Elizabeth Warren Wins

NBC declares Elizabeth Warren the next junior Senator of Massachusetts. Many people thought that Warren never had a chance with this race. Warren is the netroots biggest victory. Markos Moulitsas made electing Warren a top priority.

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas explained that of all the House and Senate elections this year, her race was the number one priority among progressives.

“Nobody else even comes close,” he said. “We put her up with [Sens.] Franken, Merkley, Boxer, Brown, the two Vermont senators – the solid core of progressives.”

Warren raised $6,521,723 on Actblue. That is a staggering number.

Markos Moulitsas on Weiner

Markos Moulitsas shares my view on Anthony Weiner. I was more than happy to throw Weiner under the bus. If Weiner stayed I could easily live with that.

Moulitsas dismissed that talk.

"No one gives a sh-t," he said. "Who cares? It's a sensationalistic story."

He said Republicans will have a hard time making hay out of Weiner's stepping down. He said he "wouldn't have cared" if Weiner stayed, and added that Republicans have no cause to say anything about it.

"If the Republicans are gonna talk that trash about getting David Vitter to resign, then maybe we can talk about me calling for Anthony Weiner to resign," he said.

Side note: is it a coincidence that Weiner resigned the day after Ginger Lee said she would corporate with the House ethics committee?

Kendrick Meek Zombie Watch: Kos Wants Meek Out

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (aka Kos) would love nothing more than for Kendrick Meek to drop out of the race. Apparently, Kos wasn't swayed by Kenneth Quinnell's spectacular netroots outreach.

The only question left is whether Meek knows this. His options at this point are pretty much to lose on November 2, or to not lose by passing the baton to Crist. There's no way he'll be in the Senate next January.

That's not to say that Crist can win. I'm pretty pessimistic about Florida's Senate race no matter what happens at this point. But if you're going to have a loser in the race that's not Rubio, I'd rather it be Crist than Meek. And at least with Crist we have a fighting chance.

Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal reports on a rumor that Democrats are trying to get Meek to withdraw. Moore cites no on-the record sources. So take this as gossip.

The Meek campaign sent out this email in reaction to the stories of dropping out.

The experts have spoken. Only Kendrick Meek can stand up to Marco Rubio, the Tea Party and the corporate special interests who want to take Florida back to the brink. The only thing that's standing in the way is Charlie Crist and his desperate campaign. From throwing wild pitches to spreading lies about Kendrick's campaign, Crist and his campaign are trying to fool Floridians into thinking he will stand up to Marco Rubio and his Tea Party friends. That never was and never will be the case. Kendrick's in a one-on-one race against the clock with Rubio and Kendrick has to drag Crist's weight behind him.

Exactly who are these experts that say Meek can beat Rubio in a two man race. Meek's campaign has no money and the canidate has had two years to make an impression on votrers. Earth to Meek campaign: Meek is a zombie candidate.

Kos Banned From MSNBC

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zúniga has been banned from MSNBC. The reason is a stupid fight Kos got into with Joe Scarborough on Twitter. Scarborough tweeted the White House job offer to Joe Sestak was of Nixon proportions. That was rather overblown but Kos brought up the conspiracy theory about the death of Scarborough's Congressional aide Lori Klausutis.

markos: Like story of a certain dead intern. RT @JoeNBC: Luckily for the White House, the media has been negligent on this story since Day 1.

Kos blogged that he doesn't believe Scarborough is responsible for Klausutis's death. It is in poor taste for Kos to bring up the death of a young woman whom Scarborough knew on Twitter.

Scarborough fired back.

JoeNBC: @markos Unbelievable. You have a long history of spreading lies suggesting I am a murderer. This is the 3rd or 4th time by my count.

I don't think Kos was accusing him of being a murderer. However, there are several crackpots on the internet that have conspiracy theories about Klausutis's. It is easy to see why Scarborough would be so sensitive.

Kos was told by MSNBC president Phil Griffin via e-mail that he will not be invited to MSNBC.

Markos,

Blog if you must, but here is my on the record statement to you which I ask that you print in full:

Yes, after I became aware of the ugly cheap shot you took at Joe on Twitter, I asked the teams to take a break from booking you on our shows for a while. I found the comments to be in poor taste, and utterly uncalled for in a civil discourse.

I'm hoping this will be only temporary and that the situation can be resolved in a mature fashion, but until then I just don't know how one could reasonably expect to be welcomed onto our network while publicly antagonizing one of our hosts at the same time.

The DailyKos community has been among the most supportive of MSNBC, and we continue to appreciate that support.

I find it fascinating that Twitter has become so powerful that two high-profile political figures and MSNBC can get entangled into a high school-level chat room fight. I don't have a horse in this fight but Kos and Scarborough really need to chill out on Twitter.

Quote of the Day

"Remember, Rasmussen has two modes -- the narrative setting mode, which he's used to great effect this year to fuel the "Democrats are doomed" narrative, and the "get it right" mode he uses the closer we actually get to the actual election. Well, we are not that close to November yet, but apparently he felt threatened by having such massive outliers vis a vis other pollsters. So he rushed new polling more in line with the composite treandlines.

"It is kind of hard to set narratives when you become a laughingstock in the political world."

Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos

Pollster.com also noticed how Rasmussen suddenly adjusted his poll numbers. Political followers have long known that Rasmussen's robo-calling polling has been notibly unreliable. (The best polling is one-one one interaction.) Rasmussen admits to wording questions a certainly way to make news. Rasmussen has written for the right-wing conspiarcy nuthouse known as WorldNetDaily and wrote a book arguing for the privatization of Social Security. To say that Rasmussen isn't running agenda driven polling is believable as suggesting the goal of Daily Kos is to get Republicans elected.

Al Franken Press Conference

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Minnesota's nightmare is over.

I don't have a problem with the length of the recount process. I didn't support Norm Coleman candidacy but I support his right to contest the vote. It is time for Republicans to back election reform.

Franken tells the crowd he doesn't see himself as the 60th Democatic caucus member. Franken say he is the "second Minnesota Senator." Smart sound bite answer.

A 60 Democratic caucus translates into Democrats are still going to cave in.

"It's true," said Manley when reached by phone. "It is obviously sometimes difficult to say this to your audience [Huffington Post readers]. While this is, of course, good news to the people of Minnesota, President Obama, and the Senate Democratic, Franken's mere presence alone will not mean that the Democrats will be able to jam through our agenda, or make it any less critical for Democrats and Republicans to work together. We have a diverse caucus who represent diverse constituencies. No one's vote is ever automatic. Also... we have two senators that currently aren't voting right now. But then I would go back and say that up until now we have gotten very little to no help from Republicans who say no against everything and are prepared to bet on this president to fail."

On the Ed Show, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga said Democrats will have a hard time in 2010 if they can't anything done with a super majority. Bush passed tax cuts, the Iraq war and the Patriot Act with less Republicans. Senate Democrats have no excuse not to pass their agenda.

GOP Death List Memo Part 2

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga got a hold of the GOP death list. Florida can say goodbye to Tom Feeney.

5.) Seat is likely to go unless significant turn of events
4.) Leaning Democrat, expect to lose most of these seats unless there's serious change
3.) True toss-up, slight wing could push either way, environment is critical to these races
2.) Leaning Republican, if there's a wave, some could be in trouble
1.) Should be ok but if there's a wave, we could see a surprise.

Rank 5

AK-AL, Don Young
AZ-01, Open
IL-11, Open
NJ-03, Open
NJ-07, Open
NY-13, Open
NY-25, Open
VA-11, Open
FL-24, Feeney
NY-29, Kuhl
MI-07, Walbert

Rank 4

MD-01, Open
NM-01, Open
OH-16, Open
CA-04, Open
NC-08, Hayes
CO-04, Musgrave
MI-09, Knollenberg

Rank 3

CT-04, Shays
IL-10, Kirk
LA-04, Open
MN-03, Open
MO-06, Barnes
NM-02, Open
NV-03, Porter
NY-26, Open
OH-15, Open
WA-08, Reichert
MO-09, Open
OH-01, Chabot
PA-03, English
MN-06, Bachmann
WY-AL, Open
AL-02, Open

Rank 2

CA-50, Bilbray
FL-08, Keller
FL-13, Buchanan
FL-21, Diaz-Balart
FL-25, Diaz-Balart
IL-06, Roskam
OH-02, Schmidt
PA-06, Gerlach
ID-01, Sali
VA-02, Drake
AZ-03, Shadegg
VA-05, Goode
TX-10, McCaul
NJ-05, Garrett
NE-02, Terry
KY-02, Open
NV-02, Heller

Rank 1

FL-15, Open
IL-18, Open
PA-18, Murphy
TX-07, Culberson
VA-10, Wolf
OH-07, Open

It is interesting how many Florida seats are in play. Contrary to Kenneth Quinnell's Florida Democratic Party spin, Gus Bilirakis is not in trouble.

Former Minnasota Governor Arme Carlson (R) came down hard on Michele Bachmann, in her endorsement of Barack Obama. Bachmann should go up to rank 4.

On the Democratic side, Tim Mahoney is toast.

The McCain Campaign Strategy In A Nutshell

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga has the latest Pollster.com numbers. It is ugly for John McCain. Barack Obama is polling over 50 percent in Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Colorado, Virginia, Montana and Georgia. The swing states hgave swung in Obama's direction. My only question is how big Obama is going to win.

Zúniga makes an interesting point that sums up the McCain campaign strategy.

But he did see a slight improvement in Iowa -- proof that his evil plot to campaign in Iowa when it's way out of reach was a success! Of course, I'm not sure what going from a 14.2-point deficit to a 13.5 point really does for his victory chances, but then again, I'm not privy to his Rovian math.

Iowa is right-leaning, but has slipped from McCain. Imagine Obama spending precious time campaigning in Texas. Obama would never do that. He isn't that stupid.

I'm sure Amanda Marcotte wishes Obama would hold a campaign rally in Texas. It must suck being a feminist and lefty blogger in Texas. Only thing worse would be progressive blogging in Florida. Oh, wait...

Florida Netroots Conference Schedule

Here is the schedule for the Florida Netroots Conference. It will be held at the FDP Convention in Orlando.

October 27

1:00-2:00 Live Florida Progressive Radio Show f. Markos Molitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos (via phone)
2:00-2:30 Intro & Opening Keynote f. Phil Perry & speaker TBA
2:30-3:20 Netroots 101 f. Kenneth Quinnell, Jennifer Killingsworth & Gene Smith
3:30-4:20 Netroots Tools f. Ray Seaman and Brian Franklin
4:30-5:20 Working With the Netroots f. Michael Calderin, Alison Berke Morano and Phil Perry
5:20-5:50 Closing Keynote f. Matt Stoller
5:50-6:00 Netroots Awards
6:00-7:00 Soiree f. Dennis Kucinich (co-sponsored by DFA & PDA)

The Florida Netroots is paying hard cash to make this happen. They are asking for donations. If you don't donate I will post the Afghan Whigs video Miles Iz Dead. This blogger's description of the video should make you cough up the cash.

Although I cannot watch much of The Afghan Whigs 'Miles iz Ded' due to intense fear of hypodermics, this video made me think that all adult life would be a bit like this. As, it happened, I wasn't far off, minus the girl in the chicken suit and the man-turned-into-insect bit, plus some of the gorier stuff.

Give until it hurts.

Who Doesn't Hate TNR

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga and Wayne Garcia both argue that the New Republic no longer matter. Kos makes his argument on political grounds.

That was obviously violated today as the New Republic betrayed, once again, that it seeks to destroy the new people-powered movement for the sake of its Lieberman-worshipping neocon owners; that it stands with the National Review and wingnutoshpere in their opposition to grassroots Democrats.

Garcia faults the credibility of TNR's Scott Thomas Beauchamp war diaries. I'm not with Garcia on this. I do question the judgement of Beauchamp being TNR editor Elspeth Reeve's husband. The story shouldn't be married to one of the editors.

The problem with TNR boils down to Martin Peretz. He has put his bizarre political agendas, such as supporting Al Gore, Lewis Libby and the invasion of Iraq, ahead of quality journalism.

It is a sad but true fact of American political life that liberals rarely exercise so much influence as when they happen to be endorsing conservative causes, and this temptation has proven consistently irresistible to Peretz and his magazine. TNR under Peretz has been a vehicle that proved extremely helpful to Ronald Reagan's wars in Central America and George Bush's war in Iraq. It provided seminal service to Newt Gingrich's and William Kristol's efforts to kill the Clinton plan for universal health care and offered intellectual legitimacy to Charles Murray's efforts to portray black people as intellectually inferior to whites. As for liberal causes, however … well, not so much.

In case you are wondering, TNR considers itself a Lefty political magazine. With friends like this who needs the National Review?