Rick Weiland

Yesterday, the NY Times published a Senate forecast that is simplistic and misleading. It concludes that the Republicans have a 58% chance to win the majority and that the Democrats have a 42% chance. It's the perfect example of one thing: statistics run wild in politics. The while things is virtually worthless. It takes 11 Democratic states out of contention, including New Hampshire (where Republicans are spending millions on Scott Brown) and Oregon (where the Kochs are spending millions to defeat Jeff Merkley).

Nixon may or may not have made a deal with Jerry Ford, but he got a pardon and never faced a trial, let alone a prison sentence. He said what many politicians feel about politicians who get caught breaking the law: "the punishment of resignation is more than adequate for the crime." Our corporate elites couldn't agree more. Accountability is for poor people with no power, but for elites with lots of it.Only 15 senators and 5 congressmen have ever been expelled-- and almost all of them were Confederate sympathizers during the Civil War.

There is exactly zero chance the Democrats will take back the House in November. And there is not a single serious, non-senile person who will tell you that there is a chance. A few days ago we looked at some of the underlying reasons here, in an open letter to Nancy Pelosi: extraordinarily bad leadership. The situation in the Senate is not as hopeless, although the leadership at the DSCC this year is not what it was when Patty Murray ran the show in 2012 and swept the field.

Zach Goldfarb celebrated the 4th of July with a column for the Washington Post informing us that the moneymen behind the New Dems, Blue Dogs and Third Way-- i.e., the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- have had enough of all this income gap and economic inequality palaver.

Several of my friends have been grumbling about Elizabeth Warren's support for conservative border state and Southern Democrats, Alison Lundergan Grimes (KY), Natlaie Tennant (WV), Mary Landrieu (LA), Sam Nunn's daughter (GA), Mark Pryor (AR) and Kay Hagan (NC). On a national level, she's, by far, the biggest star in the Senate. Other than lobbyists, Wall Street brokers and special interests who would go out to a rally headlined by Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Mark Warner, Dianne Feinstein, Joe Donnelly?

Looking for another reason to vote against Maine Republican Susan Collins?A few days ago, Jonathan Capehart wrote in the Washington Post that "President Obama will be impeached if the Democrats lose control of the U.S.

We've been trying-- unsuccessfully-- to get the DSCC to understand that they will hold or lose the Senate based on South Dakota, so maybe they should help the Democratic candidate for the open seat there. They don't listen to me. But maybe they'll listen to Washington Post Fix crew-- Chris Cillizza, Aaron Blake and Sean Sullivan.

It may be inconceivable to you that there are any Democrats who favor getting involved in another war in Iraq, especially a civil war based on bitter religious insanity going back over a thousand years. But it isn't inconceivable to me. Blue America will have to start asking our candidates how they feel about it, although since they are all progressives, I', guessing they will all be opposed.

Yesterday, there was a lot of buzz about Louisiana Republican Vance McAllister letting it slip that he and other corrupt conservatives routinely take bribes for their votes.

Michael Douglas has been a generous political contributor over the years. He's given to real progressives like Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean and Russ Feingold, to conservatives like Bob Kerrey, Joe Baca, Adam Schiff and Max Baucus, and to corporate career Dems like Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt. Mostly, though, he just likes Democrats and has given tens of thousands of dollars to Beltway Democratic committees like the DCC, DNC and the DSCC. In a letter he sent out yesterday-- on behalf of the Council for a Livable World-- he pointed to 3 crucial Senate races.