September 3, 2010

International Union of Painters and Allied Trades to Endorse Congressman Dave Reichert and Rally for Senator Patty Murray on Tuesday, September 7, in Seattle

Events mark the first stops in the Painters and Allied Trades 'It's About Jobs!' bus tour

The event for Congressman Reichert starts at 7:30am, on September 7, in the Breakfast Room of the Hilton Seattle Airport & Conference Center - 17620 International Blvd. in Seattle.

This is the first stop for the IUPAT 'It's About Jobs!' month-long, coast-to-coast bus tour.  Its goal is to connect fellow union members across the country with the candidates we believe to be our best hope to generate and bring back the jobs that far too many of us need.

From the Hilton, the bus hits the road for a rally with U.S. Senator Patty Murray.  The event is jointly sponsored by the IUPAT and the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers.  Both unions have endorsed Senator Murray for her unwavering support for working families and her unending quest to create jobs for the men and women of Washington.

The rally for Senator Murray will start at 9:30am on Tuesday, September 7, at the Machinists Union's Stewards Hall, 9135 15th Place S.

You can follow the bus tour at www.IUPAT.org/tour, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IUPAT, on Twitter by following @GoIUPAT and you can get a few thoughts on the tour and the issues we're discussing from following our bus driver on Twitter @JakeTheDriver.

OBAMA’S PLAN FOR 'ROADS, RAILWAYS AND RUNWAYS': Will ask Congress for $50 billion up front, then propose long-term reforms -- Infrastructure unveiling today; business tax relief Wed....Read more at Politico.

Democrats Doomed? Not So Fast

Gallup is out this week with a new poll showing the generic Republican beating the generic Democrat in House contests by 10 points. The gap, Gallup points out, is the biggest one it has seen in midterm generic polls since it started doing them. It is substantially larger than the gap in 1994, when Republicans took control of the House in the first midterm election of the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton.

Does that mean it's time for Republicans to start picking the drapes for their new leadership offices? Should Nancy Pelosi be packing up her gavel?

Not so fast.

Read more at Real Clear Politics.

Democrats may start cutting off weakest candidates

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen sent a cold-blooded message Friday to under-performing party candidates: Get your act together, or you’re on your own.

Facing a perilous political environment that has left the House Democratic majority in jeopardy, Van Hollen told reporters in a briefing at the National Press Club that the party faces a series of difficult decisions about which candidates to invest in this fall — and whom to leave behind.

Read more at Politico.

Why Democrats Will Keep The House

House Republicans are measuring the drapes in preparation for big gains in the lower chamber, convinced that Minority Leader John Boehner is going to become the next Speaker of the House. On a macro level, that wouldn't be a bad guess -- Democrats are saddled with bad polls and unpopular leaders, and the national mood wants a change from the status quo.

But the Democratic apocalypse isn't guaranteed just yet. In fact, senior Democratic strategists say they're not only likely to keep the House, but they believe the GOP won't come close to gaining the 39 seats they need to take over.

Read more at Hotline ON CALL.

By the Numbers - Meek Wins! Other primary results---

Read it at the Washington Post's - Post Politics.

IUPAT 'Feet on the Street' - Meek, Greene Seek Votes Day Before Primary

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Rep. Kendrick Meek stopped at a Spanish restaurant and a Cuban sandwich shop and hung out with radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge while Jeff Greene visited a bakery as they began their last day of campaigning before Tuesday's Democratic Senate primary.

See more at WFTV-Channel 9 in Orlando.

How the GOP would govern the House

RICHMOND, Va. — House Republicans have banked on voter anger, a sputtering economy and an unpopular president to propel them ahead of Democrats in the polls so far this year.

But now they’re trying to lay the foundation for how they would actually govern.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said a House GOP majority will focus on aggressive oversight of the Obama administration, will work to defund the agencies responsible for implementing health care and will push a “zero tolerance” ethics policy. He also said Republicans may roll back their ban on earmarks, as long as the spending items have “merit.”

Read more at Politico.

Change Accomplished

WASHINGTON -- This is a radical break from journalistic convention, I realize, but today I'd like to give credit where it's due -- specifically, to President Obama. Quiet as it's kept, he's on a genuine winning streak.

It's hard to remember that the inauguration was just 19 months ago. Expectations of the new president were absurdly high. If Obama had done back flips across the Potomac River, when he reached the other side he'd have faced probing questions about why it was taking him so long to cure cancer, solve the Arab-Israeli conflict and usher in an age of universal peace and prosperity.

But look at what he's accomplished in just the past few weeks. Let me highlight four recent headlines.

Read more at Real Clear Politics.

GOP outside cash has Dems scrambling

With less than three months until Election Day, Democrats are becoming increasingly concerned that the independent groups they are counting on for support won’t have the money to counter what they fear will be an unprecedented advertising campaign waged by their Republican counterparts.

Republicans and their allies have been working for months with single-minded focus on plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on ads funded by a combination of existing special interest groups and newly formed political outfits.

Read more at Politico.

Democrats uncertain about approach to midterms

The Democrats passed the stimulus package. They passed health-care and Wall Street overhauls and revamped the financing system for higher education. Their other main priorities, on immigration and energy, appear to be headed nowhere.

So, what will they do next?

It's a question that has left congressional Democrats, who have spent the past two years mocking Republicans for lacking an agenda, without a clear plan of their own to promote in the final 80 days of the 2010 campaign.

Read more in The Washington Post.

Primary night yields good news for Obama, Dems

President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, who have been starved for good news through much of 2010, finally received a generous helping Tuesday night.

Republicans, meanwhile, were left with several new reasons to wonder whether all the favorable national trends showing up in polls are enough to overcome local candidates who are inspiring little confidence about their readiness for the general election 12 weeks from now.

Read more at Politico.

Infighting could hurt Republican chances in midterms, RNC members say

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- At a closed-door meeting on Thursday, members of the Republican National Committee rose to implore one another to stop dwelling on embarrassing leaks concerning the party and focus solely on winning in November.

Granholm: Elections will be a "tough slog" for Democrats

This fall's midterm elections will be a "tough slog" for Democrats, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Sunday.

"I certainly am not Pollyanna about it," the Democratic governor told CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union." "This is going to be a tough slog, because the situation on the ground of the country is so hard. So there's a lot of anger. There's a lot of anxiety."

Granholm said Democratic candidates need to tell the story of economic recovery.

Read more at Politico.

This year's election may mirror Democrats' setback of 1966

Everybody, even White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, agrees that Republicans are going to pick up seats in the House and Senate elections this year. The disagreement is about how many.

Read more at the Washington Examiner.

GOP could control House without majority, says senior Republican

Republicans could pick off enough support from wayward Democrats to take control of the House, even if they don't win an outright majority, a member of the GOP leadership suggested this weekend.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the GOP's chief deputy whip and director of recruiting new candidates, suggested Republicans could win the speakership or, at the very least, enjoy de facto control of the House, even if they don't win the 39 seats needed to gain an outright majority.

Read more at The Hill.

Monday Fix: Does an advantage in money give Democrats the edge in November?

With two senior Democrats facing the possibility of ethics trials in the House this fall, the economy still struggling and voters mad as hell at Congress, there is every reason for party leaders and strategists to expect the worst in the November midterm elections.

Every reason but one: money.

In 23 out of the 30 Democratic-controlled House seats rated as tossups this fall by nonpartisan congressional handicapper Charlie Cook, the party's candidate carried a cash-on-hand edge as of the end of June. In fully one-third of those districts, the cash advantage was $900,000 or more.

Read more at The Washington Post.

Obama agenda: Discussing the Bush tax cuts

President Obama this morning meets with House and Senate leaders. Roll Call: "There is no announced agenda, but leadership aides in both parties speculated Monday that one point of discussion will be whether to allow tax cuts enacted during the George W. Bush administration to expire at the end of the year.”

The Boston Globe's editorial page after the WikiLeaks revelations: "The Obama administration must demand more than just promises from Pakistan that it will cut ties with the insurgents. ... The Obama administration should turn the leaks’ release to its advantage. The reports should bolster US demands that Pakistan, recipient of $1 billion in annual US aid, stop working with the Taliban and start helping to stabilize Afghanistan."

Read more at the First Read.

Obama Assails Republicans on Campaign Finance

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday sought political advantage from the expected defeat of a campaign finance measure that he has championed by pre-emptively attacking its Republican opponents for “nothing less than a vote to allow corporate and special-interest takeovers of our elections.”

Mr. Obama’s statement to reporters at the White House was added to his daily schedule after it became clear that the Senate would vote Tuesday on whether to take up a bill that would require corporations, unions and other special interests to disclose the donors that bankroll their political advertisements. The legislation would also ban campaign spending by foreign-controlled corporations.

Read more at the New York Times.

Campaign 2010: Why Democrats Think They Can Hold the House

Every time I run into Charlie Cook, one of the veteran political handicappers of Washington, I say to him, "So?" He knows what I'm asking: Will the Republicans win back the House in November? For months now, he has told me -- and plenty of others -- that the House is within the grasp of the GOP, which needs to pick up 39 seats to take control. As the savvy and non-partisan Cook has explained, when he and the number-crunchers in his shop examine the House races one by one, they have spotted 30 or so contests where the Democrats are likely to lose the seat. These calculations, Cook has said, do not take into account any possible anti-Democratic or anti-incumbent wave. If such a tsunami of voter sentiment is indeed heading toward Capitol Hill, gaining another nine seats is quite possible for the Repubs -- and, presto, Rep. John Boehner is speaker.

Read more at Politics Daily.

Grave prospects for newest Democrats

Roughly two-thirds of the Democrats whose election vaulted their party to the House majority in 2006 and bolstered its advantage in 2008 face grave prospects this November — and could take control of the House down with them if they lose.

Of the 57 Democrats who took control of GOP-held seats in the past two elections and are now seeking reelection, 34 are facing highly competitive races, as rated by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Read more at Politico. 

Approval deficit: It's ironic that the more good bills Obama signs into law, the lower his job ratings sink

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama signed into law a mammoth financial bill — the third time in less than two years that he and his party have succeeded in pushing through a gigantic, complex piece of legislation aimed at leveling the playing field for average Americans.

First came the stimulus bill, his initial response to the economic tsunami that started in 2007 and had engulfed the nation by the time he took office. Then health care, an ambitious attempt to establish affordable, accessible medical services for all Americans. And now, so that Americans "will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street's mistakes," he has orchestrated the biggest financial overhaul of this country since the Great Depression.

And through it all, his popularity has steadily eroded.

Read more at The Houston Chronicle.

Dems talk jobs as elections near

Democrats are priming the House floor for a manufacturing agenda they hope will bolster the economy, produce easy bipartisan votes and boost their chances in the midterm elections — at least if the polls they’re using are on target.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) teased the plan — sometimes dubbed “Making It in America” — after a White House meeting with President Barack Obama last week. The agenda appears to be the Democrats’ final pre-election push to clear the deck of jobs-related bills that have been sitting around for months.

Read more at Politico.

GOP to focus on policy, not Pelosi

House Republicans, after failing to win recent elections by attacking Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are vowing to concentrate more on policy and less on personalities this time around.

The tactical shift is significant because it represents a departure from recent years when the GOP sought to highlight the San Francisco Democrat as a leading reason voters should elect Republicans. The strategy didn’t work in the 2006 and 2008 elections and also fell flat in the special-election race to replace the late Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.).

Read more at The Hill.

GOP failure a win for jobless

If it were U.S. senators getting laid off left and right, they might be more sympathetic toward average Americans who have been left jobless by the worst economic downturn since the Depression.

As it is, it took months of legislative battling to restore checks to 2.5 million men and women whose unemployment benefits started running out seven weeks ago.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted 60-40 to break a filibuster by all but two Republicans and one Democrat, clearing the way for a vote on extending payments to those who've been out of work for more than six months. The bill was expected to clear the House promptly and go to President Obama for his signature.

Read more at the Chicago Sun-Times.

Bunning's Pitch to Curb Jobless Benefits Lures Converts Among Republicans

It turns out U.S. Senator Jim Bunning was ahead of the curve.

Four months after the Kentucky Republican, a Hall of Fame former major league baseball pitcher, made colleagues squirm by blocking an extension of unemployment benefits for Americans out of work long-term, the party has adopted his cause as its own. Republicans are holding up aid for millions of jobless people while insisting that Democrats cut spending elsewhere to keep from adding to the federal deficit.

While Bunning was called insensitive and accused of throwing a “beanball” at the unemployed, Republicans now find that blocking jobless aid in an election year can be good politics.

Read more at Bloomberg.

Dems Headed for Potential State House Disaster

Four months out from Election Day, the Democrats will probably lose the House and are in some danger of losing the Senate. But losing those legislative bodies would not be the most damaging aspect of the impending tsunami heading toward the Democratic Party. After all, Barack Obama will still be in the White House to stop the congressional Republicans from accomplishing much.

The biggest danger to the Democrats comes from the losses that they are poised to endure in the Governor's races. These losses are likely to be massive, and illustrate the size of the impending voter revolt. And they could not come at a worse time. Combined with likely statehouse gains, they threaten to put Republicans in charge of redistricting for the first time in several generations, and will potentially provide the GOP with a top-tier crop of Presidential hopefuls in the future.

Read more at Real Clear Politics.

For Democrats, Politics Is Local Again

Party's Candidates for Re-Election Are Trying to Draw Voters' Attention Away From an Unpopular National Leadership

The Democratic-run Congress passed a health-care overhaul and is close to securing new rules for Wall Street. But in his re-election campaign back in southern New Mexico, Rep. Harry Teague is talking about new sidewalks and widening a freeway.

Across the country, Democrats defending House and Senate seats amid the stiffest anti-incumbent mood in two decades are trying to focus attention away from Washington—and toward local factors that might persuade voters to return their lawmaker to office.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal.

Campaign rhetoric focuses on economy

President Obama offered a sharp-edged preview of his election-season campaign message, using fundraisers for Missouri Senate candidate Robin Carnahan and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) to cast the midterms as a choice between economic policies of the past and those of the future.

Unions outspending corporations on campaign ads despite court ruling

Labor unions have dominated spending on independent campaign ads so far this election season, despite a recent Supreme Court decision that freed spending by corporations, a Washington Post analysis shows.

Read more at The Washington Post.

Unstable Senate a challenge for Democrats

The death of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the longest-serving member of the Senate, highlights an unusual dynamic that continues to reorder the election landscape and unsettle the Democratic Senate majority — the high degree of Senate turnover since Barack Obama’s 2008 election as president.

When a successor is appointed to Byrd’s seat — and it’s still unclear when that will occur — the Senate will include a half-dozen unelected senators, the most it’s seen in decades.

The last time there were more appointed senators was in the 87th Congress, from 1961 to 1963, when seven senators were appointed.

Read more at Politico.

Op-Ed Columnist

Myths of Austerity

When I was young and naïve, I believed that important people took positions based on careful consideration of the options. Now I know better. Much of what Serious People believe rests on prejudices, not analysis. And these prejudices are subject to fads and fashions.

Read more of Paul Krugman's piece at The New York Times.

Obama's election mastermind: GOP win 'plausible'

Democrats aim to paint Republicans as party of obstruction and indifference

WASHINGTON — Architects of President Obama's 2008 victory are braced for potentially sizable Democratic losses in November's midterm elections. But they say voters' unease about a GOP takeover will help their party maintain congressional majorities.

"I think the prospect of a Republican takeover — while not likely, but plausible — will be very much part of the dynamic in October, and I think that will help us with turnout and some of this enthusiasm gap," said David Plouffe, who was Obama's campaign manager two years ago and is helping to oversee Democratic efforts this fall. Still, he put all Democrats on notice, saying: "We'd better act as a party as if the House and the Senate and every major governor's race is at stake and in danger, because they could be."

Read more at The Washington Post.

Midterm Races Spur Feverish Drive for Donations

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers have been toiling away at a feverish pace here this week, working their way through breakfasts, lunches and dinners across Capitol Hill. The urgent task is not simply passing legislation, but raising money.

Election Day may be four months away, but a critical benchmark for the midterm election year took place Wednesday at midnight, the deadline for second-quarter fund-raising. Candidates in both parties will be judged — fairly or not — by their ability to raise money to fend off a challenger or topple an incumbent.

Read more at The New York Times.

Conservatives use Pelosi as face of liberalism in campaign ads

Beware! Nancy Pelosi is a colossal tax-dollar-engorged monster who ravages small towns and must be brought down by Republican ray guns. Or at least that is what a cartoon version of the House speaker looked like in "Attack of the 50-Foot Pelosi," a television ad that a conservative group called Right Change aired in Pennsylvania last month.

Jobless aid stalls in Senate; home buyers get more time

The Senate failed once again late Wednesday to advance a plan to restore jobless benefits for people out of work more than six months, leaving millions of unemployed workers in limbo until after the July 4 recess.

NRCC adds 16 top targets

The National Republican Congressional Committee has picked 16 new candidates for the top tier of its “Young Guns” program, an initiative that aids promising House challengers with fundraising and infrastructure support and strategic advice.

The fresh additions to the NRCC’s list provide the most specific look yet at the House GOP’s highest-priority targets for the 2010 cycle. With the 16 additional names included, the “Young Guns” list includes a total of 39 candidates – exactly the number of seats Republicans would need to take back control of the House this November.

Read more at Politico.

Jobless Aid Back on Senate Agenda

Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled yet another effort to extend unemployment benefits as part of a pared package that includes an extension of the deadline for homeowners to claim a tax credit.

After Republicans blocked a similar effort to extend unemployment benefits last week, the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said he would move on to other legislative business. And, for a day and a half, he did.

Read more at The New York Times.

Supreme Court Affirms a Ban on Soft Money

The Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed without comment a ruling upholding a ban on so-called soft-money contributions to political parties.

Three justices — Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas — did vote to hear the case, suggesting the possibility that the court might take up a similar question down the road.

Read more at The New York Times.

Poll: Spill drags the president's rating down

A silver lining for Obama is that his personal scores are still strong

Two months of oil continuing to gush from a well off the Gulf Coast, as well as an unemployment rate still near 10 percent, have taken a toll on President Barack Obama and his standing with the American public, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

For the first time in the survey, more disapprove of his job performance than approve; for the first time in his presidency, more than 60 percent believe the country is on the wrong track; and as he relieves Gen. Stanley McChrystal of his command in Afghanistan, Obama’s scores on being able to handle a crisis and on being decisive have plummeted since last year.

Read more at MSNBC.com.

Reality Check: Battle for the Senate

As a somewhat stark reminder of just how difficult a year this is going to be for Democrats, look at how many Democratic incumbents are polling under 50% in the RCP Average at the moment:

Blanche Lincoln (AR) is at 35.0% against John Boozman.
Harry Reid (NV) is at 41.0% against Sharron Angle.
Michael Bennet (CO) is at 42.7% when matched up against Jane Norton and 43.0% against Ken Buck.
Patty Murray (WA) is at 46.3% against unknowns Clint Didier and Paul Akers and she's at 45.7% against Dino Rossi.
Barbara Boxer (CA) is at 46.6% against Carly Fiorina.
Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) is at 48.0%, 48.3%, and 48.7%, respectively, against three no-name Republicans.
Russ Feingold (WI) is at 49.7% against Dave Westlake. Feingold was at an even lower 48.5% in the RCP Average against Terrence Wall before he dropped his bid at the beginning of the month, and a new Rasmussen poll shows Feingold at a mere 46% and in a statistical tie with Republican newcomer Ron Johnson.

Read more at Real Clear Politics.

Democrats 'in striking distance' for votes to pass campaign finance measure

CAMPAIGN FINANCE

Van Hollen sees path to passing legislation

Democrats are "in striking distance of getting the votes" to pass new campaign finance legislation, a leading advocate for the bill said Monday, even though groups on the political left and right have spoken out against the measure.

Sunday show highlights

Rahm talks economy, Afghanistan

Five governor's races could indicate GOP success in 2012

The roots of a Republican political renaissance in 2012 lie in the Rust Belt.

Budget crisis freezes Senate

Washington’s summer budget crisis got only hotter Thursday with missed deadlines and both parties talking past one another on how to restore jobless benefits for a swelling tide of workers and avoid major disruptions in Medicare payments to physicians.

Read more at Politico.

Joe Barton Apologizes to BP (No, Really)

At this morning's hearing with BP CEO Tony Hayward, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) went so far as to apologize to the oil company for what he called a "shake down" on the part of the Obama administration to get the company to establish a $20 billion fund to compensate affected Gulf coast residents.

Read more at Mother Jones.

Loopholes Grow in Bill to Offset Ruling on Campaigns

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats are pushing hard for legislation to rein in the power of special interests by requiring more disclosure of their roles in paying for campaign advertising — but as they struggle to find the votes they need to pass it they are carving out loopholes for, yes, special interests.

Read more at The New York Times.

National Labor Relations Board decisions were illegal, Supreme Court rules

Hundreds of recent federal rulings in disputes between unions and employers could be reopened after the Supreme Court said on Thursday that it was illegal for the National Labor Relations Board to decide the cases with only two sitting members.

Jobs bill trimmed by billions

Closing in on 60 votes, Senate Democrats trimmed billions more from their once ambitious jobs and economic relief bill Wednesday in hopes of winning over swing Republicans and breaking the stalemate this week.

The spending reductions — estimated near $20 billion — are accompanied by tax changes tailored to the small-business concerns of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) as well as venture capital and real estate interests with influence in both parties.

Read more at Politico.

Stimulus Bond Program Has Unforeseen Costs

They are supposed to help states and cities that are short of cash build roads, schools and bridges.

But Build America Bonds, part of President Obama’s economic stimulus plan, are also building something else: controversy.

Read more at the New York Times.

Burying the Incumbent Protection Racket

Politics Daily: Can centrists survive 2010?

Independents find themselves caught in political crosshairs

So far, 2010 has been an eventful, and sometimes perilous year for independent-minded politicians — and would-be party kingmakers. This dual lesson keeps being relearned in primary after primary, all over the country, and in both parties.

Read more at MSNBC Politics Daily.

Watch Politico Sunday Talk Show Roundup

Ax: 'Not a matter of trust' with BP 

Here's what you may have missed from this week's Sunday political shows. SPILL TALK: Obama will address nation on BP, says Axelrod, who also says “it’s not a matter of trust” with the company. 

America is waiting for Obama’s “megaphone moment,” says Van Jones. 

Boehner to Hoyer: Time to stop blaming Bush. 

Gulf Coast govs are unhappy with “sensational” press, try and reassure tourists. 

Riley rips W.H. response. 

Bill Gates says the U.S. needs an annual 11-figure investment in energy.  Pence: “Everybody in America knew whose a-double-s to kick.” 

ELEPHANT SPILLINGS: Clyburn’s quote for the ages on the unlikely Democratic Senate nominee in Georgia: “I saw in the Democratic primary elephant dung all over the place.” 

Fiorina says she was quoting a friend when she critiqued Boxer’s hair. 

Boehner’s unimpressed with Obama’s Saturday night letter pushing for more money to the states. 

Wasserman Schultz: 2010 not “year of the woman” yet. 

“Noose is tightening” on Iran with new sanctions, says Rice. And she’s not happy with the New York Times.

Watch it HERE!

Labor-dissing Dems, think again

According to most political analysis of Tuesday’s primaries, a big takeaway is that labor took a big hit.

The Associated Press, for example, called incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s defeat of labor-backed Lt. Gov. Bill Halter in the Arkansas Senate primary runoff a “stunning defeat for labor.” Implicit in this analysis is the idea that Lincoln’s victory — granted, with support from the two most recent Democratic presidents — was a score for the party’s sensible center. This, the reasoning goes, is what wins presidential races, and more important, Lincoln’s victory was a sharp rebuke to the narrow, party-weakening, special-interest labor movement.

Read more at Politico

DNC TV ad touts health-care law's benefits

Mark Murray writes: From NBC's Mark Murray
Earlier this week, President Obama held an event with seniors -- in an effort to continue selling the health-care law to the public.

Now the Democratic National Committee is up with a new TV ad (to air on national and DC cable over the next week or so) that could very well be the argument we'll hear from Democrats in the fall.

The ad touts the law's immediate benefits, and it criticizes Republicans for wanting to take them away. "The Republican approach is a plan only insurance companies would love," the ad concludes.

Watch the commercial below and read more from First Read here.

Obama Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform and Seniors

June 08, 2010 — An IUPAT member asks an important question about COBRA benefits during
President Obama's Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform.

Ark. fight fuels W.H.-labor family feud

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) may have survived a primary challenge from Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, but her narrow runoff victory only exacerbated the family feud between the White House and organized labor.

While the three unions that spearheaded the anti-Lincoln push — AFL-CIO, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union — were disappointed by Halter’s loss, they remain upbeat about the declaration of independence they delivered to the White House and to Democrats who don’t support their agenda.

Read more at Politico

The midterms: The Lincoln lesson

“[A]s Senator Blanche Lincoln proved by winning the bruising Democratic primary runoff, Democrats do not necessarily serve at the pleasure of the party’s left flank,” the Boston Globe writes. “Lincoln survived a massive and unprecedented mobilization by labor unions and liberal advocacy groups in Arkansas, raising questions anew about the political power of the progressive movement.”

“Senate Democrats on Wednesday were as upbeat about their midterm election prospects as they have been in several months, celebrating Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s hard-fought primary runoff victory Tuesday night and expressing optimism that Majority Leader Harry Reid may be making a comeback,” Roll Call writes.

Read more at First Read

November true test for Tea Party success

(CNN) -- As Sharron Angle celebrated her win in Nevada's Republican Senate primary, she praised the Tea Party activists who backed her campaign and vowed to return the country to its constitutional principles.

Angle, a former Nevada Assembly member criticized as being too far from the mainstream to win, soared to the front of the crowded field of more than a dozen GOP candidates. She'll face Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the general election.

The Tea Party Express, which endorsed her campaign, declared Angle's win "a huge victory for the Tea Parties."

But so far this election season, the message for Tea Party activists has been "you win some, you lose some."

Read more at CNN Election Center