Good Thursday morning. Pitchers and catchers report in mere days, and Politics Nation is seriously considering running off to become a ball boy in Florida or Arizona. Back in surprisingly warm Washington, here's what people are watching today:

-- The Senate is in session today after 41 senators voted to block a substitute economic stimulus package last night, even with the help of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, long absent from the chamber to the chagrin of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. On today's agenda could be the House version of economic stimulus and a bill on electronic surveillance. On the other side of the Hill, the House meets to consider a bill on college affordability and the Budget Committee gets its first, albeit delayed, look at the President's budget. Two Senate committees took up the budget earlier in the week.

-- President Bush today hosts a breakfast for a number of unconfirmed federal appointees, a move that had Reid and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin up in arms on the Senate floor yesterday. Reid claims to have attempted a compromise over the recent break, writes The Swamp, in order to move on 84 unconfirmed nominees, though the White House rejected any deal if Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel head Steven Bradbury wasn't included. The argument is a completely Washington one until someone tries to call a Senate Democrat an obstructionist. Then, a new option emerges: Will obstructionism charges stick, as they did to Tom Daschle, or will the issue just serve to remind people that President Bush is in the White House, and that Republicans want to approve his nominees?

-- The big news yesterday: Hillary Clinton has loaned her campaign a whopping $5 million. And, Mark Halperin reveals, some top staffers are working without paychecks this month. The moves smack of a campaign running out of money, a shocking situation for someone who raised more than $100 million last year and is already up to $13 million this year.

-- Could the Democratic race be over sooner than we thought, simply due to lack of funds for Clinton? By the way, Obama's response, as Ben Smith points out: An email from campaign manager David Plouffe urging donors to combat the loan, which has raised nearly $6.7 million since polls closed February 5 and 7:30 a.m. this morning. Apparently nine figures doesn't go as far as it used to.

-- Still, some Democrats remain convinced that disaster in the form of a contested convention is at hand, and that Howard Dean, chair of the DNC, is going to have to step in and do something about it. In an interview with a New York public affairs show, Dean said the party would bring both sides together if no deal were struck. "The idea that we can afford to have a big fight at the convention and then win the race in the next eight weeks, I think, is not a good scenario." Well it's a great scenario for John McCain, isn't it? Smoke-filled rooms on the Democratic side, a la 1968, would be great for the GOP, the Journal writes.

-- On the GOP side, John McCain is getting increasingly confident while trying desperately to act like he's running scared. His weekend sojourn to a security conference in Munich canceled so he can, in his words, wrap this thing up, some advisers think they've got the nomination sewed up. By their count, McCain has 775 delegates while Mitt Romney has 284 and Mike Huckabee holds 205. Huckabee, then, cannot reach the 1,191 threshold even if he wins all the remaining 963 delegates, while Romney would have to win an overwhelming majority to get there. "It's virtually impossible for Romney or Huckabee to be the nominee just based on the arithmetic," McCain senior adviser Charlie Black told reporters, according to NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy.

-- Still, Romney's not done yet. Campaign finance director Spencer Zwick told members of the finance committee yesterday that the campaign would target Republican nominating contests in Kansas, Washington and the Potomac area, calling the candidate's planned address to the Conservative Political Action Conference today "major." Mitt's son Tagg told NYT's Michael Luo the camp had hoped to do better than they did on Tuesday, but that there are no plans to drop out, and that the senior Romney could still put more money into the race from the family fortune. Still, the campaign knew that it needed to cross the 300-delegate threshold on Tuesday, and that failure to do so would make the road extremely difficult. It looks as if that bar was not met.

-- Two days after excoriating the media for leaving him out of the contest, Huckabee is getting ink too, and after winning five states on Tuesday -- states much bigger and with more prominence than most of the places Romney won -- the Arkansan has no plans of getting out. "As long as there are still votes and delegates, there's going to be one guy answering the bell every time there's a new round," Huckabee said, per the New York Times. Considering how Romney is doing and how Huckabee has done, Huckabee's continued presence is probably the straw that will break the Romney camel's back.

-- Peace-Maker Of The Day: As we mentioned, Obama and Clinton showed up for work yesterday to cast votes on the economic stimulus package, and though it might have been awkward for a moment, it was Ted Kennedy who broke the ice, making jokes at his own expense to Clinton and one of her chief backers, California Senator Dianne Feinstein. Obama joined in, and the four shared a few laughs, the Washington Post reported. Referring to Clinton's win in Massachusetts and the Patriots' loss in the Super Bowl, Obama backer Claire McCaskill zinged the old guy: "It's not been a good month for Ted in terms of contests," she said.

-- Today On The Trail: Obama holds an event at Tulane University in New Orleans before heading to Omaha for a rally, while Clinton holds a campaign event in Arlington, Virginia. McCain, Romney and Paul all address the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.