8 arrests in the Bell, California scandal where city officials used the impoverished town as their own piggy bank, drawing inflated salaries that, in one case, came close to a million bucks per annum.
Caveats, caveats, caveats. But is something happening for the Democrats in the national generic ballot?
Nate Silver says that the congressional generic may be understating the Democrats’ strength. But it’s starting to look like that number itself may be shifting. Over the last week, five polling organizations have come out showing the Democrats 1 point ahead of the Republicans. Those are Reuters/Ipsos, Gallup, Zogby, Yougov and PPP. And as you can see from the chart below, it’s actually more of a Republican drop than the Democrats rising, though it’s a bit of both. And that suggests that it’s not just a matter of Dems coming home as the election heats up.
Our chart may actually slightly understate the trend because while we collect so-called Internet polls in our poll data sets, our charts and averages do not include those by default. If you change the filter setting and include them — which means putting Zogby and Yougov back in — the chart looks like this. Read More
Sen. Joe Lieberman told reporters today that it’s time for a bipartisan gang of tktk senators to iron out this whole Bush tax cut renewal issue. And by iron out, I mean clog the legislative arteries and slow roll the thing. I’m just going off Joe’s track record here.
Brian Beutler reports that Senate Republicans will announce tomorrow whether they will strip Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) of her ranking membership on the Energy Committee in retaliation for her write-in candidacy.
The Chamber of Commerce is cranking up its election year machinery in a big way, with TV ad buys against Democratic Senate candidates in three states and against independent Charlie Crist in Florida.
Keep in mind though that these buys account for only about $2 million of the $75 million the Chamber has pledged to spend this cycle. Also remember that the Chamber’s specialty is essentially laundering corporate cash — all perfectly legally — for political expenditures. If a Fortune 500 company would rather not damage its brand by taking sides in politics in a public way, the Chamber is a great way to conceal your company’s role while still getting in the game.
Jon Stewart: Christine O’Donnell is like an East Coast Palin — or a non-self-diddling Biden. Watch.
Christina Bellantoni reports in that Sen. Levin says the debate on the Obama Tax Cut Plan could start as early as Thursday.
After canceling her Sunday show appearances this past weekend, GOP Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell (R-DE) will run the gauntlet of Sean Hannity’s show tonight on Fox. As Evan McMorris-Santoro reports, Softball Sean’s show is a kind of halfway house for beleaguered Republican candidates, where they can avoid a complete media blackout yet not have to encounter any real journalists.
The White House confirms that Larry Summers will leave at the end of the year.