CATCHING UP - THINGS THAT HAPPENED WHILE I WAS AWAY

Spent much of the past 48 hours or so staring up at the bedroom ceiling, high on antihistimine, decongestent and pain killers.

Some things have happened in that time, to say the least, including the Hillary thing (see previous post below).

Let's start with the who-may-NOT-be-running stuff, since there's only one of those.

The Boston Globe reports today that the Democrat's 2004 candidate, Sen . John Kerry may be having second thoughts. Fallout from his infamous "joke" is reportedly causing him to reconsider, or at least postpone a decision for a while.

Now onto the other New Yorkers (besides Clinton) with aspirations.

New York Magazine this week has a story that makes it reasonably clear the Mayor Mike Bloomberg is strongly considering an '08 bid.

The first graph of the story sums things up rather nicely:

"The Bloomberg-for-president scenario starts with the mayor's growing sense of himself as a man of destiny. Throw in the country's disgust with the two parties, add a half-a-billion bucks, and you've got yourself a race. -- New York Magazine

Then there's the former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who has hired the CFO of the Bush-Cheney campaign (according to Hotline) and has scheduled his first hard-money fundraiser for his anticipated presidential bid (according to The Daily Politics).

Meanwhile ABC News reports New York's Republican governor, George Pataki, is heading - once again - to Iowa and New Hampshire as he nears a decision on running.

While not a New Yorker, Sen. Barack Obama was in the city yesterday, The New York Times reports, and made time to talk with some big-time fund raisers as he too considers a run for the Democratic nomination.

Hotline is also reporting today that John Edwards, the Democrat's V-P candidate last time, has hired former Michigan congressman David Bonior as his chief political advisor.

And, in the oldest bit if news in this little summary of slightly moldy stories, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback announced Monday he has formed an exploratory committee for a possible run at the GOP nomination.