Presidential Politics

Starting off the day with former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle. Daschle is currently undecided on running in 2008.

Daschle, who was defeated by Republican John Thune in a 2004 re-election bid, says he considers Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as the front-runner so far among Democrats who may run for president. He says Clinton is smart and has paid her political dues.

Daschle adds that he'll probably decide early next year if he plans to get into the presidential race.

My best guess is that he decides against running. With HRC "running" in 2008, it means that the field will be extremely small if you do not have the money to compete against HRC.

Here's the WaPo's take on former Governor Mark Warner's bow out from the 2008 race.

Why, just yesterday, Eddie Ratliff, the fellow who runs the Draft Mark Warner for President PAC, which isn't connected to the campaign, put in a tentative order for 5,000 more Warner buttons. Then, Ratliff was up all night researching the legal ramifications of opening a campaign office in Iowa. This morning, he saw CNN.

He canceled the campaign buttons.

Something tells me that Pennsylvania Representative Curt Weldon will not be re-elected to Congress. Weldon is now under a federal investigation.

The Justice Department is investigating whether Republican Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania traded his political influence for lucrative lobbying and consulting contracts for his daughter, according to sources with direct knowledge of the inquiry.

The FBI, which opened an investigation in recent months, has formally referred the matter to the department's Public Integrity Section for additional scrutiny. At issue are Weldon's efforts between 2002 and 2004 to aid two Russian companies and two Serbian brothers with ties to strongman Slobodan Milosevic, a federal law enforcement official said.

The Russian companies and a Serbian foundation run by the brothers' family each hired a firm co-owned by Weldon's daughter, Karen, for fees totaling nearly $1 million a year, public records show.

Karen Weldon was 28 and lacked consulting experience when she and Charles Sexton, a Weldon ally and longtime Republican leader in Delaware County, Pa., created the firm of Solutions North America Inc. in 2002. Both are registered with the Justice Department as representatives of foreign clients.

Jim Belushi, brother of the late John Belushi, is happy with his life.

The complete first season of Saturday Night Live is coming out on DVD. This DVD has been long-awaited. It's been confirmed that NOTHING has been edited out from this fun-filled DVD.

Bob Ney has pleaded guilty to charges of bribery.

While he will make his decision between election day and Thanksgiving, Congressman Ben Chandler is unlikely to run if the Democrats do take back the House.

Chandler spoke yesterday in Danville saying, "I'm unlikely to run for governor," if Democrats take over the House.

Presidential hopefuls in 2008 are making their way out to California.

More than two years out from the 2008 presidential contest, Sens. Hillary Clinton, Evan Bayh and Barack Obama have collected the most cash from California Democrats while the bulk of state Republican donors are flocking to Sen. John McCain's side.[...]

Clinton and Bayh have pocketed a combined $5 million. And Obama enjoys strong California support, raising 20 percent of his cash from the state.[...]

Bayh, the senator from the Hoosier state, appears to be gaining momentum as well, having raised a total of $1.2 million from Californians through his campaign account and leadership committee, All America PAC.

Uh, what was Ron Lewis thinking? In a representative democracy, you don't ask your opponent to leave the race ESPECIALLY when you said when you were first elected that you would serve THREE terms. Ron Lewis is in the race for his life and he sure knows it. Comments like the ones he made means that he conceded the election less than one month to go.

U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis called yesterday for Democratic opponent Mike Weaver to withdraw from the race for Kentucky's 2nd Congressional District seat, given Weaver's role in a 14-year-old Kentucky National Guard scandal that led to a prison sentence for Weaver's former boss.[...]

In a statement released last night, Weaver said Lewis was peddling "played-out, tedious" allegations and thanked him "for conceding a month early."

"The only people who have accused me of doing anything wrong are failed politicians gasping for air in a tough campaign," Weaver said in the statement.

Weaver and Lewis are campaigning to represent a conservative section of the state that stretches from Shelby and Spencer counties south through Elizabethtown to Bowling Green and northwest to Owensboro.[...]

In May 1995, Weaver told The Courier-Journal of Louisville that politics had played no role in the board's recommendation to dismiss the officers.

As the Army's senior adviser to the Kentucky National Guard, Weaver told the newspaper, he was "the independent member of the board ... the one who could have no political stake in its decisions.

"And I was the one pushing the hardest" to remove officers, Weaver said at the time.

The FBI investigated the case in the mid-1990s. Former Kentucky National Guard Adjutant General Robert DeZarn, who appointed Weaver to the board, was convicted on a federal charge of lying to investigators and served a prison sentence.

Weaver was not named in the investigation or charged with any wrongdoing. Still, Lewis said, Weaver disobeyed his oath to serve the board without prejudice and partiality.[...]

In his statement, Weaver said, "He won't release any polls and he won't meet me in debate. Things aren't looking good for Ron Lewis.

The Baltimore Sun has endorsed Congressman Ben Cardin in his campaign for the Senate.