Readying to resign his Congressional post amid fresh sexual misconduct allegations and broader questions about his psychological fitness, Rep. David Wu’s plummeting political fortune has become a liability for those Democratic lawmakers whose campaign coffers were filled years past by donations from the Oregonian and his leadership fund.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee highlighted on Tuesday a series of Wu’s yet-returned campaign donations to Democratic Senate hopefuls Chris Murphy and Tammy Baldwin.

NRSC aides circulated comments to regional press explicitly wondering if the pair’s silence was an indication they “want[ed] to keep the campaign contributions … received from Wu.”

The seven-term Oregonian donated $1,000 to Rep. Chris Murphy’s 2006 House bid and $3,000 to Rep. Tammy Baldwin’s House campaigns in 2000 and 2002. Both lawmakers have yet to return the contributions or publicly comment on the allegations facing Wu.

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With a looming fight over raising the debt limit and how to get a handle on our $14 trillion debt, there is one issue that keeps popping up in Congress as a blatant example of government redundancy and pure waste: catfish inspection. Yes, you read correctly. There is a brewing fight over the regulation of catfish.

Special interest groups slipped language into a bill that would move the regulation of catfish from the Food and Drug Administration to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. This new regulation shift will place unnecessary regulations on businesses, drive up prices for consumers and spend at least $30 million in redundant costs … In the first year alone.

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A campus-wide recruitment solicitation by University of Iowa College Republicans was met Monday with a vulgarity from the unlikeliest of people: A faculty member.

“F— you, Republicans,” professor Ellen Lewin fired off to the GOP group, who a day earlier asked conservative students to get involved in club activities. The message came from Lewin’s university account.

“Conservatives in Iowa City, it is now time to come out of the closet!” the group’s pitch read.

But Lewin, a women and sexuality studies professor, objected to the group appropriating language employed by gay rights campaigners and said in a later email her passions were inflamed amid “fresh outrages committed by Republicans in government.”

When the group found Lewin’s initial explanation made insufficient amends, it leaked the exchange to a local political news website and demanded a full apology from her superiors.

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While the debate rages among conservatives on the merits of the budget deal lawmakers struck with President Barack Obama, add an additional point of contention: Czars, of which the appropriations measure reached last week eliminated four. At least, that’s what House GOP’ers thought.

The spending bill as written prohibited the White House from devoting funds to those czars directing the administration’s policy agenda for health care, climate change, the auto industry and urban affairs.

But the president broke the terms of the eleventh-hour agreement, issuing a signing statement Friday indicating he would employ czars–of which he’s tapped a record 39–as he sees appropriate.

Congressional Republicans were incensed.

House Speaker John Beohner’s office said the move was typical for Obama to object to the elimination of its czars after he already once bypassed Congressional approval for their appointment. And Rep. Steve Scalise, the chief sponsor to legislation to defund the small army of administration-appointed advisers, accused the president of violating the Constitution and ruling like a “dictator.”

Then a candidate, Obama often objected to signing statements of former President George W. Bush, using the Republican’s presidential prerogatives as foils of good government.

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Did national Democrats’ recruitment of former Iraq commander Ricardo Sanchez transform the Texas Senate race from a blow-out into a marquee 2012 contest? Not a chance, say Republicans eyeing the race.

For deep red Texas GOP’ers, the most significant task is clearing the primary field, which includes former solicitor general Ted Cruz, ex-railroad commish Michael Williams, former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and car dealer-turned-secretary of state Roger Williams. Sanchez, whose military career took an unceremonious dive after those below his command were charged with prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib detention center, registers a distant second for these Senate hopefuls.

Despite news that Democrats have finally fielded a challenger for the open seat, Cruz and Leppert are riding high. Aides to both campaigns circulated earlier this week fundraising figures indicating both had posted north of $1 million a piece in the first quarter. Williams reported a slimmer half-million haul for the same period.

Even beyond fundraising, a Sanchez candidacy isn’t without its serious hurdles.

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As Nevada Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley announced her Senate bid Thursday and quickly won the backing of her party’s campaign arm, other prominent Senatorial prospects in New Mexico and Connecticut linger without the support of their party.

The less fortunate pair, Reps. Chris Murphy and Martin Heinrich, were not extended the Beltway blessing because the former already faces a primary opponent and the latter is likely to counter his own.

But Berkley–who took great pains to clear a primary field once rumored to include State Treasurer Kate Marshall, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Secretary of State Ross Miller–will square off against her own primary challenger.

The efforts of Berkley and her allies to eliminate possible challengers ahead of a primary has lent to grumbling that Washington pols are once more preempting primary voters, selling short local businessman Byron Georgiou, who posted a $1.1 million fundraising haul in the first quarter after committing to a run in early March.

So why the uneven endorsement scheme?

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The Republican National Committee announced Tuesday it had raised north of $7 million last month, though federal election reports indicate it remains buried in lingering debt from the 2010 election season.

While fundraising figures have not yet been reported to campaign finance regulators, RNC staff said today its renewed efforts to court disaffected major donors was paying dividends — and rapidly reducing the $24 million in debt the party incurred under former Chairman Michael Steele.

According to early figures provided to Fox News, the RNC recorded an impressive $7.014 million haul in March, and cash on hand accounting registers at $3.2 million. The committee remains $19.76 million in debt; a reduction of $4 million in three month’s time.

RNC chief Reince Preibus made reestablishing relationships with major donors a marque effort of his early administration. Early evidence suggests the move is working.

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There’s party strife in them thar hills.

Missouri’s Democratic Attorney General, Chris Koster, entered Monday a brief in the Florida case looking to upend President Barack Obama’s health care reforms. And he hopes Florida succeeds, kind of.

The bill’s mandate that individuals purchase health coverage “would imbue Congress with police powers rejected by the Founding Fathers,” Koster’s brief reads, while noting later he still favors “the expansion of health coverage.”

A subdued entry into an otherwise contentious fray, Koster’s brief–which delicately allowed the re-election poised Blue Dog to voice election-cycle dissent while still eschewing substantive legal action against his party’s health care reforms–puts him at odds with the Show Me State’s Democratic congressional delegation, most notably Senator Claire McCaskill.

Then making the case for the law’s adoption, McCaskill said in a 2009 interview that those who oppose the individual mandate are “frankly kind of dumb.”

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President Barack Obama on Tuesday tapped Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to succeed former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine atop the Democratic National Committee after its members gather later this month.

The Florida firebrand was an obvious choice for Obama, who faces a contentious re-election bid next year and counts Wasserman Schultz among his fiercest defenders. But the president’s new attack dog’s talking points don’t always jibe with reality.

One year to the day before named as Obama’s choice to steer the national party, Wasserman Schultz insisted at a town hall in her south Florida Congressional district the president’s health care reforms included no mandate for individuals to purchase health insurance.

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