Thursday's Starting Lineup

Good Thursday morning. We've seen Jim Joyce call a ballgame before, so we know he's usually a strong umpire. But last night is something that will dog him the rest of his career.

Speaking of baseball, here's today's Starting Lineup, previewing the people who will make a difference in politics today:

JIM MESSINA: Last year, the deputy WH CoS discussed 2 USAID posts and a US Trade and Development Agency job with ex-CO House Speaker Andrew Romanoff (D), if only Romanoff would drop his challenge to Sen. Michael Bennet (D), Romanoff said in a statement last night. It is the second time in as many weeks that the WH will have to answer questions about using the offer of admin posts to clear a Senate primary field.

In a statement released early this morning, WH Press Sec. Robert Gibbs said the WH had done nothing wrong. "Andrew Romanoff applied for a position at USAID during the Presidential transition. He filed this application through the Transition on-line process. After the new administration took office, he followed up by phone with White House personnel," Gibbs said. "Jim Messina called and emailed Romanoff last September to see if he was still interested in a position at USAID, or if, as had been reported, he was running for the US Senate. ... Messina wanted to determine if it was possible to avoid a costly battle between two supporters."

The GOP has hammered the WH over behind-the-scenes negotiations with Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) and Romanoff. Neither negotiation succeeded in avoiding a nasty primary fight. Rather, they both served to undermine confidence in Gibbs, who has had to repeately profess his ignorance of what's going on in the WH, and in an admin that's stumbled much more often of late. Messina is a key part of the WH political shop, but he hasn't done his boss any favors by trying to get Romanoff out of the race.

PRES. OBAMA: With 5 months to go before Election Day, Obama has fully embraced the midterm spirit. In remarks at Carnegie Mellon Univ. yesterday, Obama offered the clearest campaign-style distinction between his party and the minority, casting one as an active participant in trying to fix the nation's problems and the other as disengaged and unwilling to participate.

It's all part of Dems' strategy to turn the election into a choice between the 2 parties, rather than simply into a referendum on Dems. And, in an increasingly political atmosphere, the WH is only joining the fray -- GOPers and Dems on Capitol Hill have been playing politics for months in hopes of gaining an edge that would give them the majority once again.

But making an election a choice is easier said than done, especially with a sour electorate and a pessimistic nation. The DNC, through its Organizing For America wing, will send out canvassers to talk with first-time Obama voters this weekend, and the DNC still promises $50M for a variety of campaign-related activities. That cash, and those volunteers, will be more effective than Obama can be in Pittsburgh.

EX-IL GOV. ROD BLAGOJEVICH: It's not the Romanoff situation, but the WH just can't catch a break, and now that Blagojevich's trial is scheduled to start in Chicago, expect new headlines, and new criticism from the GOP, over Obama's connection to the city's notoriously tough, and sometimes notoriously corrupt, political machines.

Jury selection starts today in the corruption trial of the impeached former Gov, slated to begin shortly. Blagojevich's lawyers have subpoenaed WH CoS Rahm Emanuel and top WH advisor Valerie Jarrett, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, and at one point Blagojevich's team even threatened to get Pres. Obama on the stand.

To be sure, there's no Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) breathing down the WH's neck over Blagojevich, like Issa is over the Sestak and Romanoff job offers. But it's another headache the WH doesn't need, and another opportunity to ask, both of Obama and Emanuel: What did he know, and when did he know it?