Saturday Briefs

Mississippi: A primarily Democratic pollster found that former Governor Ronnie Musgrove is leading Republican Rep. Roger Wicker by double-digits (48-34) in a possible match-up to succeed Trent Lott. Mississippi's Republican Gov. Haley Barbour has ten days from this past Tuesday, the day Lott formally resigned, to appoint a successor until a special election. Whether the special election will be held in the next 100 days or on Election Day 2008, of course, will likely be decided in the courts.

Alaska: Ted Stevens' first Republican primary opponent has stepped up to the plate, and it's someone Ted is rather familiar with:

Anchorage developer David Cuddy is making another run against Ted Stevens.

Cuddy said he would file a letter of intent after New Year's to run in the 2008 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. He last challenged Stevens over a decade ago.

Cuddy comes from one of Alaska's most prominent banking families. He's a former state legislator and used to be president of First National Bank of Anchorage. He spent time earlier this decade living in Los Angeles, consulting for the entertainment industry.

Cuddy spent roughly $1 million, most of that from his own bank account, in an unsuccessful effort to wrest the party nomination from Stevens in 1996. Cuddy got just 27 percent of the primary vote then.

Cuddy, 55, ran that race as a conservative who said he wanted to shrink government and cut taxes. It turned into a hard-hitting campaign in which Cuddy accused Stevens in a series of advertisements of breaking the law and abusing the perks of power. The Federal Election Commission ended up dismissing a claim by Cuddy that Stevens' 1990 campaign committee improperly spent campaign contributions on him and his staff.

Cuddy said Friday that in this race he doesn't plan to make an issue of the federal investigation of Stevens.

The FBI and IRS raided Stevens' Girdwood home in late July as part of a probe into corruption in Alaska politics. Stevens has not been charged.

Cuddy has experience in the public sector, experience in business, conservative cred, and money to at least partially self-finance a run. And Cuddy should make it a point to say at every single campaign stop, "I don't intend to make an issue out of the numerous corruption investigations by the FBI, IRS, and others into Ted Stevens' wheelings and dealings." Heck, he should say it every other paragraph so people know for sure that he doesn't intend to make it an issue. By the way, shrinking government and cutting taxes (and, based on that, probably limiting the earmarks for which Ted Stevens is so notorious)? Sounds like a candidate the Club for Growth could really get behind in a primary challenge to Stevens.

Oklahoma: Jim Inhofe misleading the public on climate change and global warming? No!?! Actually, yes.

Idaho: Democratic Senate candidate and former Congressman Larry LaRocco released his position paper on immigration issues.

Texas: Stop Cornyn has rounded up its 12 Days of a Cornyn Christmas. My favorite: Four Undisclosed Earmarks.

A Republican dirty-trickster, pissed at the Republican establishment for throwing him under the bus, tells all in a new book. It should be very enlightening reading. (Fun fact: the author frequently compares Mitch McConnell to "a sheet of drywall.")