Sweet column: Sharon Stone headlines funder for Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Sales call: Obama to Florida to tout his 2nd book out in October. Rep. Rahm Emanuel first book out later this year.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) skips a funder for Senate Dems tonight in Chicago to head to Florida to whip up advance sales for his second book, “The Audacity of Hope” at a sales meeting staged by his publisher.

And, as he does when he travels, he’ll raise money for his HOPEFUND.

Sharon Stone lands in Chicago next month for Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)

Sweet column below

But first, these BLOG SPECIAL items:

*Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in Chicago area tonight to keynote a funder for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) warchest.

* Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) coming out with a book co-written with Bruce Reed who served as a domestic policy advisor in the Clinton White House, where Emanuel also worked.

Today’s column…

Sharon Stone, the sexy star of the sizzler “Basic Instinct 2,” which opens today, hits Chicago next month to headline a fund-raiser for Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).

Stone will be featured at Schakowsky’s “Ultimate Women’s Power Lunch” at the Chicago Hilton. Some 1,500 attended last year, when Jane Fonda was the marquee draw.

Stone and Schakowsky became friends during the 2004 presidential campaign, when they were part of a “Women on the Move” drive for Sen. John Kerry that paired female pols and stars.

“We got a chance to really bond and become friends,” Schakowsky said.

The two kept up after the election — Stone wrote Schakowsky’s daughter-in-law, Fiona, before she lost a battle with cancer — so when Schakowsky called to ask her to her event, Stone accepted.

Schakowsky uses the lunch to help other candidates network and writes checks from her war chest to help Democrats.

Senate Dems in town tonight

Top Senate Democrats land in Chicago tonight for a fund-raiser to benefit the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

That’s Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.); DSCC chief Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who’s Durbin’s Washington roommate; Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who faces a big re-election bid this November, and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who is a regional fund-raising chairman for the DSCC, will skip the event to appear at a sales conference for his publisher, Random House, in Fort Myers, Fla. Obama’s second book is due out next fall.

Obama on Thursday night flew to Connecticut for funders. While in Florida, he’ll also raise money for his HOPEFUND.