Fed up with being excluded from the debates and otherwise marginalized, former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska announced today that he will seek the Libertarian Party nomination for president.

That’s right, we said Mike Gravel, who had been running as a Democrat – not Representative Ron Paul, who has run on the Libertarian ticket in the past, but recently submitted his name to appear on the ballot in the remaining Republican primary contests.

Skyler McKinley, a Gravel spokesman, said that Mr. Gravel would try to pursue the Libertarian nomination at the party’s convention, which will be held in Denver on May 22-26.

THE CANDIDATES:

John McCain... today's headlines with excerpts

Nancy Reagan endorses McCain

After meeting McCain privately in her home, Nancy Reagan kept her comments short.

"Ronnie and I always waited until everything was decided and then we endorsed," Reagan said, per AP.  "Well, obviously, this is the nominee of the party."

Of course, it's less the words than the picture that matters to the McCain folks.

McCain talks housing crisis in Los Angeles

John McCain said Tuesday that he understood Americans' anger about the mortgage foreclosure crisis and was open to ideas for addressing the problem, but he rejected the sort of activist approaches proposed by his Democratic rivals for the presidency.

... McCain cited the $30-billion plan by New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to aid homeowners and communities threatened by foreclosures, saying that it sounded "very expensive" and that he would "like to know how it's paid for."

Bush haters won't stop McCain

It turns out that President Bush may not be as large an albatross around John McCain's neck as many people think, after all...

Chavez says U.S. relations could worsen with McCain

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a socialist and fierce U.S. critic, warned on Tuesday that relations with Washington could worsen if Republican candidate John McCain wins this year's presidential election.

... "Sometimes one says, 'worse than Bush is impossible,' but we don't know," Chavez told foreign correspondents. "McCain also seems to be a man of war."

Hillary Clinton... today's headlines with excerpts

Insulted military blasts her serial 'sniper' lies

Hillary Rodham Clinton's lies about risking her life under sniper fire during a visit to Bosnia as first lady have infuriated the US military brass and troops.

"She has no sense of what a statement like that does to soldiers," fumed retired Maj. Gen. Walter Stewart, the former head of the Pennsylvania National Guard.

"She is insulting the command in its entirety," he said

Hillary says she erred -  'I'm human'

Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she made a mistake in claiming that she came under hostile fire in Bosnia 12 years ago, as rival Barack Obama's campaign continued to challenge her credibility.

In a recent speech and interviews, the New York senator described a harrowing scene in Tuzla, Bosnia, in which she and her daughter, Chelsea, had to run for cover as soon as they landed for a visit in But video footage of the day showed a peaceful reception in which a young girl greeted the first lady on the tarmac.

Clinton told reporters in Pennsylvania on Tuesday that she erred in describing the scene, which she now realizes after talking with aides and others.

"So I made a mistake," she said. "That happens. It proves I'm human, which you know, for some people, is a revelation."

Hillary on Rev. Wright: "he would not have been my pastor

Hillary Clinton ended her silence on Barack Obama’s pastor on Tuesday, sharply criticizing Mr. Obama for not leaving the Chicago church where the pastor made inflammatory remarks about the United States, spread conspiracy theories about the government and made sensational comments about Mrs. Clinton.

“Given all that we have heard and seen, he would not have been my pastor,” Mrs. Clinton, of New York, said on Tuesday of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., at a news conference in Greensburg, Pa. She made similar comments earlier in the day in an interview with The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “While we don’t have a choice when it comes to our relatives, we do have a choice when it comes to our pastors or our church,” she said.

Hillary reminds Obama's pledged delegates that they're welcome to switch sides

In an interview with the editorial board of the Philadelphia Daily News, Hillary Clinton said:

"... remember that pledged delegates in most states are not pledged. You know, there is no requirement that anybody vote for anybody. They're just like superdelegates... There are different ways to become a delegate, there are delegates from caucuses, there are delegates from primaries, and there are the appointed delegates, they're all equal, they all have an equal vote--those are the rules of the Democratic Party."

Hillary pledges to go the distance

“I think that what we have to wait and see is what happens in the next three months. There’s been a lot of talk about what if, what if, what if. Let’s wait until we get some facts. … Over the next months, millions of people are going to vote. And we should wait and see the outcome of those votes.”

Chelsea Clinton startled by Monica query

Chelsea Clinton had a quick retort Tuesday when asked whether her mother's credibility had been hurt during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

"Wow, you're the first person actually that's ever asked me that question in the, I don't know maybe, 70 college campuses I've now been to, and I do not think that is any of your business," Clinton said during a campaign visit for her mother, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Watch video