Monday Rundown

Happy Constitution Day! Are you looking for ways to celebrate?

New Hampshire: Popular former Governor and current Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen is addressing Iraq right off the bat. She supported the war at its onset believing, like most Americans, George W. Bush's fraudulent claims. Her support evaporated as soon as the premise for entering the war proved false and Bush demonstrated ineffective conduct on the war. Shaheen called for setting a troop withdrawal deadline, as well as highlighting other platform points that will draw distinctions between her and Sprintin' John Sununu:

In her first public remarks about the run, Shaheen called for setting a date to remove troops from Iraq and for fiscal discipline at the federal level, an end to "runaway spending and borrowing money from China and India and the giveaways to every special interest under the sun."

She also hit two issues that will allow her to draw particular distinctions with Sununu: stem cell research and global warming. Sununu has repeatedly voted against federal funding for expanded research on embryonic stem cells, an issue that is one vote shy of a veto-proof majority in the Senate.

"We want to return to the simple notion that science matters more than ideology so we can invest in stem cell research and fight global warming," Shaheen said.

Shaheen will have no shortage of issues on which Sununu votes against mainstream New Hampshire values to discuss.

Maine: In the many years since Bush's Iraq War began, Susan Collins has never been so clear as Tom Allen is in this forceful op-ed in the Portland Press Herald. Collins' hallmark is trying to make her position falsely sound as much like Olympia Snowe's as possible while not rocking the conservative boat.

Nebraska: If this Bob Novak blurb is true, we should expect former Senator Bob Kerrey to enter the race:

Before Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska announced his Senate retirement, former Sen. Bob Kerrey -- president of the New School in New York City -- confided his intentions to a political friend. If maverick Republican Hagel sought a third Senate term, maverick Democrat Kerrey would support him -- whether Hagel switched to the Democrats or stayed in the GOP. If Hagel didn't run, Kerrey would return to Nebraska to run for the Senate.

Any day now.

Virginia: We'll wait for the exact numbers to be released, but the most recent Senate poll looks very good for popular former Governor Mark Warner. Landslide good. (Inside word is Warner-Gilmore 60-32; Warner-Allen 56-37; Warner-Davis 62-27.) Meanwhile, the Washington Times declares that former Gov. Jim Gilmore is "likely to struggle" in a region of the state growing by 90,000 people each year.

North Carolina: Public Policy Polling also thinks Elizabeth Dole is "in fantasy land" for her laughable internal polling results. PPP notes that Dole's approval has steadily "hovered in the 40-50% range."

Nebraska: Former Omaha Mayor Hal Daub is officially in the 2008 Republican Senate primary. The more, the merrier!

Real Clear Politics is the most recent to recount Senate Republicans' 2008 electoral woes:

"It's going to be a very challenging year" for Republicans, admitted a GOP consultant involved in one Senate race.

Where do all these anonymous Republican consultants come from? There seems to be a lot of them.