Thompson Declares His Candidacy for President  —  After months of false starts, staff shake-ups, and questions about the seriousness of his intention to run for president, Fred Thompson rolled out his presidential candidacy this evening with a two-pronged, guerrilla-style entry into the race …

Breaking: GOP Senate Leader McConnell Says Craig Won't Resign If Cleared  —  Crazier and crazier.  Now GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell has gone and said at a press conference and said that Larry Craig won't be resigning if he's ultimately exonerated of the charges against him.

Staging Nukes for Iran?  —  Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana?  That's like getting excited if you see a postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office.

Dems Dirty Donor Norman Hsu Fails to Show for Bail Reduction Hearing Leading to Speculation He's On the Run  —  DEVELOPING STORY: California businessman Norman Hsu, a former New York apparel executive and major contributor to Democratic candidates and causes, failed to appear …

Rep. Gillmor dies  —  Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio) passed away suddenly Tuesday night, according to his office.  He was 68.  —  According to an inter-conference email obtained by The Hill, Gillmor did not show up to the office this morning causing his staff to become concerned.

Don't count the man out: President  —  John Howard and George Bush yesterday.  The US envoy to Australia, Robert McCallum jnr, and his Australian counterpart in the US, Dennis Richardson, are at left.  —  THE US President, George Bush, has rallied to the cause of John Howard by backing …

Jones Report: Iraqi Security Forces Not Ready  —  Logistical Self-Sufficiency Is at Least Two Years Away  —  Iraq's Interior Ministry is "dysfunctional," filled with sectarianism and corruption, according to an independent assessment of the Iraqi security forces to be published tomorrow.

Terrorist Training Camps in Iran  —  Should they be safe havens?  —  Here's an official statement this morning from the U.S. military in Iraq: … It's great that the military is having success in capturing "affiliates" of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Iraq.

Former Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn dies at 66  —  Jennifer Dunn, a former six-term member of Congress, former chairwoman of the Washington State Republican Party and one of the state GOP's most respected members, died Wednesday, her family announced.  She was 66.

Travel Much  —  Richard Cohen sure is weird.  In the course of a totally unfunny satirical column, one item is "A survey of political bloggers showed that 94 percent of them had never been out of the country or read anything other than a Harry Potter book."  —  This seems like a curious premise for a joke.

Bush 'Still Believed Saddam Possessed WMD' In April 2006  —  In Oct. 2004, President Bush finally admitted that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction: "Iraq did not have the weapons that our intelligence believed were there."  —  Yet according to former White House chief of staff Andy Card …

Musician Is Killed for Banging on a Door  —  A Texas rock musician was shot to death here early Monday by a neighbor who fired through a closed door, thinking he was scaring off a burglar.  —  The incident occurred just three days after a new law took effect strengthening the right of Texans …