Matt Cooper recaps the Dems’ post-election woes appointing U.S. senators.

It just so happens that two of the home-state pols Sir Allen Stanford was very cozy with now head up the NRSC and NRCC, respectively. But Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) aren’t going to follow the lead of their fellow lawmakers: they’re refusing to give up the big bucks they got from Stanford.

All that talk from some GOP governors that they would refuse their state’s portion of the Obama stimulus package? Fuggedaboutit. Now the most vocal of the grandstanders, Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC), says, yeah, I’ll take the money.

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) is expected to announce today that he is running for the seat of the retiring Sen.Kit Bond (R-MO) in 2010. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

The long prosecutorial saga of New Hampshire phone-jamming figure James Tobin, which we have covered extensively over the years, appears to be at or very near the end. A federal judge in Maine has dismissed the latest charges against Tobin as a vindictive prosecution, a stunning rebuke to the Public Integrity Section of DOJ. The government could appeal this decision, so maybe not officially over. But the fat lady is gargling with lemon and honey.

Prosecutors suggested that part of the reason for the new charges (after Tobin was acquitted on appeal following his first trial) was to force his cooperation. Now we may never know the true extent of the RNC’s and White House’s involvement in the 2002 phone-jamming.