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It's a full card of Friday night fights on Hardball tonight as Chris jumps in the ring with some of the fiercest fighters for Decision 2006. Steve Laffey, the mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, is challenging Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) in a primary that's just 18 days from now. Laffey's being backed by the conservative Club for Growth, trashed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and projected to get trounced in the general election by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse if he beats Chafee. Tonight, he tells Chris why he's running and how he thinks he can win. Here's more on that race in today's USA TODAY: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-08-24-cut-spending_x.htm. The two Republicans will square-off once more Saturday night in a debate sponsored by NBC affiliate WJAR in Rhode Island. Here's more info on that: http://www.turnto10.com/news/9723444/detail.html. In other big news today, Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT), upon returning from his 14th trip to Iraq, is calling for a timetable to get U.S. troops out of there. The Washington Post describes Shays as a former "ardent supporter" of the war who finds himself in a tight race this year against Democrat Diane Farrell. She plays Hardball tonight to tell Chris why she thinks Shays has changed his tune. Here's the Post's report: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/24/AR2006082401631.html. Also tonight, Steve Jarding, political adviser to Democrat Jim Webb's U.S. Senate campaign in Virginia, will be here to talk about that race and how he thinks Webb might have benefited from Sen. George Allen (R-VA)'s verbal gaffe two weeks ago. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank, who wrote about Allen's apology odyssey today, will join Chris along with Bloomberg News' Roger Simon to talk about all the latest in the fight to control Congress. Here's Milbank's piece: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/24/AR2006082401420.html. And, in the final bout of the night, Chris will talk with Rockey Vaccarella, the Louisiana resident who met with President Bush this week and said he wished Bush could run for a third term, and Ben Marble, a Mississippi resident who had some infamous words of advice for Vice President Cheney caught on tape. These two victims of Hurricane Katrina will give their takes on how the recovery effort is going after a year. MSNBC.com reports on Mayor Ray Nagin's about Ground Zero in New York City: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14510763/. Here are some things you might not have read yet today: --AP reports on how President Ford is doing after an angioplasty http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14514465/ --MSNBC's (constantly updated) political planner http://hardball.msnbc.com --Hardblogger http://hardball.msnbc.com --NBC's "First Read" http://firstread.msnbc.com --Doonesbury http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html Brooke Brower compiled the "Hardball Briefing" in Washington, D.C. ========================================= This e-mail is never sent unsolicited. You have received this The Hardball Briefing Newsletter newsletter because you subscribed to it or, someone forwarded it to you. To remove yourself from the list (or to add yourself to the list if this message was forwarded to you) simply go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7140407/, select unsubscribe, enter the email address receiving this message, and click the Go button. Microsoft Corporation - One Microsoft Way - Redmond, WA 98052 MSN PRIVACY STATEMENT http://privacy.msn.com <http://privacy.msn.com/>