Good Tuesday morning. We have no congressional primaries to watch today, although Hawaii's filing deadline is today and Vermont's was yesterday. Before we go check if any fun characters have filed to run for Congress in Vermont -- and as we celebrate former Miami Dolphin (and TV dancer) Jason Taylor's first practice as a Redskin -- here is what Washington is watching today:

--The Senate is scheduled to vote this morning on the motion to invoke cloture on S. 3268, the energy speculation bill. The House is scheduled to convene this afternoon.

--While Barack Obama seems "to have navigated one of the riskiest parts of a weeklong international trip without a noticeable hitch and to have gained a new opportunity to blunt attacks on his national security credentials by his Republican rival in the presidential race," as the New York Times's Oppel and Zeleny write, John McCain's campaign has been trying hard to blunt any positive press Obama has received lately.

--McCain, himself, while visiting the Bush family compound yesterday in Kennebunkport, Maine, said Obama was "completely wrong" on Iraq because was not supportive of the troop surge and that he was stubbornly opposing offshore drilling.

--Stubborn. The word appears to be the McCain campaign's new talking point, especially for describing Obama's plan to pull troops out of Iraq within 16 months of taking the White House. McCain senior foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann used it yesterday in a conference call with reporters, in which he also downplayed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's apparent support for Obama's troop withdrawal plan as simply an "unartful statement." Then this morning on the "Today" show, per The Page, Rudy Giuliani said Obama's refusal to support the surge is due to his political "stubbornness."

--Unfortunately for the McCain campaign, as the Washington Post and other media outlets have reported, Maliki's statement was not totally misinterpreted or necessarily 'unartful.' Maliki's office posted a transcript of his interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel, which when translated into English, the Post reports, he says: "Obama's remarks that, if he takes office, he would withdraw the forces within 16 months, we think that this period might increase or decrease a little, but that it might be suitable to end the presence of the forces in Iraq."

--Interestingly enough, Ali al-Dabbagh, the Maliki aide whose statement saying Maliki had been misinterpreted was distributed by the U.S. military, appeared to back Maliki's statement. He told reporters yesterday: "We can't give any schedules or dates, but the Iraqi government sees the suitable date for withdrawal of the U.S. forces is by the end of 2010." The end of 2010 would be about a half-year longer than Obama's plan.

--With a little over a month until the conventions, both campaigns are working on what appear to be their candidate's weaknesses. As Obama travels through the Middle East in an effort to boost his foreign policy credentials, McCain has released a new ad focusing on one of the most pressing of domestic issues -- gas prices. As the narrator in McCain's new ad "Pump" asks, "Who can we thank for rising prices at the pump?" a picture of Obama appears on the screen as an offscreen crowd chants, "O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!"

--Iced Mocha, No Whip...Of The Day: Republican Senators have been freed to vote as they please in order to get re-elected, Politico's Martin Kady II reports. Kady writes that on four votes over the past month, GOP leaders have not whipped members, with the idea being they would rather lose a few votes than a few more seats. Such is the mood for Republicans on Capitol Hill, while Democrats are day dreaming of Obama in the White House and 60 of themselves in the Senate.

--Today On The Trail: Obama visits Amman, Jordan along with Senators Jack Reed and Chuck Hagel, where they are scheduled to discuss their trips to Iraq and Afghanistan at a 10 a.m. eastern press conference on the Hill at the Citadel. While Obama's trip so far has been official Senate business, he now begins the portion of the trip planned by his campaign. John McCain will go back today to where it all started -- New Hampshire, possibly his most friendly territory outside of Arizona. He'll hold a town hall meeting in Rochester. Later in the day he heads to Baltimore for a private fundraiser.

-- Kyle Trygstad