Almanac: At the Capitol

In my Campaign Notebook this week, Gov. Tim Pawlenty watches as Sen. John McCain embraces First Lady Mary Pawlenty. Potential first lady Cindy McCain also got a big hug from Pawlenty. Sources have long told me that the two couples hit it off quite some time ago. Could this be the future first and second couple? McCain praised Pawlenty again visiting Minnesota, but neither gave any indication that they're going to share a ticket.

The national and local press went wild with speculation about Jesse Ventura getting into the U.S. Senate race. Tuesday is the deadline for filing for office, you bet we'll all be there to see if Ventura shows. YouTube features ads real and fake ripping Coleman and Franken. Besides Jesse it was a pretty quiet week in the Senate race.

State lawmakers are ready to re-write their own rules. There's talk about cutting down on the long floor sessions by limiting the time of debate and/or eliminating the majority's ability to "call the question" and immediately end debate. Government reforming itself is never easy.

And the emails keep coming from blogger happy hour. Several bloggers refused to attend and have been telling me why.