National

So I guess this is happening now. If I get some pledges, and Mrs. (not as) Liberal (as me), doesn't kill me - I guess I'll have some news to announce. For the record - if John Carney paid a crumb's worth of attention to the Democratic base, this wouldn't be necessary. I actually had high hopes for Carney, but there is no more room left for hoping for the best. He is a complete and total sell out. His constant overtures to the obstructionist Republicans are hard to swallow, but you can chalk that up to a warm and open personality. Doing the Koch Brother's bidding is the last straw, however. It isn't an issue of style. Now he is openly working against the interests of middle class Delawareans. This country has moved to the right over the past 20 years because the GOP has primaries which force the party to pay attention to the base. The Democrats don;t have primaries, so Democrats like John Carney are free to utterly ignore the legitimate concerns of the Democratic base.

I think I have to primary John Carney. Not because I want to be in Congress, or be a O’Donell type spoiler and risk throwing the seat to the Republicans. John Carney will easily beat me in the primary. But I want to do it to just have a chance to tell him to his face that he is wrong to take $300k from the financial services industry. That he is wrong to enable the Tea Party like he does by giving “bipartisan” gloss to all the bullshit they are pulling. That he is wrong to use his seat to benefit billionaires like Pete Peterson at the expense of Delawareans he is supposed to be representing. What’s the filling fee? I would surely lose – but if I could just tell him to be a Democrat to his face it might shame him into thinking twice about being the Republican's boy on the other side of the isle. Even if is didn’t, it would make me feel better.

Well, it's reaction day. Cantor Day. Brat Upsets Cantor. Sounds like a headline out of a failed Bar Mitzvah. Anywho, our dear friend Unstable Isotope asked last night on Twitter if the Cantor defeat was bigger than the Castle defeat. I answered Cantor is bigger because we all saw Christine O'Donnell coming, Palin endorsed her, the Tea Party Express got involved in the campaign, Castle got very nervous and went negative, and a poll from PPP five days before the election showed Christine in the lead. You can't say that about this Brat guy. Here is some reaction from the punditry....

A new Public Policy Polling survey conducted in Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-VA) district last night finds that both Cantor and the GOP House leadership are "deeply unpopular" but... interestingly and perhaps somewhat connecting, comprehensive immigration reform "is actually quite popular in his district."

Jonathan Chait says Obama has accomplished all of his domestic goals that he listed in his Inaugural Address in 2009. I think when people right the book on the Obama Presidency, it is going to be the most eventful in terms of accomplishment since Franklin Roosevelt's. Consider this from Andrew Sullivan:

Imagine the legacy [at the end of Obama's presidency]: no troops in Iraq or Afghanistan; Gitmo closed; universal healthcare entrenched; Iran’s nuclear threat defused; marriage equality in all fifty states; the end of marijuana Prohibition; and carbon energy cut down to size. Repeat after me: meep meep, motherf*ckers.

Las Vegas couple who spread freedom and liberty by shooting to death two police officers, and a third person delivered a anti-tyranny message as they left home before the ambush with a shopping cart of weapons, a neighbor said. "We gotta do what we gotta do," Jerad Miller told Kelly Fielder, adding that he and his wife, Amanda, were departing for an "underground world." Amanda Miller then embraced the neighbor and said, "I am so sorry." Fielder said she had heard the husband make anti-government statements in the past — including a desire to overthrow the government and President Obama and kill police officers — but was not alarmed by them.

First Read:

"There's an important thing missing from these highlights: direct criticism of President Obama or those in his team... Clinton's book was always expected to be an important tell about her 2016 ambitions: If she aired dirty laundry, she probably isn't going to run (because such criticisms wouldn't help her with the Democratic base). But if she was 95% positive, she probably is going to run. Well, I think we have our answer here, right? This is someone who's still involved in politics, rather than an ex-politician who's ready to dish and tell."

I will be receiving my book Wednesday, and I can't wait to read it. Another excerpt: "I wasn't alone in getting it wrong. But I still got it wrong. Plain and simple." -- Hillary Clinton, quoted in her forthcoming memoir, about voting to authorize the Iraq war. More from Hillary: "“… I should have stated my regret sooner and in the plainest, most direct language possible. … I held out against using the word mistake. It wasn’t because of political expediency. … [I]n our culture, saying you made a mistake is often taken as weakness when in fact it can be a sign of strength and growth for people and nations.” Duh. If only she had said that in 2007 and 2008. She gave Obama an opening by refusing to say that.