This is an intriguing story that hit Newsweek on the role and influence of a relatively unknown super lobbyist and former staffer to Richard Lugar, Richard Hohlt. Hohlt is one of the major heavyweights in Republican party fundraising. Check out how he has spread the wealth.

This morning on The Chris Matthews Show, NBC Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell stated that she thought that discussion of the alleged May 2003 Iran proposal to the US would become more prominent in the main stream media.

Senators Chuck Hagel (R-RI) and Jack Reed (D-NH) just acquitted themselves very well on Tim Russert’s Meet the Press. Hagel made an articulate, compelling call for a new American comprehensive strategy in the Middle East that includes robust diplomacy, coordination with moderate Sunni regimes in the Middle East and new forms of economic engagement.

I have just discovered that former National Security Advisor to George H.W. Bush, General Brent Scowcroft, is on the board of directors of Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection. Cool.

The Motion to Adjourn for Recess Passes 47-33. Shame on the Senate.

Cloture Vote to move to consideration of Iraq Surge Resolution fails in 56-34 vote, in which 60 votes were needed. The Senate vote on cloture to move to consideration of the House Resolution opposing the President’s escalation of troop deployments in Iraq is taking place now just took place.

IPS Correspondent Gareth Porter has an important article out today, “Rove Said to Have Received 2003 Iranian Proposal.” Porter writes: Karl Rove, then White House deputy chief of staff for President George W.

To tell the full story of the Spring 2003 dance that Iran, the U.S., and Europe briefly engaged in regarding a set of proposals — allegedly from both sides that would have led to normalizing US-Iran relations — one has to set the parameters of both stage and performers in this drama.

USA Today founder Al Neuharth once chastised Senator Hillary Clinton for stating that George W. Bush’s presidency was one of American history’s worst. Neuharth promptly made his own list of worse presidents. Now, he has recanted and offered a mea culpa: I remember every president since Herbert Hoover, when I was a grade school kid….

John McCain, today, has announced his new presidential campaign website, and I like it. I’m a sucker for “gray” colors — and this site has a lot of shades of gray in it, in real terms and metaphorically.