Retired Army Col. Lou Huddleston (R) announced Wednesday that he would run against Rep. Larry Kissell (D-N.C.) in 2010.
"Since Larry Kissell has gone to Washington, things have gotten worse, not better," Huddleston said in a statement. "The citizens of the 8th congressional district deserve a principled leader who represents them, not a yes man for the out-of-touch politicians in Washington."
First, the good: Huddleston is a black Republican with a solid resume in a district that is 27 percent black. If he can steal some of that demographic from Kissell, he'll have a real good shot in a swing district.
The bad: Huddleston lost by a big margin in a state House campaign last year, 62-38, against an incumbent Democrat.
National Republicans view Huddleston as a promising candidate, but he isn't a field-clearer, so it will be interesting to see who else gets in this race after former Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) said last week that he wouldn't seek his old seat.
Hayes has offered Huddleston some praise, but others, including Union County District Attorney John Snyder, have also shown some interest in the race.
Tennessee Valley Authority official Linwood Faulk recently announced that he would not run for the seat and would support Huddleston.
One of Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) potential Republican opponents next fall is calling on Dodd to reject the permanent chairmanship of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee.
Dodd had managed the HELP committee in the absence of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who passed away late Tuesday night, in addition to his responsibilities as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
Republican state Sen. Sam Caligiuri, a GOP primary candidate to face off against Dodd, demanded the incumbent Democrat reject taking over the HELP committee.
"I am calling on Senator Dodd to decline the position of the HELP Committee Chairman, if it is offered to him," Caligiuri said in a statement. "He should be finishing the job he has barely started of fixing the financial sector problems that got us into this economic disaster in the first place, and not spending his time promoting ill advised health care legislation."
Dodd said earlier today in a teleconference that he wasn't sure what his status with the committee would be going forward, and that it would take a few weeks to sort it out.
"Only in Washington would someone who failed miserably at one crucial job be considered for taking the reins on another important front," Caligiuri said. "In typical DC fashion, Senator Dodd is all politics all the time, hoping to secure this new post to dust his past failures under the rug and forge ahead with yet more bad legislation."
A Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday stood behind former Vice President Dick Cheney's opposition to a preliminary Justice Department probe into interrogations of terror suspects that may have broken the law.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) made his remarks on Twitter today:
Cheney's right, thank God after 911 he was there instead of his detractors, lest America would have suffered even more terrorist attacks.
"The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions," Cheney said in a statement on Monday.
"President Obama's decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate and possibly prosecute CIA personnel, and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the CIA to the White House, serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this Administration's ability to be responsible for our nation's security," he added.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Monday that he will appoint career Justice Department prosecutor John Durham to open an investigation of several incidents in which terror suspects may have been tortured by government agents.
Adm. Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is poised to serve a second term as the nation's top military officer.
The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold Mullen's confirmation hearing Sept. 15.
President Obama sent Mullen's nomination to the Senate already in May.
Mullen's first two-year term as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ends Oct. 1. President George Bush nominated Mullen on June 28, 2007. Mullen, who is well regarded on both sides of the aisle, took his post on Oct.1, 2007.
Democrats will not use budget reconciliation to pass healthcare reform because it's too politically risky, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) suggested Wednesday.
Gregg said that while "many people are beating the drum" for reconciliation, parliamentary rules would likely result in lawmakers being forced to vote only for tax hikes and spending cuts, and very little actual health policy.
"I don't see that they will use reconciliation, because it's a weapon that will basically shoot themselves in the foot," Gregg said during a phone call into CNBC.
Budget reconciliation would be used to short-circuit Senate rules on a filibuster to pass healthcare reform with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes necessary to end a filibuster.
But the Senate parliamentarian could rule non-budgetary issues in the bill out of order, meaning lawmakers would only be left to vote on taxes and spending contained in the bill.
Gregg argued that reconciliation would leave a number of lawmakers too politically exposed for them to risk invoking the tactic.
"You can't put most of the policy in the bill, and you're going to make Senate members who vote for it -- and House members, for that matter -- vote for the taxes and vote for the spending cuts to Medicare, for very little of the policy," he said. "As a practical matter, I don't see it working."
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) is up with an ad before he even has an opponent for 2010. The ad talks about Dorgan's work on energy issues, but the real message is: "Hey, Gov. Hoeven, I'm ready for you, so you had better think twice before entering this race."
A new Republican poll shows state Attorney General Bill McCollum (R) building a double-digit lead over state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink (D), 48-37. This is the second GOP poll this month to show McCollum opening up a big lead.
In the latest sign that she's planning to resign, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) has put her Virginia house on the market. It doesn't necessarily mean anything on it's own, but it's part of a growing puzzle.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) didn't exactly do the Democratic nominee in the upcoming New York special election a favor by reminiscing about state Sen. Darrel Aubertine's (D) would-have-been candidacy. What's troubling here is that Schumer is one of the sharpest political talkers in the biz, so it's just too tempting to read into his words. I think it's a reasonable question to start asking just how hard Democrats are going to push in this race, especially given that they aren't defending a seat, as they were in the other special election in the Empire State. With the national environment turning on them a bit, they could certainly save some face by not even trying. Perhaps the former DSCC chairman is hinting at this? (Note: pure speculation)
Place your bets! Gov. Charlie Crist (R) aims to appoint a replacement for Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) by the end of this week. Two current House members have pulled their names from the running, and this is sure to be a placeholder pick (given that Crist himself is running for the seat in 2010). So as far as Washington goes, there probably won't be any dominoes, and we're pretty much waiting for the next Ted Kaufman.
Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman adds his name to the Democratic Senate primary in Illinois, joining state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson. Having another Chicago-based, second-tier candidate should help Giannoulias by diluting the anti-frontrunner vote and splitting Chicago, but Hoffman's corruption-buster reputation could also draw attention to some of the less attractive aspects of the Giannoulias candidacy. Whatever the case, Hoffman has been good at upsetting the Daley machine, so he's got plenty of enemies in this Senate primary.
President Obama ordered flags at all U.S. government buildings to be flown at half-staff until the end of Sunday in honor of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).
The president issued a proclamation on Wednesday afternoon making the official decree of mourning for the veteran senator, also ordering U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff on the day of Kennedy's burial.
It is not clear when Kennedy will be buried, though preliminary reports have suggested his body will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery, near the graves of his two brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.).
Obama said in the proclamation:
Senator Edward M. Kennedy was not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy. Over the past half-century, nearly every major piece of legislation that has advanced the civil rights, health, and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts. With his passing,an important chapter in our American story has come to an end.
It might be time to start looking at Arkansas as a marquee Senate state in 2010.
According to a new survey from Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling, Sen. Blanche Lincoln's (D-Ark.) net approval rating has dropped by double digits in the last five months, to below 40 percent approval, and she is virtually tied with three Republicans - all of whom have favorability numbers in the single digits.
The state is shaping up similar to Nevada, where a series of unknown Republicans are already polling competitive with - or leading - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
The different between the two is that Reid has long been unpopular in his home state, while Lincoln still had a net positive approval rating in March (45 percent positive/40 percent negative, according to PPP).
But that was five months ago. Thanks to Democratic initiatives and the very conservative nature of the state, Lincoln's approval is now 36 percent positive and 44 percent negative.
She polls at 40 percent in three potential general election matchups, trailing state Sen. Gilbert Baker and businessman Curtis Coleman by 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively, and leading attorney and Iraq/Afghanistan veteran Tom Cotton by 1 percent.
In other words, Republicans might not need a big-name candidate. And that's good for them, because they're not getting one.
The most interesting part of the poll might be the fact that Lincoln is viewed favorably by just 62 percent of Democrats. Basically, conservative Democrats who could hold their nose before are now getting a taste of the more liberal element of the party's leadership, and they don't like it.
Lincoln's numbers track closely with Obama's, and something tells me his fate could be hers.
Former President Jimmy Carter eulogized the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) as a firm advocate for the disadvantaged while acknowledging that the 1980 Democratic primary between the two like handed Republicans the presidency.
"We've never seen anyone in the Senate that more assiduously and constantly and enthusiastically dedicated his life to trying to make sure that everything that the U.S. government decided was in the best interest of the people who were deprived of poor, neglected or felt the ravages of discrimination," Carter said during an appearance on CNN.
Kennedy challenged the incumbent President Carter during the 1980 presidential election. Carter managed to fend off Kennedy, only to go on to lose the presidential election to Republican candidate Ronald Reagan that fall.
Carter acknowledged the rift between the two men caused by the primary -- as well as the broader split within the party -- but said the two had long ago buried the hatchet.
"The Democratic Party division that was promulgated between the Kennedy group and mine never was healed during that summertime and the fall campaign," Carter said. "And that was one of the factors that was important in a general election."
"But after that occurred, and even before I went out of office, Ted Kennedy and I were completely reconciled as far as friendship was concerned," the former president added. "And since then, whenever I had a major problem that dealt with the Carter Center's business overseas or in any way related to health or welfare or the benefit of poor people in this country and others, I have called on Ted Kennedy as a friend and he's always been fully supportive."
Carter said he hoped that Kennedy's lifelong dedication to healthcare in the U.S. would be in the mind of senators as they take up legislation to overhaul healthcare this fall.
"I believe that would really be the culmination for the Kennedy family of acknowledging the great contribution that he's made to our country," he said.
South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer (R) is set to hold a press conference in a few minutes, and his office is saying he will call for Gov. Mark Sanford (R) to resign.
A spokesman says South Carolina's lieutenant governor will call for embattled Gov. Mark Sanford to step down.
Communications director Frank Adams says Andre Bauer will call on Sanford to resign at a news conference Wednesday. If he does, Bauer will renew his offer to stay out of the 2010 gubernatorial race and instead fill the remainder of his fellow Republican's term, which ends in January 2011.
Sanford has come under scrutiny since his June admission of an affair with an Argentine woman, and Bauer is the most prominent Republican to call for his resignation. Sanford's spokesman did not return a call for comment, but the governor has said he does not plan to resign.
Associated Press investigations have raised questions about the legality of Sanford's travel.
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