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The Hardball Briefing On MSNBC
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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.
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