Washington in 60 Seconds: Sharron Angle Comes Courting Lobbyists

Good morning, fellow Capitolists! Have you missed your morning roundup of things you didn't know when you woke up? In honor of your fearless leaders' return to Capitol Hill next week and the barn-burning 2010 election season, we're relaunching "Washington in 60 Seconds" until the political season slows down, or until we tire of waking before dawn.

Until then, here's what's cooking today in politics and in the Capitol:

- Ms. Angle Going to Washington. After hammering Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as "the godfather of lobbyists" for taking more than $500,000 this cycle from corporations' hired guns, the Las Vegas Review Journal reports that Sharron Angle, the GOP Senate hopeful, will travel to D.C. next week to solicit contributions from a few lobbyists herself. In addition to the Gucci Gulch crowd, Sens. Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl, and Nevada's own John Ensign are expected to attend Angle's money party Wednesday.

- Terry Branstad's "Fallopian Oops." Terry Branstad, the former governor of Iowa who is running for the post again, slipped up in a recent Q&A on veterans' issues when he accidentally blamed a form of birth control, rather than improvised explosive devices, for troop casualties in the field. "Let me tell you, we've had plenty of casualties in the National Guard, and most of the combat deaths have not been from fire, but they've been from IUDs." D'oh! The Des Moines Register has the hilarity.

- Joe Wilson's Been Famous for a Year, No Lie! Political discourse changed forever one year ago today, when Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) yelped, "You lie!" at Barack Obama as the president addressed a joint session of Congress. Wilson was disciplined for his outburst by his fellow House members, but has been richly rewarded by supporters for speaking his mind. The State reports that he's got $4 million for his fall campaign against former Marine Rob Miller.

- Big Business Boxing Boxer. The L.A. Times reports that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has taken out a large ad buy against Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), whom the chamber calls "hostile to business." The money will help the GOP candidate, Carly Fiorina, who already has $2 million more than Boxer in her coffers and is within four points of beating the incumbent, according to the latest polls. In the face of the opposition from business, Boxer's campaign has pointed out that while Fiorina was CEO of Hewlett Packard, she laid off 30,000 workers.

- The Conservatives Are Coming! A new kind of march on Washington happens today through Saturday, as conservatives gather for what organizers call "four whole days of spectacular, freedom-promoting events." On the list of speakers: Ginny Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and one of our top "Women to Watch" for 2010. If you want to watch from home or even hop on a bus and come to the capital to participate, check out the website at MarchOnDC.org.