Survey USA has polled key senate races for Roll Call. Numbers on the flip.

Credit to a poster called Johnny Longtorso on another board, who aggregated the numbers from Survey USA's copious data.

Florida is one of several states that denies voting rights to felons who have completed their jail and parole terms. According to The Sentencing Project, about 5.3 million American citizens are denied the right to vote because of felony convictions. Florida was one of a few states with unusually strict laws making it all but impossible to regain voting rights under normal circumstances.

Recently, Bush invited members of the Blue Dog Coalition and New Democrat Coalition to visit the White House to talk about policy. Many people here were understandably concerned that these representatives would outflank the leadership and cut deals with Bush on pro-business and anti-environmentalist policies, as we saw in the Senate in 2002. It appeared to be a slap in the face of the Democratic leaders who control the agenda in the House.

Rep. Bill Sali of Idaho has been chosen by this year's incoming Republican House freshmen to be their class president.

CNN is reporting that John Boehner has been elected House Minority Leader over Mike Pence by an overwhelming margin. Similarly, Roy Blunt has been reelected to his Whip position.

It looks like Ken Mehlman has decided to go over Liddy Dole's head and share some RNC cash to do the work she failed to do. The RNC is targeting Senate seats in three states to build a "firewall" around a Republican majority in the Senate, no matter how small.

Dana Milbrank wrote an intriguing article in this morning's Washington Post. A Republican senate candidate requested anonymity in order to bash the hell out of Bush and his party and establish his independence.

Headline only at the New York Times at this time. More to come.

Update: The New York Times has a story posted about the ruling. Some key paragraphs:

The Court of Appeals in a 4-2 decision rejected arguments from gay and lesbian plaintiffs throughout the state that their inability to get marriage licences in New York violated their constitutional rights.

Judge Robert Smith said New York's marriage law clearly limits marriage to between a man and a woman and any change in the law should come from the state Legislature.

The unhappiest man in Washington today is Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio.

Rasmussen has posted a new poll on Missouri's Senate race. Democratic nominee Claire McCaskill leads incumbent Jim Talent by a statistically meaningless one point, 42%-41%.

McCaskill has held her own in Rasmussen's polls for several months. I believe the Missouri Senate race is one the most underrated of the cycle, a better target than Ohio.

Looking at a list of congressional districts, I noticed that an usually large number of liberal icons live in the 8th district.

Hamas's official spokesman has issued a statement asking Israel to change its national flag.

Numbers are pouring in for the Boston precincts here:

http://www.cityofboston.gov/elections/currentelections/

Moran is the leader in the 18th, and as of 9:17 (10/14 reporting) I believe the Russian precinct has shot its wad because I reloaded and Glennon leapt from a distant third to a very close second. It's going to be close. I think Moran pulls it out.

The 12th results won't include Milton, and that concerns me. God only knows how they'll vote.

Last year, our venial, archconservative Speaker of the House Tom Finneran promised to step down from the leadership and from his legislative seat. I give him no small credit for helping Democrats, and particularly progressive Democrats, ride a wave of success that took us to record high numbers in the state legislature. He was almost singlehandedly responsible for the legislature's poor image among so many Massachusetts citizens.

Conservative Democrat John Rogers had hoped to succeed his mentor to the speakership, but he got outplayed by Sal DiMasi, an old-school politican from the North End who has adapted with the times and come out in front of many progressive causes. Despite a record of working with Finneran on some of his anti-democratic initatives, DiMasi promised to run a much more open House and to lead the state in more progressive directions.

Today, DiMasi unveiled his legislative team.

Yowza.

If Bush believes that God speaks to him personally and gives him guidance on how to govern...

...when God sends a Category 4 hurricane to make landfall right at the heart of Porter Goss's congressional district, that may indicate that subtler methods of communication have failed.

Bush: don't let Florida suffer for your pride! Pick someone else!

Bad news. On to the Supreme Court.


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