Midday open thread

• David Mauro of the Burnt Orange Report is closing on a chance to win a $10,000 college scholarship. Take 30 seconds and vote for him so we can help one of our own get through college. I thought this thing wrapped up today, but now I'm hearing it goes until Thursday. Either way, take 10 seconds to help out one of our own.
• Simon Rosenberg, on the hole the GOP has dug itself into:

  At this point, I really believe there is a strong argument to be made that the GOP is further from power, more discredited and more out of touch with the American people than any time since the days of FDR and Truman. The GOP's challenge isn't a moderate-conservative one, a North-South one, a black-white-brown one - it is a forward/backward one. They succeeded in dislodging the Democrats in the late 20th century. They blew their shot in this decade to build a durable majority. Their government failed at a level that has done grave and lasting damage to their brand, and their leaders seem firmly grounded in an old politics that is simply no longer credible in this new day. They are going to have to go through a total overhaul. They will have to develop a new argument that meets the emerging challenges of the new century head on; a new electoral map; a new coalition that at some point begins to accept our fast-growing, non-white population; and competency in a whole new set of media and tech tools. They will have to shed the exploitation of race that has been at the core of their domestic politics; shed their raging intolerance of people not like them; of their comfort with politics and theater over governing; of the binary simplicity of the Cold War and the limitations of free market fundamentalism; and of a whole generation of leaders from Karl Rove to Mitch McConnell to Grover Norquist, who were schooled and evangelized in this breed of politics. This task is a big and complex one, harder perhaps than anything the right has had to do since the founding of the National Review in 1955.

  Yeah, good luck with that, GOP.

• Ted Kennedy expects to lead the health care fight.

  Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), making his second appearance on Capitol Hill since he began treatment for a malignant brain tumor in June, told reporters yesterday that he would advance a bill early next year calling for universal health care [...]

  The brief appearance by Kennedy, who made a surprise return in July to vote on a Medicare bill, represented an opportunity for him to show colleagues that he remains energetic and engaged, and that he intends to reclaim his committee post in January and take charge of the Obama health-care agenda. Some Democrats had speculated that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) would attempt to assume the chairmanship of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

• That's a crowd.

  District and federal officials are preparing for as many as 4 million people for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, a crowd that would be three or four times larger than previous big events on the Mall.

• Sure, Reid has lost the support of the readers of this site and all, but David Broder will likely give him kudos, and the only thing that matters aren't the people who helped build the Senate majorities, but what the know-nothing pundits in DC think.
• Focus on the Family is making mass layoffs.

  Because of a weak economy and cash-strapped donors, Focus on the Family said it is eliminating 202 jobs, the deepest cuts in the 32-year history of the Colorado Springs-based Christian nonprofit. The ministry laid off 149 workers, and cut another 53 vacant positions.

  The cuts announced Monday slash Focus' local workforce by nearly 18 percent - from about 1,150 to 950. Twenty percent of the cuts are in management [...]

  The cuts are taking place throughout the organization. The most visible change will be the elimination of the print editions of four of its eight magazines.

  The content of the magazines - Plugged In, Breakaway, Brio and Brio & Beyond - will remain online.

• Roll Call (subscription only):

  Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.) said Tuesday he will hold off on pushing to expel embattled Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska) from the GOP Conference until after the outcome of his colleague’s re-election to another Senate term is known [...]

  “After talking with many of my colleagues, it’s clear there are sufficient votes to pass the resolution regarding Senator Stevens. The question now is timing,” DeMint said. “Some who support the resolution believe we should address this after the results of his election are confirmed in Alaska. For this reason, I will ask the Conference to postpone the vote on Senator Stevens until Thursday.”

• CO-04: Bigot Marilyn Musgrave still hasn't conceded? She lost by 12 points, which is a crushing landslide when you are an incumbent (with all the advantages that entails).