Hotline On Call

Welcome back to Hotline Sort. Democrats are already making moves toward Senate bids in Maine, Romney's team is forced to clarify his statement about the Blunt amendment, Obama tries to one-up Bill Simmons and Bob Kerrey has an Oscar moment. Here's today's rundown:

9) President Obama is claiming he was ahead of the curve when it comes to Knicks standout point guard Jeremy Lin. He tells Bill Simmons: "I knew about Jeremy before you did, or everybody else did, because Arne Duncan, my Secretary of Education, was captain of the Harvard team. And so way back when, Arne and I were playing and he said, I'm telling you, we've got this terrific guard named Jeremy Lin at Harvard. And then one of my best friends, his son is a freshman at Harvard, and so when he went for a recruiting trip he saw Lin in action. So I've been on the Jeremy Lin bandwagon for a while."

8) Newark Mayor Cory Booker has been long rumored to be looking at higher office most notably as a possible Democratic challenger against Gov. Chris Christie in 2013. But he tells the Wall Street Journal he's more interested in a third term as mayor.

7) Politico reports that Republican Pete Hegseth, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, will make his challenge against Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., official today. Klobuchar isn't expected to face any real challenge this cycle, but keep an eye on Hegseth: He's 31, has an intriguing biography and could emerge as a new talent on the state Republican scene.

6) American Crossroads GPS is up with another attack ad against Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents. The ad attacks Boswell for his past votes for President Obama's stimulus and health care law. Boswell is facing Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, in one of the two member-versus-member general election matchups.

5) New York state legislators had still not released redistricting maps as of Wednesday evening but the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that the majority parties proposed to carve up retiring Democratic Rep. Maurice Hinchey's district, but did not agree on where to cut a second congressional seat.

4) Rick Santorum raised $9 million in February -- a pretty impressive haul.

3) Here's a bit more color on Bob Kerrey, who announced on Wednesday that he will run for the Senate in Nebraska: The Omaha World-Herald reports that according to Kerrey, he was watching the Oscars with his wife on Sunday when she said: "You're not happy. I can see it. And I want you to be happy. . I know you feel that there's something that should be done (in Washington, D.C.) and you could be good at it."