Conservatives Backing Nominee Look at Graham

In the short term, Fletcher will likely be forced to return more than $100,000 in contributions raised for his reelection campaign because those donations were made to the Fletcher-Pence slate, which no longer exists.

The effective vote of no confidence from Pence also complicates Fletcher's strategy to paint the indictment with a partisan brush, providing ambitious Democrats with an opportunity to continue their efforts to discredit the governor.

Yesterday, Fletcher announced that his new running mate would be state Finance Secretary Robbie Rudolph.

Stumbo, as well as U.S. Rep. A.B. "Ben" Chandler (D), who lost to Fletcher in 2003, House Speaker Jody Richards and state Auditor Crit Luallen, are mentioned as potential Democratic gubernatorial candidates in 2007.

Eyeball to Eyeball

The Tony Snow show continues each day at the White House. Friday featured the long-anticipated first flare-up between NBC's David Gregory and the new White House press secretary. The topic was same-sex marriage:

Gregory: The president wades into this when it's politically expedient --

Snow: Oh, David, come on.

Gregory: Don't 'come on' me!

Snow ( delighted ) : This is what people have been waiting for!

Staff writers Jo Becker and Peter Baker contributed to this report.