I love the Fix

I have been reading the washingtonpost.com's The Fix for several years. I like him for many reasons but one is his analysis of congressional races. He ranks them from 10 - 1. 1 being the most likely to change hands. I could also like him b/c, in his analysis, for the past 4 years there has always been about 9 repubs about to lose their seat.

He has ranked the senate this week b/c of all the repubs retirements. All 4 retirements are in swing states that dems have been winning. Ohio, Florida, Kansas, and Missouri.

In this round, he makes an important point about these retirements. Even if we don't win them in the next election, it will cost the repubs a ton of money to keep them. That is critical in keeping the majorities we already have. And hopefully expanding on others.  He says

Not only will GOP strategists have to spend considerable time and money (Florida, Ohio and Missouri are all expensive/very expensive states in which to advertise) to hold the seats but those expenditures are dollars that can't be spent on offensive opportunities in Colorado, Nevada and Illinois among other states.

I totally agree. 

Check out his analysis of future, hopefully, dem victories in the senate. 

Great Line from TPM

I love this story by TPM. My ongoing obsession with Franken, and by extension the misery of Norm Coleman, has taken another step. Coleman and his "sue everything and see what sticks" attitude to try and steal his seat, has now been informed he can reopen his senate office so that he can "shut it down." 

Lovin it. 

Quote of the Day

This is why Obama rocks and is what was needed for our country. The following is from Mitch McConnell, the Repub senate minority leader

Again, I want to express my appreciation to the incoming administration for its responsiveness to Republican concerns. Every time we asked a question it was promptly answered. So far, Republican interactions with the incoming administration have been quite encouraging and appreciated. While I voted on the losing side, I hope the new administration will consider some of my concerns, and we hope their stewardship of these funds is successful in stabilizing the markets according to the original purpose of the TARP.

This, coming from the leader of the repubs. Wow, get strapped in. We are in for a RIDE!

Obama Knocks it out of the Park!

As I have been reading and hearing, Obama has knocked a in the park home run. He got a VERY unpopular bill passed pretty much along party lines but had defectors on both sides. As NBC reports the vote

broke down mostly along partisan lines. Six Republicans, however, voted with Obama (Alexander, Gregg, Kyl, Lugar, Snowe, Voinovich), and nine Democrats voted against him (Bayh, Cantwell, Dorgan, Feingold, Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Shaheen, Sanders, Wyden). But to show you how hot of a political potato the TARP money is, FIVE of those nine Dems are up for re-election in 2010  (Bayh, Dorgan, Feingold, Lincoln, Wyden). And out of the six GOPers who voted with Obama, just ONE is up for re-election in 2010 (Gregg).

Why is this big. Because a new president coming in was able to twist arms to get what needed to get done. This bodes very well for him and his administration. Yeee Hawwww. 

Cluster fuck of Dems Ineptitudes

When the whole Blagovich deal happened, Reid and many dems went running up to whoever would listen saying that no way in hell are they going to accept a Blagoevich appointment. The problem with that was they forgot the first rule in politics: 1. never commit to anything before you have to.

The "Wait and see" policy that has gotten more politicians not commit citing the need of more "knowledge" of the situation is a tried and true montra for all politicians. 

Now look, Blagoevich went ahead and nominated Burris and there was nothing Reid or any other senator could do about it. Their hands were tied b/c they didn't want a state wide runoff, possibly allowing a repub to take the seat. 

Sometime it might be necessary to take your political book back out and restudy the first chapter. 

Now Reid looks weak wehn it comes to these things and will have a harder time next time. 

Cook Political Report Update

Cook Political Report (CPR) does a good job of evaluating races. It has put 6 senate races into the Toss up section. Of the six 5 are currently repubs and 1 is a dem. That is Obama's old seat. The reason is b/c Burris has lost several state wide elections and unless something dramatically changes, he will probably lost that seat over the next two years (when the seat will be available for election). 

The repub states are Missouri, Florida, Ohio, Louisiana (b/c of his brothel problems), and Kentucky. Besides Louisiana, the other 4 are retiring. 

It is only going to get worse for the repubs over the next 2 years. 

$825 is the new number

The new stimulus package Obama was proposing was around $725 billion as of last week but it has ballooned up to about $825 billion as of today and some dems are thinking it is not big enough while the repubs are pooping themselves thinking it is going to sink the ship. 

Check it out.