This week in politics for November 3

• Not important, but interesting anyway: N.Y. Post Endorses Sen. Clinton
• Some will take this as good news, but it would require dropping the cowboy posturing: Pyongyang to Return to Nuclear Talks
• Despite a joint release over the weekend, the disconnect with the new Iraq government continues: Iraq Checkpoint Showdown
• Cranking up the rhetoric, Bush Says 'America Loses' Under Democrats. Next it’ll be ‘Dems must die.’
• The Republican Sound Machine was fired up this week about pretty innocuous comments by Kerry, "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." He meant to insult Bush’s lack of smarts, but they’re spinning it as an attack on the troops: White House Spokesman Slams Kerry Remark. Dems in tight races would be smart to agree with the White House angle and diffuse the fight. On Wednesday, Kerry finally got around to apologizing, but don’t look for it to change the discussion.
• Senator Allen’s troubles continue as the liberal blogger at Calling All Wingnuts was physically subdued (re: chokehold, wrestled to the ground) by Allen staffers after asking the Senator, “Why did you spit at your first wife, George?" : Heckler subdued at Sen. Allen event
• No surprise: Scientists say White House muzzled them
• Just to ensure that you’ve lost your faith in the process, HBO presents Hacking Democracy.
• I don’t know that this will have any effect on elections, but at least here it has quieted the “botched joke” talk: Evangelist steps down amid gay sex claim
• Back to legitimate scandals, Republican Don Sherwood running for reelection is being not only accused of choking his mistress, but then paying her off as well: Rep. paying ex-mistress about $500K
• As if we really expected them to come back with anything before the election, the ethics panel investigating the handling of the Foley mess will not report until after the election: No ethics panel report before election
• And watch for everyone to try to make political hay out of the expected verdict this weekend in the Saddam Hussein trial: Iraq on alert ahead of Saddam verdict