Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has no shortage of competitors in 2010. In addition to Democratic challenger, Rep. Charlie Melancon, he's always drawn improbable Republican primary challenger and porn star Stormy Daniels (and even a "conservative independent" third-party challenger you may not have heard of.).

But yesterday came word that he may be challenged in the Republican primary by retired Army Gen. Russel Honore, best known for leading the Army's deployment in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Honore is a very interesting possibility in terms of potentially shaking up the race. Unlike most others associated with Katrina, Honore came out of it with a very good reputation. And while some national observers did not realize it (because of his very very light complexion), Honore is African-American. ('Is' is a fraught word in this context. Honore identifies himself as an "African-American Creole", which is to say a person of mixed race descended from the French-Spanish-African population of Louisiana from the pre-United States period.) I know enough about Louisiana politics not to be stupid enough to try to understand it. But some Republican GOPers in Louisiana and nationally might see his entry as not totally unwelcome, even an opportunity to unload the thoroughly damaged Vitter.

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), a member of the Gang of Six purportedly negotiating a bipartisan health deal, today embraced the 'death panel' canard, though he didn't use the phrase itself. Good to know he's got a veto on any reform legislation.

Here's some documentary footage of Sen. Kennedy at a hearing on health care in Eastern Kentucky from 1983.

(The footage is from Appalshop, a documentary film company in southeastern Kentucky.)

I had heard (and it was hardly a surprise) that Ted Kennedy had been working to complete an autobiography in the last months of his life. But I didn't realize it was coming out so soon. September 14th, True Compass.

Transcript of President Obama's eulogy.

Family, friends and dignitaries are streaming into the Mission Church in Boston for the funeral of Ted Kennedy this morning. The burial itself will be at Arlington later in the day, not far from the burial sites of John and Robert Kennedy. We'll be bringing you updates, photographs and live video through the morning.

Watch live video here.

It's hardly surprising. But it is striking to watch an event with so many political dignitaries and luminaries from the history of the last half century assembled together in one place. It is difficult to imagine -- indeed, when you consider it, in many ways frightening to imagine -- any event that would bring together such a group again.

10:11 AM: I'm watching the attendees mill around and talk before Sen. Kennedy's funeral service gets underway. And I'm struck by the smiles. Death is always a sorrowful event, particularly for the close loved ones. But after a full life and when the passing has been presaged by a long illness, the sorrow is of a different character. This funeral in some ways closes the final chapter on the earlier funerals of John and Robert Kennedy. And there's something reassuring, calming about seeing a Kennedy brother's funeral that is sad, sorrowful, but not at all tragic.

10:24 AM: TPM Reader BL writes in: "Reading your post this morning on TK's funeral and the range of luminaries in attendance, I thought I ought to pass on a bit of related Canadiana. When ex PM Pierre Trudeau passed away nine years ago, Honorary pallbearers included Jimmy Carter, Leonard Cohen, Aga Khan and Fidel Castro. As you might suspect, there wasn't a lot of coverage in the US media." I would say that is another collection we shall not see again.

11:30 AM: I expect sermons, even at the funerals of the famous, to be fairly perfunctory. But I must say the priest's comments are quite moving, both in religious terms and also in terms of Sen. Kennedy's life, and of course in weaving the two together.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Into the Mystic

There's no shortage of news this Friday afternoon. But amidst the other stories we're trying to figure out is just what happened to Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg (R). He was in a boat last night with four other people, most but not all of whom have been identified, when there was what is being described as a "serious" accident -- a characterization the picture below would seem to validate.

The accident reportedly occurred just before midnight. And the boat appears to have crashed into a shoreside rock outcropping and done so at sufficient velocity to get the boat entirely out of water and then some.

The news is still very sketchy. And all Rehberg's staff will say is that Rehberg is in a hospital in "stable condition and is doing well." The other four passengers have been hospitalized as well.

Did Harry Reid just throw in the towel on public option? He seemed to in a telephone town hall with constituents that we were listening in on.

Running a huge $74 million scam on a major bank isn't as complicated as you might think, especially if you're rich to begin with. Or at least that's what the allegations against big Dem donor Hassan Nemazee suggest.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Secret Service stops by for a chat with Arizona pastor who preached about praying for President Obama's death.

Remember, this was the sermon attended by the guy who a day later went to Obama's event with an assault rifle.

Slideshow: Kennedy mourners in Boston.

Amidst a new congressional investigation, Bonner & Associates, the astroturfing firm caught sending out forged letters to members of Congress, has just instituted a new No Forgeries Ethics Policy.

Click through to see a copy of the policy, which must be signed by all employees, obtained by TPMMuckraker.

Massachusetts Republicans won't rule out a possible court challenge to any attempt to amend state law to allow a speedy interim appointment to Sen. Kennedy's seat. Eric Kleefeld gets the story from the GOP leader in the state senate.

Candidate in Idaho governor's race jokes about getting "tags" to hunt Barack Obama.

Reich: Don't Believe the Insiders Who Say the Public Option is Dead

Bonner & Associates, the DC astroturfing outfit that got caught sending out forged 'constituent letters' has a new angle on the scandal: they're the victims.

Nate Silver wrote a post last night flagging an AARP poll, the upshot of which is that Americans don't seem to have any idea what the 'public option' even is. As Silver notes, the fact that only 37% of respondents correctly identified what the 'public option' was, and the fact that respondents were only given three options, shows that random guessing would have produced pretty much the same result.

As I said yesterday, the fact that 'public option' is so un-descriptive and opaque has only made it easier for Republicans to portray it as some sort of program for mass euthanasia. So I'm not sure what there is to say here or do but laugh because the only other thing to do is cry.

But it does make you wonder why Democrats go into these political battles with dopey wonk-speak when Republicans are coming up with stuff like "death panels", which, despite being a complete fantasy, does tend to focus the attention.

From TPM Reader DK ...

I could be wrong, but I get the feeling Obama's approval is directly linked to Health Care. I definitely cooled to him quite a bit, and it's due to the fact that he doesn't seem willing to reform financial institutions or go for the gold on the public option.

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The Onion: Nation's Unemployment Outlook Improves Drastically After Fifth Beer

I just noticed RNC Chair Michael Steele just challenged AARP to endorse his 'Senior's Health Care Bill of Rights" which purportedly outlaws death panels and similar such things. And John Rother replied saying AARP too agrees there should be no death panels and is glad no one has actually proposed having any.

But with Steele now on the ramparts defending Medicare, we thought it might be a good time to review Steele's and the GOP's forty year history of trying to cut or outright abolish Medicare.

The general election to decide Ted Kennedy's successor will be held in late January, with the primaries in December. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

WaPo:

J.P. Morgan Chase, an amalgam of some of Wall Street's most storied institutions, now holds more than $1 of every $10 on deposit in this country. So does Bank of America, scarred by its acquisition of Merrill Lynch and partly government-owned as a result of the crisis, as does Wells Fargo, the biggest West Coast bank. Those three banks, plus government-rescued and -owned Citigroup, now issue one of every two mortgages and about two of every three credit cards, federal data show.

A year after the near-collapse of the financial system last September, the federal response has redefined how Americans get mortgages, student loans and other kinds of credit and has made a national spectacle of executive pay. But no consequence of the crisis alarms top regulators more than having banks that were already too big to fail grow even larger and more interconnected.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: What Teddy Would've Wanted

From TPM Reader BR ...

You're right that it makes no sense to not counter lies from Armey about the public option with "expanding Medicare access to those under 65" rhetoric.

What I don't understand is why nobody has talked about Kennedy's Medicare for All act, which is an elegant solution for just that - a public option in which folks can buy into Medicare.

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From TPM Reader GM ...

Dick Armey wants the public option to be optional? This gives me an idea. I think Obama should use all the fictional friction points as bargaining chips. You want us to give up the tyranny of compulsory coverage? You win, Dick Armey. Will you support the bill now? You disagree with death panels, Sarah Palin? What concession will you offer if we agree to give them up?

TPM Reader JC reports from the procession ...

I don't know that it's possible to describe what it was like to see the hearse pull up to Boston City Hall. I was among hundreds of people who waited for more than two hours to pay respects. Frankly, I was surprised by the size of the crowd. These last weeks are the easiest of the year to find a parking space in the city, and I expected a ghost town reception.

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Slideshow: Official Kennedy mourning commences.

A reader shares a story of working as a security guard and finding a gun in a car parked next to a hotel where Teddy Kennedy was staying.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Politico warns of "Wellstone Effect"

I'm curious. Maybe it can be an informal contest? How would you define the "Wellstone Effect". Possibly: "when Republican strategists try to politicize the outpouring of grief over the tragic death of a Democratic politician and manage to play numerous reporters for fools in the process."

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If how he treated Massachusetts post-governorship is any example, if Mitt Romney got elected president, how do we know we wouldn't later move to Venezuela, get into politics and start talking trash about us?

A new Democracy Corps poll (D) has Chris Christie a mere two points ahead of Jon Corzine -- Christie 43%, Corzine 41%.

What's interesting here is that we've now got three polls over the last couple weeks showing this race either close or essentially tied. But each is a poll with some partisan affiliation. Today's and one taken on August 11th and 12th is by Democracy Corps, which is Stan Greenberg's and James Carville's group. It's a highly respected poll. But still there's a partisan identification.

There was also a GOP poll put on Monday which showed a three-point Christie lead. In that case it's a Republican poll, the consultant behind it doesn't have a clear track record in terms of poll reliability. Sort of an unknown quantity. And he also worked for Christie's primary opponent.

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Remember the guy who brought the assault rifle to the Obama event down in Arizona? Turns out that the day before the event he attended a fiery anti-Obama sermon by his radical pastor in which his pastor said he was going to "pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell."

Justin Elliott has the story.

Also, in case you're concerned, the gun-toter's pastor, Steven Anderson, made clear to Justin in an interview that he'd actually prefer Obama to die in some way other than assassination. "No where in the sermon did I advocate vigilantism. It's a spiritual battle. I'd rather have him die of natural causes anyway, that way he's not some martyr. I'm praying for him to die just so he gets what he deserves."

Slideshow: Reader photos of the life of Ted Kennedy.

Thanks to all the readers who submitted. And don't worry if you haven't gotten to it yet. We'll add new photos as readers send them in.

We rundown the 13 Democratic senators who can't quite make up their minds whether they are for or against a public option provision in the health care reform bill.

In an interview with the Economist magazine recently, former House Majority Leader and current FreedomWorks Capo Dick Armey said that something like a Public Option would be great. But the issue comes down to choice.

"If you in fact freely choose to enroll in Medicare that's a wonderful gift," said Armey, "it's a charity, it's something I applaud. But when they force you in, that's tyranny."

Needless to say, Armey, albeit a native English speaker, has not apparently focused in on the 'option' part of 'public option' since obviously, in the reality-based world, this is the whole point. It's an option if you either cannot get or do not want insurance from a private company.

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For the fourth time recently, Sarah Palin is a no-show at an event where the organizers say she was scheduled to speak but where Palin says she was never even invited.

I've been poking around. And I've heard of several major national corporations planning to dramatically scale back the health care coverage they offer employees starting this fall. Mainly in the amount they subsidize, but in other cases the level of care they offer access to. I figure there must be a number of middle management and HR folks out there reading. So if you've heard of similar stuff where you work, drop me a line. Anonymity guaranteed.

The public mourning for Ted Kennedy begins today at the JFK Library in Boston, where his body will lie in repose. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

The brief post I did yesterday on Ted Kennedy's April 7, 1968 speech to the Alaska state Democratic convention didn't really do it justice. It's a grainy black-and-white film but the audio of Kennedy's lilting Boston accent is clear, and the speech Kennedy delivers, which I was not familiar with until yesterday, stands even 40 years later as a close-to-perfect expression of modern American liberalism.

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On Morning Edition today, Michael Steele gets tied in knots trying to explain how the GOP (or maybe just Steele himself?) wants to preserve Medicare against cuts, while also cutting Medicare and opposing government-run health care programs in general. It's an impossible dance for anyone, but Steele is burdened with two left feet.

Hard to believe this guy really is the head of a major American political party.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Remembering Ted Kennedy

Kansas Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) says the GOP must find its "great white hope" to lead the party back to power in Washington.

Earlier today we noted that there does not appear to be any legal impediment to Massachusetts changing its law and allowing Gov. Patrick (D) to immediately appoint a caretaker successor to Sen. Kennedy. Now the Times is reporting that the push the change the law and quickly name a successor is intensifying.

Here's Ted Kennedy, from early 2007, laying into Senate Republicans for refusing even to allow a vote on raising the federal minimum wage, which had stagnated for a decade. It's vintage Teddy Kennedy and puts what's coming this fall into an important perspective.

It's worth a few minutes of your time. Watch it.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Rep. John Dingell tells TPMDC: I don't care who the health reform bill is named after so long as there's a bill.

Dominick Dunne dies.

Slideshow: Ted Kennedy lived long enough to see a black man elected President.

Kennedy at Rabin's funeral ...

"On the morning of the day before the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin, Senator Ted Kennedy called the White House to inquire if it was appropriate to bring to the burial some earth from Arlington National Cemetery. The answer was essentially a shrug: Who knows? Unadvised, the senator carried a shopping bag onto the plane, filled with earth he had himself dug the afternoon before from the graves of his two murdered brothers. And at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, after waiting for the crowd and the cameras to disperse, he dropped to his hands and knees, and gently placed that earth on the grave of the murdered prime minister.

No spin, no photo op; a man unreasonably familiar with bidding farewell to slain heroes, a man in mourning, quietly making tangible a miserable connection."

MJ Rosenberg has more.

Late Update: Another reader who was there at the graveside shares another recollection ...

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Remember the reports yesterday of the Democratic headquarters in Colorado vandalized by a pack of crazed and feral Tea Partiers? Well ... seems like the story may turn out a bit different. Zack Roth reports.

With Sen. Kennedy's passing, the future of his now vacant senate seat could have immense implications for the fate of health care reform. Under current Massachusetts law, an election to fill the seat must now be held within the next 145-160 days. That's under a law the Democratic legislature passed in 2004 to prevent then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R) from appointing John Kerry's successor should Kerry have been elected president. Shortly before his death, Kennedy appealed to state leaders to change the law saw that a senator (needless to say, a pro-health care reform Democrat) could hold the seat during the crucial health care votes this fall.

Nothing happened before Kennedy's death. So what happens now? Can they still change the law?

Eric Kleefeld looks at the legal question and the political situation in the Bay State to find out what is likely to happen next.

Ted Kennedy spoke in Sitka, Alaska, in April 1968, just a few days after Martin Luther King's assassination and just weeks before his brother Robert's. As tumultuous a period as that was, and as unique the circumstances, his stirring speech holds up remarkably well. Timeless. Watch (starts at about the 5:20 mark).

This morning, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), the longest serving member of the United States senate in history, called on his senate colleagues to rename the pending health care reform legislation after Sen. Kennedy, something that seems certain to happen. There's a time for remembering Kennedy, simply as a man, with his highs and lows. (For those interested, I wrote our house news obituary of Kennedy overnight. And you can see it here.)

But Byrd's suggestion brings home the fact that Kennedy's death, its timing and circumstances are and will be impossible to separate from the politics of the moment. Indeed, one need look no further than the way Kennedy lived the last year of his life to see that he intended as much, conspicuously identifying the aspirations of his life with the battle afoot in Washington and now volubly across the country.

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David Rohde: Kennedy had "a combination of very liberal impulses with a very practical sense of legislating."

This morning, Vice President Biden eulogized his former colleague in emotional comments at an Energy policy event in Washington.

Howard Dean remembers Teddy Kennedy and looks forward.

I suspect that among our readership of dedicated political junkies there are more than a few high-quality pictures of Ted Kennedy from over the past five decades: appearances in Massachusetts, events in Washington, campaign stops around the country.

We'd like to compile a slideshow of such reader photos since they'll probably be angles and moments not widely seen before. So if you have archived your shots digitally, send them our way and include in your email how you would like to be credited.

Obama, on Kennedy's passing. Watch.

Video: Ted Kennedy's greatest speeches and other highlights.

If you have any personal video favorites, send them our way.

Share your memories and stories at TPMCafe.

Reactions to Ted Kennedy's death from across the political spectrum and beyond.

Slideshow: Triumph to tragedy to transcendence.

TPMDC Morning Roundup devotes itself today to Ted Kennedy remembrances.

Watch President Obama's live remarks on Sen. Kennedy's passing, scheduled for 9:45 AM. Watch live.

Truly the end of an era.

There were a lot of signs that this was imminent -- Kennedy's non-attendance at his sister's funeral, the letter to Massachusetts political leaders about his successor and just the telling silence about any developments in his condition over recent weeks.

Much to talk about tomorrow. For now, we'll just let the somber news speak for itself.

[ed.note: TPM's obituary of Sen. Kennedy]

Late Update: Reich on Kennedy.

Latter Update: Statement from President Obama.

From a longtime reader ...

I participated in a Doctors for America phone call tonight with the White House. Me and 2600 of my brethren listened to pretty low-level pablum from the speakers. The questions asked by those lucky enough to be chosen were also standard practitioner issues including reimbursement by the SGR and malpractice. At the end of the call, I was incredibly disappointed. Many have mentioned that doctors seem silent in this debate. I have been trying to figure out why and think I have an inkling. I think doctors, like everyone else, don't really know how their lives/practices will change with reform.

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I hear WaPo's Steven Pearlstein has had just about enough of Michael Steele's crazy. I'll be watching for his column.

By the way, why did WaPo publish that egregiously dishonest column on its oped page?

Late Update: And here it is.

As over the top as death panels and gun-wielding tea partiers have been, the biggest bamboozlement of the summer in terms of sheer audacity is the GOP's sudden concern for Medicare. Since everyone seems to have forgotten, we hit the video highlights of the GOP's 40-year effort to pull the plug on Medicare.

San Diego prosecutor declines to press charges against anyone involved in sheriff's helicopter raid on Democratic fund-raising event. (Our complete coverage here.)

Assistant US Attorney in Chris Christie unreported loan scandal resigns; Christie campaign says it means Corzine is a sleazy sleazoid.

Can Health Care Reform survive the fact that Arkansas voters have basically lost their minds?

That's a poetic way to put it. But I'm not sure anyone should be betting on Blanche Lincoln's vote on health care.

Hint: Most Arkansans trust Limbaugh more than Obama and a majority in the state is either 'birther' or 'birther-curious'.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Top Democratic fundraiser and Hillary Clinton's 2008 finance chair, Hassan Nemazee, charged with an alleged $74 million fraud of Citigroup.

Who could have imagined that giving Senate Republicans a de facto veto on health care legislation would have led to this sorry pass?

Christie enlists Obama and Gordon Gekko to bash Corzine. Maybe feeling the heat a bit?

Sen. Bingaman (D-NM) becomes the first member of the Senate Finance Committee's Gang of Six to back "reconciliation", i.e., pushing reform through on Dem votes alone.

Documents that Dick Cheney had been begging the CIA to release don't actually show what Cheney claimed they would, but some in the media remain complicit in his deception. Shocking, I know.

Late Update: More on the CIA torture documents from TPM's Zachary Roth in an appearance today on MSNBC.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) calls for "on our knees ... prayer and fasting" to defeat Obama's health care plans.

Has anyone told Giuliani that New York state doesn't get to have a foreign policy any more than New York City?

From TPM Reader SM ...

A question for Mr. Steele. Three months ago I had routine surgery for a hernia and was asked three times in the week leading up to it if I was interested in creating a living will. Was Columbia hospital corporation trying to talk me into committing suicide?!

Michael Steele tells Fox the VA is "encouraging [vets] to commit suicide."

Behold our new TPM Photo Feature: The Evolution of the Death Panel Meme

The shagadelic Rudy Giuliani wants to be New York's Luv Guv! That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Michael Steele is on Fox now going on about how Medicare is a wreck, completely bankrupt, and an example of how the government has already proven it can't run a health care program.

Except didn't the "health care bill of rights" that the GOP unveiled yesterday declare preserving Medicare and protecting it against any cuts an inviolable right?

Shorter Steele: Medicare is a disaster! Long live Medicare!

(It's not the first time Steele has gotten his Medicare demagoging all messed up.)

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Seniors' Health Care Bull of Rights

Obama to renominate Bernanke for second term at Fed.

Howard Dean joins TPMCafe Bookclub this week to discuss his new book Howard Dean Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform. Here's his kick off post.

A new poll from a Republican pollster (though one who worked for Christie's primary opponent) shows Christie sustaining a lot of damage from the recent round of stories calling his ethics into doubt and now leading by a mere three points.

The poll comes with a number of potential caveats. The pollster arguably has an axe to grind, though there's no clear evidence in played any role in how this was put together. And the margin of error is relatively high. But we looked and this is the first poll to come out after what's been two-plus weeks of relentlessly negative press for Christie which has cut directly at the centerpiece of Christie's campaign: his independence and ethics.

So something may be brewing.

Late Update: Talked to a few New Jersey political watchers tonight. Consensus seems to be that people wouldn't be surprised if it is a three point race but not a lot of confidence in the guy who did the poll, Rick Shaftan.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Sensing failure on health care reform, Netanyahu tells Obama to talk to the hand on settlements. That's MJ Rosenberg's read. And I think he may be right. All power is unitary.

Michael Jackson's death ruled a homicide.

Pro-health care reform advocates -- or at least one -- gets in on the gun-toting at protests craze.

Christie conference call to attack Corzine on ethics doesn't go according to plan.

Attorney General Holder to name special prosecutor to investigate detainee abuses.

Another report from the pews on evangelicals and Israel, from TPM Reader DH ...

Josh, for what it's worth, I grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist church (in Indiana), and my experience was more consistent with your understanding of evangelical support for Israel. Unlike your reader BR's experience, in my church, support for Israel was very much tied to the idea that Israel played a role in the timing of Christ's return to earth. It was understood that the benefit would redound to Christians, not to the Jewish inhabitants of Israel, who would either accept Christ or go to hell. I don't recall any significant romantic or sentimental aspect to pro-Israel ideas.

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This should go over well.

GOP Michael Steele just managed to compare former House leader and Missouri senate candidate Roy Blunt to raw sewage clogging a toilet and then agree that Blunt is a serial philanderer.

Fox News and Jonah Goldberg roll out "death panels" for disabled veterans.

Adds bonus Veterans Administrations/Nazi Germany comparison.

Senator Joe Lieberman says health care reform is a little too difficult to do during an economic recession, so let's just put off the toughest decisions for another day. Plus, will John McCain condemn the "death panel" language used by his former running mate Sarah Palin? All that and more in today's Sunday Show Roundup ...

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Seven months into his first term, Obama has fewer than half of his senior political appointees in place. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Lieberman: No rush on all that health care stuff. Maybe in a few years.

From TPM Reader BR ...

As a lapsed Southern Baptist, I think it's mistaken to regard evangelical support for Israel as primarily about eschatology.

More than other Christian denominations, evangelicals stress intimate and uncritical familiarity with the Bible. Thus, the most famous expression of the Abrahamic covenant ("I will bless those who bless thee and curse those who curse thee") becomes ingrained in their minds from an early age, as does a romanticized narrative of the Jewish people's ancient conquest of the Holy Land.

To be sure, reflexive support for Israel based on simplistic ideas about the past is as problematic as reflexive support for Israel based on fantastical ideas about the future. In fairness to evangelical supporters of Israel, though, I don't think that the majority of them advocate settlement expansion because of a desire to prepare the way for an apocalyptic conflagration.

Point taken. Not for everyone. And not the sole issue in play. What I still think is that it's a big thing for many evangelical leaders, the Robertsons, Falwells and their successors today.

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