DSCC

Introducing the Missouri Suits Baseball Card Series!!!

Arjun Jaikumar

Missouri Republican Sarah Steelman on Roy Blunt:

“Roy Blunt is another white guy in a suit, and I think the public wants change”.

With that in mind, we give you this cool new baseball card featuring the all-star players in the Missouri Republican establishment…or as we like to call them, the starting lineup of “The Missouri Suits”. We start by highlighting the “illustrious” career of the Suits’ brightest current star, Congressman and would-be Senator Roy Blunt!

Roy Blunt, of course, is seeking the Senate spot of the Suits’ elder statesman, Sen. Kit Bond. He enjoys the endorsements not only of Bond, but of former Suits ace John Ashcroft and auxiliary man Jim Talent, both of whom served in the Senate prior to being run out of town by a disgruntled fanbase/electorate.

Roll on over to the Suits’ webpage, and get your own Roy Blunt baseball card today! Get them while they’re hot!

Minnesota Supreme Court Rules Al Franken Won The Election

Arjun Jaikumar

The Minnesota Supreme Court has unanimously declared Al Franken, nominee of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, as the winner of the November 2008 U.S. Senate election.

After over $1 million spent in legal fees by Norm Coleman and the Republican Party, and after fully eight months of stalling, the jig finally appears to be up.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the DSCC, issued the following statement:

“Congratulations to Senator-elect Franken for today’s courtroom victory affirming his electoral victory. As we’ve seen over the past 238 days, no matter how many times Norm Coleman goes to court, the result of the election never changes: Al Franken earned more votes than Norm Coleman. Al Franken was elected to the Senate and he ought to be able to get to work for the people of Minnesota. We’ve always said that Norm Coleman deserved his day in court, and he got eight months. Now we expect Governor Pawlenty to do the right thing, follow the law, and sign the election certificate. From health care to the Supreme Court to getting our economy moving again, the challenges facing us are complex and we need Al Franken in the Senate. In this historic and urgent moment in our history, Minnesotans have gone long enough without full representation. Al Franken will be an critical voice on the issues before us and it’s time to let him get to work.”

Finally, it appears that Al Franken will be permitted to take the Senate seat he earned on November 4, assuming that former Senator Coleman finally does the right thing and faces the music.

Congratulations to Senator-elect Al Franken, and let us be thankful that Minnesota will finally enjoy full representation in Washington.

UPDATE: Former Senator Coleman has now conceded graciously. Congratulations again to Senator-elect Franken!

Danger: Chuck Norris On The Horizon

Arjun Jaikumar

DC pundit Chris Cillizza recently handicapped the Hierarchy of Political Endorsements, and we thought it would be an interesting time to bring them out in light of the endorsements Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is losing to his primary opponent, Marco Rubio. Following is Mr. Cillizza's ranking of the (desired) endorsements for political candidates:

A quick primer on the endorsement hierarchy -- from most to least important:

The Symbolic Endorsement: Ted Kennedy backing Barack Obama during the 2008 primaries.

The State-Specific Statewide Endorsement: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist throwing his support to John McCain just before the Sunshine State presidential primary.

The Celebrity Endorsement: Chuck Norris for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee

The Newspaper Endorsement: Des Moines Register for John Edwards in 2004.

The State-Specific Non-Statewide Endorsement: Rep. Zack Space supporting Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher's Senate bid in Ohio.

The Obligatory Endorsement: Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran endorsing McCain's presidential bid in 2008.

Unfortunately for Crist - whose own endorsement apparently carried Heavy Import during the 2008 campaign - Rubioooooooooooo! is sporting some heavy hitters of his own.

The Symbolic Endorsement: Former Arkansas Governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee
The Symbolic Endorsement Part II: U.S. Senator and archconservative icon Jim DeMint
The State-Specific Non-Statewide Endorsement: U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller (FL-01)

No celebrity endorsements, yet, but now that Rubio has Huckabee, can Chuck Norris be far behind? Governor Crist ought to be terrified.

Senator Burr's Polling Problems

Arjun Jaikumar

This number, of course, denotes the raw reelect numbers for Republican Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, according to a recent Public Policy Polling survey. It is indicative of the Senator's, er, *middling* popularity back home, and backed by numbers which showed the Senator losing his reelection bid to someone named Generic Democrat, 41% to 38%.

The 2010 outlook continues to look bleak for first term Republican Sen. Richard Burr. Only 29 percent of North Carolina voters believe he should get another term, 49 percent prefer someone else while 22 percent are undecided, according to a Public Policy Polling survey conducted June 12-14.

Republicans say Burr should get another term by a tepid 49 percent to 26 percent with 26 percent undecided. Independents say he should not by 52 percent to 34 percent while Democrats, unsurprisingly, want to see him gone by 66 percent to 11 percent.

(...) And when asked if they would support Burr against an unnamed Democrat, 41 percent chose the Democrat to 38 percent for Burr and 21 percent undecided. The margin of error is 3.5 percent.

Needless to say, the Burr campaign didn't much cotton to numbers showing them losing to our friend Generic. So they started touting a (push) poll of their own, showing Burr leading potential Democratic opponent Elaine Marshall (but only after asking leading questions favorable to Burr).

Public Policy Polling countered...well, we'll let them tell the story.

As I wrote about yesterday, Roll Call had a story about what it identified as a Richard Burr internal poll that showed him leading Elaine Marshall. Burr's spokesman, Paul Shumaker, was quoted about the poll.

I pointed out that this was quite ironic given that two weeks ago Burr had told the News&Observer that our testing him against hypothetical opponents was 'ridiculous.'

Within an hour a commenter showed up on our blog saying that it was not actually an internal poll, but had come from the Carolina Strategy Group. The CSG is a new Republican automated polling firm in North Carolina (I'm pretty sure created to counter us) that is run by...the very same Paul Shumaker who is Burr's main political consultant.

Sooooo...Burr said it was "ridiculous" to poll him against hypothetical opponents. Subsequently, PPP polls him against Generic Dem, and...he loses.

So he counters by...letting his staff members (who apparently double as partisan pollsters) run a (push) poll showing him leading...a hypothetical opponent.

But that poll was NOT an internal, of course. The Burr campaign wouldn't bother commissioning such a "ridiculous" poll.

Of course.

"Hey, Guys? We're Doing It Wrong".

Arjun Jaikumar

Interesting…Senator John Thune’s campaign committee launched a website several weeks ago called Supreme Court Watch Online.

Purporting to be a conservative "news" site, it is actually a blog designed to batter Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, and it is owned and operated by…wait for it…”Friends of John Thune”.

In other words, the campaign arm of Thune’s operation is using the Sotomayor nomination to try and gin up Righteous Anger among their conservative base and enhance Sen. Thune's reelection bid.

Fair enough: this has happened before, and will happen again. The only real noteworthy aspect to this is how beautifully it failed.

Evidently, though the GOP continues to flail at the wind over Sotomayor, they’re not getting any traction. Because today Thune came out and said:

“She doesn’t have the punch out there in terms of fundraising and recruiting, I think — at least so far,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who most likely will be elected as the No. 4 Republican in Senate leadership this week.

Shorter Thune: "we would like to raise money off of the Democratic Supreme Court nominee...and we tried! We tried hard! I personally did my best! But nobody's buying what we're selling".

Oh, well, back to the old drawing board...

Roy Blunt's Health Care Plan: Fail We Can Believe In

Arjun Jaikumar

So it's a little late - about three weeks or so - but the House Republican health care task force (chaired by U.S. Senate candidate Roy Blunt of Missouri) has finally come up with their healthcare proposal.

And it is deep. Four whole pages deep! And it's only partially bullet points!

There are, of course, some holes in their grand plan:

House Republicans presented a four-page outline of their health care reform plan Wednesday but said they didn’t know yet how much it would cost, how they would pay for it and how many of the nearly 50 million Americans without insurance would be covered by it.

No cost estimates? No funding proposals? No idea how it helps cover the uninsured?

No problem!

This "plan" has all the intricate lack of detail of the GOP's budget proposal, which comes as a great surprise to many Washington insiders who didn't believe that the budget proposal - or the counter-stimulus package - could be outdone.

Congressman Blunt must be very proud of himself (and his impressive lack of productivity) as he goes off tonight to shake down the oil industry for campaign donations.

"If He Is Seriously Pondering The Race, He Ought To Stop Doing So Immediately"

Arjun Jaikumar

Famed political pundit Stuart Rothenberg recently met with Peter Schiff, one of a field of Republicans who would be the next United States Senator from Connecticut, to discuss Schiff's prospective candidacy for the world's greatest deliberative body.

To say that Rothenberg came away from his interview duly unimpressed would be the understatement of the millennium. Rothenberg pulled no punches:

If he is seriously pondering the race, he ought to stop doing so immediately.

Well, that is a fine opening salvo. Let's hear how Rothenberg really feels!

Schiff is the first candidate I’ve ever interviewed who proudly says he can’t recall the last time he voted. “I’ve never seen a real reason to vote,” he says without hesitation, adding that he registered to vote only recently in Connecticut. Apparently, he’s never heard of the concept of civic duty or considered the meaning of 200 years of American history.

This is the next great hope of the Republican Party in the Northeast? "I've never seen a real reason to vote?" That's the guy with the civic pride and commitment to public service and the greater good on whom Republicans hope to rebuild their party in New England?

Seems like it. Although Schiff can hardly be called a committed Republican:

Finally, Schiff is the only major party hopeful I’ve ever interviewed who said there is no difference — absolutely no difference — between Republicans and Democrats, between President Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

That ought to go over beautifully in a Republican primary.

For a man who supposedly makes decisions on the basis of data and analysis, Schiff seemed to lack any empirical evidence that he could win a Senate race, let alone a primary. Maybe that’s because he’d really rather appear on the Daily Show or spout off in national publications than do what is necessary to win a Senate seat.

Schiff has been roundly praised for his supposedly insightful commentary on the economy, but every time he opens his mouth, he gives yet another indicator that he is woefully ill prepared to be a U.S. Senator.

Mark Kirk: Talks Big, Helps Little

Arjun Jaikumar

U.S. Rep. (and potential Senate candidate) Mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois, finds himself in very hot water over his recent statements on the U.S. budget, in which Illinois' favorite cowboy told the Chinese that the Obama Administration's budget numbers should not be trusted::

Needless to say, this did not go over well with those folks who disapprove of Congressmen traveling overseas and essentially calling the President of the United States a liar. That, apparently, is a sentiment which transcends party lines. Via the excellent Josh Kalven at ProgressIllinois, we learn:

It's worth noting that it's not only the liberal blogoshere that has questioned Kirk's actions. Conservative blogger Sister Touldjah remarked: "He should have saved his comments for stateside rather than blabbing to Chinese officials." And the Say Anything blog wrote: "I’m sorry, but politics stops at the border. Rep. Kirk can say whatever he wants about Obama’s budgeting here at home, but all but calling the President a liar to a foreign nation is not appropriate for a member of Congress."

So what did Kirk's trashing of the President and his administration actually do for U.S. foreign policy? Did it indeed help to advance our interests abroad?

Nah. As usual, Mark Kirk is just looking for opportunities to promote Mark Kirk.

Are Kirk's actions going to affect relations between China and the U.S. in any meaningful way? Probably not. After all, the Chinese government doesn't need Kirk's input to understand the fiscal state of the U.S. Treasury. They're obviously paying close attention. What this incident did prove is that when Kirk heads to the international stage, he takes his ego and political ambitions along with him, then brags about his bravado when he returns home. That's not a good sign.

There you have it - a Congressman who uses his position in international affairs for self-promotion and political grandstanding at the expense of his country's standing. Not the qualities you'd hope to see from a potential candidate for the United States Senate.

"Ouch, Folks, This Is Not Too Good"

Arjun Jaikumar

They said it. We didn't.

If anger were money, Sen. Harry Reid's opponents would be wealthy indeed. But it isn't, and they're not.

Fundraising appeals sent out by a group that launched a supposedly major anti-Reid campaign last month reveal that the Our Country Deserves Better PAC is struggling financially.

"Ouch folks, this is not too good" was the subject line on an e-mail sent Wednesday. It said only 75 people had chipped in less than $2,800 to the latest push for the "Defeat Harry Reid" campaign against the Senate majority leader from Nevada.

Reid's opponents: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

What is impressive, however, is that Reid's supporters have marshaled a list of Republican endorsers in his home state of Nevada, including some of the state's biggest GOP power players. Seems that even Nevada Republicans appreciate the influence, wisdom and expertise Leader Reid brings to his state as the senior Senator.

The list of Republicans who have signed on to endorse Reid includes high-profile Nevada business owners, the Republican mayor of Reno, and Nevada first lady Dawn Gibbons, a former state legislator and one-time Congressional candidate...

Sparks Mayor Geno Martini and long-time GOP operative Sig Rogich are serving as the group’s co-chairmen.

“I am proud to set partisanship aside and do what is vital for our state during these extraordinarily difficult times,” Rogich said in a news release. “From preserving Lake Tahoe to fighting to protect our gaming and tourist industry from those who would want a greater Federal role in our largest industry, Harry Reid has been tireless.

With the opposition struggling even to raise money against Leader Reid, with a dearth of credible Republican candidates in the field, and with some of the state's leading Republicans lining up to support Reid, this alleged "major anti-Reid campaign" appears so far to be nothing more than simple bluster.

Sorry, Charlie

Arjun Jaikumar

If you're an occasional Governor who generally can't be bothered to hang out in your office and do your job, these are not exactly the kind of reviews you want to be getting when you do in fact actually sign a bill into law.

They are, however, exactly the kind of reviews you can hope to get when you gut growth management in Florida, a state already crippled by urban sprawl and excessive development.

Gov. Charlie Crist's political radar went haywire last week when he decided to become the governor who killed growth management in Florida.

Not a great lede, but it certainly gets worse for the Governor.

Usually, what Crist lacks in public policy smarts is offset by good manners and astute political calculations. ...

But the governor's political instincts failed him last week when he signed into law a bill that guts growth management and sets this state back decades. Judging from letters to the editor and political blogs, it's not just environmental groups and local governments that are appalled. More than a few Republican voters aren't happy with Crist, either.

And no wonder.

This bill will enable developers in urban areas to add housing developments without having to expand roads. This is a drastic rewriting of a 25-year-old law, and one likely to lead to horrendous traffic gridlock.

In fact, even Crist's growth management czar (yes, he has such a czar), Tom Pelham, opposed this particular bill.

So aside from feeling pressure from the realtors' lobby, what was Crist thinking? We can't say, and the St. Petersburg Times says it doesn't matter:

The bottom line is the damage is done. The developers win, Floridians lose and Crist is a terrible disappointment even to many of his supporters.

Gee, you finally get the governor back in his office to do some work, and look what happens!