“Field for Republican replacement is wide open” Writes Kevin McDermott of the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch:

Wanted: Candidate to lead a fractured, scandal-ridden party in a late-starting campaign against a strong, well-financed opponent. Prefer wealthy applicants willing to spend heavily with no return and little chance of victory. Boring sex life a must.

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Apparently this has Mike Ditka all lathered up. The Sun Times writes:

Ditka ‘getting excited‘ about Senate run:

He takes W’s dumb-is-beautiful approach to a new level: “In the WGN interview Ditka admitted, `I’m not a genius. I’m pretty common sense. I’m just a guy.'”

You too can get involved at http://www.draftditka.com

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This from the Boston Globe:
Ron Reagan to address Democrats at convention

This upsets Bob Novak (oh darn!):
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20040712.shtml

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Tom Oliphant exquisitely summarizes the obvious in a Boston Globe piece:

Dick Cheney is a net-negative for President Bush, which means that
while you will see Edwards wooing businessmen and fellow Southerners and
rural-ites, you won’t see Cheney in Harlem or in TV ads. That may not
mean everything, but it certainly means something.

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If you think Fahrenheit 9/11 will have an impact, Robert Greenwald (“Uncovered” and “Unprecedented” ) may have some more news for you. Here is a review of his newest film,
“OutFoxed: How Rupert Murdoch Is Destroying American Journalism”

http://alternet.org/stories/19199/

I heard an interview with Greenwald on PRI’s “On The Media” this week which grabbed my interest.

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Lastly, it seems as thought the heat may finally get turned up on the corrupt politics and finances of our favorite, Tom DeLay:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43219-2004Jul11?language=printer

In May 2001, Enron’s top lobbyists in Washington advised the company chairman that then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was pressing for a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee, in addition to the $250,000 the company had already pledged to the Republican Party that year.

DeLay requested that the new donation come from ‘a combination of corporate and personal money from Enron’s executives,’ with the understanding that it would be partly spent on ‘the redistricting effort in Texas,’ said the e-mail to Kenneth L. Lay from lobbyists Rick Shapiro and Linda Robertson.

The e-mail, which surfaced in a subsequent federal probe of Houston-based Enron, is one of at least a dozen documents obtained by The Washington Post that show DeLay and his associates directed money from corporations and Washington lobbyists to Republican campaign coffers in Texas in 2001 and 2002 as part of a plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts.