What’s Bob Corker’s deal with Harold Ford’s sex life? All Corker’s ads seem to be about it. And just now when I went to Corker’s website I couldn’t help but notice how in the context of bashing Ford he has this Foleyesque reference to Harold as “an attractive young man.”

TPM Reader JT …

I have to chime in here. I’m a neurologist and I work with patients like MJF every day. Neurodegenerative illnesses like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s are not only devastating – they’re ugly to look at. Consequently, one of the biggest problems my patients face is isolation. Society does not like to see them. We especially don’t like to see it in good-looking young people like MJF. But I’m sorry folks –it’s real. Not only that, but you better get used to seeing it. While about 3 million people in this country are affected by neurodegenerative illness today, these diseases are age-related and the numbers of affected people will rise many times over in coming years as the U.S. population ages.

Here’s one of those questions I always wonder about.

If the Democrats have a big night on November 7th, two states where they could rack up a lot of House seats are New York and Pennsylvania.

Now, in both of those states you have Democratic gubernatorial and senate candidates who appear to be on track to score solid victories. In New York, Spitzer and Clinton look like they will crush their opponents. Perhaps getting as much two thirds of the vote. In Pennsylvania the margins won’t be that great. But it looks like Casey and Rendell will win solidly.

So as we look at the polls for the individual House races how should we, or should we at all, factor in the fact that on the same day clear majorities of voters will likely vote Democratic at the top of the ticket.

Thoughts?

Late Update: Now that I think about it, I should have included Ohio in the tally. The senate race is still a going concern, though there’s a poll out today that has a twenty point spread. But the governor’s race looks like another blowout. And there are several House seats up for grabs.

There’s a fight brewing behind the scenes at the House intel committee that deserves your attention. It kicked into high gear last week when ranking member Jane Harman (D-CA) released the summary of the committee’s investigation into the corrupt practices of former committee member Rep. Duke Cunningham. As payback, Chairman Hoekstra (R-MI) yanked the clearances of one of the Democratic committee staffers and accused him of having leaked the Iraq NIE to the New York Times.

The accusation is one for which Hoekstra’s staff now reportedly concedes the chairman has no evidence. Rep. LaHood (R-IL), who first leveled the accusation, went so far as to tell Fox News that the accusation was payback for Cunningham.

This has been kicking around for a few days. The staffer in question, Larry Hanauer, swore out an affidavit, stating that he played no role in the leak.

Then yesterday Chairman Hoekstra told the Democrats he wants to convene an investigation in which the Republicans alone choose an investigator and that investigator gets to look through the Democratic staff’s phone logs, email, and review all other ‘relevant’ records all with a broad breach to uncover any “improper” conduct.

In other words, it’s a witch hunt. You can see the Democrats’ response below — click the images for the full page.

The back story here is important. The Republicans are looking like they’re going to sustain heavy losses on November 7th. One of the reasons is that the public is starting to get a clear view of the disaster they’ve created in Iraq and the broad sweep over corruption that pervades the entire Capitol. Hoekstra didn’t like any of the Duke findings going public. He wanted Harman to agree to keep it secret. But she wouldn’t. And there wasn’t any legitimate reason why it shouldn’t be made public. This is payback.

Most of what is happening to the Republicans right now is happening because too many facts — about Iraq, about the corruption, and all the rest — started to leak out. Some people wouldn’t roll over anymore.

Keep an eye on this. It’s a good prism into what we’ll see over the next two weeks.

We will be bringing you more on this soon.

So now the Allen campaign has resorted to mining Jim Webb’s novels for sex scenes.

If Allen really wants to play rough, maybe it’s time for some Democrats to start going on the shows and asking about that sealed divorce records of Allen’s. All those reporters have a pretty good idea of what’s in there. But Sen. Allen (R-VA) just won’t agree to let them see it.

It’s almost like he’s spitting in their face.

Want to go on the record with your predictions for election day and discuss them with other TPM Readers? If so, click here.

In the runup to election day, the administration panders to tax cheats. Is this what they call shoring up your base? That and other news of the day in today’s Daily Muck.

On the rebound? I’d like to see some numbers from another polling firm to be certain. But it looks at least like Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), head of the NRCC, is pulling off something of a comeback after getting knocked out cold over the Foley fiasco. The two most recent polls, both by SurveysUSA, have him back on top by small margins after falling as much as ten points behind in several recent polls.

And following up on yesterday’s post about how top of the ticket blow-outs in New York and Pennsylvania might help House candidates down-ticket, TPM Reader BY says the following …

I think NY and PA are two different animals. In PA, you’ve got a Senate candidate running a full campaign with a lot of money. He’s losing, but he’s running. And Swann … well, he’s a classic “seemed like a good idea at the time” candidate. Great bio, well-spoken, but utterly clueless. But at least he’s high-profile. So, I don’t think PA GOP candidates will be totally on their own.

NY, though … the NY GOP has completely melted down. Imploded. I work for a Democratic candidate, and I can tell you that Republicans are just completely demoralized. There aren’t too many signs out, almost no volunteers knocking on doors … nothing. There’s no cohesion in anything they do. I think what you’ll see is that GOP reps who are running strong campaigns and have a long history in the district (Walsh, Sweeney, maybe King) will not under-perform too badly. But Kuhl will have trouble, Meier will get blasted, Kelly isn’t the favorite even though she’s the incumbent … those folks will have trouble. And Walsh, Sweeney, et all really have to roll the rock up the hill all by their lonesome.

That sounds right to me. New York seems unique this cycle. Pennsylvania and Ohio may turn out to be blow-outs at the top of the ticket. But you’ve definitely got GOP senate incumbents in both states that really don’t want to lose their jobs and are putting up a real fight. So they’re going to push for wild GOTV on the ground.

More on the Reynolds race in New York from TPM Reader AJV …

Josh, I live in Reynolds district and the reason I think he has pulled ahead is his Social Security bamboozlement TV commercials. He claims he wants to save social security and uses out of context comments from his opponent. They have Jack Davis saying “We need to increase the retirement age” and “those may need to be reduced down” referring to SS benefits. These commercials are everywhere. And Davis has not had a response ad to counter the claim.

It’s classic SS bamboozlement. And in our district, it plays big time.

Also some background- last election the race was again Davis(D) vs Reynolds(R) and it was very close. So I thought the Foley thing would be the tipping point.

This is actually a big issue. And I’ve seen it in this race, the Roskam-Duckworth race in Illinois and other places. Roskam seems by far the worst offender. But I’m more than a little disheartened that the Dems haven’t pushed back harder on this. The local press is entirely complicit in transparent lying from GOP candidates like Reynolds and especially Roskam.

Remember, Roskam is a strong supporter of phasing out Social Security and replacing it with private accounts. Is anyone hearing that in the Roskam-Duckworth race?

TPM Reader KH on Fox and Specter …

Michael J. Fox did a campaign ad for Arlen Specter in 2004. I’d think that he owes Michael something now. I’m thinking that someone should attempt to get him on the record and demand that he speak up now. I’ve called Specter’s Pittsburgh office, as I live here, and they say he has no plan to speak out that they are aware of. That is just plain wrong. Would you be willing to call his offices and try to find out if you can get an on the record statement?

Sounds like a good idea.