Tuesday Rundown

WaPo's Cillizza looks at five big run-or-retire decisions coming to a head in the next few months. His conclusions: 1) a John Warner retirement and a Mark Warner Senate campaign in Virginia; 2) popular former Governor Jeanne Shaheen entering the race in New Hampshire; 3) Nebraska saying goodbye to Chuck Hagel; 4) no idea in Louisiana; and 5) Thad Cochran runnning for re-election in Mississippi. The Guru happens to agree with all five conclusions.

According to a recent NBC/WSJ poll voters think Democrats would do a better job than Republicans on: health care 49-13, global warming 48-9, gas prices 42-7, energy policy 41-17, education 41-19, economy 41-26, Iraq 38-23, government spending 36-20, taxes 36-27, immigration 29-19, trade issues 28-25, and government ethics 25-15. Terrorism is tied at 29. Republicans hold a 28-23 edge on "moral values" and a 33-21 edge on homeland security. The "moral values" edge should hopefully diminish once voters recognize that the Republican "Culture of Corruption" is indeed alive and well. And the homeland security edge should diminish when voters get a better sense of the Bush administration's failings in this area.

Alaska: Get your program here! You won't know the players without a program! Anchorage Daily News provides us with a handy list of the names and faces involved in the AK-GOP web of scandals. Meanwhile, scandal-plagued GOP Rep. Don Young is returning some illegal contributions he has taken. Along with Lisa Murkowski trying to douse the flames of scandal by returning the land she purchased in a sweetheart deal, that gave me an idea: maybe the numerous investigations that Ted Stevens finds himself at the heart of will just blow over if he returns the floor of his house added on by VECO-supervised contractors. What do you say, Uncle Ted?

Oklahoma: Tomorrow afternoon, State Senator Andrew Rice will sit down for his first liveblog since announcing his entry into the 2008 Senate race against Jim "In Denial" Inhofe. It will take place at Daily Kos at 3pm Central (4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific). Now, Rice will be an underdog in this race, but don't think a Democrat can't win statewide in Oklahoma. As Politics1 reminds us, Democrats won eight of nine statewide offices in the 2006 election!

New Mexico: Joe Monahan gives us a heads up that Pajamas Pete Domenici will be suckling at George W. Bush's fundraising teat on August 27th. Bush's approve-disapprove in New Mexico, by the way, is 30-68. Suffice it to say, I hope it's a high profile visit.

New Hampshire: Another bad sign for Sprintin' John Sununu: five years ago, registered Republicans outnumbered registered Democrats in New Hampshire by almost 77,000. That lead has shrunk by more than half in the last five years to only 35,000. (HT: PW) That 42,000 registered voter swing seems all the more substantial when one recalls that Sununu's margin of victory over popular Governor Jeanne Shaheen in 2002 was only 19,000 votes.

Louisiana: Potential Republican Senate candidate Jay Dardenne was in a car accident yesterday morning. All politics aside, we hope for a speedy recovery for Mr. Dardenne.

Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of George W. Bush receiving (and subsequently disregarding) a rather important intelligence briefing. Carpetbagger offers more extensive insights.

Rudy Giuliani has the support of cokeheads and prostitute patrons, but not the support of his own daughter. Not bad for a guy who has been married (three times) more times than Mitt Romney's gone hunting (two times).