A Little of This, A Smidgen of That…
SurveyUSA has the approval ratings of all 100 Senators. Here are the top 10, including ties:
1 ME Snowe, Olympia R Sr 75%
2 ME Collins, Susan R Jr 74%
3 SD Johnson, Tim D Sr 71%
4 ND Conrad, Kent D Sr 70%
5 HI Inouye, Daniel D Sr 69%
5 IL Obama, Barack D Jr 69%
5 ND Dorgan, Byron D Jr 69%
8 AK Stevens, Ted R Sr 67%
8 AZ McCain, John R Sr 67%
10 MS Lott, Trent R Jr 66%
10 NE Nelson, Ben D Jr 66%
10 RI Reed, Jack D Sr 66%
10 VT Leahy, Patrick D Sr 66%
The worst? Frank Lautenberg, D, NJ at 42%…
Our good buddy Ryan James is scratching his head over the reaction of Louisiana’s finest to the continuing Katrina crisis…
Slate‘s Bryan Curtis on Frank Rich:
One of Rich’s colleagues offered me a theory about his place in the Times universe. The writer said that whatever grief the Times catches for being too liberal is counterbalanced by the grief its New York-based correspondents get for not being liberal enough. New Yorkers assume most Timesmen share their lefty political inclinations but are too constrained by balance and integrity to smear it all over the news pages. Therefore, it is the opinion pages—Rich and Krugman’s columns in particular—where they turn for reaffirmation. It’s a kind of airtight ideological bunker that, under slightly different circumstances, would make for a great Frank Rich column.
More New York Times shennanigans: you know that story the Times was splashing about all those fake ballots confiscated at the border of Iraq? Suppose it ain’t true…Lawrence Kudlow has the scoop…
I had written Santorum off a little early. 47%…
Two factors-
Bush’s rising approval rating and
John Murtha’s statements.
55% and he’s actually..gasp from the left..reelected.
(A good sign of the 50% being a good number? Barbra Boxer is consistenly just at 50%.)
MTL- more evidence of 50% being a good number: Jon Corzine tied Boxer with a 50%/40% app/dis, and just won election to the governor’s mansion.
Interesting to pull out just those who are up for reelection next year… not counting NJ’s newest Senator Bob Menendez (who’s clearly vulnerable), the under-50%ers might be the ones to watch:
45 Burns (R-MT)
45 Dayton (D-MN) ** not running for reelection
46 Kyl (R-AZ)
47 DeWine (R-OH)
47 Santorum (R-PA)
48 Nelson Bill (D-FL)
48 Stabenow (D-MI)
49 Ensign (R-NV)
49 Frist (R-TN) ** not running for reelection
One last thought on next year’s senate races — it’s not a good sign that most of the excitement I hear from Republicans is over trying to unseat either Chafee or Santorum (depending on which part of the Republican spectrum the speaker is from), and not over trying to pick up NJ’s semi-open seat or take out Bill Nelson (Katherine Harris may not be the most inspiring candidate, but with some encouragement Mark Foley might run) or even to take the open seat Dayton’s leaving behind in Minnesota.
I think Katherine Harris can pull Florida off.
Would much prefer Foley, but I think the actual name on the gop ticket is still going to be only worth 2-3 pts.
The democrats were digging the graves for the gop in Iraq, but they are the ones who are going to fall in their hole. The campaign theme for 2004 trapped them, they were hoping to ride the angst over Iraq to a victory for the Presidency, but were stunned when bush picked up 12 million more votes. Talk about a quagmire for which they lack an exit strategy.
The parallels between the description of democrats complaints about W on Iraq, ‘stubborn’, ‘refusing to change course’, ‘no plan’, ‘cherry-picking intelligence’ is the same problem that Americans have with the democratic party. Iraq is going to be resolved, long before the dems can heal their own crediblity.
Look at the recent approval numbers, the President is actually more popular than the democratic party-and as Iraq is resolved, his numbers will continue up. The dems lack a plan for addressing their abysmal 27% approval rating becuase they don’t have any conflicts they can resolve.
Losing 2004, the way that they did, is going to have ripple effects for many more elections.
The dems complain that Bush is a divider, not a uniter…
How are the dems going to unite themselves, let alone this country?
Doctor Dean, heal thyself….
Rich’s former editor (Daniel Okrent) basically ripped him to shreds during his good – bye letter to the NYT readership after he resigned his position. He also had more than a few unkind words regarding Krugman, saying it was next to impossible getting a correction out of the guy, ever.
“The worst? Frank Lautenberg, D, NJ at 42%…”
That’s my senator! I’m so lucky.
I’m actually a little surprised that his rating is so low. He was the former senator called out of the old folks’ home at the last minute when Torricelli imploded. He was never spectacular the first time around, and seems to be just as bland now, though with the occasional cranky blast at President Bush over the Iraq war. Generally you don’t hear much from him, so I’m surprised there’s that much antagonism for him.
New Jersey’s generally a blue state, in the sense that the public employee unions are very powerful, but that can be overstated. The last two Republican governors (Kean and Whitman) served two terms, whil the last two Democrats (Florio and McGreevey) both got booted early; Florio by the voters after one term in a tax revolt, and McGreevey by his wandering gonads. And up until 1992 and Clinton, the state voted for Republicans pretty steadily in the presidential races.
There’s a lot of disgust here at the Democrats over corruption, by the Republicans haven’t been able to take advantage of it because they’ve had their hand in the till just as much when they were in power. There was some talk the federal prosecutor, Chris Christie, who gave McGreevey fits would run for the GOP, but he demurred, much to my disappointment. It really would be good to get a crusading outsider in Trenton.
Lautenberg is a joke.
Especially with one of the great moderate Democrats still there, Bill Bradley.
He is still a favorite son. Sorry that his last dance was 2000…he deserved better.
MTL-
I still can’t believe a judge overruled election law a couple of weeks before the election and ordered Lautenberg’s name put on the ballot.