It was a banner week for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who is brilliantly leading the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The GOP continues its war against birth control and pay equity for women. Rick Santorum continues his crusade against the separation of church and state. Ron Paul continues his retrograde crusade for Austrian economists. Mitt Romney continues to be the weather vane, even on birth control. George Will writes on Sunday that Republicans could face a 1964-magnitude landslide loss. Things are falling into shape for Democrats to keep control of the Senate and regain control of the House.
The decision of Bob Kerrey to run for the Nebraska Senate seat is a home run for Senate Democrats and sign of things to come. Kerrey made his fortune the old-fashioned way: starting a great business and creating big numbers of new jobs, unlike a certain vulture capitalist. The recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor will be a powerful candidate and brilliant senator, if elected.
The decision of Olympia Snowe to retire from the Senate transforms a certain Republican seat into a likely Democratic takeover. It is another sign of how unwelcome a moderate GOP woman is in the far-right GOP.
Meanwhile, former North Dakota state Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp is running strong for the Kent Conrad seat, and Elizabeth Warren is running strong for the Massachusetts seat.
These will all be tough, contested races. But there is no doubt that the trend has become the friend of the Democrats.
My support for Reid is well known. His political and parliamentary skills are legendary. The drive of Senate Democrats to keep control in 2012 is also being led by the very talented Murray, widely underestimated outside of those who know her in the Senate, but not much longer. Reid, Murray and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) are going full blast. The super-PAC supporting Senate Democrats, Majority PAC, which I have strongly supported, is being cranked up and will play a powerful role.
In my blog this week, "Oil vs. 'Morning in America,' " I wrote about the panic of the Hope America Fails Republicans as the economy improves and Made in America is the comeback kid. I supported aggressive moves by Democrats to support consumers and battle oil speculators while the GOP defends oil companies and attacks Clint Eastwood because Eastwood is talking up America.
Something big is happening. The national Republican Party is now looking like Sharron Angle, whom Reid crushed in 2010.
Republicans are self-destructing. Reid and Murray are rising. The GOP war against women is losing. Kerrey and Snowe are telling the story. The Democrats are looking good. George Will is writing that the GOP could lose in a landslide. The Hope America Fails Republicans are in very big trouble.