The Senate map for 2012 is just inherently awful for Democrats. They have to defend incumbents in 23 states, while the Republicans only need to defend 10. Even if there is a relatively strong national Democratic turnout in 2012, the party will likely still have a net loss of Senate seats. With that factored in, though, the prospects for the Democrats at least narrowly holding on to the chamber have been improving.

On the front of Politico is an article about how the big bipartisan deals that used to be relatively common in Congress now appear to be a thing of the past. Good bye and good riddance. At their core these bipartisan deals were and are about destroying basic democratic accountability.

Politicians and pundits blather about ideological divides. How can that be when the Democrats have no ideology, unless you count “We suck less”.

A record number of Americans are now claiming they are independents, according to a Gallup tracking poll of party identification. Since taking control of the House the Republicans’ awful behavior has driven support for Congress to new lows and turned regular people against the GOP, but that hasn’t caused people to start seeing themselves as Democrats again. The American people still feel burned by the Democrats’ failure to deliver from 2009-2010.

A building and loan association, like the Bailey Brothers’ in It’s a Wonderful Life, uses the savings of its members to provide mortgages to the depositors. Members essentially pool their money to give each other the opportunity to buy cars and homes. But Mr. Potter scoffs at such “charity.” The GOP does the same with Social Security, Medicare and other programs that pool the nation’s wealth to help the middle class.

The man who never met a Republican talking-point he didn’t adopt, from unemployment assistance to killing the public option is retiring. Democrats on Tuesday lamented Sen. Ben Nelson’s decision to retire rather than seek a third term in Nebraska, fearing the move sets up Republicans for an easy and crucial victory in their effort to [...]

Ben Nelson, Nebraska’s Democratic senator, will retire from the Senate next year, despite benefiting from a million dollars in early-cycle advertising funded by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Quite the banner day for Democrats…

As a top tier candidate for most of the Republican primary race Mitt Romney has always been a logical target for the opposing political party to discredit. That is the natural, expected response to any front runner. With barely more than a month until the first votes are cast in GOP primaries, the Democratic party now has strong incentives to dramatically escalate their attacks on Romney.

Rep. Barney Frank plans to retire, which means by next year, both lead co-sponsors of Dodd-Frank will be out of Congress, having secured a legacy of sorts through attaching their names to that legislation. So who might replace Frank as ranking member or Chair of the House Financial Services Committee?