The Tampa City Council on Thursday said they would ask Florida Gov. Rick Scott to ban firearms outside the Republican National Convention later this year.

The council has already issued a citywide ban on items like pieces of wood, switchblades, slingshots, containers of bodily fluids and even squirt guns. A so-called "Clean Zone" around the convention area would prohibit string longer than six inches, glass containers, light bulbs, portable shields and gas masks. A smaller protest area would prevent demonstrators from having camping gear, bottles, cans and umbrellas. The Secret Service has said that only law enforcement will be able to carry firearms inside of the convention center.

But Tampa now needs Scott's help because state law prevents local governments from regulating guns. City officials believe that Scott has the executive power to temporarily suspend that law.

"We believe it is necessary and prudent to take this reasonable step to prevent a potential tragedy," council member Lisa Montelione wrote in a draft of the letter to the governor.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has said that the state law makes the city "look silly."

"The absurdity of banning squirt guns but not being able to do anything about real guns is patently obvious," Buckhorn explained last week. "Given the nature and the potential dynamic of this event, I think it would make sense that you would not want firearms introduced into that environment by people other than law enforcement."

The mayor suggested that Tampa could "become fodder for the late-night comics because of something that has nothing to do with us and nothing to do with our ability to control the situation, and it's elevated by Trayvon Martin, obviously."

Legal experts told the Tampa Bay Times that in the emotionally-charged protest environment, another tragedy could take place that was covered by Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law that allows gun owners to use deadly force in public places without a duty to retreat.

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As a statement of fact, and with all respect to his genealogy, Chris Wallace is a little shit.

Wallace focuses the bulk of the interview on a much hyped, and now irrelevant, "botched joke". Shortly before the midterm elections, Republicans attempted to distract voters by deliberately mis-using Kerry's so-called 'botched joke'.

Wallace's 'Clinton sandbag attack' interview script is getting old.

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Fox's Robert Novak predicts that Democrats gain 19 House seats, 2 Senate seats and 5 governorships. N0vak says, GOP Senate winners include Chaffee, Allen, Steele. He expects that Burns, Dewine, and Santorum loose their Senate seats.

He could be right.

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Bill Clinton provides the star power at tonight's campaign rally for Webb. He delivers the famous Clinton stump speech and seems to enjoy to ripping Republican campaign tactics.

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Chris Wallace gives Senator Elizabeth Dole the final 30 seconds to summarize why Republicans will retain the Senate. Liddy goes off topic for several minutes to attack Harold Ford. Chris Wallace fails to wrestle control back from Dole's insistent attacks. Ford had been interviewed by Wallace in the previous segment.

The video contains Ford's interview followed by Dole's attack.

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F0X reports about 10% of this story which is more than expected. Even the G0P's propaganda network may have given up on the Virginia Senate race.

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Phil Singer, DSCC:

Democrats are demanding that George Allen stop stonewalling and immediately release records addressing why multiple warrants were issued for his arrest in 1974 while he was a student at the University of Virginia. The court records of his arrests are missing but one of the few official documents detailing the circumstances surrounding his arrests is Allen’s application to the Virginia Bar Association. Allen has so far refused to release that information.

“Allen’s adamant refusal to release documents about his arrest record suggests that there’s more to this story and that he’s hiding something. Allen’s got a character problem and this stonewalling isn’t helping him any,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Phil Singer said.

When news of the arrest warrants resurfaced this month, one of Allen’s aides said that one was issued for unpaid parking tickets and another for fishing without a license. The warrants are posted on an index (click here for a photo of the ledger), but Allen has failed to produce any written documentation verifying his explanation for why the warrants were issued and has not personally addressed the matter.

Kristol wants to return to the old "Bush policy" of going it alone to disable nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea.

On Korea, Brit says "If the U.N. itself isn't willing to do this then the United State with willing allies could do it... or the United States could do it by itself -- which, I think, is probably the best hope..."

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Bill rips into Bush, Bolton, Foley, Hastert, Republicans, Democrats, and... maybe, you.

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DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel was scheduled to debate RCCC Chairman Thomas Reynolds on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Entangled in the Foley page scandal himself, Reynolds ducked the debate, sending Rep. Adam Putnam in his stead.

Emanuel gives a nearly perfect performance. He easily dispels Putnam's attempts to blames the Democrats for the scandal. In the end, Putnam's attacks appear desperate and hollow.

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Full transcript via ABC below the fold

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An MSNBC segment examines if Rep. Foley made a large contribution to the Republican Party in exchange for silence about sexual messages that Foley sent to House pages. Foley gave $100,000 to the GOP Campaign Committee in July. The large contribution came at same time when Republican House leadership ignored Foley's emails.

MSNBC Political Analyst Craig Crawford is suspicious of Foley's donation. Crawford says, "It's part of a pattern on Capitol Hill where member raise money not just for their own campaigns, but to give money to others, to their colleagues. So that's kind of a common practice in both parties. What was unusual here was how large this contribution was and when it was made. Mark Foley gave $100,000 to the campaign arm of the House Republicans, the National Republican Congressional Committee, at about the time when they were deciding to ignore these emails, this first round of emails they say. A couple of months after they knew about this, suddenly he gives this big donation. It raises the question, 'Did he buy their silence?'"

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