Good Thursday morning to you. Washington refuses to succumb to the clutches of Fall, which means, in this resident's experience, that winter is going to be particularly harsh. Here's what's going on around politics today:

-- The Senate continues its work on appropriations bills today, taking up the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies funding measure. The House is also in session. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee takes up the state of Iraqi corruption today at a 10 a.m. hearing.

-- Senators Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell will also join Iraqi President Jalal Talabani for a photo op today at the Capitol. But how can today be any better than yesterday, when Bono made a surprise stop on Capitol Hill?

-- Coming off of President Bush's veto of SCHIP, which Democrats see as a political victory, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy says he is ready to begin hearings on Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey. Leahy did not get a deal on documents he wanted from the White House, an early condition for the hearings' start, but he promised to grill Mukasey on matters of contention between Capitol Hill and the Administration. Leahy did not set a date for the start of the hearings, but invited Mukasey to a meeting on October 16.

-- After yesterday's Washington Post/ABC News poll, which put Sen. Hillary Clinton's support at 53% and bumped her lead in the latest RCP Average to 20.3 points, the drumbeat of inevitability just keeps getting stronger. Here's another example: Wealthy Chicago businessman J.B. Pritzker, one of Clinton's national co-chairs, tells the Chicago Tribune that it's getting easier to raise money in Sen. Barack Obama's hometown. Big donors must be hearing the same bandwagon rapidly passing them by, and doing everything in their power to get aboard. (Talk about a political family, by the way. J.B.'s sister Penny is Obama's national finance chair. "It's not a competition," J.B. said.)

-- We broke the news yesterday that Texas Rep. Ron Paul pulled in an impressive (ABC News called it "Jaw-Dropping") $5 million last quarter, ending the quarter with $5.3 million cash on hand. Delving a little deeper, Paul has some positives to look forward to, including that 70% of his 3rd quarter donations came online, actually down from the 80% rate in the first and second quarters. But with just $200,000 more on hand than he raised last quarter, that means the campaign is expanding and burning cash faster than it once was. Paul is likely to have spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.9 million through the first three quarters -- a fraction of what the front-runners have spent -- but most of that came in the 3rd quarter. Watch out for a high burn-rate when reports are released October 15.

-- Policy roll outs continue today (see my piece on Obama's attempt to build substance with a series of September proposals) with Clinton promising a new approach to science and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offering a plan for Iraq and defense modernization. Clinton, per CNN, will sign an executive order encouraging stem cell research, boost space flight and prohibit Administration appointees from altering scientific conclusions in reports when she addresses the Carnegie Institute. Richardson will call for cutting the defense budget by $57 billion and will emphasize his plan to get troops out of Iraq during his address, at Georgetown University.

-- Erik Prince, CEO of Blackwater USA, went through the wringer two days ago for his company's role in several controversial incidents, though Rep. Henry Waxman's panel would not allow him to testify about the Baghdad Square incident on September 16, currently under FBI investigation. Democrats know that Prince comes from a very political family -- he's a founder of the Family Research Council, his sister chaired the Michigan Republican Party and her husband, Dick DeVos, ran for governor of Michigan last year. Republicans know it, too, and they smelled a political witch hunt. As the Philadelphia Inquirer's Dick Polman points out, though, only Rep. Darrell Issa brought up party affiliation in the hearing. Waxman then laughed at him. Andrew Malcolm details all of Prince's donations.

-- The retirement of Sen. Pete Domenici, which he is expected to announce today from Albuquerque, sets up the possibility of a bid by Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM), son of the late Rep. Stewart Udall (D-AZ) and cousin of Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO), who is running for Senate himself. But what we overlooked, which Taegan Goddard points out today, is that a third cousin to both congressmen, Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, a Republican, is running for re-election. Have three first cousins ever been on the ballot for Senate in the same year before? UPDATE: Former Rep. Stewart Udall, happily, is not late, unless he has a meeting he's missed. An astute reader points out that Udall is alive and well. I must have been thinking of his brother, Mo Udall, who passed away. I regret the error.

-- Lawsuit Of The Day: Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, still smarting over the DNC's decision to revoke all his state's delegates to the 2008 convention because of a pre-window primary, will file suit today accusing national Democrats of violating the rights of four million Florida Democratic voters. The suit, to be filed with Rep. Alcee Hastings, also names Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning as a defendant, per the New York Times, which got an advanced copy.

-- Today On The Trail: Clinton and Richardson deliver their policy addresses in Washington while John Edwards heads to Columbus, Kentucky, a tiny little town that won a contest promising an Edwards visit. Obama is still in Iowa, with stops in Waterloo, Independence and Decorah. Sen. Joe Biden delivers his education plan in Des Moines today. On the GOP side, Rudy Giuliani meets residents in Clayton, Missouri, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and Chicago. Mitt Romney hits Hudson, Manchester, Derry and Merrimack, New Hampshire, while John McCain continues his South Carolina tour.