Washington is waking up to a not-so-surprising announcement this morning, and it has nothing to do with underdogs like Wake Forest and the Colorado Rockies winning last night. The big brouhaha is in item number two. But first, the rest of what Washington wants:

-- The House and Senate enjoy one last day off before returning Monday to do some serious catching up. President Bush lunches with RNC supporters in Pinellas Park, Florida, then delivers a speech on trade policy in Miami. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman opens his department's third annual Solar Decathlon today on the Mall, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are in Russia, and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez leads a codel to Colombia.

-- Aside from that, nothing big happened overnight. Unless you count former Vice President Al Gore taking home the Nobel Peace Prize, which he will share with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Add that to his Oscar, his Emmy, and his legions of shrieking fans who beg Gore to run for President, and 2007 has been a pretty good year for the former Veep. So, after all the publicity and the $65,000 supporters raised to place a full-page ad in the New York Times urging him to run, will he give it a go? Betting money says there's no way he runs. As former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX) said on CNN a few days ago, Gore's like a High School sophomore who just got asked on a big date. He knows not to push it, and to enjoy his time on the top of the social pecking order.

-- Gore's support, in national polls, peaked near 20% in about April, and hovers around half that much now (10% in the latest Fox News/Opinion Dynamics [PDF] poll, in which Sen. Hillary Clinton scores 44%). There is little doubt that Gore's numbers would shoot through the roof if he decided to run, thanks to the media attention he would almost surely get, but if his sinking poll numbers are indicative of anything, they show that most Democrats, many of whom still feel strongly for Gore, recognize the unlikeliness of his actually running for office.

-- For the record, CNN carried the announcement live, at about 5 a.m. Eastern, and Playbook notes that John Edwards was first out of the box with a congratulatory statement. Who in his press shop is up at 5:17 a.m.? Whoever they are, we hope, for their sake, they went straight back to bed.

-- Clinton, running well ahead in the polls in most states and nationally, has yet to convert that momentum to overwhelming leads in Iowa. The tight three-way race between Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards probably has nothing to do with the following fact, but it's intriguing, nonetheless: Iowa is one of just two states that has never sent a woman to the House, the Senate or the Governor's mansion. Pointing out that Iowa's population is 3% Latino, 2% African American and 1% Asian, LA Times political editor Don Frederick wants to know why everyone's so hesitant about moving the first contests to another state.

-- Shenanigans are afoot in that same tiny, ultra-white state. Rocky Mountain News' M.E. Sprenglemeyer unearths a liberal blogger who says she has sources in several campaigns who claim Obama's team urged them to get out of the Michigan primary in order to weaken Clinton among Iowa voters. By refusing to back out of Michigan, Obama's team rationalized, Clinton would irritate first caucus voters by appearing to break a pledge she signed to campaign only in four early states, leaving out Michigan and Florida. Obama, the blogger writes, feared a poor showing in Michigan and hoped to make it meaningless by leaving Clinton the only candidate on the ballot.

-- For Clinton, the Democratic standard-bearers from generations past are lining up to back her. Last week it was George McGovern. Today, The Hill reports that former Vice President Walter Mondale will endorse Clinton. But not all endorsements are political positives. Here's a nod Rudy Giuliani could live without: NARAL political director Elizabeth Shipp "acknowledged that Giuliani is the lone Republican in the field who could potentially with the [pro-choice] organization's support." That gem from Huffington Post. Adding insult to injury, CBN's David Brody noticed it, and now his mostly socially conservative readers have too.

-- On the GOP side, the mainstream media is increasingly casting the race as between two men, Giuliani and Mitt Romney. Articles yesterday by the Associated Press and the Boston Globe wondered whether the race was becoming a two-person affair, and today the Wall Street Journal spends 1000 words contrasting "the prosecutor and the salesman." Message to Fred Thompson, John McCain and others: Don't let the two of them go after each other in debates anymore. It's time to inject yourself into every debate you possibly can. Get off the bench! Coffee is for closers.

-- Finally, Romney will, at some point, have to address his Mormon faith in some form or another. A National Journal Insiders Poll out this morning shows 59% of 83 top Republicans say Romney should give the address sooner rather than later, writes the Boston Globe. Evangelical publicist Mark DeMoss is a Romney backer, and sent a letter to fellow evangelicals urging them to back his candidate. Once again, David Brody takes a look at whether evangelicals will back Romney, and concludes that leaders of the movement will rally to either Thompson or Romney, whoever can best take on Giuliani.

-- Bill Gardner Profile Of The Day: Brought to you today by the Washington Post, where Joel Achenbach takes a page A01 look at the long-time New Hampshire Secretary of State, who has the sole power to decide when his state holds its presidential primary. The nuggets we get: Achenbach gets to drive Gardner's Volvo, while the state representative who wrote the law giving Gardner his power, Jim Splaine, along for the ride, is pushing December 11th (!) for the primary. Calling him New Hampshire's equivalent to the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Achenbach says pundits "scrutinize his words with Talmudic intensity."

-- Today On The Trail: Clinton is in Atlanta before making stops in Charleston and West Columbia, South Carolina. Obama delivers a speech on the fifth anniversary of Congress' authorization for the use of force in Iraq, at Drake University in Des Moines, and later makes stops in Indianola, Newton and Marshalltown. Bill Richardson goes to Salem, Bedford, Manchester, Somersworth and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. On the GOP side, Giuliani is in Columbia, South Carolina and Spanish Fort, Alabama. John McCain visits Crawfordsville and Davenport, Iowa, before trekking to Amherst, New Hampshire tonight. Tom Tancredo is in Bettendorf, Iowa, while Mitt Romney is in Sparks, Nevada. And in this week's long-anticipated show of bipartisanship, Joe Biden and Sam Brownback hold a joint press conference in Des Moines to talk about their planned solution for Iraq.