The Night Beat: And Then There Were 4 in Florida

Read it here first: Then there were FOUR. Billionaire Jeff Greene will enter FL SEN race tomorrow as a Democrat ... expect a paper statement. Life story: he came from nothing. Self-made man. Created jobs. Made a difference. (He also shorted sub-primes ...) It's been previously reported that Net pioneer/ex-Dean manager Joe Trippi and Bloomberg and pollster Doug Schoen have been informally advising Greene.

AP breaks news that Obama interviewed Judge Sidney Thomas of Montana for SCOTUS this afternoon. The White House probably leaked the news to signal that Obama has begun the interview process. There's likely another interview Friday.

Admin hopes for different conversation about Middle East (Israel AND Iran -- part of a nuclear free zone) at Nuke Prolif. Treaty conf. in NY next week, as well as agreement on stronger penalties for NPT violators. Ahmadinejad's presence scrambles the calculus. 

Obama raises $1M+ tonight at private funder @ DC home of Frank White. CBS's @markknoller's tally: $42.55M raised by POTUS y.t.d. ... Next Tues (5/4) Obama address gathering of top CEOs in DC. ...  A useful primer on redistricting in Texas, which will add three or four Congressional seats. Dems seem ready; Republicans, less so.

From tomorrow's National Journal insiders poll: even 56% of Republicans believe that the deficit commission should target the Pentagon for savings. ... Next week, senior California legislators visit DC with hat in hand -- not a bailout, they say, but money the federal gov't already owes to them. $4 billion is at stake.

Little noticed: WH tells court that Secret Service logs (not WH visitor logs) can't be disclosed b/c of national security "harm." Howzit? Think of it this way: what if Obama was conducting secret diplomacy? What if a CIA officer under cover briefs POTUS? Judicial Watch argues that logs are FOIAble. WH is taking possession of those logs to "protect" them. USSS declines comment, as does DOJ. ... White House Medical Office officially considers the malady that struck President and Mrs. Bush in Germany to have been a virus, not poison. ... Obama visits the USSS's James J. Rowley Training Center in Beltsville, MD tomorrow.