Jonathan Karl: Reporter's notebook

Former President Bill Clinton

By CNN Congressional Correspondent Jonathan Karl

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Bill's back! CNN has learned that Bill Clinton is stepping back onto the political stage.

His latest effort: A lunch in Washington on Thursday, and a dinner Thursday night at the Clintons' Washington, D.C., home to make a major fundraising pitch to about 25 of the party's top soft money donors.

Two strategists familiar with the dinner say Clinton and Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAulliffe are looking for "million dollar-plus" donations to pay for the new Democratic party headquarters McAulliffe hopes to build on Capitol Hill.

"Bill's back in business, big time," said one strategist, who adds that the former President has made it clear to party insiders that he wants to be very active politically in both the 2001 and 2002 elections. He's also made it clear he will be much more involved in partisan politics than previous ex-presidents.

And there's more: Mr. Clinton shocked staffers at the party's current headquarters by making an unannounced visit Thursday.

In a pep-talk to about 70 staffers, "he said, 'We're in a battle for the future of the country,'" said one staffer, who described the party's rank-and-file as "fired up" at the sight of the former president. Clinton plans to open officially open his own office in Harlem, New York, on Monday.

The planned new DNC building, which will be on Capitol Hill -- and is expected to cost approximately $20 million -- will be financed by the unregulated "soft money" donations that would be banned if the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill becomes law. That bill passed the Senate, but stalled out in the House earlier this month.

And Al's back, sort of!

Former Vice President Gore is slowly plotting his own political re-emergence. Gore, who has been in self-imposed political exile since he conceded the election to George W. Bush last December, has called in some of his top advisors from the presidential campaign to help put together his first public event since President Bush's inauguration.

Former campaign manager Donna Brazille and consultants Carter Eskew and Michael Whouley will re-unite with Gore in Nashville for his August 11 forum on political activism. Gore is holding the gathering with former GOP presidential candidate Lamar Alexander at Vanderbilt University.

Former Vice President and presidential candidate Al Gore

Some Democrats saw Gore's absence at the funeral of Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham as a sign he is not planning a political comeback anytime soon. He decided not to break away from a month-long European vacation, making him one of the very few Washington powerbrokers to skip the event.

Others have been surprised that he has been silent as the Bush administration has rolled back several Clinton-Gore Administration environmental regulations.

But Gore's former aides say he will re-emerge on the political circuit after the Vanderbilt event, participating in party fund-raisers and campaigning for congressional candidates. But even some Gore loyalists acknowledge he will face an uphill battle if he decides to run for president again. Said one former Gore advisor: "He is going to have to prove he deserves another chance."