Multiple Oil Company Executives Gave Huge Contributions To Electing McCain Just Days After Offshore Drilling Reversal  —  Ten senior Hess Corporation executives and/or members of the Hess family each gave $28,500 to the joint RNC-McCain fundraising committee, just days after McCain reversed himself …

Sun-Times political columnist Robert Novak retires  —  FROM SUN-TIMES STAFF REPORTS  —  Robert Novak has announced his immediate retirement following the diagnosis of a brain tumor, a prognosis the Sun-Times' political columnist describes as “dire.”  —  “The details are being worked …

GOP won't let go of its new tire-gauge toy  —  Atrios asked this morning, “Does anyone understand why Obama suggesting that people keep their tires properly inflated is some sort of hilarious gaffe?”  —  I've been trying to figure out the same thing for days.

Bob Herbert: Why is everyone missing the phallic symbols in McCain's Britney ad?  —  Between this and last week's Godwin-ing of the crowd scenes, I'm honestly curious to see where the left takes the critique next.  One would think they'd either run out of cards to play or would quietly pocket …

Bayh Partisans cancel softball game  —  Sen. Evan Bayh's staff softball team, The Bayh Partisans, has cancelled the game it had scheduled for tomorrow evening with the drug policy team The One Hitters.  Bayh staffer Jonathan Stahler sent One Hitter team captain Kris Krane an e-mail Monday morning citing …

Obama about-face: Tap U.S. oil reserves  —  He changes stance on stockpile, saying release can lower gasoline prices  —  “Breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our generation will ever face,” Barack Obama said Monday in a speech on energy policy in Lansing, Mich.

White House says no to special session of Congress  —  The White House has rejected calls from House Republicans that it convene a special session of Congress on energy, saying it wouldn't make a difference.  —  “We don't have plans to call Congress into session — it won't make a difference …

Barack in Lansing, MI: “We must end the age of oil in our time.”  —  Senator Obama just concluded a major speech in Lansing, Michigan where he addressed our current energy crisis and described our addiction to foreign oil as “central” to all of the major challenges facing us today.

DNC protesters offer Denver a “doo doo” treaty  —  Representatives of three groups planning protests during the Democratic National Convention will be signing what they're calling a “Doo Doo Accord” in advance of a City Council meeting where an ordinance that would ban protesters from carrying certain items …

Boston's birthday gift to Obama  —  Happy Birthday indeed.  —  Boston's biggest names in Democratic politics, once divided into two camps during the presidential primary, united this evening to throw Barack Obama a 47th birthday fund-raiser bash.  —  The event at the swank State Room near Faneuil Hall …

THE PLIGHT OF POLITICO — AND EVERYONE ELSE.  —  The success of Politico actually seems like an incredibly discouraging sign for the media.  Here you have this forward-thinking, primarily virtual venture to create a political news organization that marries old-school reporting values …