Duncan Hunter has an idea for how to deal with diplomats who don't want to go to Iraq. In a new press release entitled, "Hunter: Go to Walter Reed and Bethesda for New State Dept Personnel," Hunter argues that the diplomats should be fired and then replaced by wounded veterans.

"Especially for those whose mobility has been impaired by wounds, State Department positions, not only in Baghdad but around the world, will provide excellent jobs as well as availing our nation of their enormous talent," Hunter wrote.

Full statement after the jump.

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Well this should be a fun Republican event. The Iowa Republican Party's annual Reagan Day Dinner on September 27 will feature an interesting lineup of speakers: Hunter, Thompson.

That's right. Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson will be there.

Who else did you think I was talking about?

Here are some quick updates on the movements of the Presidential candidates:

* Rev. Jerry Falwell will host a "meet and greet" for Sen. John McCain a week from today at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando, Florida. As you may recall, McCain famously descibed Falwell as an "agent of intolerance" when he was running against President Bush as a maverick outsider in 2000. Now, however, McCain is working hard to win over this agent of intolerance, even speaking at the 2006 spring commencement ceremony of Falwell's Liberty University. Video clips of McCain's evolving relationship with Falwell can be seen here.

* Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack issued a debate challenge to Sen. Barack Obama today, citing Obama's decision to skip a Feb. 21 candidate forum hosted by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Carson City, Nevada. "As you know, AFSCME represents workers throughout Iowa and they would be willing to organize a forum for us in any town on Feb. 21,'' Vilsack wrote in a letter to Obama's campaign.

* Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced today that he has picked up the endorsement of Rep. Pete Sessions and former Rep. Susan Molinari. Sessions will work to build support in the House while Molinari will act as a Senior Adviser and Chairwoman of Washington outreach.

* During his trip to Iowa this weekend, Sen. Barack Obama obtained some key endorsements in the state: both Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and Iowa State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald have officially thrown their weight behind Obama while freshman House member David Loebsack appeared on the official program of Obama's Iowa rally, though he did not officially endorse the candidate.

* Meanwhile, in an interview with AP yesterday, Obama laughed off comments by Australian Prime Minister John Howard that suggested terrorists would be "encouraged" if Obama was elected, saying “it's flattering that one of George W. Bush's allies feels obliged to attack me.” Howard told reporters that he doesn't "retreat in any way from that criticism."

* Rep. Duncan Hunter gave support to Howard's comments yesterday, saying that the Australian Prime Minister had "earned a right to comment" and was "basically stating the truth."

* Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the keynote speaker at the Missouri GOP's Lincoln Day dinner over the weekend. Romney is expected to officially announce is candidacy in Michigan tomorrow.

* Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee picked up two solid endorsements in South Carolina today: Former first lady Iris Campbell, whose late husband Caroll Campbell II was Governor '87 to '94, and her son Mike Campbell. Her other son, Caroll Campbell III, has endorsed Sen. John McCain.

* Speaking of McCain, the Arizona Senator will campaign in Iowa on Feb. 17.

* Though director Steven Spielberg seemed to be in camp Obama due to his co-hosting of a February fundraiser for the Senator in Los Angeles, Spielberg will also host a future fundraiser for Sen. Hillary Clinton. Spielberg agreed to host the Clinton fundraiser after an appeal from former President Bill Clinton, according to Robert Novak.

* Rep. Tom Tancredo is backing a Colorado state legislature bill that would pull state pension funds out of companies with major investments in Sudan. The bill is meant to punish Sudan for the genocide in Darfur.

* California is THE big fundraising destination for candidates in the upcoming weeks: Rudy Giuliani is speaking to a non-partisan business group in Santa Clara, California today; Tom Vilsack will be in San Francisco tomorrow to speak to the Commonwealth club; former Sen. John Edwards will be at a $500- to $2,300-a-head dinner in Woodside on Thursday; Barack Obama is speaking at a a pair of big ticket fundraisers for Sen. Barbara Boxer on Feb. 19 then heading to Los Angeles the next day for a fundraiser hosted by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen; Also on Feb. 20, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will attend a fundraising lunch at the San Francisco law office of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein; and finally, on Feb. 23, Hillary Clinton will be in San Francisco for a $250 to $25,000 VIP luncheon and reception hosted by building mogul Walter Shorenstein, Esprit clothing co-founder Susie Tompkins Buell and investment banker Thomas Steyer.

* New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will travel to New Hampshire this week and Iowa next week.

Here are some updates on the movements of the Presidential candidates (plus one House '08 item):

* Speaking to activists in Iowa yesterday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney conceded that the Iraq war has been poorly managed, but refused to go against President Bush's current plan for the war.

* Speaking of Romney, he has been named the keynote speaker at a Lincoln Day dinner jointly sponsored by two Republican county committees in New Hampshire.

* Republican Minnesota state Sen. Dick Day has filed papers to challenge freshman Rep. Tim Walz (D-01) in 2008. Walz, an Afghanistan vet, beat incumbent Gil Gutknecht this past November in what many considered an upset.

* Sen. Barack Obama's fundraising practices -- and how they mesh with his call for higher fundraising standards -- come under scrutiny in the Chicago Sun Times.

* Did someone say "rock star"? Obama's Monday event at the University of New Hampshire is sold out despite being held in a gymnasium with a 3,500 person capacity.

* A bill being considered by the New Hampshire state Legislature is is meant to solidify the secretary of state's ability to schedule New Hampshire's primary -- traditionally the first in the nation -- before the Nevada caucuses.

* Sen. Hillary Clinton has hired New Hampshire Democratic Party executive director Nick Clemons as her state director. Clemons supervised the political and field operations that successfully gained two House seats for the Dems in 2006 and was the state director in New Hampshire for the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004.

* In other Clinton hiring news, former Iowa Democratic Party communications director Mark Daley will serve as her communications director in New Hampshire.

* On the campaign trail today, Hillary Clinton is speaking in New York City, Sen. Christopher Dodd is in Florida to address the National Association of Home Builders' Board of Directors, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is the keynote speaker at the TD Ameritrade Partnership 2007 National Conference in San Diego, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is speaking to business leaders in New Hampshire and Mitt Romney is speaking at the Republican Party executive committee meeting in Alabama.

* Former Sen. John Edwards recieved a positive reaction at a crowded International Longshoremen's Association Hall in Charleston, South Carolina where he spoke yesterday about his health care plan and the need to withdraw from Iraq. Also in South Carolina, Mitt Romney fielded questions about abortion this morning when he spoke to a crowd of 100 in Anderson.

* Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is on course to have 14 New York City fundraisers in the bag by March 14, according to Ben Smith.

* The 2008 Presidential ad blitz is about to begin and far earlier than in previous elections due to the lack of a White House incumbent running and the gobs of cash in the race.

* New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said in a foreign policy address yesterday that the United States must reduce its stock of nuclear weapons, close Guantanamo Bay, and dramatically cut energy use in order to take the lead on many global issues. Richardson is both a former Secretary of Energy and ambassador to the United Nations.

* Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announced today that that New Hampshire State School Board member Fred Bramante and former City Chair of the Manchester Republican Committee Cliff Hurst will serve as the New Hampshire Co-Chairs of his 2008 presidential exploratory committee.

* Rep. Duncan Hunter will next be in New Hampshire from Feb. 19-21.

* Speaking in Connecticut yesterday, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack said he "can bring a degree of leadership" to the Presidential race while discussing his plans for Iraq, health care, education, and the environment.

* A fundraiser for Rep. Tom Tancredo in Greenwood Village, Colorado on Feb. 25 will be hosted by conservative talk radio hosts Peter Boyles and Robert "Gunny Bob" Newman.

Here are a few updates on the movements of the Presidential candidates:

* Sen. Barack Obama is set to forgo public financing for both the primaries and the general election. Obama follows Sen. Hillary Clinton, former Sen. John Edwards, Sen. John McCain, and former MA Gov. Mitt Romney in opting out of federal matching funds.

* Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani will deliver the commencement speech at the Citadel military academy in South Carolina on May 5th.

* Despite his placement in the second-tier of Dem presidential candidates, CT Sen. Christopher Dodd led the pack in fundraising -- yes, including Hillary -- during the 4th quarter by raising $3 million over the last three months of 2006. Dodd's position as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee is thought to have brought increased donations from the financial-services industry.

* Two bloggers, Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon and Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare's Sister, recently hired by the campaign of former Sen. John Edwards are drawing fire from a conservative religious group, The Catholic League, over comments they made on their non-Edwards-related blogs before joining his campaign. Media Matters has a look at the inconsistent history of outrage by The Catholic League's president, William Donahue.

* Sen. John McCain has gained the endorsements of Ohio Rep. Stephen C. LaTourette and former Alabama state GOP chairman Winton Blount.

* Former MA Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. Barack Obama, and former WI Gov. Tommy Thompson will each be traveling to Iowa this week. Romney will be in the state tomorrow, Thompson on Saturday, and Obama on Saturday and Sunday. Obama's visit will come on the heels of his official announcement of candidacy on Feb. 10.

* One of the biggest free agents left in New Hampshire, Bill Shaheen, the chairman of John Kerry's 2004 New Hampshire primary campaign and husband of former NH Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, was offered an unspecified campaign job when he met with Sen. Hillary Clinton in Washington, DC last week. Shaheen did not except immediately, but said he'd "make a decision in the near future." He will meet with Obama on Monday and has already fielded calls from Dodd, Edwards, and Sen. Joe Biden.

* Romney and Sen. Sam Brownback will address the Michigan Republican convention on Saturday while MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty will speak as a surrogate for John McCain. Pawlenty is the co-chairman of McCain's national campaign.

* Former IA Gov. Tom Vilsack blasted Senate Republicans yesterday for blocking a resolution critical of the Bush administration's Iraq policy and also criticized the non-binding resolution itself as "inaction."

* GOP Rep. Nathan Deal made it clear in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he's not jumping on the Mitt Romney endorsement train, but that he has warm feelings towards both former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Rep. Duncan Hunter.

* Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, speaking at a press breakfast in DC yesterday, said he was optimistic that he had no where to go but up in the Republican primary. "When you’re in first place right now, there’s only one direction you can go, and it’s not a good one," he told reporters.

* Meanwhile, Huckabee will visit New Hampshire this Friday while NM Gov. Bill Richardson is scheduled to attend a Feb. 17 fundraiser for Concord City Democrats and Sen. Christopher Dodd is set to attend the Merrimack County Democrat's St. Patrick's Day dinner on March 17.

* Rep. Dennis Kucinich re-introduced the Department of Peace and Non-Violence Bill yesterday with 52 co-sponsors.

* Rep. Tom Tancredo is stepping down as the chair of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, which Tancredo has led since his first Congressional term in 1999.

Here are the latest updates on the movements of the Presidential candidates:

• John McCain scored the support of a top religious right figure, picking up former Christian Coalition field director Guy Rodgers, who will serve on the McCain campaign as the Deputy Director of the Americans of Faith coalition.

• Barack Obama may have a controversy on his hands, Ben Smith reports. In a meeting of the Democratic National Committee's Black Caucus on Friday, Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr., who is black, told African-American political leaders who were uncertain of whom to support, "How long are you going to owe politicians for past favors?" — and that race alone should guide them to support Obama's candidacy.

• Hillary Clinton will be touring New Hampshire this Friday and Saturday, her first visit to the state in over ten years. Clinton had previously been scheduled to visit last weekend, but cancelled due to the death of her father-in-law.

• Mitt Romney's campaign announced that they are reaching out to modern cyber-campaigning, launching an official campaign Facebook group.

• John McCain has also announced the support of high-ranking state legislators in Romney's original home state of Michigan: Assistant House Minority Leader Kevin Elsenheimer, House Minority Floor Leader Chris Ward, and House Minority Whip Kevin Green, who will serve on McCain's Michigan steering committee.

• Sam Brownback told a crowd of about 240 people in Columbia, South Carolina — including a minister who regularly protests abortions — "I will commit to helping end abortion in America."

• Dennis Kucinich spoke on Sunday to a standing-room only crowd in Dover, New Hampshire, quoting a a line from English Romantic poem, "Where is it now, the glory and the dream?"

• Duncan Hunter travelled to Florida on Saturday, meeting with Sen. Mel Martinez and attending a cookout in the town of Lamont, near Tallahassee

• During his speech before the DNC on Saturday, Tom Vilsack called upon Congress to immediately stop funding the Iraq War.

• Tom Tancredo declared during a visit to Iowa on Saturday that multiculturalism has become "a cultural, political, linguistic tower of Babel," diluting patriotism and national identity in America.

Update: Mitt Romney's campaign announced on Friday the endorsements of three GOP House members from Kentucky: Hal Rogers, Ed Whitfield, and Ron Lewis.

Here are a few quick updates on the Presidential candidates and their movements:

* Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney traded barbs yesterday over Hillary's slam of the President over the weekend. Hillary demanded that the President extricate the troops from Iraq rather than passing the war on to his successor. Romney hammered her yesterday while speaking in South Carolina, and Hillary's rapid response team yesterday struck back. Expect much more of this.

* Hillary, meanwhile, has enlisted a new senior spokesperson, Mo Elleithee, who is a veteran of many national campaigns including Bill Bradley's in '00 and Wesley Clark's in '04.

* Draft Newt! A former aide to Newt Gingrich has launched a new effort to draft him for a Presidential run. Gingrich has said that he won't make an '08 decision until Labor Day.

* The Romney campaign is trumpeting the news that it's hired former Iowa House Speaker Brent Siegrist and former First Congressional District candidate Brian Kennedy as advisers to his exploratory committee.

* Sen. John McCain's campaign announced that Dax Swatek is joining the team as a senior advisor to the exploratory committee in Alabama. Swatek recently served as general consultant and campaign manager for Gov. Bob Riley's reelection campaign.

* Speaking at Wake Forest University yesterday, former Sen. John Edwards acknowledged that he may have been too inexperienced when he ran for President in 2004.

* Tom Vilsack's aides announced that he met his 2006 fundraising goal by raising $1.1 million between Nov. 6 and Dec. 31.

* Sen. Chuck Hagel,a rumored '08 candidate, has the least cash-on-hand of the 33 Senators up for reelection in 2008, according to his most recent campaign finance filings.

* Rep. Duncan Hunter spoke in New Hampshire yesterday, focusing on national security, border control, and trade.

Hardcore conservative Duncan Hunter, of all people, has just become the first candidate to go up on the air in New Hampshire and Iowa — though the size of the buy is unknown. The Boston Globe reports that Hunter's "Peace Through Strength" PAC — yes, that's really its name — began airing an ad yesterday in the two states promoting a fence along the Mexican border. "Let's make sure Homeland Security builds the border fence," Hunter says. "It works, and it's the law." No hard info is yet available about the size of the buy from his PAC, but the Globe says it's running in the two states, providing little more detail beyond the fact that it's up on a local station in Manchester. Nonetheless, it's worth a watch.

Here are a few quick updates on the Presidential candidates:

* Barack Obama has landed the support of one of New York's most prominent fundraisers, Ben Smith reports.

* Tom Tancredo has called for the abolishment of the Conressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the wake of the rumored refusal of the Black Caucus to admit white Rep. Steve Cohen, D-TN.

* Mitt Romney will be visiting Iowa tomorrow, going to Waterloo, Fairbank and Dubuque with his son, Tagg, according to a campaign press release.

* Rudy Giuliani will be in New Hampshire tomorrow, giving the keynote speech to the Littleton Chamber of Commerce in Bretton Woods. He'll follow that up at the state GOP's annual meeting in Manchester on Saturday.

* Jim Gilmore and Tom Tancredo are also visiting New Hampshire this weekend, appearing separately at restaurants in the state, while another restaurant will feature a private fundraiser for John McCain featuring Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., a McCain backer.

* Bill Richardson and Wesley Clark will be appearing together this Saturday in Nevada, with both speaking at a fundraising dinner for the Douglas County Democratic Central Committee.

* In New Jersey, a Quinnipiac poll finds Rudy Giuliani leading the GOP field with 39%, followed by John McCain at 21%. On the Dem side, Hillary Clinton is in the lead with 30%, trailed by Barack Obama with 16%.

* A poll from Arizona State University has John McCain dominating the GOP side, as is to be expected among primary voters in his home state, with 54% of the vote, followed by Newt Gingrich with 14%. On the Dem side, Barack Obama is leading Hillary Clinton, 29%-23%.

Here are some updates on the movements of the Presidential hopefuls:

* A Rasmussen poll released today shows Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama statistically tied among Democrats across the country. This poll, strikingly, was conducted last week, before Obama's announcement of an exploratory committee.

* John McCain is struggling to connect with conservative activists -- even his home state of Arizona. He placed a distant fourth in a Maricopa County Republican straw poll held last week.

* Chris Dodd is introducing a bill to prohibit troop escalation in Iraq, taking a harder line than the non-binding resolution being offered by Harry Reid and the rest of the Democratic leadership — not to mention Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Clinton.

* Mitt Romney's committee has just announced the appointment of three GOP Congressmen as the campaign's House liasons: Jim McCrery, R-LA, Dave Camp, R-MI, and Buck McKeon, R-CA.

* Sam Brownback and Duncan Hunter will appear at the Blogs4Life Conference on January 22, the 34th anniversay of the Roe v. Wade decision, alongside other speakers such as Ramesh Ponnuru and Bobby Schindler, brother of the late Terri Schiavo.

* Tom Tancredo, the fiery anti-immigration GOP Congressman, has announced that he will form an exploratory committee.

Here are a few quick updates on the Presidential candidates:

* Sam Brownback, who's come out against the "surge," is calling for a flat tax. We couldn't help but notice that this suggests he's targeting an interesting, if rare, sort of voter: Anti-surge Evangelical flat-taxers.

* Mitt Romney has landed the support of Vin Weber, a top Republican lobbyist and former Congressman from Minnesota.

* John McCain has officially picked up the endorsement of Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who will co-chair his exploratory commitee.

* Hillary Clinton is in Afghanistan today, meeting with General Pervez Musharraf, the President of neighboring Pakistan.

* Duncan Hunter has told CNN he will declare his candidacy for President at the end of the month, and will make the announcement in South Carolina.

* Joe Biden is using the occasion of Martin Luther King Day to call upon South Carolina to remove the Confederate Flag from the Statehouse grounds.

Update: Reuters is reporting that Al Gore has reiterated that he will not run for President in 2008.

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

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

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

2008 GOP presidential hopeful Rep. Duncan Hunter told a crowd in Spartanburg, South Carolina yesterday that his "conservative ideas," such as building a 700 mile fence along the US-Mexican border, are "worth more than money" and give him an "excellent chance to win." Hunter, who was in town to speak at the Symposium Cafe, spent most of the event puffing up his foreign policy and national security credentials, putting specific emphasis on his ideas about trade relations with China, according to the Spartanburg Herald Journal. Regarding Iraq, he not only said he felt outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "did a great job," but that Americans should support President Bush's soon-to-be-announced new plan for Iraq, regardless of what it may be, so that Bush can speak with "one voice" on the subject.

The event for Hunter was put together on 48 hours notice by Spartanburg County Republican Party Chairman Rick Beltram and also served to honor textile magnate Richard Milliken, an influentianl Republican in the county. As the paper notes, Hunter has some catching up to do in the state as two of his main primary rivals, Sen. John McCain and MA Gov. Mitt Romney, have visited South Carolina on numerous occasions over the past two years. He plans to return in the next few weeks after visiting Iowa.

"I have the conservative ideas which are worth more than money, with respect to national defense, my border fence and the two-way street on trade. That's a message that will resonate with South Carolina, and gives me an excellent chance to win."

-- '08 hopeful Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), speaking to a crowd in Spartanburg, South Carolina, as quoted by the Spartanburg Herald Journal.

Prospective Presidential candidate Duncan Hunter may be about as right-wing as they come in Congress, but Election Central must pay him this compliment: he's a good sport when it comes to his detractors. At a recent appearance at Charleston Southern University, a Christian and overwhelmingly conservative school, Hunter was confronted by three of the school's few College Democrats, who hammered Hunter with a litany of very tough questions. But unlike other GOPers (including President Bush) who use loyalty-oath forms and other strict screening methods to keep out the opposition, Hunter engaged the students and even socialized with them after the quarrel had reached its conclusion. The full tale after the jump.

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“We're preparing to run. While the lawyers are crossing the T's and dotting I's, we're down here getting a running start.”