• Check out Markos' interview with Politico on his new book, American Taliban, and see if you can guess who he was talking about here:

  Q: Think of one of your least favorite people in Washington and, without naming them, describe what makes that person so unappealing.

  A: Heck, anyone who thinks process — like "bipartisanship" — is more important than the actual end policy. People's lives are at stake. No one cares how a piece of legislation was passed, they only care if it makes their lives better.

• Join the White House in sending messages of support to U.S. soldiers:

  "Saluting Service in Iraq" is a social media campaign to encourage all Americans to get online and use their own social networks to show their support for the troops through photos, videos and written messages.

• The GOP has a plan if they win back the House this fall, and no, it doesn't involve jobs or the economy:

  Republicans are planning a wave of committee investigations targeting the White House and Democratic allies if they win back the majority.

  Everything from the microscopic — the New Black Panther party — to the massive –- think bailouts — is on the GOP to-do list, according to a half-dozen Republican aides interviewed by POLITICO.

• A test any thinking person should want to fail:

  Keep America Safe, the hard-line national security group founded in part by Liz Cheney, is creating scorecards that rate members of Congress in an effort to bring accountability on votes relating to defense and foreign policy.

• Brother, can you spare a dime:

  The Tea Party Patriots have been super-busy lately, emailing about some "WAR" they’re fighting against George Soros and the Obamunists and also traveling to all of Glenn Beck’s Miracle Parties. Participating in these fun activities isn’t free, so the Patriots have been e-soliciting for donations, free lodging, and other goods and services ("private sector welfare") just to stay alive. "Our destiny is not to fade miserably into the socialist quagmire that has sucked the life and freedom out of so many once vibrant countries and people around the world," says a recent TPP email. "The destiny of America is to lead the world in freedom, in justice, and in prosperity." They have a dream!

  If you don’t have any money, couch space, snack-packs, flags, or other items to give to these Patriots, you can help them save the country — our country — by performing volunteer work on their behalf. You can be a marshal at this weekend’s Glenn Beck Crybaby Clown Show, or help out at one of the upcoming 9/12 rallies in Sacramento or St. Louis. You’ll meet other Patriots and maybe get to swap cardboard signs with a few.

• "Gutsy" isn't the word that comes to mind:

  Former FEMA Administrator Michael Brown (you know, the guy that became a walking metaphor for the Bush administration’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina) is spending some time in New Orleans in the run-up to the five-year anniversary of Katrina.

  Gutsy move? That’s the question The New York Times poses this morning.

• Unbelievable:

  According to Nettleton Middle School’s rules, children running for certain class officer posts must meet a specific race requirement: to be president, the child must be white.

  A school memo, obtained by MixedandHappy and The Smoking Gun, was passed out to every 6th, 7th, and 8th grader to inform them of the breakdown. The upcoming elections are divided between offices delineated for black and white students. Of the 12 offices for which students can compete, "eight are earmarked for white students, while four are termed ‘black seats." The presidency is reserved for white students across each grade, but a black student is permitted to be the 8th grade vice-president or reporter, the 7th grade treasurer, or the 6th grade reporter. So, along with a "B" average and "a good disciplinary status and moral character," a child hoping to represent his or her class must be the right race.

• Bay-area folks are invited to join Senate candidate Jack Conway and Markos at a reception next Monday evening. Details:

     When: Monday, Aug. 30th, 2010, 8:00-11:00 pm
     Where: 83 Proof, 83 First Street, San Francisco
     How much: $25 suggested minimum
     RSVP email rsvp@jackconway.org

Sharron Angle has made her position perfectly clear -- having agreed with and then twice refusing to disavow the claim -- she believes that there are "domestic enemies" within the "walls of the Senate and the Congress." But given that she hasn't been willing to step up and name names, let's just add this to the long list of Angle's far right-wing views and move on ... to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). Because according to an NRSC spokesman:

Frankly, the more Harry Reid tries to make an issue out of this, the more out-of-touch it makes him look. We welcome this debate.

Then let's have the debate, starting with, does the NRSC agree with Sharron Angle that the Senate and the House is littered with domestic enemies bent on destroying America?

Either the NRSC agrees with Angle, in which case it's time for them to start naming names, or they don't. Which is it?

Indiana's Mike Pence, the number three Republican in the U.S. House and the enemy of all things stimulus, sounds off on Indian Gov. Mitch Daniels decision to accept a half-billion dollars in stimulus funds to boost Indiana's economy:

Pence defers to Daniels on stimulus

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence said he will respect his governor’s decision to ask for nearly a half-billion dollars of stimulus money, even though Pence vehemently opposed the stimulus legislation.

Indiana’s Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels yesterday told local media outlets he would ask the federal government for $207 million in Medicare funds and $227 million in education funds that were passed as part of a $26 billion Democratic-led spending bill earlier this month.

"The economic policies of this administration have failed," Pence said in a statement to POLITICO. "Hoosiers are hurting in the city and on the farm. Gov. Mitch Daniels is right to question the borrow-and-spend policies of this administration. Whether Indiana accepts more stimulus money is entirely the governor's decision, and I will respect whatever decision he makes."

So stimulus spending is a huge massive monumental failure, the worst thing that could ever happen to the American economy...but if Mike Pence's Republican governor thinks it's good for his state's economy, then Mike Pence thinks it's A-OK?

Jeesh. Have these guys no backbone?

Jack Conway, apparently aware that voters in Kentucky care about the viability of Social Security, just sent this, via e-mail:

LOUISVILLE – U.S. Senate candidate Jack Conway today called on Alan Simpson, former U.S. Senator from Wyoming and current co-chair of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, to resign from the budget and fiscal panel after ill-informed and offensive remarks about Social Security and its future.

Supporters can sign Conway's petition for Alan Simpson to resign at www.JackConway.org/SocialSecurity.

This week, in a message to a Social Security advocacy group, Chairman Simpson described Social Security as "a milk cow with 310 million tits."Conway said that the remarks showed clearly that Simpson is not approaching the problems of solving the long-term budget situation - especially concerning Social Security - in a serious and thoughtful manner.

Conway said, "Senator Simpson clearly is not approaching the serious challenge of solving the long-term solvency of Social Security withserious solutions. Instead, he’d rather use offensive language to make headlines. Rather than serve as a distraction to the rest of the group, the Senator should step down."

"I call on Rand Paul – not his spokesman but him personally – to disavow Senator Simpson’s comments. We can be fiscally responsible without harming seniors or privatizing Social Security." Conway added.

Conway has outlined a series of steps to cut nearly a half a trillion dollars off of the federal budget, including ending tax breaks for companies that ship American jobs overseas and allowing Medicare to purchase prescription drugs in bulk.

Contribute to Jack Conway
Jack Conway for Senate

Talk about caveat emptor:

Obviously, Reid has got some work to do in making the final sale on his own candidacy, but his problems are nothing compared to those of Sharron Angle. Having 2 out of 3 of her own primary supporters regret their decision is simply astonishing, especially given that they nominated her just two months ago. But who knows, maybe all hope isn't lost for Nevada's Republicans: perhaps they can still dump Angle and nominate a bunch of chickens instead.

h/t: Scarce.

When we last left the great state of Wisconsin, the campaign of GOP Senate candidate Ron Johnson was being forced to answer for the revelation that Mr. No Big Government had sought and received a government-backed loan during the early days of his business career.

The campaign gave the dismissive response that "An industrial revenue bond is neither special treatment nor a government payment or subsidy."

Let's see them try to explain how a a government payment is not a government payment:

A railroad line to Senate candidate Ron Johnson's plastics factory was built with the assistance of a federal grant.

According to documents from the Oshkosh city clerk's office, an Urban Development Action Grant in the amount of $75,000 was used to build a rail spur to Pacur, a plastics manufacturing company owned by Johnson.

Team Johnson immediately blasted the story, saying that "we have highways, railroads, post offices, water and electrical services among other public services that businesses rely on each day."

This, in short, is an asinine assertion. All these infrastructure components cited by the Johnson campaign exist because their construction is for the public good, which includes businesses but also means the citizenry at-large. This grant was to give a dedicated rail line for one plastics company.

The public did not benefit from its construction, Pacur did. Their conflation of a dedicated rail spur to water and electrical infrastructure is telling. It is pretty evident from their analogy that their view is that government can only be as large as it needs to be to cater to the whims of corporate America.

Everything else is "big government."

Of course, since Republicans don't actually care about the deficit, they just like to use it as a bogeyman, this letter from the CBO [pdf] (via the Wonk Room won't make them stop screaming "REPEAL!!!"

On balance, the two laws’ health care and revenue provisions are estimated to reduce the projected deficit in 2020 by $28 billion, and the education provisions of the Reconciliation Act are estimated to reduce the projected deficit in 2020 by $2 billion. [...]

Finally, you asked what the net deficit impact would be if certain provisions of PPACA and the Reconciliation Act that were estimated to generate net savings were eliminated—specifically, those which were originally estimated to generate a net reduction in mandatory outlays of $455 billion over the 2010–2019 period. The estimate of $455 billion mentioned in your letter represents the net effects of many provisions. Some of those provisions generated savings for Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and some generated costs. If those provisions were repealed, CBO estimates that there would be an increase in deficits similar to its original estimate of $455 billion in net savings over that period.

The "you" the CBO is responding to is Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), who must have thought that if he asked just one more time, the CBO would give him a pony in the form of the health law not reducing the deficit. It's really rather remarkable--the CBO originally said, make these changes and save $455 billion--did Crapo really think that repealing those provisions wouldn't then cost $455 billion? Sometimes the CBO must get very frustrated by the letters they get from Congress.

Igor Volsky adds:

If they were to repeal the law, Republicans would have replace it with something that makes up for the deficit increases (assuming, of course that they will still care about the deficits) and helps slow the growth rate in the Medicare program. The GOP’s old leadership backed plan and its reliance on medical malpractice reform as a money saver won’t be enough.

They don't care about the deficit. They don't care about trying to control the costs of the absolutely essential Medicare and Medicaid and CHIP, to keep them healthy and effective. And they sure as hell don't have a plan for making the nation's health care system work.

Oh. Wait. It's not a majority?

From a new CBS poll conducted August 20-24

No big surprise this morning with the release of the "first revision" of the Commerce Department's estimate of annualized growth in gross domestic product for the second quarter of 2010: 1.6 percent. The expert consensus had expected slightly worse. In July, the GDP had been calculated at a disappointing 2.4 percent though one observer labeled it a "decent report."  The revision today showing reduced momentum was based on weaker numbers than previously estimated - "a sharp acceleration in imports and a sharp deceleration in private inventory investment." A second revision comes at this time next month.

Announcement of the revision followed a week of mostly discouraging economic news, with the only modest bright spot being a decline in initial jobless claims from the half-million filed last Thursday. But at 473,000, those initial claims still fell into the high end of the up-and-down range they've been stuck in over the past nine months. Housing sales, durable goods orders, and reports on manufacturing from branch banks of the Federal Reserve all indicated a weakening of the expansion that began in mid-2009.

Two months ago, the Federal Reserve revised downward its GDP estimates for the year to 3.0-3.2 percent. That range now looks hopelessly optimistic. If the revision holds, a dicey proposition, annualized growth in GDP for the first two quarters was 2.65 percent.

Compared with the two previous recessions, that might not at first glance seem so bad. The mean GDP growth for the four quarters after the bottoming of the 1991 recession was 2.63 percent. For the recession of 2001, it was 1.93%. And for 2007: 2.98 percent. But while things look somewhat better this time, it should not be forgotten that those two previous recessions were labeled "jobless" for a reason. And in those two, the unemployment numbers didn't descend to anywhere near the depths we've seen this time.

Although the expert consensus predicts third-quarter GDP at around 1.7 percent, that also appears optimistic to some analysts. Nouriel "Dr. Doom" Roubini, one of the few who predicted the recession that began in 2007, is now one of a few predicting that GDP growth for the third quarter may clock in close to zero percent. That might be the case for the 4th quarter, too. And Roubini has raised his estimate for the chances of a "double-dip" recession to 40 percent.

About that, Paul Krugman writes:

Will the economy actually enter a double dip, with G.D.P. shrinking? Who cares? If unemployment rises for the rest of this year, which seems likely, it won’t matter whether the G.D.P. numbers are slightly positive or slightly negative.

Uncertainty remains the watchword because statistics measuring various aspects of the economy have not all trended in the same direction month after month. There's no doubt, however, that the burst of growth which began in the 4th quarter of 2009 has slowed significantly and seems likely to slow more. That's ominous this early in a "recovery." GDP growth below 2.5 percent will not reduce unemployment. We may well be in for what New Deal democrat calls a "slow motion bust," a state of affairs in which there is modest expansion or stagnant growth while the underlying problems - such as banks' toxic debt load and too much housing inventory - work themselves out, if they do.

The pre-election political climate for doing anything to improve this situation is toxic. Despite no signs of inflation, austerity hawks and deficit peacocks seek cutbacks in government spending at the very time when doing so is guaranteed to worsen matters. Flawed as it was, the stimulus package that passed 18 months ago, as the Congressional Budget Office reported earlier this week, kept the GDP out of the red in the 2nd quarter and kept millions at work who would otherwise have been jobless. But the effect of the stimulus on GDP and job growth will fade sharply toward year's end. The White House ought to propose a modernized WPA - say, a Green WPA - a program that fits President Obama's clean-energy agenda. But, even though it should be proposed because it's all-around smart, especially with China planning to spend $738 billion on renewable energy over the next decade, there's next to nil chance of getting such a program through Congress this year.

Therefore, all hopes for cutting unemployment now depend on private-sector hiring. And that's also ominous. While the private sector has added 664,000 jobs so far in 2010, 71,000 of them in July, that's nowhere near enough. And little evidence exists to assume that next Friday's monthly jobs report will show an acceleration of such hiring.

Is the situation just temporary? Or is the acute pain of unemployment and underemployment afflicting tens of millions of us going to add itself to the list of other chronic problems plaguing the economy? If the latter is the case, do we just continue stumbling along or do we build political forces to create a new paradigm in which economic well-being is not dependent on jobs as we have known them? And if so, how do we go about building those forces in the face of the ultra-concentration of wealth and the political power it confers?

End of week musings and meanderings from the pundits.

Paul Krugman:

But we can safely predict what he and other officials will say about where we are right now: that the economy is continuing to recover, albeit more slowly than they would like. Unfortunately, that’s not true: this isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policy makers should be doing everything they can to change that fact.

The small sliver of truth in claims of continuing recovery is the fact that G.D.P. is still rising: we’re not in a classic recession, in which everything goes down. But so what?

More discussion in bobswern's diary.

Mergers and acquisitions are good for the economy, right? Well, this from Reuters...

At best, the M&A revival -- fueled by rock-bottom interest rates, cheap stock valuations and big company warchests -- will help limit stock market losses as fund managers scramble to fill portfolios with shares of potential targets.

And the flip side is that the prospect of enhanced M&A activity could raise fears of more job losses and questions about whether dealmaking is driven by worries over future product demand, contributing to investor unease.

Eugene Robinson:

The majestic grounds of the Lincoln Memorial belong to all Americans -- even to egomaniacal talk-show hosts who profit handsomely from stoking fear, resentment and anger. So let me state clearly that Glenn Beck has every right to hold his absurdly titled "Restoring Honor" rally on Saturday.

Gene's a Pulitzer prize winner for a reason.

Otoh (my comment):

This isn’t intellectual conservatism, a la Bill Buckley, with a coherent world view and a philosophy that can be argued and defended. This is "enrich me, by getting and staying angry at them." For Beck, et al, it works for now, at least as cash cow. The politics of it are less successful (see Palin’s increasing unfavorables with other than Republicans and Beck’s loss of Proctor and Gamble after he called Obama a racist and described him as having "a deep-seated hatred for white people".)

Beck at times is too reminiscent for me of Huey Long and Father Coughlin, at least what those populist demagogues might look like if sponsored and made wealthy by a corporation the way Fox backs Beck.

Is the time and place of Beck's rally appropriate? Well, it isn’t designed to foster American unity. What about the message organizers aim to deliver? I doubt that message is support of Martin Luther King’s dream.

WaPo:

In New Orleans The massive government effort to repair the damage from Hurricane Katrina is fostering a stark divide as the state governments in Louisiana and Mississippi structured the rebuilding programs in ways that often offered the most help to the most affluent residents.

Let the states do it! Give Republican Governors access to money and pretend to be shocked by what they do with it. C'mon, Bobby. Build those sandcastles berms.

From seattlepi.com:

Is income property? No, so income tax is OK, attorney says

The legal debate over a possible income tax in Washington boils down to whether income is property, like a house.

No taxes! No services! Let 'em eat cake!

MSNBC/First Read:

The Senate race is Connecticut has essentially turned into a contest between Richard Blumenthal's (D) mischaracterization of his military service and Linda McMahon's (R) stewardship of World Wrestling Entertainment.

And for McMahon, there's this tough headline in the New London (CT) Day: "Dead wrestler's father blasts McMahon, WWE"

Blumenthal misspoke and corrected himself in the same speech, McMahon turned the other cheek while her employees were maimed, died, or otherwise suffered. Because, y'know, these are equivalent gaffes.

Joe Romm at Climate Progress writes that an outside review has found Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to be innocent of engaging in financial shenanigans and conflict of interest as previously claimed by the Telegraph and The New York Times. According to investigators at KPMG:

As Romm says, the whole smear against Pachauri was "outrageous" and "eagerly parroted by U.S. disinformers and ... willingly lapped up by the U.S. media." Click onto the Climate Progress site to see a reprint of George Monbiot’s smackdown of this smear.

• • • • •

At Daily Kos on this date in 2009:

Tonight's Rescue Ranger krewe features the talents of ItsJessMe, Purple Priestess, grog, ybruti, and shayera, with YatPundit behind the wheel of the Editmobile.

The krewe's found some gems, so be sure to read, tip, and rec!

• The Gimp in My Name Is Larime Taylor, And I'm A Lesser Person describes the life of a disabled person dependent on public assistance. (ybruti)
• JBtakenote explains why not voting in the mid-term election could be very dangerous in It's My Constitution, Not Yours - Now Get Off My Lawn!. (Purple Priestess)
• With his 5-day old son sleeping under his keyboard, Attorney at Arms pens a moving An Apology To My Newborn Son for bringing him into a world that is very difficult to explain to a child. (ItsJessMe)
• ivorybill gives us a more realistic "feel" of current conditions in the "graveyard of empires", in Afghanistan Onion - comedy and tragedy in Afghan press. (grog)
• Steven D gives ample evidence to show that Real Americans Don't Give in to Hate. (ItsJessMe)
• Bill Prendergast keeps an eye on Michelle Bachmann's craziness and reports back to us in Bachmann: now has real bus to throw the tea party under. (Purple Priestess)
• Maggie Pax brings news from Kentucky: WKU honors local mosque supporter! (ybruti)
• Mr Raymond Luxury Yacht snarks that The First Amendment Has Its Limits: when a group wants hide behind religion so they can rub it in your face, planting their house of worship at a site of an American tragedy that their leaders celebrated...it’s too much. (ItsJessMe)
• Disarray presents A Populist Progressive Strategy along with an original campaign video. (ybruti)
• gukegang describes the seemingly incongruous reaction among the Chinese to Obama on the Chinese Military: Soft Talk, Big Sticks. (ItsJessMe)
• KingOneEye reports how Fox News Caps Flow Of Oil Spill Stories. (ybruti)

jotter has High Impact Diaries: August 25, 2010.

virgomusic has Top Comments: Soapbox Edition.

Please join the Ranger krewe tonight by suggesting your rescues in this Open Thread.

If you are one of those people given to rending your garments when confronted with bad polling data, the Wrap has one piece of advice: come back in a half hour when the Diary Rescue gets posted.

Yes, friends, today was a buffet of ugly, from the release of the second set of Ayers McHenry (GOP) polls of competitive House races to yucky numbers from SurveyUSA on an open Democratic House seat. Even Rasmussen was giving us the full Ras today.

Properly warned, feel free to trudge forward into a decidedly pessimistic Thursday edition of the Wrap...

THE U.S. SENATE

AK-Sen: Primary fallout continues in the wake of Miller-Murkowski
James L. over at Swing State Project opened the day with an excellent synopsis of the most recent events in Alaska in the wake of the improbable defeat of incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski. Senator Mark Begich has effectively slammed the door on the "Democratic Switcheroo" thing by backing the man who won the Democratic nomination Tuesday night: Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams. Profiles of McAdams are starting to pop up, and it is hard not to like what you see. Meanwhile, the state's Libertarian Party is not slamming the door on the notion of Murkowski replacing their nominee and running under the Libertarian banner in November. Miller's lead of under 1700 votes now goes to the absentees, which Murkowski would have to win by a sizeable margin to overturn the apparent result.

CO-Sen: Bennet rebuts Ipsos poll, Buck caught being a hypocrite
Two news items out of the state of Colorado today. In the wake of a seriously ugly Ipsos poll out yesterday (which gave GOPer Ken Buck a nine-point lead over Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet), Bennet decided to release an internal poll which stood in pretty stark contrast to the Ipsos poll. Bennet's poll, conducted late last week by Harstad Research, gave the Democrat a four point lead (44-40) over Ken Buck.

Buck, for his part, is joining fellow anti-government conservative Ron Johnson of Wisconsin in the club of hypocrites who, in their pasts, have had their hands outstretched before the government coffers. In Buck's case, it is more recent: as recently as 2007, he sought millions of dollars in earmarks via his then-local congresswoman (the infamous Marilyn Musgrave).

CT-Sen: WWE combatant's death refuses to go away as father speaks up
The most stringent criticism of Connecticut GOP Senate nominee Linda McMahon comes today from the father of the former WWE wrestler who passed away earlier in the month at the age of 29. Harley McNaught, whose son Lance Cade worked for the McMahons for most of the past decade, had particularly harsh words for how the couple conducted their business:

"[Cade] would have cut his arm off for Vince McMahon, but it wasn't there in return," his father said. "He don't care any more than the man in the moon for them, other than as dollar signs."

McNaught was planning to grieve in silence, but was driven to speak after Linda McMahon coldly dismissed Cade's passing by noting that she "might have met him once", and insisting that the company was not responsible for his death, or the deaths of any other ex-employees.

KY-Sen: Mongiardo offers backhanded endorsement of Conway
Apparently, three months has not been long enough for Democratic Lt. Governor Dan Mongiardo to get over his narrow defeat at the hands of Democratic Senate nominee Jack Conway. In a local media interview, Mongiardo reiterated that he would be supporting Conway, but his rationale was, to say the least, strained: "I don’t think that Jack is the best in the state, but he’s a heck of lot better than who he’s running against. That’s why I have to support him."

LA-Sen: Vitter a lock to win GOP primary on Saturday, says PPP
Geez, has any candidate in the 2010 cycle entered the fray with more hype, and been a bigger underachiever, than former state judge Chet Traylor in Louisiana? According to a new poll by PPP, the man who was expected to give incumbent Republican David Vitter a serious fight is sitting at a whopping 5% of the vote, exactly one percent ahead of totally unheralded perennial candidate Nick Accardo. Vitter, for what it is worth, is sitting on 81% of the GOP primary vote.

Meanwhile, Vitter did get some unwanted media attention today, when the New Orleans Times-Picayune uncovered a nearly five-digit expenditure by Vitter's campaign for "strategy" to his first cousin, who, as it happens, is deeply underwater financially. Vitter's crew is pooh-poohing the timing, arguing that his cousin did legit work handling the direct mail for this Saturday's primary. Recall, however, that the somewhat hyped House campaign of Oregon Republican Sid Leiken was upended by a similar charge late last year.

MO-Sen: MSU poll says Carnahan within striking distance of Blunt
Missouri State University is out with new data in the Show Me State, and their numbers certainly go against the grain. The pollster, in conjunction with KY3, polled the race and found Republican Congressman Roy Blunt only up 49-48 against Democratic Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. Most recent polling, including our own survey conducted by PPP, put Blunt ahead by a wider margin, usually in the upper single-digits. One reason to wonder about the partisan makeup of the sample: President Obama's approval in the state (47%) is higher than most pollsters nationally, which has certainly not been mimicked by other pollsters who have come into Missouri.

NC-Sen: Dem challenger calls for Simpson ouster
I am more than willing to be corrected, but this has to be one of the first top-tier 2010 candidates calling for Alan Simpson's head in the wake of his "310 million tits" tirade. Elaine Marshall, who is locked in a tight battle with Republican incumbent Richard Burr in the Tar Heel State, called for Simpson to resign during an address celebrating Women's Equality Day (today is the 90th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment). Marshall sharply criticized Simpson, saying his remarks were demeaning to women as well as Social Security recipients.

PA-Sen: Another poll gives Toomey modest lead...but there's a catch
The outcome of the U.S. Senate race in the Keystone State may well depend on how good the polling crew at Franklin and Marshall College (PDF file) is at constructing a likely voter screen. The pollster gives Republican Patrick Toomey a nine-point edge over Democrat Joe Sestak (40-31) among those voters identified as "likely voters." Among all registered voters, however, that margin whittles down to just three points (31-28). Another thing long evident in F&M polls, they sure as all Hell aren't pushing leaners very hard. That, or the good people of Pennsylvania are just chronically indecisive.

THE U.S. HOUSE

MA-09: Heard of speed dating? How about speed debating?
Good grief: Stephen Lynch, the Massachusetts Democrat who was one of the most shocking "nay" votes for HCR back in the Spring, had promised his primary rival, Mac D'Alessandro, that he would participate in a primary debate. And so he will...for fifteen minutes. The two will participate in a debate consisting of a single segment on a weekend news program on WBZ-TV. Talk about respecting the letter, but not the spirit, of the promise...

MO-03: Carnahan office attack not motivated by ideology
News that ought to come as a bit of a relief: Democratic Rep. Russ Carnahan revealed today that the firebombing of his campaign office last week appears to be the work of a disgruntled ex-employee, and not motivated by any other cause. The attack occurred on August 17th, and the suspect apparently had just been fired from his job with the Carnahan campaign, where he had worked for only a week.

MO-04/MO-07/MO-08: Everyone holds their own in new public poll
The Missouri State crew (referenced earlier in their surprisingly optimistic poll of the Senate race) also polled a trio of House races in the Show-Me state. Before I get to the numbers, a word of caution: the sample sizes here are unbelievably tiny (ranging from 171-198 respondents), therefore the margin of error on these subsamples is quite lofty. In the most anticipated battle among these three districts (MO-04), the MSU poll sees Democratic incumbent Ike Skelton hanging on versus Republican Vicky Hartzler by a fairly solid margin (47-35). In the southeastern-based 8th district, well-funded Democrat Tommy Sowers hasn't apparently made much of a dent in this uber-red district, as GOP incumbent Jo Ann Emerson has a huge advantage (64-17). And, in the open seat race in the 7th district to replace Roy Blunt, the GOP looks likely to hold, as Republican Billy Long leads Democrat Scott Eckersley by a better than two-to-one ratio (51-23).

NC-08: Kissell releases poll with a double-digit edge
One prominent exception to the "crappy polls today for Democrats" theme comes from North Carolina freshman Congressman Larry Kissell. The rookie Democrat offers up an internal poll from Anzalone-Liszt Research showing him with a seventeen-point edge (49-32) over Republican challenger Harold Johnson. Kissell easily knocked Rep. Robin Hayes out of office in 2008 after narrowly missing victory in 2006.

OH-17: Traficant's comeback gets a reprieve...for the moment
His resurrection is not yet complete, but former Congressman (and prisoner) Jim Traficant got some unexpected good news yesterday, when Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner broke a local canvassing board deadlock and allowed Traficant the opportunity to prove that he had collected enough signatures to be accepted onto the November ballot. Traficant had been filing to appear in his former home district (currently held by Democrat Tim Ryan) as an Independent.

OR-05: Schrader fights Bruun internal polling with data of his own
Wish I was seeing this more often in this particular election cycle. Just one day after Republican rival Scott Bruun released internal polling claiming he enjoyed a lead over Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader, Schrader provided some evidence to the contrary. Schrader's poll (which was done in late July by Lake Research) had the incumbent up double digits on Bruun (46-35). The district is a swingy district that slightly preferred GW Bush in 2004, and then went by a far clearer margin for Barack Obama in 2008.

PA-08: GOP poll claims Patrick Murphy latest Democrat to be behind
The usual caveats apply with internal polls, but the campaign of former Republican Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick is claiming that the GOP nominee is on his way to getting his old job back. The poll, from Public Opinion Strategies, gives Fitzpatrick a 48-41 lead over sophomore Democrat Patrick Murphy. Murphy defeated Fitzpatrick for the right to represent the 8th Congressional District in 2006.

WA-03: SUSA poll says GOP pickup likely in southwestern Washington
This is another in a series of painfully pessimistic polls for House Democrats courtesy of the polling crew at SurveyUSA. SUSA heads to the southwestern corner of Washington State, where Democrats are defending a tough open seat with the retirement of Brian Baird. According to the poll, the defense is going poorly: GOP nominee Jaime Herrera is staked to a 54-41 lead over Democrat Denny Heck.

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE: Midwest leaning GOP, at least according to GOP
Republican pollsters Ayers McHenry, at the best of the GOP think tank American Action Forum, is back with their second round of House polling, and it is every bit as ugly as the first round of polling early last week. However, there is a caveat that goes beyond the usual "hey, it is a partisan poll" caveat. If you look at the actual scripts employed by the pollster, you will see (PDF file) that the topline question is not asked until question #12. Among the questions asked before are issue questions, which the National Council on Public Polls has noted can skew results.

With that mega-caveat out of the way, here are the numbers from the GOP polls:

IA-03: Brad Zaun (R) 51%, Rep. Leonard Boswell (D) 41%
IN-02: Rep. Joe Donnelly (D) 46%, Jackie Walorski (R) 44%
MI-07: Tim Walberg (R) 50%, Mark Schauer (D) 40%
MO-03: Rep. Russ Carnahan (D) 54%, Ed Martin (R) 38%
OH-01: Steve Chabot (R) 47%, Rep. Steve Driehaus (D) 45%
OH-13: Rep. Betty Sutton (D) 43%, Tom Ganley (R) 41%
OH-15: Steve Stivers (R) 49%, Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D) 44%
OH-16: Jim Renacci (R) 49%, John Boccieri (D) 35%
WI-08: Reid Ribble (R) 49%, Rep. Steve Kagen (D) 39%

THE GUBERNATORIAL RACES

PA-Gov: F&M poll shows same GOP lead and wide RV/LV gap
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Franklin and Marshall poll in the gubernatorial race is somewhat of a carbon copy (PDF) of the Senate race. A big lead for the Republican nominee (in this case, state AG Tom Corbett) among likely voters, but one within the margin of error with registered voters. And, as in the Senate race, a metric ton of undecideds. This poll puts Corbett up by eleven points (39-28) among likely voters, but by just a single point (29-28) with registered voters.

VT-Gov: Super-tight Democratic primary to be certified next week
Herein lies one of the advantages to being one of the lesser populated states of the Union. We will almost certainly know by this time on Tuesday who will be the Democratic nominee for Governor in Vermont. That is the word from Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, who is in the somewhat awkward position of certifying a brutally close election in which she appears to have run in third place, but less than 1000 points behind the winner. That apparent winner, state legislator Peter Shumlin, is declaring victory, which brought a slight amount of tension to the Unity Rally held there yesterday at the behest of respected senior Senator Patrick Leahy. Shumlin's declaration and expressions of confidence were declared "inappropriate" by the campaign manager for Doug Racine, the apparent runner-up.

THE RAS-A-POLL-OOZA

Rasmussen is giving the GOP no small amount of love today. They hit the Florida Senate race, where they become the first pollster in forever to give Marco Rubio a double-digit edge. They also give Meg Whitman her biggest lead of the campaign, as well.

CA-Gov: Meg Whitman (R) 48%, Jerry Brown (D) 40%
FL-Sen: Marco Rubio (R) 40%, Charlie Crist (I) 30%, Kendrick Meek (D) 21%
NM-Gov: Susana Martinez (R) 48%, Diane Denish (D) 43%
UT-Sen: Mike Lee (R) 54%, Sam Granato (D) 29%

No matter how you spell it, this would be a dream ticket

Hee hee:

Bachmann campaign misspells name

When Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) filed her paperwork for a new leadership PAC with the Federal Election Commission last month, there was a teensy, weensy little problem — she spelled her name wrong. Or at least the person who did her paperwork did.

"Michelle PAC" submitted its "Statement of Organization" on July 28 with the FEC, according to documents filed with the agency. The only problem is that Michele Bachmann spells her name with one "L," not two.

Two days later, evidently having figured out the mistake, Barry Arrington, the committee’s treasurer filed paperwork correcting the mistake.

Now let us just hope that Michele has got some Pallin' around to do...

Back in February, Anthem Blue Cross graciously agreed to put its 39 percent rate hike on hold until the California Insurance Commission could review its plan to make sure the increases were legal.

Guess what the regulators determined?

California insurance regulators cleared the way Wednesday for Anthem Blue Cross to implement scaled-back rate hikes after a previous increase was canceled amid an uproar over its size.

Anthem said it intends to put the new rates — averaging 14% and as high as 20% — into effect Oct. 1 for nearly 800,000 individual California policyholders.

Of course, the insurance company isn't happy that it had to wait six whole months to screw its customers.

On Wednesday, a Blue Shield spokesman said the company looked forward to moving ahead with its plan. "We wish the increases were smaller, but the cost of medical care for our members keeps rising dramatically," spokesman Tom Epstein said. "These increases are necessary to cover those costs."

Yes, these are necessary costs. Because the 68 percent rate hikes the previous year just weren't enough to help Anthem squeak by.

WellPoint (NYSE: WLP) the parent of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, reported 2009 net income of $4.7 billion, or $9.88 per share, compared to $2.5 billion, or $4.76 per share, in 2008.

State regulators say they have no authority to block the rate hikes because they are compliant with the law. But the California Insurance Department also wants policyholders to know just how much the delay in rate hikes benefited consumers.

The state Insurance Department said Wednesday the six-month delay saved policyholders $184 million, although Anthem, the state's largest for-profit insurer, put the figure at no more than $150 million.

"These savings were a clear benefit to Blue Cross' policyholders," said Deputy Insurance Commissioner Byron Tucker.

Wow. With all that savings, Californians will have money to burn -- on their increased insurance rates.

This is not a good way for what had been a pretty decent, progressive career to end. Chris Dodd is continuing to press the attack on Elizabethe Warren he started a few weeks ago. When the "she's not confirmable" idea wasn't taking hold, he started in on "she's not management material." He's been keeping that drumbeat going "in interviews with Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, TPMDC, the Hartford Courant and American Banker, among others," but there's a rub here.

But it's the first time Chairman Dodd has publicly raised such an issue when it came to evaluating presidential nominees to agency positions under the banking committee's purview.

A review of transcripts from past confirmation hearings shows that Dodd has never questioned the management experience of nominees to head federal agencies his committee oversees. The heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Housing Administration, the Export-Import Bank and the National Credit Union Administration all survived hearings under Dodd's chairmanship without him once asking a question about the experience needed to guide their respective agencies.

Nor did Dodd raise any management questions when prospective bank regulators came before his committee -- even when the regulators did not have significant management experience. In the two years prior to his assuming the chairmanship in 2007, the heads of the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of Thrift Supervision, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and a prior chief of the SEC all came before his committee. Each time, Dodd declined to ask about their experience running bureaucracies, a review of transcripts shows.

In fact, Dodd didn't even show up for two of those hearings....

Dodd never raised similar questions when it came to bank regulators' perceived lack of management experience. For instance, Dugan and Bair had top positions in the Treasury Department, but neither ran an organization on their own. Cox was an attorney and longtime member of Congress, but he, too, never oversaw a bureaucracy.

Dodd didn't speak on the record at Bair's confirmation hearing, nor did he submit any written questions for the record, documents show.

Dodd, through a spokesman, declined to comment for this article.

Dodd could be carrying the water for other Senate Dems who would prefer not to see a really tough watchdog in this position, or it could be his last legislative favor to an industry where he might be thinking he ends up after leaving the Senate. Either way, it's not doing his legacy much good, particularly after this examination of his record. Perhaps if he'd been willing to subject the bank regulators' management experience to the same scrutiny as Elizabeth Warren, we wouldn't so urgently need a consumer watchdog in Treasury.