++Watching the Senate slow crawl to a budget deal reminds me of waiting for paint to dry. A sprinkle of nominations continue to be approved. Yes,despite the alarmist news of yesterday, the budget deal made cloture at 67 to 33.
++Now the pundits are gaming the 2014 elections. You see with President Obama at 43% approval rating and the majority of Americans hating both parties,the Amazon Post again raises the possibility of a wave election for the Republicans.
++Paul Ryan is back as Washington's darling, the Jesus of the GOP. The applause is that he has his name on a real piece of legislation. Previously,he got rid of taxes on arrows for bows and arrows and got a post office named.
++Republicans have seen their generic poll gap to Democrats being reversed so their mantra for 2014 is not to do anything at all. They do not want to upset voters with another shutdown. Although they are threatening to hold the debt ceiling hostage. But no one knows when this will take place--somewhere from March to May.
++Scott Brown has moved to New Hampshire and is sounding out whether to run for Senate there, having grown up in southern New Hampshire.
++Like others in the GOP, Brown plans to run against Obamacare.
++Meanwhile Obamacare with its Medicaid expansion has topped the 3 million mark and is climbing. It will be interesting to see how running against it will fly next November.
++Since I bungled on the 2010 elections, I doubt whether I will make any predictions on the House this year. The prize is the Senate. This will be Karl Rove's third consecutive shot at taking over the Senate. If the Democrats can hold for 2014, then 2016 on will look good.
++The contests I am most interested in are the Governors' races--particularly Pennsylvania,Florida and Ohio.
++We should note that the compromise budget is $200 billion less than the Obama budget and lacks unemployment benefits for over 1 million Americans. Somehow the Administration believes that the deal allows them to move ahead on their legislative agenda for the rest of President Obama's term.
++The news stories for the year will be about fake wars in both parties.
++A Federal judge has ruled--sort of--that the NSA domestic spying is unconstitutional. He punted the issue upwards for an appeal by the government before recommending changes.
++The NSA last week suggested Snowden should get amnesty in return for telling them everything he stole.The Obama Administration said no to amnesty. Snowden has asked Brazil for asylum in return for helping them on NSA spying in Brazil.
++Immigration reform advocates still say they can get it passed by the end of next year.
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