Tea Party nutjobs are Republican Party’s own worst enemy

Bloomberg News: Kentucky, Wyoming and South Carolina should be easy wins for incumbent Republicans trying to regain the U.S. Senate majority in 2014.

Instead, the primary challenges they face threaten to drain resources, sharpen campaign trail rhetoric and build division for a party struggling to find its way after a demoralizing 2012 election.

In Georgia, the Republican primary is jammed with seven candidates, pitting one wing of the party against the other — as is the case in the other states. Meanwhile, Democrats are unifying behind one candidate.

The infighting has raised Democratic expectations that they can keep control of the chamber and perhaps capture seats in Republican-leaning states. They did that in Indiana and Missouri in 2012 against inexperienced candidates backed by the small-government Tea Party branch of the party.

More Todd Akins, more Christine O’Donnells, more Sharon Angles? Yeah, they’re probably coming. And if history is any indication, the Tea Party insistence on ideological purity could be expensive. “It’s those primary challenges that shot down the Republican effort to win the Senate in the last two elections,” David Redlawsk, a political science professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey told Bloomberg. “The Tea Party brought in what turned out to be very weak candidates.”

What gets me is that teabaggers seem to have convinced themselves that they speak for America. And, being a group of people who embrace an evidence- and fact-free belief system, the fact that America rejects them time and again does nothing to disabuse them of this belief. When Todd Akin opened his mouth and said the most insane thing ever, he really did think the public would find it compelling. They don’t say these aggressively stupid things because they think people need to be convinced that they’re true, they say them because they think they’re the sorts of things “everybody knows.” So they say these things not because they’re incautious or can’t censor themselves, but because they have absolutely no idea what the American public will find offensive and/or jawdroppingly asinine.

And the beauty of it all is that the Tea Party is a monster of the GOP’s own creation. They taught these chumps the things that “everybody knows” and now they find themselves being dragged down by their idiocy and ignorance — the very idiocy and ignorance the party instilled in these ‘baggers in the first place.

You don’t often see pure poetic justice in the wild, so make sure to savor it.

‘Nuclear option’ avoided in favor of continuation of obstructionist status quo

OK, so here’s the big appointment/filibuster deal. Republicans break the filibusters on nominees, who get an up or down vote to the cabinet posts. Two recess-nominated appointees would be replaced with new nominees who will be confirmed. In the end, seven nominations by the president are a sure bet for confirmation.

That might seem like a pretty good deal, but consider: the President and Democrats get seven filibuster-free nomination votes — after which Republicans get to keep filibustering everything pretty much forever. The filibuster will not be reformed and government remains broken and unresponsive during a period of weak economic recovery. Democracy merely makes a visit to the US Senate, after which she’s thrown out on her ass again. Then it’s back to minority-rule business as usual.

This is a lousy deal and any Democrat who tells you they’re happy with it is either lying or a dope.

Maybe it is the best that could be done. If so, the best falls far, far short of enough.

[photo via Wikimedia Commons]

Background check bill not at all dead; gaining votes

Huffington Post: Senate Democrats believe that they have several new votes in favor of a bill that would expand background checks for gun buyers, after weeks in which those who opposed the legislation faced strong political backlash at home.

The additional votes would still put the bill, a bipartisan compromise sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), shy of the 60 necessary for passage. And tellingly, no one boasting of growing support would reveal the names of those lawmakers ready to flip.

But the bullish talk from Democrats — from leadership on down — is yet another indication that the party feels good about the fallout from the failed gun vote and is increasingly eager to try again.

What’s happening is that a lot of no votes are taking a hammering at home. The idea here seems to be to keep the issue hot, so that those Senators who’ve lost standing with a soft-on-crime vote against expanding background checks have to keep facing the issue — and keep talking about it.

“Joe Manchin called me yesterday,” Senate majority leader Harry Reid told Huffington Post’s Sam Stein. “He thinks he has a couple more votes. The one senator, Republican Senator from New Hampshire [Kelly Ayotte], has been — wham, man has she been hit hard. She’s the only senator in the northeast to vote against background checks. She went from a hugely positive number in New Hampshire — her negatives now outweigh her positives. She is being hit every place she goes. So we are going to pick up some more votes. I may be able to get another Democrat or two. That would get us up to 57. We may only need three additional Republicans. So we’ll see.”

Dem Sen. Mark Pryor — who likewise is taking a beating — is said to be in talks with Manchin about defecting to yes. One definitely in talks is Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson, who’d sponsored a similar bill in Georgia. The only reason he seems to have voted against it at the federal level is because he was strongarmed by the NRA. Greg Sargent reports that he’s looking to be thrown a face-saving bone, but is definitely on the shortlist for defectors.

As I keep saying, this isn’t over until we win.

[photo by KOMUnews]

Harry Reid Needs to Put Up or Shut Up on Filibuster Reform

File under "I wouldn't get my hopes up"; ThinkProgress' Ian Millhiser reports that Senate majority leader Harry Reid is talking filibuster reform again, after the last stab at it turned out to be a completely inadequate joke. In an interview with a public radio station, Reid threatened once again to bring democracy to the US Senate.

“All within the sound of my voice, including my Democratic senators and the Republican senators who I serve with, should understand that we as a body have the power on any given day to change the rules with a simple majority, and I will do that if necessary,” Reid said on Nevada Public Radio.

...“I’m a very patient man. Last Congress and this Congress, we had the opportunity to make some big changes. We made changes, but the time will tell whether they’re big enough. I’m going to wait and build a case,” Reid said. “If the Republicans in the Senate don’t start approving some judges and don’t start helping get some of these nominations done, then we’re going to have to take more action.”

 Yes, Harry Reid is a "very patient man." In fact, on the issue of Republican obstructionism, Harry Reid has been far too patient.

Women Are Winning the War on Women

[via Truth Has a Liberal Bias]

Sworn In

Joe Biden Swears in Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), while her son Henry helps.

[via Talking Points Memo]

Historic number of women sworn in as Senators

ABC News:

Today the Senate will make history, swearing in a record-breaking 20 female senators — four Republicans and 16 Democrats — in office.

[…]

“I can’t tell you the joy that I feel in my heart to look at these 20 gifted and talented women from two different parties, different zip codes to fill this room,” Sen. Barbara Mikulksi, D-Md., said while surrounded by the group of women senators. “In all of American history only 16 women had served. Now there are 20 of us.”

Meanwhile, in Crazytown:

The Hill:

A conservative women’s group sees an historic number of women being sworn into the Senate on Thursday as a negative development.

Independent Women’s Forum Executive Director Sabrina Schaeffer said in a statement that the increase in women, because they are mostly Democratic women, will be harmful for government.

“While a lot is being made about the record number of women joining the Senate, the reality is the majority of these women are Democrats – 16 of the 20 – and as a result we are likely to see higher taxes, bigger government, and less freedom,” she said.

Ever think there might be a reason why 16 of the 20 are Democrats? Keep waging that War on Women, conservatives. It’s working out so well for you.

New Feingold Ad: "Homegrown"

Russ Feingold has a new ad out. I'm reposting it here, because it touches on points I brought up earlier today and because this blog and this blogger support Russ.

In related news, I'm listening to Ed Schultz on the radio. He and some other media types have met with the White House and he says there's good news in the pipe regarding the 99ers. I'll update when I know.




UPDATE: While it's not exactly clear if this is what Ed was talking about, it sure sounds like it.

Washington Post:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will call the chamber back into session next week to finish work on a $26 billion plan to prevent the layoffs of tens of thousands of teachers and other public workers.

"I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers' jobs and help seniors & children," Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Wednesday from her Twitter account.

The announcement came a few hours after the measure cleared a key hurdle in the Senate, handing President Obama a long-sought victory on his election-year jobs agenda.

The bill advanced by a vote of 61 to 38, breaking a GOP filibuster and setting the stage for final Senate approval later this week. Two Republicans -- Maine Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins -- joined a united Democratic caucus in supporting the measure.

So, not exactly help for the 99ers who need it desperately, but a plan to limit further unemployment. Nice, but the 99ers still need help.

The White House, Lieberman, and the Definition of Insanity

This seems to involve a certain ignoring of recent history.

Politico:

The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), which would mean eliminating the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations.

But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week.

"There is a weariness and a lot of frustration that one person is holding up the will of 59 others," the official said. “There is still too much anger and confusion at one particular senator’s reversal.”

I don't get the opportunity to say this much lately, but I'm with Harry Reid here. Cutting a deal with Lieberman is like Charlie Brown getting Lucy to promise not to yank away the football. Any "deal" cut with Lieberman should involve a lot of swearing, a lot of yelling, the words "I talk, while you shut the hell up," and the prospect of finding himself out of his committees. If he balks -- even for a second -- fire his ass out the caucus so fast he gets whiplash. There's no reason not to.

The man is completely untrustworthy. You can't make a deal with him, because he'll go back on his word. Guaranteed. I'm not sure what the White House is thinking here, but they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. By that definition, thinking you can cut a deal with Lieberman is insane.


UPDATE: Greg Sargent reports that the White House is denying Politico's story. WH senior communications adviser Dan Pfeiffer sent the following to him in an email:

The report is inaccurate. The White House is not pushing Senator Reid in any direction. We are working hand in hand with the Senate Leadership to work through the various issues and pass health reform as soon as possible.

So is it true? Who knows? Doesn't really make any difference -- there's no point in working with Lieberman.

Washington is a Whole 'nother World

Here's a question that's both interesting and timely; what planet do people in Washington live on? Greg Sargent takes a look at CNN polling and finds that most Americans believe the Senate is moving in the wrong direction on healthcare reform.

Here’s something that adds a bit of perspective to the Senate’s decision to compromise by dropping the public option: The new CNN poll’s internals show that the public option is more popular than the current Senate health care compromise by a whopping 17 point difference.

The poll finds that only 36% favor the Senate compromise, versus 61% who oppose it.

By contrast, the poll finds that 53% favor the public option, versus 46% who oppose it.

Thirty-six percent for the Senate bill. Fifty-three percent for the public option.

It would be hard to find a clearer expression of how badly the need for a supermajority in the Senate is perverting democracy.

We gave these people a 60 seat majority and they still can't get their shit together. They're compromising, which is to be expected, but the wrong people are making concessions and the whole thing's going in the opposite direction of where Americans want it to go.

I still don't think there's a chance in hell of Democrats losing the Senate in '10, but it's not for lack of trying. If there was ever a supermajority that deserved to lose everything, this is the one. They will lose that 60 -- but it's hard for me to shed a tear over that when it hasn't done us a damned bit of good anyway.

In related news, Senate spinelessness is contagious and spreading to the House. I'd add an image to this post, but I can't find an adequate visual representation of a clusterfuck.

The Two Faces of Sen. Judd Gregg

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) explains how obstructionism for political gain is the worst thing ever:

"Obstruction has become the only thing which the other side of the aisle appears to be able to do, obstruction for the purpose of obstruction for the purpose of obtaining power around here," Gregg says in the clip.

Of course, that was back in 2006, when Democrats were using procedural tactics to slow down some of Bush's crazier judicial nominees and screwier ideas. Things are different now:

Brian Beutler, Talking Points Memo:

If Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) gets his way, the dilatory tactics that have marked the early days of the Senate health care debate will grow more and more severe.

"We, the minority party, must use the tools we have under Senate rules to insist on a full, complete and fully informed debate on the health care legislation - as well as all legislation - coming before the Senate," Gregg wrote in a letter to Republican colleagues yesterday. "As laid out in the attached document, we have certain rights before measures are considered on the floor as well as certain rights during the actual consideration of measures. Every Republican senator should be familiar with the scope of these rights, which serve to protect our ability to speak on behalf of the millions of Americans who depend on us to be their voice during this historic debate."

See, when Republicans do it, it's fighting the good fight. But when Democrats do it, it's throwing a monkeywrench into the gears of democracy. Gregg's right, they do "have certain rights before measures are considered on the floor as well as certain rights during the actual consideration of measures." Filibusters exist because the Senate rules seem to think they're a good idea (whether they are or not is another debate for another day).

But what he doesn't get to do is complain when the rules work against him and thump his chest self-righteously when they do. Especially when he makes it clear that they'll use every obstructionist tactic under the sun. TPM again:

Most of the steps Gregg suggests his colleagues take don't serve any substantive purpose at all, but simply cause the debate proceedings to grind to a halt. As if this debate was proceeding at lightning speed. And this was nearly President Obama's Commerce Secretary! Democrats, for their part, are saying they'll happily take the debate through Christmas if this sort of behavior persists.

Find a position on procedural rules and the filibuster and stick with it, Senator Gregg. It's called integrity.

Senate Healthcare Debate on Twitter

I'm going to be at a party with friends tonight, so I'm not going to be able to provide updates on the healthcare debate in the Senate. Luckily for me, I was able to rope a bunch of smart people into doing all my updates for me, using the super-sneaky method of putting my "News" list from Twitter up as a blog post:



Now I can drink a lot of beer, then view whatever wreckage there is from the debate -- and following vote -- tomorrow.

Easiest. Live-blogging. Ever.

Envy me.

Griper Blade: It's Not Hypocrisy if You're a Republican

I hope the RNC chairman will realize he's not a talking head pundit, that he is supposed to be working on the grassroots and rebuilding it, and maybe doing something about our open primary system and fixing it so that Democrats do not nominate our candidates.
-Rush Limbaugh, before RNC chairman Michael Steele apologized to him this week.

Both yesterday and today, we have had callers from Texas who are foot soldiers, enlisted officers, in Operation Chaos. Both of these gentlemen, one in Austin, the most recent from Galveston that you just heard, not only voted for Hillary Clinton in the Texas primary, but they went a step further. They went back and caucused. Operation Chaos operatives went back and caucused. These two are just two of many. These two are now delegates to the Texas state convention. They are delegates for Hillary Clinton to the Texas state Democrat convention. They will be there undercover.
-Rush Limbaugh, bragging about interfering in the Democratic primary, 2008.

Oh my golly, Rush Limbaugh's a hypocrite! What a shock. When Republicans use states' open primary systems to interfere in Democratic nominations, it's labeled "Operation Chaos" and bragged about for months on end. When Democrats interfere in Republican primaries (and this is the first I've heard of it -- I think this might be drug-induced paranoia on Rush's part), it's a terrible abuse that must be "fixed."

Of course, Rush Limbaugh's brilliance is entirely overrated. His "Operation Chaos" was a huge bust, as our current president demonstrates. His cunning plan to sink the Democrats' chances in '08 worked out about as well as you might've thought. Obama won by an electoral landslide, complete with Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. "Operation Chaos" was not a success.

While it's fun to point out what an empty space Rush Limbaugh really is, that's not my point today. What I've got in mind is GOP hypocrisy -- it's all over the place lately... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Griper Blade: GOP Wins a Battle No One was Fighting

Yesterday was a big day for residents of the nation's capital. Taxation without representation will finally end in Washington DC. With the passage of a DC Voting Rights Bill, the city will get one voting member of the House of Representatives -- Obama is certain to sign it. I was flipping through the channels recently and came across Glenn Beck claiming it would give Democrats two more senators, but -- not surprisingly -- Beck has no idea what he's talking about. The bill increases the seats in the house from 435 to 437 (a deal was struck to add a balancing seat from Utah). It doesn't do anything to change senate membership.

It's kind of fitting that I came across Beck's idiocy on this subject, because another deal swung in the senate to get the bill passed involved the Fairness Doctrine.

Reuters:

The U.S. Senate passed an amendment on Thursday that would bar regulators from requiring broadcasters to give equal time to all points of view, a ban strongly supported by some Republican lawmakers.

The legislative amendment, sponsored by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from reimposing the so-called Fairness Doctrine to all broadcasters. It was repealed more than 20 years ago.

Aides to President Barack Obama have said he has no intention of trying to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, but that has not stopped some Republicans from raising the issue.

DeMint added the amendment to the voting rights bill, in order to save right wing talk radio and conservative media from destruction by the forces of... Well, fairness. The right has been demagoguing the issue for some time, pretending that there was some danger of the doctrine ever returning -- while completely misrepresenting what the Fairness Doctrine actually was... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Griper Blade: After Stimulus Vote, Republicans Demand More Rope

When the stimulus passed in the House of Representatives, it did so without a single Republican vote. When it passed in the Senate yesterday, it earned a whopping three Republican votes. Sens. Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins broke ranks with their party, voting for a watered down version of the bill. Not content to fiddle while the nation burns, these three senators recognized that we're in an honest-to-goodness emergency. Something needed to be done and, despite pressure from their own party, these three senators did something. Not enough, but something.

How real is this emergency? So real that the world economy came close to literal collapse in late 2008. It was then that there was an electronic run on banks "to the tune of $550 billion dollars" within "an hour or two."

According to [Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA)], on September 18, 2008 the Fed tried to "stem the tide" by pumping money into the financial system but it didn't work and decided instead to announce an immediate increase in deposit insurance to $250,000 per account to stop the panic.

Said Kanjorski: "If they had not done that, their estimation is that by 2 p.m. that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the U.S., would have collapsed the entire economy of the U.S., and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it."

But, of course, when the market and the economy are this bad, the Republican party decided that it would be a perfect time to do a little grandstanding, score some cheap political points with their base, and put on a show of wingnut solidarity. Three senators didn't play along... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Griper Blade: Winning the Public Opinion War

Yesterday, I wrote that Republicans are enjoying their minority status, because it means they no longer feel the need to make sense or be responsible or get anything done. Free to be as wingnutty as they want to be, they can repeat thoroughly debunked economic theories and beat their ideological drum as loud as they want, since there's no consequence for them in being 100% wrong. They can propose insane alternatives that serve no purpose other than to shore up their far right bona fides, then complain that the dems shut out their "better ideas" when those insane alternatives are rejected. Grandstanding and theatrics are much, much more fun than actually getting anything done.

At President Obama's first press conference last night, he was asked a question about bipartisanship by CBS News' Chip Reid:

You have often said that bipartisanship is extraordinarily important, overall and in this stimulus package, but now, when we ask your advisers about the lack of bipartisanship so far -- zero votes in the House, three in the Senate -- they say, "Well, it's not the number of votes that matters; it's the number of jobs that will be created."

Is that a sign that you are moving away -- your White House is moving away from this emphasis on bipartisanship?

And what went wrong? Did you underestimate how hard it would be to change the way Washington works?

It was a good question... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Griper Blade: Why the GOP Wants the Stimulus to Fail

A peek in at the progress of the stimulus bill in the Senate.

Associated Press:

Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked Democrats from adding $25 billion for highways, mass transit, and water projects to President Barack Obama’s economic recovery program.

Already unhappy over the size of the measure, Republicans insisted additional infrastructure projects be paid for with cuts elsewhere in the bill.

But the Democratic amendment garnered 58 votes, just shy of the supermajority needed under Senate budget rules, and many more efforts to increase the measure’s size are sure to follow.

Wait a second, I thought Republicans were saying that there wasn't enough infrastructure spending in the bill. First they want more, then there's too much. Yes, that's the distinct smell of obstructionism you're detecting. We know Republicans couldn't possibly be that picky or they never would've nominated George W. Bush.

So, what gives? Don't Republicans want a stimulus package to get the economy back on track?

The simple answer is no, they do not... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Griper Blade: Slowing the Stimulus

There seems to be a little bump in the road to Barack Obama's economic stimulus package. Republicans, for reasons we'll get to shortly, are putting the brakes on the idea, under the flag of caution. It's a whole lot of money, they argue, and you can't just rush willy-nilly into this kind of thing. After having rushed willy-nilly into the invasion of Iraq and the massive bank bailout, it's tempting to give them the benefit of the doubt -- maybe they've learned their lesson. All this willy-nilly rushing often turns out bad.

"As of right now, Americans are left with more questions than answers about this unprecedented government spending, and I believe the taxpayers deserve to know a lot more about where it will be spent before we consider passing it," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

But these are Republicans and assuming cynicism in their motives isn't never a bad bet. Many see the concerns over the stimulus as being more about the future of the Republican party than about the future of the nation. Dean Baker -- who I'm really starting to like -- points out that the GOP is starting another round of historical revisionism. In what they claim is "a careful rereading of the history of the New Deal," Republicans say that "President Roosevelt's policies actually lengthened the Great Depression." But it's not a rerun of a history they've completely made up that worries them, it's the history that actually happened. Specifically, after the depression.

[F]rom the standpoint of Republicans, the more ominous lesson of the New Deal policies is that it left the Democrats firmly in power for more than 20 years. The Republicans did not regain the White House until 1952, 20 years after President Roosevelt was first elected.

Imagine how terrifying the prospect of 20 years of Democratic presidencies must be for the current generation of Republican leaders. This would mean that they would not retake the White House until 2028, just 20 years before the Social Security trust fund is first projected to face a shortfall.

As Baker sees it, Republicans believe they have to burn the village to save it. Maybe this stimulus would save the economy, but Republican ideas are -- in their own minds -- the only moral way to think. Two decades of Democratic rule would be sacrificing American society to save the American economy. It's not about Republican economic ideas, but Republican societal ideas. They see twenty years of abortion and gay rights and evolution education and that crazy, hippy environmentalism stuff. The GOP, with an already shrinking demographic base, sees American society creating even fewer of those base dwellers... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

In MN, It's Still the Al Franken Decade

clipped from www.startribune.com DFL U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken has moved into his first solid lead over incumbent Republican Norm Coleman, according to a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll. The survey, conducted Tuesday through Thursday by Princeton Survey Research Associates International among 1,084 likely Minnesota voters, shows Franken leading Coleman 43 to 34 percent. Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley is supported by 18 percent of respondents. Franken’s lead is outside the poll’s margin of sampling error, plus or minus 3.7 points.

The poll isn't without controversy, however. A SurveyUSA poll finds almost the opposite, with Coleman leading Franken by 10.

Still, there's something hinky about SUSA's polling in Minnesota. It's been in wild disagreement with most other polls. Coleman points to SUSA's numbers, but I doubt that -- in his little heart of hearts -- he finds much comfort in them.

"DFL" is Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, BTW. The official name of the state Democratic party.

GOP Strategists See Big Nov. Losses

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com With the party already struggling to generate enthusiasm for its brand, Republican strategists fear that an outpouring of public anger generated by Congress's struggle to pass a rescue package for the financial industry may contribute to a disaster at the polls for the GOP in November. "The crisis has affected the entire ticket," said Jan van Lohuizen, a Republican consultant who handled the polling for President Bush's reelection campaign. "The worse the state's economy, the greater the impact." In the Senate, where Democrats have been on offense all year as they try to attain a filibuster-proof, 60-seat majority, Republican incumbents are suddenly teetering in North Carolina, Kentucky and Georgia because of the economic crisis, according to several GOP strategists closely tracking the contests.

"If you turn the clock back two or two and half weeks, you could make a plausible argument that if a couple of things go our way we will lose three to four Senate races," an unnamed strategist told WaPo. "Now we will lose six to eight." Polling in most Senate races over the past 14 days has shown a five-point decline for the Republican candidate, the strategist said. The piece continues:

The picture in the House is similar. The generic ballot test -- a traditional measure of broad voter attitudes -- has also moved decisively in Democrats' direction in recent days. The latest NBC-Wall Street Journal and Associated Press polls showed voters favoring a generic Democratic candidate for Congress over a generic Republican by 13 points, while a recent Time magazine poll gave Democrats a 46 percent to 36 percent edge.

It's looking more and more like 2006 all over again.