Frank Lautenberg

Check back next week to view my Convention Sketchpads from the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.

There are increased efforts afoot to push the Senate Democrat Steering Committee, of which Barbara Mikulski is a member, to strip Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman of his committee assignments for his recent transgressions against the party that nominated him for vice president in 2000.

Yet it's unlikely to expect an action like that until the Senatorial math expands their majority, so what are vexed Dems supposed to do about it?

Simple: have other members of the caucus push Lieberman out of the hawkish-defender-of-Israel Democrat role that he has fashioned for himself.

Barbara Mikulski wades into New Jersey's Senate primary where octogenarian Frank Lautenberg has a 50 year old challenger.

Eric "Rick" KesslerRick Kessler, a lobbyist and longtime staffer to various New Jersey Democrats, is the fifth entrant into the District 18 delegate race. Kessler joined the race on Wednesday.

Kesller is currently president of Dow Lohnes Government Strategies, a lobbying firm that describes itself as focusing on energy, environmental, media, telecommunications, information technology, health care and higher education issues.

In the public sphere, he has served as chief of staff to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Dingell, as a staffer to House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chairman Frank Pallone, U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, former Rep. Bill Hughes, and briefly as New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine's Washington liason.