The White House will name Elizabeth Warren to a special advisory role to the White House and the Treasury Department, NBC’s Athena Jones reported yesterday. Warren will be tasked with helping set up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau called for by the financial regulatory overhaul. The announcement will come this week.

The Washington Post: By appointing Warren to a post within the administration - much as the White House did with 'car czar' Steven Rattner and 'compensation czar' Kenneth Feinberg - Obama would free her to act as the bureau's director almost immediately while avoiding a confirmation battle... Scores of Obama nominations far less polarizing than Warren's have languished in the divided Senate for months. Warren herself has told allies on Capitol Hill that she would prefer to be assigned on a temporary basis, rather than enduring a prolonged confirmation process. On the other hand, a White House appointment that bypasses the Senate risks infuriating lawmakers on both sides of the aisle."

From NBC’s Ken Strickland and Carrie Dann
Sen. Jim Bunning isn’t exactly known as a warm and fuzzy character on Capitol Hill.

Bunning, who won a reputation as something of a poster boy for Senate obstruction after he launched a tenacious one-man filibuster of an extension of unemployment benefits in March, told NBC News that the Senate rules that allow such log jams are the most frustrating part of working on Capitol Hill.

“The hardest part of working in the Senate is the fact that you have a hundred individuals who could stop anything,” he said. “You've got to get the agreement of a hundred people to proceed. Do you know how hard that is?”

Members of his own party certainly know. Bunning’s blockage of the unemployment package earned him the criticism of many of his fellow Republicans and verbal lashings from pundits on both sides of the aisle. (He was enthusiastically backed by party leadership when the issue came up again several months later, however.)

Bunning also said in his Exit Interview that the most politically savvy legislator with whom he has worked was the late Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, although it took him some time to understand the veteran Republican’s “my way or the high way” demeanor. “I disliked [Ted Stevens] with a passion when I first got here because he was so gruff and so short and to the point,” he said.

That’s a sentiment that might prompt some grins from those who have worked with the Kentucky lawmaker, who has developed a curmudgeonly reputation during his 12 years in the Senate. His testy exchange with ABC reporter Jonathan Karl in the doorway of a Senate elevator earned him a memorable lampooning by the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart. He also famously told reporters on a conference call last year, when was still considering running for re-election, that the results of an internal campaign poll were “none of your goddamn business.”

Asked to name senators with whom he liked working, the Kentucky Republican made a point to name legislators with whom he disliked working as well.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, Bunning said, is the “most difficult” to work with because he “looks down" on Republicans in the committee's minority.

“I have difficulty with Durbin and Schumer,” he added. “Maybe it’s their personalities; maybe it’s my personality.”

From NBC's Luke Russert
In his weekly pen-and-pad session on Capitol Hill with reporters, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer did not rule out a possible compromise with the GOP on extending the Bush tax cuts on high-income earners for one to two years.

While Hoyer mentioned his own opposition to the idea he said, “Are we prepared to discuss alternatives? I’m always prepared to discuss alternatives, so that we can move forward.” Hoyer continued, “What I am saying is, and you know Steny Hoyer, I believe that the Democratic process is a process of us sitting down, talking to one another and trying to reach a consensus so we can move forward. That does not mean you take actions that you don’t believe are appropriate. I don’t want to explode the deficit; the deficit is a real concern to the American public. We need to have that in mind as we figure out what we’re going to do.”

Hoyer’s comments come against a backdrop of many vulnerable members of his caucus expressing concern of being labeled ‘tax raisers’ by the GOP if they do not support a full extension of the Bush tax cuts set to expire at the end of 2010. Unlike difficult votes on healthcare reform and an energy reform bill where House Democratic leaders aggressively lobbied their members, Hoyer acknowledged that on the tax cut issue, Democrats were encouraged to do what they saw as in the “best interests of the country.”

Hoyer: “Every member needs to take their own position on this issue as to what they think is appropriate. Understand that 100% of Americans will benefit from not having taxes on the first $250,000 of income increased…members have to argue beyond that and that’s their position.”

Sources tell NBC News it looks more likely each day that the House Democratic leaders will let the Senate will take the lead on the tax cut issue as not to put their members in a difficult position before the fall mid-terms. Hoyer acknowledged that, “We’re having discussions; there are a lot of discussions about where we are going to go. I want to see what the Senate can do.”

The AP is reporting that Kelly Ayotte has been certified as the winner in New Hampshire's GOP Senate primary.

Ovide Lamontagne, whom Ayotte defeated, has until 5:00 pm ET to decide whether he'll seek a recount, the AP adds.

From NBC's Ken Strickland
Departing Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., has some advice for voters listening to candidates on the campaign trail who tout their independence, vowing to vote against the party if they don't agree with it.

Don't hold your breath.

"When you get here, the pressure by the two caucuses to kind of go along with 'the team' is pretty constant," he said during an “exit interview” with NBC News. "And it's gotten more so over the years."

Bayh feels that pressure plenty. He placed second on a list of Democrats who most often voted against their party during this Congress, according to a Washington Post database. (Only Nebraska’s Ben Nelson voted with Republicans more.)

"Any deviancy from party orthodoxy is viewed as an act of betrayal or a lack of moral fiber," Bayh complained.

(Independence from one’s political party is all relative, of course, and subject to evolution. In Bayh’s first two years in the Senate, he joined with party leaders over 90 percent of the time.)

While moderates like Bayh are the key to securing votes to pass legislation and are thus often able to extract concessions that benefit their state or cause, Bayh says the practice comes at a personal cost.

He recounted the moments he's had to address his entire Democratic conference with a viewpoint most of them did not support. "It's hard on a inter-personal basis," he said. "I suspect that most of the time they don't really care what you think, but if they need your vote then they've got to give you something."

Bayh shocked his party when he announced his retirement in February. Speaking in his home state at the time, he said, "I love working for the people of Indiana, I love helping our citizens make the most of their lives, but I do not love Congress."

Even with his history of - sometimes - bucking the party, Bayh told NBC News that he regrets he wasn't more insistent -- especially on issues that promote deficit reduction. Bayh suggested that Congress needs more forceful, animated moderates: Think the public persona of New York’s Chuck Schumer, with the voting record of Maine’s Susan Collins.

"It may be an oxymoron, the notion of passionate moderates, but that's really what we need," Bayh said.

"The people who are more independent, more moderate, who say 'enough of these extremes, we're going to take the country back, and vote with the major party that seems to be more willing to compromise and to do the right thing.'"

It comes the day after, but National Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman John Cornyn has issued a statement endorsing Christine O'Donnell (R) after her victory last night.

Let there be no mistake: The National Republican Senatorial Committee – and I personally as the committee’s chairman – strongly stand by all of our Republican nominees, including Christine O’Donnell in Delaware.

I reached out to Christine this morning, and as I have conveyed to all of our nominees, I offered her my personal congratulations and let her know that she has our support. This support includes a check for $42,000 – the maximum allowable donation that we have provided to all of our nominees – which the NRSC will send to her campaign today.

We remain committed to holding Democrat nominee New Castle County Executive Chris Coons accountable this November, as we inform voters about his record of driving his county to the brink of bankruptcy and supporting his party’s reckless spending policies in Washington.

In the weeks ahead, we will decide where to best allocate additional financial resources among the large number of competitive races at stake this November. While it’s not in Republicans’ interest to advertise our spending strategy to our opponents, it’s worth noting that just yesterday, the NRSC’s first independent expenditure ad aired in support of Dr. Rand Paul’s campaign in Kentucky, where we firmly believe that he will win in November.

O’Donnell’s stunning victory last night epitomized the ideological purge and conservative insurrection within the GOP… It was the culmination of events we’ve witnessed going back to last year… Still, this purge isn’t out of the ordinary; it’s what parties do after they lose… The Senate is still in play, though O’Donnell’s win makes it more difficult for Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn… Why the White House is happy… Last night also was a bad night for current and ex-insiders… Don’t miss Murkowski’s shot at the Tea Party Express… Polling the tax debate… More exit interviews… And profiling OH-15.

From NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg
*** The purge inside the GOP: How do we make sense of Christine O’Donnell's stunning Mike Castle in Delaware, Carl Paladino crushing Rick Lazio in New York’s GOP gubernatorial primary, and Kelly Ayotte and Ovide Lamontagne still running neck-and-neck in New Hampshire’s Senate GOP contest? It’s simple: We’re witnessing a purge within the Republican Party. A longtime moderate like Castle? Gone. A well-known fixture in New York politics like Rick Lazio (who agreed to be the party's sacrificial lamb to Hillary in 2000)? Adios. Ayotte supporting Sonia Sotomayor’s SCOTUS nomination? Problematic. We’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: This is no longer George W. Bush’s Republican Party, or even Ronald Reagan’s (at least the Reagan who raised taxes and agreed to amnesty for illegal immigrants). It’s a Republican Party that’s being led by Palin, DeMint, Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh. And while Palin is the catnip here, DeMint is the real player -- the unofficial head of the GOP Senate’s Tea Party caucus and the guy who truly bears watching.

*** A year and a half in the making: O’Donnell’s surprising victory is really the culmination of something that had been growing since last spring, when Arlen Specter defected to the Democratic Party. It carried over to this April, when Charlie Crist quit his Senate GOP primary. Then in May, Robert Bennett was unable to win his party's nomination. In Kentucky, Rand Paul upset Trey Grayson, who was Mitch McConnell's hand-picked candidate. It carried over to Nevada, where Sharron Angle won the GOP primary to challenge Harry Reid. Then, in Alaska, virtually unknown Joe Miller upset Lisa Murkowski. Now O'Donnell wins in Delaware, becoming -- by our count -- the sixth Tea Party candidate to win a contested GOP Senate primary (joining Paul, Angle, Miller, Mike Lee in Utah, and Ken Buck in Colorado).

*** The GOP’s civil war isn’t out of the ordinary: Yet it’s important to understand that this purge isn’t out of the ordinary. It’s what political parties do after they lose, and what has happened within the GOP -- after 2006 and 2008 -- is that those who value ideological purity the most are beating those who value winning the most; in fact, the Democrats went through this in the '70s. This is why the Michelle Malkins are arguing with the Karl Roves, and vice versa. One thing is certainly clear, however: This temporary evolution within the Republican Party will end up pushing the 2012 GOP presidential field more to the right. Next year, we won’t see a John McCain (supporting comprehensive immigration reform), Rudy Giuliani (supporting abortion rights), or a Mitt Romney circa ’06 (supporting a health-insurance mandate). As Pat Buchanan asked on “Morning Joe,” if they want to lead this party in 2012, don’t the Romneys and Pawlentys and Barbours need to embrace O’Donnell and campaign for her this fall? Buchanan made this point: In '64, Nelson Rockefeller refused to wear a Goldwater button, while Richard Nixon campaigned for him in 40 states. One became president, the other got kicked off the GOP national ticket. Bottom line: Does the Tea Party/DeMint crowd punish any presidential wannabe in '12 who doesn't help O'Donnell meaningfully? Does this become like the ‘06 Lamont-Lieberman litmus test.

*** The Senate is still in play: While O’Donnell’s victory last night makes it harder for Republicans to pick up the 10 seats needed to win back control of the Senate, that chamber is still in play. Linda McMahon (in Connecticut), John Raese (in West Virginia), and Carly Fiorina (in California) just became more important to Mitch McConnell and the NRSC’s John Cornyn. And get this: If O’Donnell loses and if Republicans end up gaining nine Senate seats in November and not the magic 10, a switch of just 1,850 votes in the DE GOP primary would have been the difference between being in the minority and being in the majority.

*** The White House is happy with last night: The happiest people today are the beleaguered folks in the West Wing. The intra-party spat inside the GOP means the White House gets a few days out of the spotlight, something it desperately needed. Team Obama obviously believes the farther to the right the GOP is pushed by the Tea Party, the better in the long run it is for the president and his 2012 prospects. But the White House and Democrats still have a major enthusiasm problem heading into November -- one they are now starting to believe can be dealt with by simply highlighting some of the Tea Party nominees. Indeed, could last night and all the attention it will receive be a tipping point to get Democrats fired up and ready to go on Election Day?

*** A bad night for the insiders: Here’s another way to look at last night’s results: Anyone who was associated with Washington or the establishment took a hit. Mike Castle wasn’t alone; three ex-members of Congress (Lazio, Mark Neumann in Wisconsin, and Charlie Bass in New Hampshire) either lost or received tougher-than-expected races. Even Richard Nixon's grandson got thumped (remember, his opponents ran against him on the whole sense of entitlement issue). And don't forget Joe Malone, who at one time in Massachusetts was the Republican Party. He got pummeled. This is a purge -- not just based on ideology, but also against those who are part of the establishment. Outsiders won up and down the ballot last night. Then again, are we shocked that members of Congress (either current or former) are having a hard time selling themselves as agents of change?

*** An 'outside extremist group'? Don’t miss this comment from Lisa Murkowski in her statement yesterday that she won’t run as a Libertarian but is still mulling a write-in bid (and will make a final decision by Friday): “As disappointed as I am in the outcome of the Primary and my belief that the Alaska Republican Party was hijacked by the Tea Party Express, an outside extremist group, I am not going to quit my party. I will not wrap myself in the flag of another political party for the sake of election at any cost.” Wow. "Extremist"? This isn't coming from someone in the liberal blogosphere.

*** Polling the tax debate: Dem polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner went into the field to ask the tax questions and found that among likely voters, by a 55%-38% margin, Americans want to let the Bush tax cuts expire. Those numbers are identical for independents. Dems favor letting them expire 69%-22%; Republicans are against 54%-39%. By a 68%-28% margin, respondents in the survey said they favor extending the Bush tax cuts for just the middle class for two years. More than 60% favored permanently extending the middle-class tax cuts and either phasing them out for those making $250,000 a year or more or letting them expire. The poll, however, showed Republicans maintaining a seven-point, 49%-42% generic ballot edge. These results aired on MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” last night. More on the full poll here.

*** The exit interviews: As part of NBC Senate producer Ken Strickland’s series of the U.S. senators who are retiring this year, and here are snippets from two of the posts we’ll run on First Read. First, here’s Jim Bunning (R-KY) on the two senators he doesn’t get along with: "I have difficulty with Durbin and Schumer. Maybe it’s their personalities; maybe it’s my personality.” And here’s Evan Bayh (D-IN) on the difficulty of crossing party lines on issues: "Any deviancy from party orthodoxy is viewed as an act of betrayal or a lack of moral fiber.”

*** 75 House races to watch: OH-15: The Democratic nominee is first-term incumbent Mary Jo Kilroy. The GOP nominee is former state Rep. Steve Stivers, whom Kilroy beat by just 2,000 votes in ’08. Obama won 54% in this district in 2008, while Bush got 50% in ’04. As of June 30th, Kilroy had raised $1.7 million, and Stivers raised $1.5 million. But Stivers had more cash on hand than Kilroy -- $1.2 million to about $930,000. Kilroy voted for the stimulus, cap-and-trade, and health care. Cook rates it a Toss Up, while Rothenberg has it Lean Republican. [CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post inadvertently used the candidates' total raised numbers for cash on hand.]

Countdown to HI primaries: 3 days
Countdown to Election Day 2010: 48 days

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“Even as they hammer Democrats for running up record budget deficits, Senate Republicans are rolling out a plan to permanently extend an array of expiring tax breaks that would deprive the Treasury of more than $4 trillion over the next decade, nearly doubling projected deficits over that period unless dramatic spending cuts are made,” the Washington Post says. “The measure, introduced by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) this week, would permanently extend the George W. Bush-era income tax cuts that benefit virtually every U.S. taxpayer, rein in the alternative minimum tax and limit the estate tax to estates worth more than $5 million for individuals or $10 million for couples.”

More: “Aides to McConnell said they have yet to receive a cost estimate for the measure. But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently forecast that a similar, slightly more expensive package that includes a full repeal of the estate tax would force the nation to borrow an additional $3.9 trillion over the next decade and increase interest payments on the national debt by $950 billion. That's more than four times the projected deficit impact of President Obama's health-care overhaul and stimulus package combined.”

"Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.) has the endorsement of conservative stalwart Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.) to become the next vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference -- and that might be the crucial vote he needs to secure the post," Roll Call writes. "Barrasso on Tuesday declined to discuss his plans to succeed Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) as vice chairman, saying he was focused on doing his job as a Senator and helping to elect more Republicans on Nov. 2."

The AP's Babington on Democrats' shift from bashing Bush to bashing Boehner: "The shift represents a gamble for Democrats, and a tacit acknowledgment that bashing Bush -- doing so helped them win big victories in 2006 and 2008 -- has basically lost its magic. The risk for Obama and fellow Democrats is that millions of Americans will scratch their heads when they hear Boehner's name Democratic strategists, however, say the White House has few choices."

“The DNC has transferred another big chunk of cash to its affiliated committees and state partners, according to reports to be filed with the FEC next week,” the Hotline reports. “The committee set aside $1.67M each for the DCCC and the DSCC, giving the party's House and Senate campaign arms a critical infusion of cash for the campaign homestretch. The DNC has given each committee a total of about $3.17M this cycle.”

CALIFORNIA: Meg Whitman will appear at a fundraiser for state Sen. Bob Dutton at the end of the month, the L.A. Times reports, adding that Dutton would be “a key potential ally if she is elected.”

“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce stepped into the California governor's race on Monday as it began airing an attack ad against Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown,” BusinessWeek writes.

WASHINGTON: Sen. Patty Murray (D) leads Dino Rossi 50%-41% in a new Elway Poll, Talking Points Memo writes.

From Msnbc.com's Tom Curry
In New Hampshire’s Second Congressional District, progressive activists claimed victory Tuesday in the Democratic primary as their candidate Ann McLane Kuster won in a landslide over Katrina Swett, who had run for the seat in 2002. Progressives shunned Swett partly because she’d served as co-chair of Sen. Joe Lieberman’s presidential campaign in 2004.

In the Republican contest, the GOP establishment candidate, former six-term congressman Charlie Bass, defeated anti-abortion conservative Jennifer Horn.

Horn was endorsed by the Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund, a pro-life political action committee, and by New Hampshire’s right-leaning newspaper, the Manchester Union Leader, which said “If any candidate can claim the Tea Party mantle this year, it is Jennifer Horn…. We would love to see her in Washington giving grief not only to the Obama administration, but also to her own party's leadership.”

Bass had funding from several of his former GOP House colleagues, including from the PACs of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., Rep. Joe Barton R- Texas and Sen. Richard Burr, R- N.C. Several corporate PACs including those of Aetna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer backed Bass.

He was also supported by the Republican Majority for Choice, a group that supports abortion rights. (The Republican Majority for Choice also backed losing GOP Establishment hopeful Rep Mike Castle in the Delaware Senate primary.)

Bass was ousted in the Democratic of wave of 2006, losing to Paul Hodes, who is giving up the House seat to run the Senate.

When Bass served in the House, he split from most Republicans by voting against oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, against the ban on same-sex marriages, and for allowing abortions to be performed in U.S. military medical facilities.

Bass portrayed himself in 2006 as non-partisan. “I’ve always prided myself on being able to work with Democrats, I get lots of Democratic votes,” he told msnbc.com in an interview in 2006. But this year he’s running on a pledge to repeal President Obama’s health care overhaul.

The district went for Obama in 2008 with 56 percent of the vote.

In yet another Tea Party upset tonight, Carl Paladino defeated former Rep. Rick Lazio in the GOP primary for New York governor. Paladino, who championed using empty prisons to provide job training and hygiene lessons to those on welfare and unemployment, appealed to the Tea Partiers and appears to have won in overwhelming fashion.

With 45% of precincts reporting, Paladino was beating favorite Lazio 67%-33%, or about 87,000 votes.

That means Paladino faces off with Democratic state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo. Cuomo is the overwhelming favorite heading into the fall.

From Msnbc.com's Tom Curry
Rep. Stephen Lynch, D- Mass., one of the 34 House Democrats to vote against President Obama’s health care bill, fended off a primary challenge from disgruntled progressives Tuesday night by defeating Mac D’Alessandro, a union activist on leave from his job as the New England political director for the Services Employees International Union (SEIU).

With 87 percent of precincts reporting, Lynch had 65 percent of the vote.

Since the beginning of August, SEIU had spent nearly $260,000 in independent expenditures to boost D’Alessandro.

Lynch’s victory was another defeat for the labor-progressive coalition which had mounted a $6 million effort to defeat Sen. Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas in June. Lincoln defeated Bill Halter in a June 8 runoff.

“Mac D’Alessandro may have come up short in his campaign but his impressive result proves that when you stand up for your beliefs you will never stand alone,” SEIU Massachusetts State Council President Mike Grunko said in a statement.

Lynch opposed the final version of the health care bill because it omitted a public insurance option and, in his view, allowed insurance companies to remain too powerful.

Elected in 2001 and himself a former ironworkers’ union local president, Lynch proved to be resilient. His TV ads avoided the health care vote and emphasized his blue-collar roots and his vote against the Wall Street bailout.

Lynch enjoyed the fund-raising advantage of incumbency. As of the end of August his campaign spent nearly $1 million, a nine-to-one advantage of D’Alessandro’s campaign.

In addition to attacking Lynch’s ‘no’ vote on the health care bill, D’Alessandro also assailed Lynch’s support for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

In perhaps the most surprising outcome of an already surprising primary season, the Associated Press has projected that Christine O'Donnell has beaten Rep. Mike Castle in Delaware's GOP Senate primary.

With 86% of districts reporting, O'Donnell is leading Castle, 54%-46%.

O'Donnell will take on Democrat Chris Coons in the general election, and Coons will start out as the front-runner for Joe Biden's old Senate seat.

AP has declared former Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich the winner tonight of the Republican nomination for governor over Sarah Palin-backed Brian Murphy. It sets up an Ehrlich vs. incumbent Gov. Martin O'Malley showdown.

This may be a blue state, but don't underestimate Republicans' chances here. Just look at the results from Delaware Senate tonight. So far, Christine O'Donnell leads 56%-45% over Mike Castle with 37% of precincts reporting.

Anything can happen, especially if Democrats sit on their hands. And Ehrlich is a much more credible candidate than O'Donnell as Maryland, like many other states, is having to make serious budget cuts. That said, Democrats in Maryland are more engaged voters than in many places. Either way, this is one to watch.

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Tuesday that she will not run as a third-party candidate in the state's general election and that she will announce by Friday whether or not she will mount a write-in campaign to retain her seat.

"As disappointed as I am in the outcome of the Primary and my belief that the Alaska Republican Party was hijacked by the Tea Party Express, an outside extremist group, I am not going to quit my party," she said in a statement. "I will not wrap myself in the flag of another political party for the sake of election at any cost.”

Murkowski was defeated in the state's GOP primary last month by attorney Joe Miller.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said this morning on MSNBC's Daily Rundown that Miller won "fair and square" and that he hopes that Murkowski "would accept that result and move on."

Ali Weinberg and Alison Bruno write: The NRSC uses familiar KY language - horse racing - to hit Jack Conway, and Rick Scott proves that he’s still “talking about Obama” as Alex Sink charged in an earlier ad…

CO SEN, anti-Bennet (Club for Growth), "Enough"
9/14
ANNCR: What's happened to Michael Bennet? After only 18 months in Washington, he acts like he's been there forever. Bennet voted for record spending and national debt. Voted for big governemnt health care. Voted for our tax money to bail out the car companies. Voted for job-killing tax increases. How does any of that help Colorado? Michael Bennet. He's already been in Washington too long.

CT SEN, Blumenthal "Protecting Long Island Sound"
9/14
BLUMENTHAL: Broadwater wanted a huge floating natural gas plant here. Islander East pushed for a pipe line. So I joined with other Connecticut leaders and we stopped them. But in Washington, big oil companies are getting their way. We need to hold them accountable. I'll fight to end $40 billion dollars in tax giveaways to the big energy companies, put a moratorium on new deep-water drilling and create clean-energy jobs. I'm Dick Blumenthal. I approve this message because I'm going to stand up for you.

IA SEN, Grassley "He Wrote the Bill"
9/14
MAN: Iowa's Chuck Grassley wrote the bill for Medicare to cover prescription drugs. GRASSLEY: We had to compromise to get it passed. It's really helped people, but there is more to do, like the same drug shouldn't cost more here than in Canada. We beat the drug companies before. WOMAN: Grassley works. MAN: For us. GRASSLEY: I'm Chuck Grassley and I approve this message.

KY SEN, anti-Conway, (NRSC), "Jockey Jack"
9/14
ANNCR: Whose horse is Jack Conway riding? When the U.S. Senate debated a government takeover of health care, Conway supported it. When other states took the Obama health care law to court, Attorney General Jack Conway refused. When Obama and Pelosi cut hundreds of billions from Medicare, Conway still said yes. Big Government running health care. Big cuts to Medicare. Jack Conway took their side. Jack Conway. He's not riding Kentucky's horse.

CA GOV, anti-Brown (US Chamber of Commerce) “Turn California Around- Lawsuits and Jobs”
9/13
ANNCR: 2 million Californians out of work. Over 12 percent unemployed. So what does Attorney General Jerry Brown do? he says 'I don't do much these days except sue people.' California already has one of the worst legal climates in America. But Brown says he has 1100 lawyers ready to sue. No wonder jobs and businesses are leaving California. Tell Jerry Brown, stop chasing away California jobs. The US Chamber of Commerce is responsible for the content of this advertising.

FL GOV, Scott “Wrong Solutions”
9/14
ANNC: President Obama tricked us, saying he's in the mainstream before becoming our most liberal president ever. And Alex Sink helped him do it. SINK CLIP: Barack Obama has the right message and the right solutions for turning our economy around right here in Florida. ANNC: The right solutions? Sink backed the government health care takeover cutting $500 billion from Medicare. She backed Medicare. She backed the failed stimulus bill which created debt, not jobs. SINK CLIP: Barack Obama has the right message and the right solutions. ANNC: Wrong solutions, Alex.

GA GOV, Deal “Nathan”
9/14
ANNCR: Nathan Deal. Born to public school teachers in southeast Georgia, Nathan learned to love this land and her people. He spent his life in service to his community, state and country. Soldier. Prosecutor. Judge. Public servant. Through it all, Georgians have trusted Nathan Deal to get the job done right the first time. In tough economic times, that's the type of governor you need. Nathan Deal. He'll get it right. The first time.

UT GOV, Herbert “Integrity”
9/13
BELL: With Gary Herbert, what you see is what you get. He is a man of principle, a man of integrity. Utahans want to hear a serious debate of the critical issues this state faces. Taxes, the economy, jobs, education, immigration. For the Corroon campaign to make personal attacks on our governor is a disservice to the people of Utah.

From NBC's Ken Strickland
The next piece of legislation expected on the floor is the bill that would allow the military to repeal its ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the armed forces, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday. The first vote on the measure could be as early as Tuesday of next week.

(The so-called "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) provision is actually part of the larger Defense Authorization bill. The Senate couldn't move the bill until it finished the small business bill on Thursday.)

That first vote would be on "the motion to proceed" to the bill--to simply bring the bill to the floor for debate. Safely assuming that Republicans would filibuster the bill, Majority Leader Reid would need 60 votes just to get the bill on the floor.

Asked by reporters today if he had the 60, Reid said, "we'll sure find out."

When rumblings circulated yesterday about Reid's intention call up the bill, Sen. John McCain accused Reid of playing politics. McCain suggested that Reid has no intention of trying to pass the defense bill, but is merely trying to score political points by bringing the bill up and forcing Republicans to block it.

"Harry Reid does everything for political reasons," McCain said Monday. "It's a political promise that the president made and it is an effort to get this done before [Democrats] lose the elections in November."

McCain says his objections to the bill aren't about whether to repeal DADT, but when to repeal it. He believes the military study being conducted now on DADT must be completed before Congress passes a law repealing it.

"We have to assess the effect on battle effectiveness and morale before we move forward with repeal," said McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee.

From NBC's Ken Strickland and Carrie Dann

“Schoolhouse Rock,” it ain’t.

The man who shepherded two of the Obama administration’s top agenda items to Senate passage says that both parties were “arrogant and selfish” during the process of writing the mammoth health care bill signed into law earlier this year.

“The textbook in a civics class of how the institution should not act was the health care bill,” said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., during an interview with NBC News. “It was arrogant. Both parties were arrogant and selfish, in my view. And as a result we ended up with a process that was so contradictory to what you'd like to think your kids in middle school [and] high school might learn.”

Dodd chaired both the Senate Banking Committee and served as the acting chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee after Sen. Ted Kennedy fell ill.

The sweeping reform bill’s victory was a “good result,” the retiring senator said, but the course of the bill’s passage was particularly flawed -- especially in contrast to the (comparatively) more transparent one used to approve an equally complex overhaul of the nation’s financial system.

“There, we went through a very open process all the way through – it was almost textbook,” he said of the “FinReg” reforms, which passed on a mostly party-line vote of 60-39 in July.

The health care bill was not subject to conference negotiations between House and Senate leaders like many major pieces of legislation; instead, its final passage was the result of Democrats’ deployment of an obscure legislative tactic called “reconciliation,” which requires only 50 votes for passage. The legislation to tighten regulations on the financial industry, on the other hand, was subject to a marathon negotiating session that was broadcast live on CSPAN. (It is important to note, though, that many key compromises in the bill were nonetheless negotiated behind closed doors, and industry lobbyists benefitted from close relationships with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.)

Public approval of the health care bill hit new lows during the legislative sausage-making phase, with particular outcry about a state carve out – dubbed the “Cornhusker Kickback” – inserted into the bill to win support from Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Nelson’s approval rating in his home state plummeted after the deal was publicized in December 2009. Between June 2008 and March 2010, Democrats’ advantage over the GOP on the issue of dealing with health care swung from almost 30 points down to single digits, according to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Although both bills represented a choice that will ultimately benefit the country, Dodd said, the health care legislation was a long way from the classic kids’ tune featuring a weary but determined bill “sittin’ here on Capitol Hill.”

“Again, I think the result [was] the right result to get. But boy, it was an ugly process,” he said.

What does a Democratic septuagenarian son of a hard rock miner from Searchlight, Nevada have in common with a bisexual pop megastar whose political statements have been known to involve wearing raw meat?

Twitter, apparently, and support for ending the military’s policy of banning openly gay members from serving.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had a virtual exchange today with Lady Gaga – who happens to have 7 million followers on the social media website – over the timing of a vote to repeal the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.

“Gay Veterans were my VMA dates,” she tweeted, including a photo of herself with discharged members of the military at the MTV awards festivities over the weekend. “Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. CALL HARRY REID to Schedule Senate Vote.”

In a response, Reid flagged the “Poker Face” artist to a press release from his campaign website indicating that the vote has in fact been set for next week. “@ladygaga There is a vote on #DADT next week. Anyone qualified to serve this country should be allowed to do so,” he replied.

The $42 billion Small Business Jobs Act took a step forward, clearing a key procedural hurdle in the Senate, 61-37. Republicans George Voinovich, who is retiring, and former Gov. Charlie Crist (I-FL) Chief of Staff George LeMieux voted for it, helping Democrats overcome a filibuster.

The New York Times:

President Obama strongly supports the bill, which would provide loans and tax breaks to small businesses, and its swift enactment seems assured. ... That vote all but assured that the Senate will pass the bill later this week, and the House is expected to then put its final stamp of approval on the measure without delay.

But efforts to repeal or roll back a new tax-reporting requirement for the nation’s businesses failed on Tuesday when neither party managed to muster the 60 votes needed to advance their competing approaches to the issue.

Democrats breathed a sigh of relief when conservative (and sometimes gaffe-prone) Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle nabbed the Republican nomination to challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who had been perceived as one of the GOP’s most vulnerable targets.

A new poll shows Reid still maintaining a small lead over his conservative rival. A new Reuters/Ipsos survey out today shows Reid hanging on to only a 2-point lead – within the margin of error – capturing 46 percent of likely voters to Angle’s 44.

From Reuters:

Among registered voters, Reid is seen as better than Angle on a range of qualities, including "understanding the economic issues Nevada faces" and being "the best person to help generate jobs in Nevada."

But the poll also found that Reid is seen as more likely than Angle to be willing to "say anything to win votes."

Despite the closeness of the Senate race, Reid is still faring much better than his son, Rory, who is running for governor of the state. Republican Brian Sandoval’s lead over Reid has grown from 11 points to almost 30 since early August, according to the poll.

The poll of 600 voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent for registered voters and 4.6 percent for likely voters.