South Dakota

Control of the U.S. Senate will come down to a race none of the powers inside the Beltway are even talking about. Democrat Tim Johnson is retiring from his South Dakota Senate seat and Johnson is strongly backing prairie populist Rick Weiland, who is also being strongly backed by former Democratic Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Harry Reid has a bug up his ass about Daschle and is letting that get in the way of supporting Weiland. Almost every other Democratic senator has endorsed him or contributed to his campaign but Reid refuses to allow the DSCC to back him.

If Rick Weiland beats Mike Rounds for the South Dakota Senate seat in November, we'll probably be able to expect a lot more from him than your garden variety Democratic senator. That's because he will be 100% independent of the corrupted Establishment party leaders in DC. His campaign has gotten no help whatsoever from the DSCC and it's one of the most grassroots campaigns I've ever seen. He won't owe Reid or any other party leaders a thing. And he can win. Even without DSCC help, he's within a few points of corrupt former Governor Mike Rounds.

Primarily because of Harry Reid's childish pique at Tom Daschle, he isn't allowing the DSCC to engage in keeping the open South Dakota Senate seat blue. Reid is a madman who would have preferred Blue Dog corporate shill and sleazy lobbyist Stephanie Herseth Sandlin-- who was rejected by South Dakota voters in 2010-- instead of prairie populist, and Daschle ally, Rick Weiland.

Maine Republican Susan Collins makes $174,000 a year, along with great retirement and health benefits-- the same as the boys make. And that's the way it should be. But yesterday Collins, a millionaire, joined the Republican Party filibuster seeking to prevent a simple up-or-down vote on Barbara Mikulski's Paycheck Fairness Act, S.2199.

Its rare that crooked governors are called on to account for their corruption before the bar of Justice.

Conservative Democrats who cannot winProgressive Democrats who can winRecent polls-- like this morning's release of the latest NBC News/Marist poll in Kentucky-- confirm what astute observers have been saying for some time: the DSCC braintrust-- Harry Reid, Michael Bennet and Guy Cecil-- are wasting their money on conse

Yesterday we talked a little about how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, virtually an arm of the Republican Party, occasionally endorses fake Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. And yesterday they added Georgia Blue Dog/New Dem corporate whore John Barrow to the list of disgrace that thus far includes Scott Peters (New Dem-CA), Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA) and Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX).

If the Democrats lose the Senate majority in November it will be because Harry Reid and DSCC chair Michael Bennet decided to concede South Dakota without a fight. So far Establishment Republican Mike Rounds has spent $2,941,991 on the race to win the seat being abandoned by Democrat Tim Johnson, while populist Democrat Rick Weiland has only raised $1,094,098 in total and spent $650,325.

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).

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.