Some are already accusing Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe of being a (ahem) carpetbagger.

A shiny new fiver for anyone who, on camera, asks him what color an orange is!

* Obama just delivered an urgent speech on the Economy (about 30 minutes ago). It was carried on NBC, CNBC and CNN.

asks him what color an orange is! - doubtful

I'd rather someone ask what an orangeman is.

gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe

I don't know which I like worse - a TV pundit who loves the game of politics so much, he thinks about running for Senate, or a political operative who wants to make policy.

Perhaps Senator Franken and Rep. Davis can work 'cross-house' and form a duo -Franken and Davis?

McAuliffe has started doing robocalls. In January 2009. For a November 2010 election.

Clearly, he's hired Penn, Wolfson and Ickes to advise him.

This in from Jim Dean of Democracy For America, the Dean brothers' grassroots training and organizing group: The DNC, under new head Tim Kaine, put in place by Obama and Rahm Emmanuel, has fired all the original organizers of the 50 State Strategy, effectively destroying it. Dean is circulating an online petition to the DNC and Dem heads to revive the Strategy, at:
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/activities/119

If any single action can set in stone the consequences of the feud between Howard Dean and Rahm Emmanuel, this is it. It goes back, of course, to the bad blood between the two of them in the Summer of '06 over this very subject, whether to implement Dean's spread the power idea or continue with the strategy favored by Emmanuel and the DLC that, except for the reelection of Clinton, had proved a loser for the Dems in seven straight election cycles. Dean's candidates won in '06, giving the Dems control of both houses of Congress, while Emmanuel's lost, although it didn't stop him from claiming, ridiculously, to be the savior of the Party. This is his revenge, at the expense of the Party and the country.

I don't think Emmanuel could organize himself out of a paper bag. He was adequate in Illinois, where the Republican Party destroyed itself years ago, but he's been a huge public failure on the national scene. Putting him in charge of running the country (it's apparent Biden is being marginalized already; those who really know him, as opposed to the media, know he's worth a dozen Emmanuels) was a huge mistake. We've seen it already in the intraparty confusion of the last week. This, however, is the first irrefutable sign. Get ready for a rocky road, and I don't mean Ben and Jerry, although I wonder what Ben might have to say about this. I doubt his Sensible ideas will fare any better. Please sign the petition, and talk to your local and state Dem officials.

I have very mixed feelings about the Main Street Partnership's efforts to moderate the GOP. On one hand, the US political system really does work at its best when the party in power has a 'loyal opposition' to keep it honest, so to speak. On the other hand, it's an awful lot of fun to see the GOP implode the way it seems determined to do.

So, how about they split the difference: first, they implode spectacularly for a few election cycles, and then gradually they pull themselves from out of the radical right ravine into which they've happily driven. That way, we get both partisan entertainment & good governance.

Best of both worlds?
-Z

* Norm Coleman has, of course, filed a last-gasp lawsuit challenging his defeat in Minnesota.

Dinosaurs were at least intelligent enough to go away when they became extinct---thus formulating the notion that Coleman is "dumber than a long-dead lizard...."

A carpetbagger?

We all know there is only one carpetbagger!!

Orange....

Yes, we do refer to Terry McAuliffe as a carpetbagger but there's none of the admiration that attached to Steve; he'd never be a Capital-c "bagger". And no, it has nothing to do with where he was born; it has more to do with the fact that he's never even driven beyond the Beltway and wouldn't know how to get to, say, Lynchburg or Roanoke, if his life depended on it.

But I still don't know who he's counting on as his electorate (I can figure out who he thinks will finance him). I've started reading some VA blogs again (something I gave up during the Presidential elections) and it seems that neither south western VA nor NoVA like him. We like Creigh Deeds, they like Brian Moran and both our camps would be willing to vote for either in order to shut McAuliffe out.

We like Creigh Deeds, they like Brian Moran and both our camps would be willing to vote for either in order to shut McAuliffe out.

Speaking as a Northern Virginian, I agree completely.

We've got plenty of solid Virginians here in NoVa, both native-born and transplants. I don't care where he was born (neither Warner nor Kaine was born in Virginia), but McAuliffe is a carpetbagger because he's been a political operative the entire time he's lived here, and has never taken the slightest interest in Virginia politics (other than one splashy DNC donation) until he decided he ought to be in charge. He's a resident of the Village who happens to have a house in Virginia.

McAuliffe has started doing robocalls. In January 2009. For a November 2010 election.

Actually, it's a November 2009 election and more to the point, a June 2009 primary. Virginia has off-year state elections.

I am compelled to point out, Redshift, that as a "non-real" Virginian from the (pause) wrong part, your information is suspect. No, really, sorry about that. Thanks for the correction.