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By Alexander Burns (@aburnspolitico, aburns@politico.com )


POLITICO SNEAK PEEK - POURING ON THE GAS: American Solutions, the conservative 527 group founded by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, is relaunching its energy-themed "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" campaign this week. As climbing gas prices push energy higher and higher on the 2012 agenda, American Solutions plans to fire up its online organization and activate supporters in states where Senate Democrats have yet to spell out their positions on offshore drilling. The aim is to get those legislators on the record about where they stand. The effort will be led by Vince Haley, who literally wrote the book with Gingrich on offshore drilling.


MORE - A spokesman for American Solutions described the initiative like so: "You may recall the cry in September 2008, when candidate Obama partially reversed course to support offshore drilling, was 'Drill, Baby, Drill'. Two years later, with gas prices rising again, President Obama is blocking new and existing drilling at every turn, the new cry will be 'Drill, Obama, Drill.'"


THE 2012 SCORE - PALIN SPEED READ - Sarah Palin still looms over the Republican primary field, despite taking virtually no active steps toward a campaign. And according to a new wave of reports this morning, the former Alaska governor has some conservative leaders as worried as ever about her possible impact on the race. Let's go to the videotape:


- Former New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg warns in the Hill that the 2012 Republican primaries could drag on all the way to the GOP convention and produce a nominee who can't win the general election. That's Palin he's talking about, arguing that someone "who runs second or third in a great many primaries could go into the convention with a sizable block of delegates. Who would this favor? Does Sarah Palin come to mind? Although she is not viewed by most as strong enough to win, she is viewed by many as a person worth voting for to make a statement ... [P]icking a nominee who it seems would be easily defeated by President Obama might not be the best statement." http://bit.ly/ht7F04


- POLITICO's Jonathan Martin and John Harris write that a growing number of Republican intellectuals are frustrated with Palin's "politics of grievance and group identity" and "empty brand of populism." Martin and Harris: "For decades, it was a standard line of the right that liberals cynically promoted victimhood to achieve their goals, and that they practiced the politics of identity-race, sex and class-over ideas ... Matt Labash, a longtime writer for the Weekly Standard, said that because of Palin's frequent appeals to victimhood and group grievance, 'She's becoming Al Sharpton, Alaska edition' ... 'This is a problem for the movement," said Will about what Palin represents. "For conservatism, because it is a creedal movement, this is a disease to which it is susceptible.'" http://politi.co/e6nK5i


- Gabriel Sherman reports in New York magazine that Palin may be on "thin ice" with Fox News following her decision to spurn advice from Chairman Roger Ailes on how to handle the Tucson shootings in January. Sherman: "'Lie low,' [Ailes] said ... The consensus in some corners of Palin's camp was that she faced considerable risks if she spoke out. But, this being Sarah Palin, she did it anyway. Ailes was not pleased with her decision, which turned out to be a political debacle for Palin ... Ailes's displeasure matters, not only because his network is a holding pen for Republican candidates-in-waiting, but because he is paying Palin a hefty $1 million annual salary while she strings out her decision over whether to run ... Fox executives have been discussing when they need a definite answer from Palin on her presidential intentions." http://bit.ly/esZWHY


As Buddy Roemer does DC, Setti Warren acts like a candidate and Vern Buchanan advances in a different direction, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.


MONDAY STAKES - The federal budget debate. Tim Kaine's potential Senate campaign. Mitch Daniels's plans for 2012. Those are all things that haven't moved in about a month. But there are plenty of moving pieces in the political world this week, and here's Morning Score's take on who has the most to gain or lose in the days ahead:


(1) Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who's taking his show to South Carolina after a strong few weeks, and has to keep up his momentum as other top-tier 2012 candidates start competing more seriously for attention; (2) Nevada Rep. Dean Heller, who can fire the starter's pistol anytime in the race for John Ensign's open Senate seat, and has to decide whether an early start is also a smart start for his campaign; (3) Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who plans to unveil his budget on Tuesday and is expected to pick some Scott Walker-like fights over spending - the kind that can make or break a governor's term in office; (4) New York Assemblywoman Jane Corwin, the Republican candidate in New York's 26th District special election, who can extend her head start in the race every day that Democrats fail to produce a House nominee of their own; (5) Wisconsin Democrats, who have to keep gathering hundreds of signatures a day if they're going to succeed at recalling enough Republican state senators to flip control of a legislative chamber freighted with huge symbolic importance.


NYT CAPTURES T-PAW - Amid rising buzz in GOP circles that Pawlenty's path to the nomination is improving, Jeff Zeleny chronicles the former governor's uniter-not-a-divider approach to the early stages of 2012: "Pawlenty ... is trying to make equal appeals to the diverse constituencies of the Republican Party as he introduces himself as a potential candidate ... 'I want to be every person's candidate - that's my goal,' Mr. Pawlenty said. 'The notion that you can't do more than one thing at a time, I think, is a flawed premise.' At a recent Tea Party Patriots rally, he pronounced, 'The government's too damn big!' To an evangelical audience, he declared, 'The Constitution was designed to protect people of faith from government, not to protect government from people of faith.' ... Pawlenty is positioning himself as a leading alternative to [Mitt] Romney, who starts the race with a significant fund-raising advantage in his second bid for the party's nomination. But that is the most sought-after role in the Republican field, one that Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi is also hoping to fill." Read on: http://nyti.ms/h4sgWu


SPEAKING OF BARBOUR - HOURS AWAY: The Mississippi governor will visit President Obama's hometown this morning to deliver a speech on the economy. Barbour, who has recently delivered sharp attacks on White House energy policies, will address the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce shortly before noon, local time. The event announcement hits on the same theme: "Barbour remains committed to long-term economic success for Mississippi by supporting innovative manufacturing techniques and welcoming a variety of energy projects to ensure the state stands ready to meet America's energy needs." http://bit.ly/fuu8lw


TODAY IN WASHINGTON - From the White House guidance: "In the morning, the President will visit Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, Virginia and deliver a speech on reforming education in order to win the future and prepare our students to out-educate and out-compete the world in the 21st century economy ... In the evening, the President will attend a DNC event at the St. Regis Hotel. This event is closed press."


TWO WAYS OF LOOKING AT MICHELE BACHMANN - The Minnesota congresswoman, tea party firebrand and increasingly likely 2012 candidate made her first trip to New Hampshire over the weekend. Or was it Massachusetts? POLITICO's Jonathan Martin and Kendra Marr: "Making her first trek to New Hampshire as a 2012 prospect, Bachmann told a GOP crowd in Manchester: 'You're the state where the shot was heard around the world at Lexington and Concord' ... For Bachmann, who leads the House Tea Party caucus and champions a return to the Constitution, to get such basic facts wrong about the country's birth is revealing." http://politi.co/gIZF2U


AND YET - THEY REALLY LIKE HER - MinnPost's Derek Walbank reports that Bachmann's gaffes didn't deprive her of activist love in the Granite State: "For most who saw her in her 24-hour swing across the state, it was their first time meeting her or seeing her speak live in person ... This trip had its share of whoopsies, what one might call rookie mistakes, but as she closed that final speech, the applause was so rapturous that her words weren't audible from 15 feet away." http://bit.ly/e8V4n4


WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH SOUTH CAROLINA? The third early presidential state is getting conspicuously little attention so far this year - even less than the other slow-starting primary states. The AP thinks that's because the tea party has changed the usual rules of engagement in South Carolina: "Republicans weighing presidential bids have all but ignored the state that in modern history has played an outsized role in GOP nomination fights ... The tea party has upended the political landscape in this longtime Christian conservative stronghold ... Tea party activists also may be poised to take over county- and state-level GOP offices, making things even more complicated as would-be candidates determine who to woo. 'There isn't just one or two or three people they're going to have to kiss the ring,' said Luke Byars, a former state GOP executive director. 'They're going to have to appeal to a larger group of grass-roots conservatives.'" http://apne.ws/iegxnc


THE LATEST FROM MADISON - "Democratic senators return to Madison to tell crowd fight isn't over" - The Journal Sentinel: "Unbowed and unrepentant, 14 Democratic state senators returned to the Capitol on Saturday and received a tumultuous welcome from tens of thousands of pro-labor demonstrators ... And they vowed to fight the law in the courts and at the ballot box in a longer struggle to restore the collective bargaining that was eliminated for most public employees. As they made their way up the steps of the Capitol, they heard the roars of a crowd that clogged Capitol Square, and listened as chants of 'thank you, thank you' rained down." http://bit.ly/eVe6zA
SENATE PRIMARY WATCH - MITCH FOR LUGAR - Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is sticking with his former boss, Sen. Richard Lugar, in Lugar's upcoming GOP primary fight with state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. "I'm for Dick Lugar. He's the role model I've had in politics for a long time," Daniels said on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday. "If he wants another term, he ought to have it." But Daniels wouldn't commit to campaigning for Lugar, saying he's "never intervened in primaries," and also called Mourdock "a good friend of mine" and "a good ally." http://on.msnbc.com/hFLTFd


WARREN FOR SENATE - NOT ELIZABETH: Newton Mayor Setti Warren appears to be actively laying the groundwork for a campaign against Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, according to e-mails obtained by the Dorchester Reporter. From the paper: "A top adviser to Newton Mayor Setti Warren is looking for young people with campaigns under their belt to potentially staff his U.S. Senate bid. In an email seeking help earlier this month, obtained by the Reporter, political consultant Deborah Shah wrote that she may be staffing up at the end of April for the potential Senate campaign ... Shah told the Reporter Saturday that a decision will be made in the next month or two ... A former aide to U.S. Sen. John Kerry and an Iraq War veteran, Warren was elected Newton mayor in November 2009." http://bit.ly/eDTNNk


THE (BILL) NELSON SEAT - BUCHANAN (PROBABLY) OUT - Rep. Vern Buchanan may the lone Florida Republican who isn'tseeking out attention as a potential Senate candidate. The congressman, who has flirted with statewide runs in the past, doesn't sound like a guy gearing up for a campaign in 2012, the Herald Tribune reports: "[T]he Longboat Key Republican admits his new position on a key congressional committee is making him think less about jumping to the U.S. Senate. 'If this hadn't happened, I would have been looking to do something else,' said Buchanan, of his new position on the House Ways and Means Committee ... Besides his new committee role, Buchanan was also named fundraising chairman for the National Republican Congressional Committee." http://bit.ly/et2k4g


SHUT IT DOWN: Former New York Rep. Chris Lee has notified all his campaign contributors that their donations will be repaid in full following his resignation in a sex scandal. The Buffalo News: "[R]eached via e-mail late this week and making his first public comments since the day of his resignation, Lee explained his decision to return the contributions. 'Any individual who donated to my campaign in 2010 or 2011 will be given back their donation in full,' Lee said. 'Just over 1,100 letters are in the process of going out' ... Lee had $743,004 left in his campaign fund at the end of 2010, along with $100,000 in debts." http://bit.ly/eEZaet


CODA - TWEET OF THE DAY: "In DC. The cabbie, here 21 years from Pakistan, volunteered that DC was like Islamabad: corrupt. I didn't mention what I was doing. Corrupt." - Former Louisiana Gov. @buddyroemer http://bit.ly/gf7aGU

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