That little girl “safe and asleep” in Hillary’s 3 a.m. phone ringing ad turns 18 next month — and is a big Obama supporter.

The nets called it for Obama at the top of the hour.

For the hardcore junkie, we’re tracking the race in the Illinois 14th congressional district tonight. Polls just closed there, and we’ll be posting results in our Scoreboard there on the right.

This is Denny Hastert’s vacant seat, and the Dems are making it remarkably competitive. For some background on the race, you can start here.

Late Update: AP calls it for Democrat Bill Foster over Republican Jim Oberweis.

The AP has called the race in the Illinois 14th for Democrat Bill Foster.

With more than 96% of precincts reporting, Foster has a 52-48 lead over big-spending GOP candidate Jim Oberweis.

Think Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) is having fun yet as chairman of the NRCC?

Since taking over the NRCC after the 2006 midterms, he’s struggled to compete with the DCCC financially, faced an ugly embezzlement scandal within the NRCC, and now lost the seat held by the last Republican Speaker of the House.

As I hinted at the other day, this race recalls Hastert’s fall from power, the Mark Foley scandal and the general debacle of the last GOP Congress. In some ways it’s the coda to the 2006 elections. But on the other hand, you’ve got a Democrat winning in a special election in a Republican district against a well-funded opponent untainted by scandal. So last hurrah of 2006 — or prelude to 2008?

By the way, we’ll do this all over again in November. Foster has won the right to fill the seat for the remainder of Hastert’s term, when he’ll face Oberweiss again. Both men have already won their parties’ nominations for the general election.

Late Update: In a just released statement, the NRCC spins this one as sound and fury signifying nothing:

“The one thing 2008 has shown is that one election in one state does not prove a trend. In fact, there has been no national trend this entire election season. The presidential election is evidence of that. The Democratic candidates are trading election victories from week to week and the nomination could hinge on a few news cycles. The one message coming out of 2008 so far is that what happens today is not a bellwether of what happens this fall.”

Doug Feith’s score-settling Iraq War memoir is about to be released.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) went on Fox News yesterday and reiterated his comments that electing Obama would be a victory for the terrorists:

There’s so much nonsense here, where do you start?

But I will say that the Obama camp better dispense with its standard “there’s no place for this in our politics” response. They’re getting killed with this kind of stuff. And if they think they can stay aloof from it until November, then he deserves the fate of Michael Dukakis and John Kerry. But they’ll be lucky to make it that long. Bill Bradley showed you can be an aloof loser in the primary, too.

It doesn’t matter whether you support Obama or Hillary, it’s got to give you pause that the leading Democrat in the race (at least in terms of delegates) can’t handle these predictable attacks more effectively.

The Wall Street Journal today really fleshes out the mechanics of the Bush Administration’s domestic surveillance program.

Here’s an example: If the feds suspect there’s a terrorist in Detroit, “the government’s spy systems may be directed to collect and analyze all electronic communications into and out of the city.”

So much for particularized suspicion, let alone warrants.

Dean Baker: The cause of the recession is the collapse of the $8 trillion housing bubble — not the war.

The House has filed suit in federal district court in D.C. to enforce its subpoenas over the executive privilege claims of Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten.

I just glanced through the pleading very quickly, but it struck me as odd that the House hasn’t brought in outside counsel to handle this case (at least not of record in the case). This could very well become the seminal case on the true scope of executive privilege, so the implications extend far beyond the U.S. Attorney scandal, which is what the subpoenas seek information about. The balance of power between Cngress and the Presidency is at stake. These are structural constitutional issues. This case will almost certainly go up on appeal, probably all the way to the Supreme Court.

It seems to me you would want a team of the country’s best constitutional and appellate lawyers on the case from the outset, unencumbered by the usual business that the House Counsel’s Office faces.

Sens. Rockefeller (D) and Roberts (R) agree on namby-pamby phase II, Iraq Intel Report.