The Rothenberg Political Report has moved Ninth District U.S. Rep. Baron Hill into the “Democrat Favored” category in its latest House rankings, which came out this morning.

Second District U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly and Eighth District U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth have long been in the Pretty Much No Way They’re Going To Lose category for months, and there have never been any worries about First District U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky and Seventh District U.S. Rep. André Carson.

With no takeover prospects in their sights, that puts Republicans on defense in the Third and Fourth Districts, where Democrats Michael Montagano and Nels Ackerson are respectively challenging incumbents Mark Souder and Steve Buyer.

Those are heavily Republican districts, but both challengers have raised plenty of cash, and Montagano has been moved onto a watch list by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. It’s going to be one of those years, except this time, it won’t be Republicans sweeping to victory.

This may be the strangest story I’ve read all week:

U.S. Rep. Baron Hill’s comments to a Memorial Day ceremony in southern Indiana’s Dubois County have upset members of a veterans group who feel they were too political.

Hill, a Democrat, told the Dubois County Veterans Council’s Memorial Day ceremony that President Bush planned to veto a GI Bill approved by Congress. He encouraged the crowd to ask the president to let the bill become law.

“I don’t want to make this political, but the president has said that he is going to veto this bill. For the life of me I don’t understand why,” Hill said in his speech. “And I hope that you’ll take the time, in honor of our veterans, to write to the president of the United States and ask him to change his mind.”

A member of Congress walks into a Memorial Day ceremony where the crowd is largely, if not wholly, comprised of veterans. He makes a comment about how he wishes people would contact the President and ask him not to veto a very bipartisan bill that would provide incredible education benefits to our returning troops. And the veterans are mad?

Color me confused.