Monday Night Quick Hits

Mississippi: Former Governor Ronnie Musgrove has his Senate campaign website up and running. Take a read to his announcement speech. There are two kinds of conservative Democrats: the Democrat-bashing, Fox News-loving "LieberDem," and the respectfully conservative, non-Party-bashing, Ben Nelson-style Democrat. I think Musgrove could prove to be the latter. While I expect that I'll be unhappy with some votes that a Senator Musgrove takes, he's still a vote for Democratic leadership, he's still a vote for cloture (hopefully) on Republican attempts at obstruction, and he's still far better than a Senator Wicker.

Louisiana: Compare Senator Mary Landrieu's Q4 take with Treasurer John N. Kennedy's:

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., continues to pile on her war chest for her re-election bid this fall. Her campaign is expected to report raising $1.1 million in the final quarter of 2007 leaving her with about $4 million on hand, about twice what she had at this point in her last race. Republican state Treasurer John Kennedy, who announced in November he would run against Landrieu, raised about $500,000 for the final quarter of 2007 and has about $450,000 in the bank, a campaign official said.

Keep in mind, Kennedy entered the race in late November, so he didn't have a complete fundraising quarter. That said, he probably hit up a lot of low-hanging fruit in December. Q1 of 2008 will be very telling. (HT: SSP)

Nebraska: Apparently, Republican quitter Mike Johanns is ducking out of debates with his 2008 Republican Senate primary opponent, businessman Pat Flynn. Sounds cowardly to me. In other news, some are taking a high profile speaking engagement by Scott Kleeb as a signal that he may be leaning toward a Senate bid.

Oklahoma: State Senator Andrew Rice gave a terrific interview with Grist, primarily discussing how innovative energy and environmental policies (the kind Jim Inhofe would oppose at the top of his anachronistic lungs) can contribute to Oklahoma's economy and national security.

Idaho: The 2008 Senate Republican primary is getting a little more crowded as Republican businessman Richard Phenneger will join the fray, already including Iraq veteran Scott Syme, rancher Rex Rammell, Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, and former Caldwell city councilman Kent Marmon. From Phenneger's rhetoric, he will make ethics a focal point of his campaign, which shouldn't bode well for the Larry Craig-Jim Risch subset of the Idaho GOP.