NewsChannel Eight in DC is reporting that former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry will announce Wednesday he is returning to politics--and will seek a seat on the D.C. Council:

Barry reportedly called current Ward Eight Councilmember Sandy Allen to tell her of his plans to oppose her for the Democratic Council nomination in September. The former four-term D.C. Mayor who left office in January, 1999 has worked as an investment consultant specializing in municipal bonds in recent years. Barry sought and won the Ward Eight seat after serving time in prison for a cocaine possession charge a 12 years ago. He used that seat to return to the mayor's office for a fourth term in 1995. Barry made a brief attempt to return to city council in 2002, but suspended the effort because of personal problems.

The Washington Post has this report. Links via BrownWatch.

Taegan Goddard of Political Wire says the era of landslide elections is over, and that the Bush-Kerry votes will be close. He predicts that as in 2000, neither candidate will get 50% of the vote.

The Rocky Mountain Progressive Network reports that President Bush will be in Denver Tuesday, attending a dinner and fundraiser where the cost of a ticket is $15,000.00 a plate. There will be a peaceful protest, here's the details:

Bush's fundraiser is being held at 3400 Belcaro Drive, at the Phipps Mansion/Tennis Pavilion. Police are there already, setting up barricades and whatnot, so obviously we will not be allowed anywhere near the president. Instead we will be assembling on the public sidewalks of both East Exposition Avenue and University, with signs, informational literature, and basically anything we can get put together before tomorrow.

If you want to join the peaceful protest, come on down and bring whatever anti-Bush stuff you have available. We will be meeting at 4:30 on the sidewalk in front of Knight Fundamental Academy, a DPS elementary school, and will spread out from there to achieve high visibility during rush hour. People plan to be in this area from 4:30 till around 8 pm, so anytime you could come down would be greatly appreciated. There is some public parking available.

Did anyone really believe he was just coming to deliver the commencement address to the Air Force Academy?

John Moe evaluates Kerry's top 20 potential veep picks with pros and cons and a lot of humor tossed in. [link via Hit and Run.]

Who's running John Kerry's internet campaign? None other than 34 year old Zack Exley, who back in 1999, started the anti-Bush website, GWBush.com. The LA Times profiles him today.

Exley's unlikely rise from union organizer and small-time software programmer to top campaign operative mirrors the rapidly expanding role of the Internet in politics. More valuable than decades of slogging in the trenches of the major parties is a few years' experience out in the free-form world of the Web — a realm where the tools of the trade evolve every week and a joke can grab more attention than a thousand position papers.

If only Al Gore had been this passionate during his campaign--here's the text of his latest prepared speech -- he says Rice, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and intelligence chief Stephen Cambone should resign. He just trashes President Bush--and says our country is at risk every day that Rumsfeld remains as head of the Defense Department.

He's absolutely eloquent.

Update: You can watch the video at C-Span here.

Dick Gephardt says the Dems would accept John McCain for a Vice Presidential candidate and McCain would be a good choice:

Asked after a speech in California on Monday what he thought of Mr. McCain's potential for the Democratic presidential ticket, Mr. Gephardt described him as a "very attractive figure in American politics" who "would be accepted by the Democratic Party," according to CNN. Mr. McCain is "someone a lot of Democrats could get interested in," Mr. Gephardt said at the Leon Panetta Center in Monterrey.

Not us. We still want Kerry to pick Edwards. We hope McCain sticks to his guns and rejects the overture, if made.

Ralph Nader is calling for the impeachment of President Bush over Iraq. Nader says Bush is a "messianic militarist."

Mr. Bush's actions "rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors," Mr. Nader said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan. He said Mr. Bush had exceeded his authority in the face of widespread opposition at home and abroad. "The founding fathers did not want the declaration of war put in the hands of one man," he said, contending that United States foreign policy goals are being hindered because the president tends to "talk like an out-of-control West Texas sheriff."

President Bush's approval ratings continue to fall, according to a new CBS poll:

Mr. Bush's overall job approval rating has continued to decline. Forty-one percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 52 percent disapprove — the lowest overall job rating of his presidency. Two weeks ago, 44 percent approved. A year ago, two-thirds did.

Sixty-one percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Mr. Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, while just 34 percent approve. As concern about the situation in Iraq grows, 65 percent now say the country is on the wrong track — matching the highest number ever recorded in CBS News Polls, which began asking this question in the mid-1980's. Only 30 percent currently say things in this country are headed in the right direction. One year ago, in April 2003, 56 percent of Americans said the country was headed in the right direction.

As to the import of the new numbers, remember 1994 and Newt Gingrich and his infamous Contract on America?

The last time the percentage that said the country was on the wrong track was as high as it is now was back in November 1994. Then, Republicans swept into control of both houses of Congress for the first time in decades.

This is one time we hope history repeats itself.

What's the difference between the old Democratic Leadership Council and the New Democratic Network? Plenty, says Daily Kos, who argues it's time for the DLC to be put out to pasture. The NDN is the new kid in town, and Kos says, rightfully so.

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) was the lone Senate vote against the passage of the Patriot Act. After it passed, he introduced a bill to "limit records searches by requiring the FBI to show that the documents pertain to a suspected terrorist or spy."

"The Patriot Act went too far when it comes to the government's access to personal information about law-abiding Americans," he said.

Check out his letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft about Ashcroft's decision to increase the number of federal death penalty prosecutions:

....I am concerned that your apparent determination to increase death penalty prosecutions, including sometimes overriding decisions of local prosecutors, increases the risk that the federal government could execute an innocent person. Former federal prosecutors have said that "they need to take every last precaution to avoid the risk of condemning an innocent person to death." See "In Brooklyn Murder Case, Doubts on Identification," New York Times, Feb. 12, 2003. While you and I may disagree on the fundamental question of whether the federal government should be authorized to use capital punishment, I hope that we can agree that the Constitution and the integrity of our criminal justice system require the fair administration of the death penalty and that only the guilty are convicted....

Sen Feingold introduced legislation to stop the Total Information Awareness Act (TIA) from being passed. He opposed the federal Victim's Rights Amendment to the Constitution, sponsored by Sens. Feinstein (D-CA) and Kyl (R-AZ).

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo on the President's "bike spill" yesterday:

Along related lines, I can't help but wonder whether the spill the president took from his bicycle today won't become iconic in the same way that the state dinner the first President Bush attended in Tokyo on January 8th 1992 in which he collapsed into the arms of, and then vomited on, Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa became a symbol of his then-faltering presidency.