear, is far out of touch with Kentucky's values."

A question for any of our Kentucky readers: Have you received the fraudulent robocall purporting to come from Fairness.org?

If so, please send us an e-mail.

A new Gallup poll shows that 73% of Democrats are satisfied with the current field of candidates for president, compared to only 21% who wish somebody else was running.

Republicans are also satisfied but by a much smaller majority — 51% are satisfied and 41% wish somebody else were running. That number is actually close to the same question for Democrats in October of 2003, when 51% were satisfied and 41% wanted somebody else.

The Rudy and Romney campaigns are engaged in a full scale mailer war. In response to the mailing Rudy dropped in Iowa saying that he shouldered the "safety and security" of "eight million people" as NYC mayor and hence is the candidate to "end" illegal immigration, the Romney camp has now dropped its own Iowa mailer in response.

It doesn't mention Rudy but does repeatedly deride the city Rudy ran as a "sanctuary city" and sarcastically proclaims: "Welcome to New York City!"

John Edwards hits the airwaves today in New Hampshire with this ad, a new version of the spot that ran in Iowa last week:

The spot features Edwards demanding that the Dems show "backbone" and shows him again claiming that the candidacy is partly driven by Elizabeth Edwards' illness. It reflects a sense within Camp Edwards that voters are really starting to tune into the race now and hence that a reminder of what his campaign is all about is called for.

The ad also comes amid a sense in the Edwards camp that the momentum is shifting a bit in their favor in the wake of the anti-Hillary YouTube going viral and with a front-page story in today's Times saying that the Edwards campaign is showing a "fresh ferocity."

Someone in Kentucky has resorted to an almost certainly illegal campaign tactic in today's election for governor. A new robocall has gone out purporting to be from Fairness.org — the Web site of the Fairness Campaign, an actual gay rights organization in Kentucky — speaking with pride about the strong support of "the homosexual lobby" for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Steve Beshear.

"Beshear is receiving major support from out-of-state gay activists and has publicly committed to same-gender relationships," the man on the call says.

The Fairness Campaign has denied any part in the calls, and is urging people who have received the calls to report it to the authorities.

The Beshear campaign has put out its own robocall in response, featuring the Reverend John Dunaway in support of Beshear. We should have that call posted some time soon.

The fake robocall is available after the jump, courtesy of BluegrassRoots.org.

Late Update: According to the Herald-Leader, the Fletcher campaign is denying that they are responsible or know who is responsible.

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