Happy 20th Birthday, Michelle Kahn!!

Birthday!

And the Debate Begins

Updating my prior post on the financial bill, Republicans have announced this afternoon that they are now ready to being debate--after three attempts at preventing the bill from moving to the floor. Yesterday Republicans also offered an alternative proposal to the current bill.

To and From the Civil War

You want polarization? Here's some polarization. Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts.

Video and transcripts of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

The congressional oath of office dates from this era.

Background on the impeachment process.

There is an entire site on the Johnson impeachment.

Another impeachment:

Charlie Crist (I-FL)

Charlie Crist will abandon the Republican Party and run as an Independent for the open Florida Senate seat.



He's done this partly because he's far more centrist than Republican primary voters, but also because he would've gotten wrecked. His opponent, Marco Rubio, has held a consistent 20+ point lead on Crist in polling and is the darling of the Tea Party.

Here's how some pollsters have the race:

Crist as an independent:

Charlie Crist (I) 29 (32)
Marco Rubio (R) 32 (27)
Kendrick Meek (D) 27 (31)

There are a few interesting things this brings up:

1. How will Crist raise money? The campaign committees will give him nothing. Other legislators will give him nothing.

2. Will Crist declare how he will caucus? We discussed this in class briefly on Monday. If he declared that he was going to caucus with Democrats, I could see the Democratic establishment urging Meek to drop out of the race to clear a path to Crist's victory. If he declared he would caucus with Republicans, it would eat into the Democratic vote he almost certainly needs to garner a plurality. If he declared he would caucus with the Senate majority, he'll almost certainly be caucusing with Dems.


3. Will it be Meek or Crist in 3rd place? If it comes close to the election and it's clear that one candidate just is not appealing to voters/won't come close to winning [something like Rubio 40, Crist 40, Meek 20], then the third candidate's voters will bolt to someone with a chance. If the third placer is Meek, and Meek is far back enough in the polls, Crist can win.


No matter what happens, Florida just became interesting. Meek just got a breath of life and if Crist announces he will caucus with Democrats - which is smart electorally since he's already lost Republican support - then Democrats have two bites at the apple in this one.

The RNC Gets Creative

The RNC's 2010 midterm message: voting for a Democrat is voting for Obama. And in case you didn't already know, the RNC isn't a big fan of the president. In the past few days, they have unleashed a few interesting strategies to try to convince voters to vote against Democrats.

GOP.com now redirects to Obama v. Constitution, an "edited" version of the constitution that they claim Obama's court nominees support -- complete with creepy background music.

And here's an ad the RNC released yesterday, mocking the president's "Main Street Tour" as the "Jobless Tour:"

Financial Bill on Hold

Earlier today Republicans voted in a block to prevent the financial oversight bill from reaching the floor for debate. Republicans argued that while they want to eventually pass financial reform, the Democrats were rushing too much. Efforts on financial regulation are expected to be important in the midterms as the economy is slowly--but visibly--beginning to recover, and could help Democrats keep seats in the election.

The New York Times provides a good overview of the events as well as the bill itself.

The article also showed various tactics that senators were using, which brought back memories of the simulation. Below are two examples:

"Sensing political momentum at a time of deep public anger at Wall Street, Democratic leaders said they would keep the regulatory bill on the floor — and delay the rest of their busy legislative agenda — to ratchet up the pressure on the Republicans"

"At the last minute, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, switched his vote to side with the Republicans — a strategic maneuver that would allow him to call a repeat vote, which is expected on Tuesday"

GOP looks to the Internet

As briefly mentioned today in class President Obama’s prospective 2012 Republican rivals are investing heavily in the Internet, looking to cut into what was an overwhelming advantage for Obama in 2008.

“Anyone thinking about running for president — or even local dogcatcher — needs to have an effective online strategy from Day One, because it will be the most determining factor of early, mid and possibly late support,” said David All, an online political consultant who founded the blog TechRepublican.com, which tracks the use of Internet applications by Republican candidates and groups.

Link to the Politico Article Here