Sunday Rundown

Oregon: When Gordon Smith isn't trying to rhetorically dance around Iraq, he runs a frozen food company, Smith Frozen Foods. Well, Smith Frozen Foods was recently fined for dumping wastewater into a nearby creek, marking "at least the third time since the early 1990s that the company has been fined for polluting Pine Creek." As Loaded Orygun's Torrid Joe notes, "As spills go, this sounds neither massive nor especially toxic--but there's no such thing as a good waste dumping violation. And being the third such violation, however minor, it suggests a less-than-dilligent attention span to protecting their nearby waterway." Smith's company's shady environmental record has been a campaign issue going back to Smith's first Senate run. And I expect it will come up again this time around. It brings new meaning to the phrase, "Dump Gordon Smith."

North Carolina: Activate your conflict-of-interest alarms. The top political reporter from the News & Observer, Rob Christensen, has gone to work for Elizabeth Dole's re-election campaign. Blue NC breaks down some Christensen's most recent "reporting" on Dole's re-election campaign.

Nebraska: How Jon Bruning runs the state Attorney General's office could be an indication of how he'll run a Senate office. And what does he do when a miscommunication in his office leads to constituent confusion? Bruning blames the intern. I'm not joking.

Texas: John Cornyn threw a hissy-fit when MoveOn.org name-called General Petraeus "General Betray Us" in a newspaper ad to the degree that he filed a Senate resolution condemning the ad, calling the ad "character assassination of the first order." Well, it turns out that conservative noise-machine Rush Limbaugh not too long ago called decorated war veteran and U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel "Sentor Betray Us." I won't hold my breath waiting for Cornyn's resolution condemning Limbaugh. Why? Because John Cornyn is a grandstanding hypocrite.

Georgia: Rasmussen Reports clocks Spineless Saxby Chambliss' approve-disapprove at 58-30. It's possible that some of the 58% approval might not be rock solid as he only matches up against Dale Cardwell 49-33. While I'm not rushing to make bets that Chambliss will lose in 2008, as much as I would love to see that happen, it shows that he could be vulnerable to a strong challenger (Read: please reconsider, Senator Cleland! Please!).

Mississippi: Best-selling author and former State Representative John Grisham has been on the record slamming the Bush administration. While I'm sure that Grisham has never been shy about his convictions, this rhetoric seems particularly pointed. Could Grisham be interested in returning to elective politics? Could somebody beg him to consider a Senate challenge to Thad Cochran if they see him in the near future?

Louisiana: David Vitter earmarked $100,000 for a religious group that challenges teaching evolution in public schools. I wonder what this religious group's position is on cheating on one's wife with prostitutes.