Thursday Rundown
Oregon Part 1: Who else is on the Democratic bench, in light of Earl Blumenauer declining to run for Senate? The Hill reminds us that "Rep. David Wu (D) has yet to completely rule out a Senate bid." DKos' mcjoan suggests that we keep an eye on Oregon State Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown. That's not a bad springboard, considering Senator Jon Tester was President of the Montana State Senate before making the jump and taking down Conrad Burns.
In fact, DavidNYC at SSP reminds us that "last cycle, only one of our top Senate candidates was a member of the House." Senator Sherrod Brown came from the House to take down Mike DeWine. But Senator Robert Casey was state Treasurer before defeating Rick Santorum. And Claire McCaskill was a state Auditor before defeating Jim Talent. And Senator Jim Webb is a former Secretary of the Navy, and Sheldon Whitehouse was Rhode Island's Attorney General; and they took down George Allen and Lincoln Chafee, respectively. If anybody can step up the recruiting magic and find a crop of strong challengers, it's Schumer.
Oregon Part 2: Reid-Feingold went down 29-67 yesterday. Not a single Republican voted in favor and obviously many Democrats voted against. But Loaded Orygun touches on a good point regarding Gordon Smith's vote. In December '06, Smith famously used the rhetoric in reference to the Iraq War: "may even be criminal" - extremely strong language. Now, regardless of what any other Senator from any Party does, if Smith thinks the Iraq War may be "criminal," shouldn't he vote to immediately end it any chance he gets? Otherwise, isn't he being completely disingenuous?
New Mexico: Republicans for Environmental Protection ranked all Congressional Republicans on a 0-to-100 scale. What was Pajamas Pete Domenici's environmental rating? I'm not joking: -7. Negative seven! Dead last in the Senate. To see the entire ranking (in PDF format), click here.
North Carolina: The NC-netroots are gaining earned media as the Draft Brad Miller movement is covered by The News & Observer.
Louisiana: Daily Kingfish makes the analogy Landrieu:Jindal::Oversight:Dereliction.
South Dakota: The AP looks at the SD-GOP's holding pattern as Senator Tim Johnson continues his recovery. No mention of possible challengers besides ultra-conservative Mike Rounds.
Nebraska: Hal Daub said something curious: "The person who wins an election is the one who listens and is open to new ideas." Does that mean Daub is admitting to having not listened and having not been open to new ideas in 1988 when he lost a Senate primary, in 1990 when he lost a Senate race, and in 2001 when he lost the Omaha Mayoral seat to Democrat Mike Fahey?
The Republican Culture of Corruption includes fun games like Musical Chairs.
7 Comments:
Casey, Whitehouse, and McCaskill were all statewide office-holders. All of Oregon's statewide office holders are either not viable or have already declined. And Jim Webb held a prominent post in a presidential administration. I don't see anyone like that in Oregon, either. And those close to Kate Brown have said she's not interested.
As for the Reid-Feingold vote, Smith is smart enough to realize that getting the troops out of Iraq doesn't have to be done in an irresponsible manner. And an overwhelming, bi-partisan majority of the Senate (not to mention the American people) agree with him. I'm not sure where the damage is.
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Come on, now: just because he didn't win doesn't mean Harold Ford wasn't one of our top Senate candidates.
David was thinking of House challengers to incumbent Senators. Only Sherrod Brown fit that bill for the Dems last time.
New numbers in North Carolina.
Your post mentions two Democratic Congressmen. What other Congressman was she polled against (other than Miller)?
Etheridge. She was up 45-30.
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