President Bush and Laura Bush will be stumping for Indiana Republican Congressional candidates today and over the next few days:

(Laura) Bush will speak at the Bartholomew County Fairgrounds in the 4-H pavillion before about 500 people at a rally for Sodrel.

(President) Bush will pump up 9th District voters at a rally for Sodrel on Saturday in Sellersburg, north of Louisville, Ky. Laura Bush is visiting Columbus for Sodrel today. Bush's budget director campaigned with Sodrel in the district Monday and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will campaign with 2nd District Rep. Chris Chocola in Kokomo on Thursday.

With Mike Sodrel adding himself to the list of those opting out on an in-district appearance with Hastert, it begs the question of who which Republican candidates will entertain Hastert?  Hastert has said a couple of times that he's had like 31 scheduled events, most of them fundraising, for Republican House candidates before the November election. A week has went by, and all he's got so far is no-shows.

Could it be Scott Garrett of NJ?

Indiana held its primary elections last night. The biggest story from a Hoosier's perspective is that long-time Indiana Senate President pro tem, Bob Garton, was ousted by his primary challenger -- a darling of the religious right. But, more than that, there seemed to be a "throw the bums out" sentiment in the electorate that mostly manifested itself in the form of Republican challengers ousting Republican incumbents for various state offices. Democratic office holders didn't seem to have as much of a problem.

Nationally of more interest is probably Indiana's Congressional matchups, at least 3 of which seem to hold the potential for Democrats to displace Republican incumbents. Information on the Congressional matchups in the extended entry.

A sitting congressman getting caught red-handed taking millions of dollars in bribes-- so red-handed that initial indignant, self-righteous and aggressive denials soon turn into a tear-soaked admission and groveling (snitching) plea for clemency-- doesn't happen every day. Most days they don't get caught. But, luckily for the folks in North San Diego's 50th congressional district, the far right/not bright loon they kept re-electing to represent them in Washington did get caught, etc. And now he's in prison. And what an opportunity for a Democrat! Luckily for the Democrats, the DCCC's anti-progressive/anti-grassroots boss, Rahm Emanuel, was unable to scare/bully Francine Busby out of the race. She's got tremendous name recognition, having done well in her first campaign against Cunningham in 2004 (and never having stopped running since). Her chances of taking a fairly solid red district are very good. Normally, though, the kinds of circumstances that have combined to make her a favorite are very rare (although, if luck and good timing work in their favor Jerry McNerney could wind up representing CA-11 and Jan Schneider could be doing the same thing in FL-13-- and both for very similar reasons. (I've already started talking about Jerry's race and I'm getting ready to start writing about Jan's.)