Democratic Leader Takes Anti-Corruption Message to GOP Turf

DSCC spokesman Phil Singer said Goodman and Carter are "quality" candidates, and pointed to a Zogby International poll conducted online last fall that showed Ensign with a 45 percent to 42.5 percent edge over Goodman. "If Ensign thought he'd have an easy ride in 2006, he was mistaken," Singer added.

"We're very confident that Senator Ensign will be reelected based on his strong record in the Senate and the great work he has done for the state of Nevada," responded National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brian Nick.

A Goodman Senate bid would set off a political circus worthy of a Vegas casino.

Long before being elected mayor in 1999, Goodman was a high-profile -- and controversial -- figure in Las Vegas as the lead attorney for a number of high-profile Mafia figures, including Meyer Lansky and Tony "The Ant" Spilotro. Goodman has embraced the "what happens here stays here" motto of his city as its mayor -- he is regularly accompanied by showgirls and has a weak spot for Elvis impersonators.

Putting aside Goodman's flamboyant personality, if Reid is seen as advocating a bid by the mayor it could signal a break in the unstated truce that has been in effect between him and Ensign since Ensign won a Senate seat in 2000. Asked whether Reid was encouraging Goodman to enter the race, spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said -- carefully -- that the minority leader "was not trying to convince Goodman to run."

Frist Looks Northward for Rebound

Seeking to right his presidential bid after a calamitous 2005, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will headline the Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner in Hampstead, N.H., on Feb. 3.

The visit to the Granite State -- home of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary -- will be the Tennessee Republican's second since early December, when he made stops in Manchester, Concord and Portsmouth.

With Frist beginning his final year in the Senate, expect his attentions to turn more and more to the presidential race. In an e-mail sent last week from his Volunteer PAC leadership committee, Frist urged supporters to attend a presidential 2008 straw poll to be at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis in March.

Cillizza is a staff writer for washingtonpost.com. His online column on politics, The Fix, appears daily athttp://www.washingtonpost.com/thefix.