Briefly Noted

A few of the many political and campaign briefs from the past couple days. For a mid-August week, we've seen quite a bit of movement on many fronts.

- Roll Call reports that the start of the hearing schedule for the John Roberts confirmation has been agreed upon: the Judiciary Committee will meet to hear Roberts' opening statement on Tuesday, September 6, and members will begin questioning the nominee at a session the following day.

- Ohio governor Bob Taft (R) plans to plead "no contest" to four misdemeanor counts of failing to properly report gifts. Taft could be sentenced to a $1,000 fine for each count and up to six months in jail, although prison time is seen as widely unlikely. [Update: Taft did plead no contest, the judge ordered him to pay the maximum $4,000 fine and send a letter of apology to Ohio's residents.]

- Sticking with Ohio, Rep. Sherrod Brown (D) announced Tuesday night that he will not run against Republican senator Mike DeWine in 2006. PoliticalWire notes that another potential DeWine opponent, Rep. Tim Ryan, is saying he's "leaning against" a run as well, but will decide around Labor Day. Meanwhile, conservative steel exec John Hritz says he's forming an exploratory committee to determine whether he should challenge DeWine in a GOP primary.

- Former congressman and current MSNBC t.v. host Joe Scarborough is considering joining the race for the Republican nomination to take on incumbent Senator Bill Nelson. He'd be facing off against Rep. Katherine Harris in the primary.

- George Pataki and John Edwards are both planning near-term trips (back) to Iowa.

- Senator Russ Feingold has called for a full pullout of American troops from Iraq by the end of 2006.

- Trent Lott's new book doesn't seem a very good way to make friends and influence people. I'm sure penning it was rather cathartic, though.

- Senator Rick Santorum has attracted a primary challenger: John Featherman, a pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-flat tax libertarian says he'll run against the incumbent as a Republican next year.