From The Caucus Blog at NYTimes:

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns will resign his Cabinet seat tomorrow to begin preparing to run for a Senate seat from Nebraska, a senior administration official said tonight.

Mr. Johanns, a former Republican governor of Nebraska, is seeking to replace Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who announced earlier this month that he will not seek re-election in 2008. Mr. Johanns told party officials and supporters that he will make his Senate announcement shortly after he leaves the administration.

Mr. Johanns would become the fourth Republican candidate in the field, which includes Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning. While Nebraska is one of the most Republican states in the nation, the vacancy created by Mr. Hagel is creating a potential opportunity for Democrats, who are attempting to recruit Bob Kerrey to run.

- For a quick bit of the minutia of politicking check out Marc Ambinder’s recap of microphone problems before Barack Obama’s tax speech. Also check out John McCormick’s 12 Bucks Buy 10 Lawn Signs.

- The Congressional Black Caucus, which is supposed to be a neutral organization, is facing some “grumbling” over the leaderships decision to hold a Clinton only forum.

- Another sign that Thompson’s much ballyhooed support from the religious right was probably just a media concoction as James Dobson, one of the nation’s most politically influential evangelical Christians, says he will not support the candidate.

- He hit Hillary Clinton hard over polluted fundraising but does John Edwards have his own bundler problems?

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- The big buzz in the political world is Hillary Clinton’s healthcare plan. It has both Democrats and Republicans on the attack. The Clinton campaign calls these attacks politics as usual.

- The Values Voters debate, which was snubbed by all the front-runner Republican candidates was followed by a straw poll. Mike Huckabee came out on top with 64% of the vote, a major triumph for his campaign that follows on his second place nod in the Iowa Straw poll. Mitt Romney made the big news though receiving 0% of the vote.

- Speaking of healthcare John Edwards has vowed on the first day as president he will “submit legislation” revoking the presidents, vice presidents, Congress’ and all senior political appointees healthcare until they pass a universal healthcare plan.

My two-cents? Edwards is obviously upset that Clinton’s healthcare plan is taking the spotlight off of him. So he responded by saying something so silly it would gain headlines. At the end of the day though “submitting legislation” isn’t exactly the kind of language voters respond to. Seeing as how Congress holds the purse strings I don’t think Edwards could actually do anything to cut off those benefits. He would be “submitting” this legislation to Congress and I highly doubt they would do anything with it.

In a historical note when George Washington accepted the presidency he did so desiring to not accept a salary for the position. Congress overruled him because the constitution clearly stated he should be paid and because they did not want to setup a bad precedent whereby other presidents would be expected to turn down salary. With the same thought in mind, I doubt this Congress would stop anyones healthcare.

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I’ve said it before and I will say it again, if you want to preview what the general election arguments will be on the Republican side simply look at the 2004 election. Take your pick: Defense, Gay Marriage, Democrats = High Taxes.

Case in point? Mitt Romney is now running a radio ad talking about gay marriage. His target though is slightly different, he is going after his fellow Republican candidates saying “Not all Republican candidates agree, but defending marriage is the right thing to do.”

There are two obvious points to make. Point 1) is Romney’s own flip-flopping on social issues. Point 2) is the problem in convincing a conservative audience Romney or any of the candidates could or would actually do anything on gay marriage.

There is a simple way of looking at things. George Bush had the House, Senate, Presidency & Supreme Court nominations. He made gay marriage a major issue and won the support of christian conservatives. So here we are in 2008 and… no constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Let’s say Romney becomes president. It is looking pretty good thus far he will face a Democratic House & Senate and if a Supreme court nomination pops up it will have to be confirmed by said Congress. See the problem here?

Now at the end of the day I don’t doubt it is still a potent issue for that block of voters. I just don’t know that in 2008 it will be an issue that is used to select the nominee.

The Senator announced he would give 150 million workers a $500 payroll tax credit, expand relief on mortgage interest, eliminate income taxes for seniors making less than $50,000 and simplify returns so millions can file in less than five minutes.

How would he pay for it? First he would roll back the Bush tax cuts and then…. he didn’t say. His campaign said the following, quoted from a Associated Press article:

Obama’s campaign said he would pay for his proposals by closing corporate tax loopholes, cracking down on international tax havens and raising the top rate on capital gains and dividends.

However as the article noted “But the campaign did not say how much each of those proposals would generate.”

The article also pointed out that the Obama campaign originally said it would roll back certain Bush tax cuts to pay for the Senators proposed Healthcare plan. It now says they have enough money from “other sources” to pay for that. No one knows what those other sources are at the moment.