Congressional Quarterly has examined the financial action at the national legislative campaign organizations in February and has determined that things look good for Democrats.

I hadn't heard of them until I saw this report on TPMuckraker, but the Republican Majority Campaign is spending a whole lot of money against Democrats and when asked for specifics, they keep it general and vague. There will be plenty of groups like this popping up between now and November, and you can bet they will have plenty of cash to spend.

According to a new CNN poll, most people do not plan on spending their rebate. I am curious as to what the economic impact of 20 percent of people spending this money will be, if this poll reflects reality. We could see different numbers once the checks go out and the question becomes, "What did you do with your rebate?"

Senator Clinton called on the Bush administration to actually do something about the growing tide of foreclosures in the United States today via a special working group at the federal level. The group would recommend ways to solve the mounting housing crisis, including auction methods for home loans in default.

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel spent Sunday talking about why he isn't waiting in line to endorse McCain. The reason? They don't agree on the Iraq War, where Hagel has diverged from his party for a while. He did not slam the door on the possibility of supporting McCain in 2008, but The Hill points out that Hagel was one of McCain's presidential co-chairs in 2000. Is it Hagel or McCain that has changed? Or did the Iraq War just reshape everything?

I think the story that I am most surprised to see continually cropping up this cycle concerns McCain's past considerations of possibly joining the Democratic Party (in 2001) and of joining John Kerry's ticket (in 2004). Don't get me wrong, I think it is very interesting, and provides some insight into what makes McCain tick, I just didn't expect to see so much of it. Today's New York Times article on the subject provides some chronological context, and is worth checking out.

So get this: on Sunday, JPMorgan was in talks with Bear Sterns about raising the purchase price from $2 to $10 per share, as Bear Sterns stockholders were more or less livid with rage about the selling price being so low. Bear Sterns stock increased once the news got around, but the Fed isn't happy. As a new price must be approved by the Fed, something has to give or the deal might be off.

TDP Chair Boyd Richie discussed the Democratic Party primary and caucus system as well as what the Democratic growth in Texas implies in an editorial at the Dallas Morning News on Friday. The business:

Democrats see our challenge as a tremendous opportunity for our party, the benefits of which will extend far beyond this election year. Texas Republicans would love to have the challenges we face now. They must instead deal with a record of economic failure, millions of Americans without health care, an unpopular war, a generation being priced out of college, and a trail of scandal and cronyism.

ExxonMobil officials recently showed production projections to some analysts in New York City. These projections revealing that, despite record profits and a regularly increasing demand, they are going to keep production at the same rate it is now for the next five years. This will, of course, lead to higher prices and increased profits. I hope it will also lead me to invent a way for my car to run on wishes and banana peels.

An investigation of illegal crossover voting in the Ohio primary is underway, and there's more discussion of whether Rush Limbaugh's encouragement to Republicans to vote for Clinton was illegal:

While this all makes for great talk radio and sounds like fun, there is one catch: What Limbaugh encouraged Republican voters to do in Ohio was a fifth-degree felony in that state, punishable with a $2,500 fine and six to 12 months in jail. That is because in order to change party affiliation in Ohio, voters have to fill out a form swearing allegiance to that party's principles "under penalty of election falsification."

It is quite an interesting read if you're into things like election law.