Quick Hits

• Will it ever stop??!! Sen. Joe Biden added his name to the bloated Dem list of '08 contenders by announcing today that he will run for president. - "It is my intention to seek the nomination, and it's my intention sometime in the month of January to set up the appropriate mechanism to be able to raise money for that purpose," Biden said in a telephone news conference that centered on Iraq. - In what seems to be a desperate bid, Biden will have the advantage of his repeated harsh criticism of Bush on Iraq strategy to gain favor with war weary voters. He apparently intends to make that his one main platform issue. But there are more genuinely anti war and more viable Dem candidates to fill that spot on. While Biden is a natural on the talk show circuit, always good for refreshing candor and opinions on almost any issue, he is nowhere close to being presidential material or a top Dem contender. His loose mouth stops any talk of a Veep slot, so this run may just be for kicks.
  

• Obama and Hillary are virtually tied at 22% in a new '08 poll out of New Hampshire. It was released over the holiday and confirms that Hillary is stumbling. Will Obama ride this wave of support into a midweek presidential announcement? Don't count out the surging Edwards. He was in 3rd, getting 16%.
  

• Has Dem Speaker Pelosi made another misstep? With her bruising fight over Majority Lewader and House Intel Chairman finally out of the picture, Pelosi is no bringing on a new controversy. Her plan for opulent "House victory parties" is raising eyebrows across the board and generating stinging catcalls from Republicans. - "It'll be 'all Nancy, all the time,'" Dani Doane, director of House relations for the conservative Heritage Foundation, told Cybercast News Service. "It's almost as though she views this as a coronation as opposed to doing the people's business." - While that comment is surely right wing hot air, Pelosi and the Dems need to tone down their glee over gaining the House and nix these parties before their tattered populist image is completely shredded.

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