This diary is a reaction to a story on the Huffington Post titled Dems will gain seats this fall - - but how many.  It was teased on the front of the Politics Page as

Dems close in on Holy Grail: 60-Vote Majority

Of course we would all love it if the Democrats got up to 60 seats, but headlines like this are misleading.

We should not be looking to 60 seats as a magic number that will allow passage of progressive measures without fillibuster.  The switch from minority to majority party was huge, but 60 is just a number.

In particular, if the Democrats are so fortunate as to gain exactly 9 seats, I still want Joe Lieberman tossed out of the caucus so fast he bounces.  Let's see exactly how much seniority the Republicans are willing to grant him.

Glen Brower, Democratic candidate for Wisconsin State Assembly in the 21st Assembly district has gained enough valid signatures to appear on the fall ballot to take on entrenched Republican Mark Honadel.

Glen has raised over $20,000 in just a few short weeks, he has been endorsed by SEIU and Progressive Majority Wisconsin, and he has gained the support of Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee)

http://glenbrower.com/...

Donate to Glen today and help bring real change to the South Shore!

Democrat Glen Brower is running strong and spirited campaign for State Assembly in the 21st district, representing South Milwaukee and Oak Creek.

He understands the problems we all face, from rising property taxes, rising gas prices, and ever more expensive health insurance, Glen knows that more of the same just won't do. We need honest and responsible leadership to address the problems that can no longer be ignored.

http://www.actblue.com/... /20007

We are just three seats away taking back our State Assembly, and making sure that the issues we all care about are truly addressed.

This is a weekly diary diary I do over at the EENR blog, and since some of you may be interested in it, I figured I'd post it over here once and let you know that it gets posted at 11:30am Eastern/8:30am Pacific every Monday morning on the EENR. Here is today's edition in full:

(photo by Cam in Van on Flickr)

Hey there all you folks out there on the EENR this Monday! This is the Critter Watch, and we do it because, of course, we all know that we have to keep a close eye on those Congress Critters of ours; you never know what they'll vote for sell auction off give away next. For more, scroll down and bring tissues...

Note: Yesterday's non-political diary went so well, I thought I'd try my hand a purely political one.

I've been watching the American primaries, more or less from the sidelines for months. Mostly, Clinton supporters have been civil. However, recently some seem to have almost completely lost all perspective and capability to do simple mathematics. Now, more than enough people have taken on the obviously flawed math which is necessary to give Clinton a "majority" of votes. (FL/MI included, Obama gets 0 votes from MI, and 4 caucus states are completely ignored.) The fact that people keep parroting this major manipulation of data simply shows to me either how radicalized some Clinton supporters have become, or at very least how far they are willing to lie openly to prevent Obama from getting the nomination.

I'm sure they're wonderful places.  But they will not be decisive states in this primary.  Don't take it personally, if you're a Clinton supporter from those states.  I know Clinton's flattered you greatly, but she's doing that to play with the heads of a political elite.

CNN at this moment is stating that Obama has the majority of pledged delegates.  It's not the most pleasant thing to be told, but you need to be told the truth.  Your vote isn't irrelevant, but your candidate is misleading you about the relevance of that vote to her fast-narrowing chances of victory.

Let's put this baby to bed!

Sidenote: Yeah, my last entry sucked, I should have appealed to my better senses and never published it.
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Since the 2006 midterms, it has become abundantly clear that the Democratic Party lacks the majorities in Congress needed to pass progressive and useful legislation. Thus, the candidate that can bring in new voters and independents this November will help the party, and ultimately the nation, in the long run.

More below the fold...

So Senator Feinstein voted against telco immunity. As I said when I called her office a number of times urging her to fight telco immunity, "This is a Lieberman moment her." And from the frosty reception that got from her staff I'm assuming they knew what I was saying.

I consider myself a man of my word and I explicitly told her staffers that if she voted for telco immunity I would work to support any Democrat who ran against her. So that time has unfortunately come.

Some background after the jump.

I'm fighting for Brand Democrat and actual proposals with teeth.  

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time, the Democratic Party, fractured by the Vietnam War, split two ways, in one direction towards the center, in the other towards the left.  As the Republicans gradually fought their way up from beneath the decades-long shadow of the Great Depression, and the more recent catastrophe of Watergate, they took advantage of that division.

The Economy was terrible, America had been weakened by Vietnam, We were taking what seemed like watered down approaches to the rest of the world...  Reagan was more about people cutting loose than anything else, and nobody wanted to be the wet blanket, the party pooper.

Rather than using the legislative branch’s tools (legislation, hearings, withholding funds, and impeaching an executive run amok), Democratic leadership seems to be playing a political game; acting powerless to check corruption and arrogance without a supermajority - perhaps hoping to establish their hegemony in 2008.

This is a grave miscalculation.  Democratic loyalists were not responsible for the 2006 power shift, it was centrists like me who distrust both right AND left extremes.  If they want our marriage of convenience to last, Dems must woo centrists with moderation, integrity, and commitment to the rule of law.  Instead they have re-authorized FISA, continued funding Iraq, confirmed an AG who isn’t sure whether water boarding is torture, and taken impeachment off the table; all while whining that their majority isn’t big enough.  The timing of this gamesmanship is terrifying.

The Dems’ continued passivity won’t scare the center further left.  Instead, it may encourage the center to splinter.  This might mean untimely support for a third party, support for the (rare) rational voices on the right, or complete withdrawal from the process.  Given the razor thin margin currently endorsing sanity, these outcomes would be catastrophic.

It's time for action. There is so much discussion on the major blogs about diversity and the blogosphere. The question often asked is how can we make the most popular progressive blogs more diversified. One component of the answer is simply to diversify the content. "Linking our Way to Diversity" is a model made for progressive sites to follow. Together, we can link our way to equality.

Hello, this is my first diary. I have become 'radicalized' by 7 years of Bush incompetence, deception and corruption, and am now strongly democratic. I want to do my part to help take america back for everyday people.

I have been wondering as of late, what political policies can we support that will shift the tide towards democrats? By that I mean, what policies can we support and ask politicians to support that will empower democratic voters in America? I am not calling for a permanent democrat majority. When Bush was in office he wanted what is called a 'permanent republican majority' in the form of a government that was republican no matter how incompetent, corrupt or destructive those republicans ended up being. I am not calling for that and I fully support kicking dems out of office if they don't represent the people, I am merely calling for support of policies that will lead more people to vote democrat, not something that will undermine the foundation of democracy.

So far I have a few ideas. Create mandatory voting, support labor union laws, make all federal elections publically funded and promote popular taxpayer funded social programs.

A far cry from the taunts of a "permanent republican majority" that we were hearing a few short years ago, there has been a major flurry of resignations and announcements of "early retirements" and "not seeking re-election" over the past year or so.  And in pretty much every instance, it is from that "permanent republican" side of the aisle.

Do these Congressional republicans know something deeper about the impending implosion of their party?  Are some involved in corruption, scandal or other embarrassing stories?  Is it more like rats scurrying for the exits or cockroaches scurrying away when light is shed upon them?

Or is it something deeper – something that is more indicative of a longer term problem with the republican party?  Obviously, the writing is on the wall with respect to the failed policies and rubber stamping of these failed policies – even the best republican spinmeisters can’t even deflect enough of the blame or divert enough attention.  Whether it is the Justice Department politicization, Iraq, SCHIP, the economy, healthcare, the lack of any groundswell by the Presidential candidates, something else, or all of the above, even the republicans can smell something rotten in the state of their party.

Washington Post has a new poll out revealing the striking new numbers of Americans supporting Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president. She now leads with  a 53% majority and Obama is in second place at 20% - for a clear 33 point advantage. John Edwards is in third place with 13% of the voters.

More on the flip.

I sort of have a dream.

If you have a few minutes and, y'know, you aren't doing anything better, I'd like to tell you about this dream I sort of have.  It's no big whoop, but these days, what is?

Now, don't get all excited, you!  It's not like I have the magic bullet solution for all the world's problems.  Chances are my little old dream won't amount to a hill of beans.  But it's my little old dream.

Sort of.

49 Democrats
49 Republicans
2 Independents
     1 always votes with the Dems
     1 Lieberdog always votes with the Republicans

So just to get the chance to vote you need to peel away 10 Republicans 20.4 % of the Republicans. To override a veto that is 19 votes or 38.8 % of Republicans.