31 of these Democrats represent districts won by John McCain. The rest are bolded. 8 of the 39 won by fewer than 10 points. 14 voted in districts where the Obama-McCain or McCain-Obama margin was less than 5 %. 14 of the 39 were freshman. 23 also voted against the cap and trade bill. These are target Alpha for Republicans. (A. Davis and C. Melancon are running for higher office -- Davis for governor and Melancon for Senate.) In 2 districts (ID-1) and (AL-2) the McCain-Palin ticket won by 25 points or more.
Bonus 2: minute-by-minute coverage of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's speech to Iowa Republicans last night from O. Kay Henderson. Key lines: "Hope and change have brought Americans fear.
"I want to ask you: 'Are you fired up and ready to fight back? The only thing growing faster than the national debt is Chris Matthews' man-crush on Barack Obama." "We don't have a big enough party to be throwing people overboard,"
On the health care bill in the Senate:
Sen. Jack Reed:
"I believe we're going to pass health care reform... Senator Reid, Harry Reid, has introduced a public option. There's strong support there. But we are far from the end of the debate in the Senate. It will take time. It will be careful, thorough and deliberate. I hope that a public option is part of the final bill."
Governor-elect Bob McDonnell said he wouldn't be inclined to "opt in" to the health care bill but said that it would depend on how it was structured:
"Well, either way, my preference would be not to have Virginia participate, from what I know this plan contains. However they structure it, if it gives flexibility to states, I think that's a good thing. We've outlined a number of things I think we can do at our state level, John, that will help our people have more access at a lower cost, but I'm very concerned about turning this significant section of the American economy over to the federal government. "
McDonnell stayed mum on 2012 speculation.
On Ft. Hood:
On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Joe Lieberman implies that there's a terrorism connection to the shootings and calls for an investigation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham: " "At the end of the day, maybe this is just about him. It's certainly not about his religion, Islam. It's not about the Army; it's not about the war. At the end of the day, I think it's going to be about him. And if we missed some signals, some clear signals, we've got to fix that. And I trust the Army to want to fix it... his actions do not reflect on the Islamic -- Muslim faith... This man's actions reflect on him. And if we missed some signals about him that we should have known, great. But let's don't take this to a level that we should not. Let's don't accuse people of basically giving him a pass because he's a Muslim. Because I don't think there's any evidence of that.""
On the elections:
Michael Steele's Freudian slip. Rachell Maddow on Creigh Deeds and the lessons of 2012: Democrats are always going to be accused of overspending. Dems shouldn't get shy about a second stimulus. Haley Barbour said that Sarah Palin had, uh, "something" to contribute to the Republican Party, but wouldn't say whether she could be president.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/11/the-sunday-shows-health-care-and-afghanistan/29800/
