They want you as a new recruit--cue in the Village People

Rahm Emmanuel did a little rope-a-dope with the Fox News crowd by saving the best on Massa until right before he appeared on the Glenn Beck. First Steny Hoyer said Massa's charges about being forced out were "not serious", then Gibbs at the White House press briefing in the morning downplayed Massa's charges that the White House wanted him out because he opposed health care reform as ridiculous. Then as the day moved on, the press already knew right before Beck that the charges against Massa was he molested a series of male aides. The ones who hadn't pressed the ethics charges soon followed to make it known they had complaints also. By the time Massa got on Fox he was nearly as incoherent as he was the day before and only admitted to "tickle fights" with male staff. All the grave charges against the Democratic leadership disappeared and finally Beck had to apologize to the audience for wasting their time. Nicely done.

Meanwhile Howard Dean led a rally of pro-healthcare protestors in Dupont Circle. The group wanted to make citizens' arrests of medical insurance company executives who have called an emergency meeting in the Capital now that President Obama has taken out after them.

There are now 50 Senators on the record for reconciliation and 40 have signed on for the public option so far. Senate and House Republicans made it clear to day that they are going to make the mid-term elections a referendum on health care reform and will campaign to repeal it. I guess they are throwing in the towel. Now let's walk this one through. Let's say the republicans actually win both the House and the Senate and pass a bill repealing healthcare reform. Do you really think they will have 2/3rds of the Senate to override a veto? It's just a red herring.

Republican news outlets like Politico and Drudge are now circulating the story that Nancy Pelosi has "lost control" of the Democratic caucus because of how she handled the Rangel case. There is virtually no evidence of this. It's just another late minute ploy to shake Democrats who are wavering on health care.

What does disturb me is Steny Hoyer's statement that the vote may not be March 18th as the White House said today. That's the day President Obama is supposed to fly abroad. Don't go, Mr. President, until these clowns vote on it.

While all this is going on, the left appears to be throwing a tantrum and I can't figure it out why. Yes, the health care bill is far from perfect but it will help 30 million people and a few of us who remain at the mercy of the health insurance industry. But this drumbeat about how Obama is going to lose this constituency, that constituency for crimes real and imagined are at this early stage hyperbolic and certainly premature.

The good news is that a Zogby-Newsmax poll has Obama beating Bush 48-38. Zogby has definitely taken the one way ride to Palookaville. Once the premier pollster during the Carter years, he is just scrapping bottom for any clients he can get. For me, there is virtually no worth to Zogby polls at this stage.

Which brings me to the sad state of Rasmussen polls, which during past cycles were sensible and reasonable. My gut tells me Rasmussen is cashing in big time in the 2010 election cycle, perhaps to sell the business off. Rasmussen has been repeatedly been conducting polls around the country for Republicans in such a frequency as to raise questions about motivations. There is no earthly reason to have conducted so many polls so early in an election year except to establish a climate , a tone, a background favorable to Republicans and to influence the electorate. And to make buckets of cash.

Breaking down any of his polls recently, you will see Rasmussen over samples Republicans, often by as much as 8-9%. I was sad when Zogby bit the dust of credibility and I also regret Rasmussen travelling down the same road. Check for yourself, the difference in Rasmussen's approval polls for President Obama against Gallup or anyone else. You will find Obama has been in the low 40s in Rasmussen for quite some time, while Gallup ranges from 49 to 52. The difference is not plausible in my mind.

In many of these state races, Rasmussen has the only poll out there. If the Republican leads by less than 10 percent, then consider the race a toss-up. I think that is the margin of real error. And if the Democrat is in any type of lead, you already know the results.

All of this is part of an effort to manufacture a Republican comeback at a time when the party has no ideas or leaders. It's a very tricky thing to pull off. It's true they have their own private TV channel, which is the only one in my lifetime to actively organize protests against a sitting President. They also have dominance in my opinion over the other networks and the Washington Post. But so far they are just throwing anything at the wall to see if it will stick. The rolling Rasmussen polls are part of a strategy of psywarfare. I'm interesting to see what Rasmussen will do from a business angle after the mid-terms are over.

For the public good, I think it would be great to have the media boycott U.S. Senators of both parties for one week. I think this would be a great experiment and it would send our Samurai Warlords crazy. Frankly, I don't care if Blanche Lincoln is for health care but doubtful about reconciliation. Or that Lindsey Graham put his finger in the air and decided it was OK to criticize Liz Cheney. And why must we have John McCain on every week since he lost to President Obama? Did we have Michael Dukakis on every week or John Kerry? And, by the way, where are the Democrats when it comes to national security issues? They never appear to defend the Administration even though it's cleaning up on the war on terror.

I've been watching Alabama ever since accusations were made against Karl Rove manipulating the case against Governor Spiegelman. Alabama over many election cycles has been owned by Republicans. Between Ralph Reed and Karl Rove, there have been dirty tricks played galore in the state. But I've noticed recently that the Democrats are beginning to put together a solid team of candidates, including for Governor. I think this is one state to watch for some interesting changes this year. The other state is Texas.

I was fascinated today to learn Rupert Murdoch is going to move the headquarters for his media empire to Dubai. I wonder how much of this is related to the Saudi ownership in the company. His leading business partner as I've posted elsewhere is a Saudi Prince, who reportedly funds the families of suicide bombers. Interesting that this goes uncommented on in the U.S.

I'm having a tough time becoming a permanent Yankee Fan. Steinbrenner will not extend the contracts of Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera until after the season ends. He's the same old goat.

The Packard family is taking out after Carly Fiorina in California. Carly's main argument why she should be a Senator was her "superb" job as CEO of Hewlett-Packard. Not so, say the Packards, who believe she brought the company close to ruin. They had to intercede to stop her attempt to acquire Compaq and finally stimulated a shareholder revolt to can her. You will recall the memorable moment in the McCain campaign where Carly told everyone that as CEO she purposely kept H-P funds abroad to escape paying Americam corporate taxes. So the people of California can elect a tax-dodger.

Charlie Crist looks like he's toast in Florida. Marco Rubio has an insurmontable lead for the Republican primary. Rubio is a major scandal waiting to happen. He's already been caught out using the party American Express card to charge his rather extensive personal expenses. He will be a disaster as a Senator, even though conservatives believe he is one of them--he's not. Crist has been a decent governor in hard times. Remember Jeb lost the entire state pension fund at Lehman Brothers. The Democratic candidate is too weak. Crist should either change parties or run as an independent.

Things are looking up for former Republican Lincoln Chaffee in Rhode Island. He appears to have a commanding lead in the race for the state house. He is one of those who was run out of the Republican party by the right.

The New York profile of Liz Cheney is worth a read. The operative elements of the article concern her personal and her husband's relationships with key media personalities in town. All her appearances are very managed and limited with the collusion of her media friends. It's not political, it's totally personal.

Finally, Jimi Hendrix Valleys of Neptune is sweet. You forget how good he was. This is the last album he recorded before he died. It was hung up in litigation until the family won the rights to all his work. It was recorded shortly after Electric Ladyland. I could have done without the copious notes on every single personnel dispute and where the band stayed in Manhattan during this period. But good listening.