House Republicans fear double-digit losses this November.  Senate Republicans are defending six open seats and lag the Democrats in fundraising by a 2:1 margin. Nevertheless, the latter think they may be able to hold the damage to a net loss of two seats, due in part to big, fat tax deadbeat Al Franken: Minnesota is trending Democratic, and both President Bush and the Iraq war are wildly unpopular in the state. Minnesota

Democrats won control of Congress in 2006 promising a “new direction” on a panoply of issues.  As the election season heats up, however, Congress finds itself helping itself in the most old-fashioned ways. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is about to ram through a war spending bill that will (ultimately) not include troop withdrawal conditions.  Why?  Democrats are using the bill as leverage for billions of dollars in domestic spending priorities, bypassing whatever meager

Constructed by Piltdown Men! Related: How desperate are Smith College women? Unusual ways to die

Obama takes the lead.

is a fascinating internet freak show, which, however, hasn’t yet covered Amanda Marcotte, Chuck Adkins, The Caric, the Hydra-Socked Gleen(s) or any of the other gobsmiting creatures from the Intarweb Bestiary. Perhaps you can forward your suggestions. The blog roll is worth your attention, too.

Poor Mr. Casaubon had imagined that his long studious bachelorhood had stored up for him a compound interest of enjoyment, and that large drafts on his affections would not fail to be honored; for we all of us, grave or light, get our thoughts entangled in metaphors, and act fatally on the strength of them. –George Eliot, Middlemarch Today’s prime example of progressive post-intelligent thought comes from Jeffrey Feldman at

Some House Republicans apparently blew off the recent warning from former Speaker Newt Gingrich that the GOP needs to get its act together to avoid a debacle in the general election.  One could nitpick Newt’s piece.  For example, he places great weight on the loss of former Speaker Dennis Hastert’s seat in a special election without recognizing that calling the Republican Party in Illinois a train wreck would be unfair to

Sample: All of which highlights a real conflict, a war within liberalism between the idea of unrestricted science in the cause of health and the principle that all men are created equal — between humanitarianism and egalitarianism. In “Science and the Left,” his insightful article in the latest issue of the New Atlantis, Yuval Levin argues that a belief in the power of science is central to the development of

Bitter about Hillary’s continuance of the race against Barack, media types in the tank lash out by managing to find a NASCAR fan who’s a moron: While the case for Hillary Clinton to stay in the race is shakier than ever, one ugly reason for staying in could be found Tuesday amid the ruddy, sun-kissed Hoosiers who cheered her on to victory at the Indianapolis Speedway. With Clinton posing alongside

Nice, compact critique of the Incumbent Protection Legislation and its effects on the presidential campaigns and American politics, generally.