Is a Former President Considering Senate Run?

And now the most interesting two minutes in television, the latest from the political grapevine:

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Seeking Senate Seat?
Georgia political circles are said to be buzzing with talk that Jimmy Carter might run for the Senate seat vacated by the surprise retirement of the popular Democratic Sen. Zell Miller. The Hill newspaper reports that Carter was deeply offended by what he considered to be attacks on incumbent Democrat Max Cleland's patriotism this past fall. Cleland lost to Republican Saxby Chambliss, who made much of Cleland votes against the President's Homeland Security Department plan. Carter is said to be eager to see the other Georgia Senate seat remain in Democratic hands, though some close to him doubt he'll end up running.

Claims Cleared by Confirmation
And speaking of comeback candidates, former Illinois Democratic Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun is said to be considering running for the Senate again, and possibly even for the presidency. Moseley-Braun was defeated after serving one term by Republican Peter Fitzgerald in 1998, amid accusations that, among other things, she had schemed with her mother to cheat the Medicaid program. The Chicago Sun-Times says however that she feels that her name was cleared during the confirmation process on her nomination to be President Clinton's ambassador to New Zealand.

Democratic Dinners
This is the season of political dinners, especially for the ever-expanding list of declared Democratic presidential candidates. At least four of them will be at the Linn County, Iowa, Jefferson Jackson Day dinner this Saturday. But all of six of them will be at the big 30th anniversary dinner here in Washington next week commemorating the Supreme Court's legalization of abortion. The dinner is sponsored by the National Abortion Rights Action League, which has now changed its name to Naral Pro-Choice America, apparently to emphasize the word choice instead of the word abortion. It is a measure of the political clout of the abortion movement that according to The New York Times, one of the Democratic candidates, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, after first claiming a possible scheduling conflict, will be coming. And Al Sharpton, who last week canceled out of an NAACP dinner in Oakland, Calif., at the last minute to make a paid speech in Beverly Hills, will also be there.