I skipped this one yesterday, so I might was well unload two days worth of stuff.
Let's see...
At Post Partisan, I said that everyone can ignore endorsements in the presidential general election. Yesterday, I defended Mann and Ornstein against Jennifer Rubin, not that they needed any help with that, and made a further point about one of my bugaboos, the GOP talking point about Democrats not passing a budget resolution.
Meanwhile, at Plum Line I trotted out the GOP war on budgeting again, after a report that (shock! alarm!) House Republicans don't think that extending Bush-era tax cuts needs an offset. And yesterday over there I did a post about the Republican Senate primaries in Indiana and Nebraska and their importance. Note: I'm paying more attention to Nebraska than I am to some other races because the GOP likely nominee, Jon Bruning, was profiled in political scientist Ronald Gaddie's Born to Run.
And meanwhile, since I wrote that last one, it's looking more and more as if Dick Lugar is toast. If it does cost Republicans the seat -- unlikely in my view, but certainly possible -- it does make you wonder if there's any point at which they might start rethinking their strategies, no?
They only need 40 Senators to shut down all new progressive legislation and only 51 (or 50 if they win the White House) to pass more tax cuts for the rich (and large chunks of the Ryan plan) through reconciliation. Meanwhile they've succeeded in dragging their caucus way to the right in a very short amount of time despite losing out on a few winnable seats in Delaware, Colorado, Nevada, etc. I expect it's a trade off they're more than happy to accept.
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