With the revelation last night/this morning that veteran Democratic Senators Christopher Dodd (CT) and Byron Dorgan (ND) are not seeking re-election this year, the mainstream press is going wild with speculation that these retirements herald doom for the Democrats in this year's midterm elections. This is despite that fact that they are almost a year away and that six, count 'em (Bunning, Brownback, LeMieux, Bond, Gregg, and Voinovich) six, GOP senators are retiring this year as well as several other Republicans in the House. Still, a narrative is forming (and we all know how powerful political narratives can be) and if Obama and the Democrats don't get in front of this soon it could become a self-fulfilling prophesy--the pundits have decided it's 1994 all over again.
For those youngsters out there who may not remember, in November of '94 Congressional approval was at an all-time low and President Clinton's approval numbers were mired in the low 40s after his failure to pass healthcare reform. The result was a Republican landslide that dominated Congress until 2006. But 2010 can be different and in some ways it already is. The public clearly has a lot more good will in the bank for Obama, he remains close to or at 50 percent approval in most public opinion polls--despite roughly six months of consistently bad press. Healthcare reform will likely be passed by the end of this month, albeit a comprised bill, but a political and strategic victory nonetheless. In addition if the Democrats get aggressive on immigration, education and climate change (which are all on the legislative agenda for this year) and continue to rack up victories it'll be easier to contrast themselves with "The Party of No". Naturally there needs to be significant movement on jobs too by the White House and Democrats in Congress, my hunch is that 10 percent number hovers like a shadow over anything the party in power does.
True, losing Dorgan (as John Nichols writes) is a significant blow. He was a strong progressive in an undeniably right-leaning state and it will be exceedingly difficult for any other Democrat to replace him. Chris Dodd, on the other hand, despite having many virtues, was totally tainted by scandal (even Michael Moore went after him in Capitalism: A Love Story) and was likely to lose his re-election campaign. His departure, while perhaps bittersweet, clears the way for Connecticut's popular Democratic attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, to capture his seat. It seems unlikely to me that a progressive state like Connecticut would send a Republican to represent their state alongside nominal Independent Joe Lieberman.
There is no question though that even with some more legislative victories and hopefully some drop in the unemployment rate, Obama and the Democrats will face a tough fight come election time this year. Every midterm the pundits conveniently forget that historically the party in control always gets clobbered in midterms--with the recent exception of 2002, where the GOP's first stab at politicizing a terrorist attack paid off in spades. No wonder President Obama feels forced to behave like Bush on airport security. Still, the Democrats have an impressive weapon in their arsenal that they're not using quite enough. They at least have ideas. No, they may not be as progressive or strong as we'd like but at least they are putting forward a comprehensive jobs bill, a climate change bill, etc. Meanwhile, the Republicans are content to sit on their hands and block anything that has a Democrat or the president's name attached to it.
The polls show that voters believe by a significant margin that Democrats have tried harder to (and I hate to use this overused phrase) "reach across the aisle" and I think if Obama can regain his confidence and footing and starts to really wring a few more wins out of this super-majority as long as he has it, it'll really take the wind out of the GOP's sails. I know, I know, this is a lot of wishful thinking on my part--but I don't think it's time to surrender either, as disappointing as the Democratic-led Congress has been, I would hate to see what could happen to my country with Mitch McConnell and John Boehner at the helm. Not a pretty pictureLINK

ISLAMABAD – All the major political players have geared up their efforts to clear the impediments in the way of Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms so that the task of constitutional amendment could be accomplished in the second half of January 2010, background interviews with the leaders of main political parties and sources revealed.
The sources aware of the deliberations of the committee meeting informed TheNation that now the members of Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms was discussing the contentious issue of constitutional reforms and once the members would evolve consensus on it then the only hurdle in the way would be the renaming of NWFP as besides both Q and N Leagues, Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam of Fazlur Rehman was against renaming of NWFP as Pakhtoonkhawa.
The sources in Pakistan People’s Party said that there were no difference whatsoever on scrapping of 17th Constitutional Amendment or Article 58(2)b and the only contentious issues were the level of autonomy to be offered to provinces and renaming of NWFP.
The sources said that now Pakistan Muslim League has taken upon itself to play a lead role in bringing the parties on some common ground on the issue of renaming of NWFP and working out differences on the provincial autonomy.
The sources in PML-N informed that the meeting of Fazl with PML-N President Mian Shahbaz Sharif was part of the move to take all the stakeholders onboard who have reservations on renaming of NWFP as Pakhtoonkhawa.
The meeting of Awami National Party (ANP) Federal Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour with Mian Nawaz Sharif in Lahore was also on the same issue as Bilour was tasked by his party president Asfandyar Wali Khan to convince PML-N leadership on the issue.
The sources in ANP said that as Ghulam Ahmad Bilour was considered to have very cordial relations with Mian brothers so he was tasked by party President Asfandyar Wali Khan to convince him on renaming of NWFP as Pakhtoonkhawa or some other name mutually acceptable to all stakeholders in the province, a source in ANP informed.
The sources said that after having a word with ANP leadership, PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif would be meeting the NWFP chapter of his party on today (Saturday) to reach at some conclusion regarding renaming of NWFP.
The sources in the party disclosed that most likely the PML-N leadership would come up with something concrete on the issue after Saturday meeting of the party in Islamabad.
The sources in the PML-N disclosed that at present besides Pakhtoonkhawa the names of Afghania, Khyber and Abbaseen were under consideration and efforts were underway to evolve consensus of all the concerned parties on any of these names.
The sources further said that the issue of provincial autonomy was currently under review of the committee and hopefully the matter would be resolved in first week of January while the renaming of NWFP is likely to be settled by that time.
If both these hurdles would be removed by the first week of the January the proposed constitutional reforms agenda would be tabled before the Joint Sitting of the Parliament to be summon in the next half of January.LINK