The Hill,

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), addressing a convention of liberal bloggers and activists Saturday evening, implored the left to fight to stay in power in the midterm elections.

“If Republicans take back Congress they’ll implement a truly dangerous agenda,” Franken told the Netroots Nation gathering in Las Vegas. “Everything is on the table, from repealing healthcare reform to privatizing Social Security.”

Franken singled out two Republican Senate nominees: Rand Paul in Kentucky, for his questioning of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and Sharron Angle in Nevada, “who can’t stop bringing up the prospect of armed revolt.”

The Hill,

Mitt Romney is dominating fundraising in the nascent GOP 2012 presidential field and pushing ahead with a strategy to bolster not just midterm congressional campaigns but state-level ones — as well as his own.

The former Massachusetts governor, who sought the Republican White House nomination in 2008, has put considerable distance between himself and his would-be opponents, not just on the money front but operationally.

That he will seek the party’s nod again seems all but a given. And, with the depth of his coffers now apparent, he stands as the arguable front-runner in a field that remains relatively narrow, perhaps with just half a year until the next White House campaign begins in earnest.

Politico,

The Republicans are only as strong as their weakest link. Now, here’s an illustration, and herein lies the problem with Republican governance because Republican governance is different from conservative governance. There’s a story, MSNBC, Scott Brown, the Republican who won Ted Kennedy’s seat, is going to vote “yes” on financial reform. There is no conservative anywhere who would vote “yes” on financial regulatory reform. It is a fraud of a bill. It should not come close to even passing. But here we have a Republican voting for it, and if you read the story, he makes arguments that sound very much like liberal arguments, that it does all these wonderful things, that it’s got a consumer bill of rights in it, it’s gonna make sure that big, fat cats on Wall Street don’t get to screw anybody anymore when in fact it does not do that, and it cannot do that, and it will not do that. So this is going to be up to the Republicans, what they do with this victory in the House that even the White House now appears to be hoping for.

The Swamp,

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown said on Monday that he will support the financial regulation overhaul, becoming one of the Republicans needed to moved one of the Obama administration’s key pieces of legislation into law.

Brown had announced that he would oppose the compromise bill that had been negotiated by the House and Senate, but shifted his support after bargainers went back to the table and restructured about $19 billion in payments that was opposed by banks in Brown’s state. A final Senate vote could come this week.

“I appreciate the efforts to improve the bill, especially the removal of the $19-billion bank tax. As a result, it is a better bill than it was when this whole process started. While it isn’t perfect, I expect to support the bill when it comes up for a vote,” Brown said in a prepared statement.

ABC News,

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday he’s seriously considering seeking the Republican presidential nomination and will announce his decision early next year.

Gingrich, 67, told The Associated Press that he would focus on helping Republican candidates through the midterm elections in November, then decide in February or March whether to seek the GOP nomination.

“I’ve never been this serious,” Gingrich said.

“It’s fair to say that by February the groundwork will have been laid to consider seriously whether or not to run,” he said.

Washington Times,

With Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele facing a barrage of calls to resign, North Dakota Republican Party Chairman Gary Emineth, a social conservative, told The Washington Times on Friday he is quitting his post to prepare a possible challenge of Mr. Steele after November’s midterm elections.

Also on Friday, prominent neoconservatives led by William Kristol and Liz Cheney began a growing chorus demands that Mr. Steele step down now, before the Nov. 2 midterm congressional and gubernatorial elections and before he can decide whether to seek reelection to a second two-year term in January.

Mr. Emineth said what moved him to consider a bid for national chairman is what he called Mr. Steele’s dismal failure with big donors who are giving to other, more trusted GOP campaign organizations as polls continue to show Republicans, if adequately financed, stand a good chance of regaining control of Congress.

The Hill,

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has earned the ire of Tea Party groups for his penchant for negotiating with Democrats, predicted this week the movement will “die out.”

Graham, who has partnered with Democrats on immigration reform and energy and climate legislation, made the observation in a New York Times Magazine profile titled “Lindsey Graham, This Year’s Maverick” to be published this Sunday:

“Everything I’m doing now in terms of talking about climate, talking about immigration, talking about Gitmo is completely opposite of where the Tea Party movement’s at,” Graham said as Cato drove him to the city of Greenwood, where he was to give a commencement address at Lander University later that morning. On four occasions, Graham met with Tea Party groups. The first, in his Senate office, was “very, very contentious,” he recalled. During a later meeting, in Charleston, Graham said he challenged them: “ ‘What do you want to do? You take back your country — and do what with it?’ . . . Everybody went from being kind of hostile to just dead silent.”

House Republican leaders introduced a bill Thursday to repeal and replace the sweeping healthcare law adopted in late March.

According to Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the measure would repeal the current law and replace it with the alternative the minority party offered to the original healthcare legislation last November.

“As unpopular as this healthcare bill is today, it’s at the height of its popularity,” Blunt said. “The more the American people know about it, the more concerns they are going to have, and the more they are going to look at alternatives.”

The Hill article continues here.

Republicans scored a midterm election victory Saturday when Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou won a Democratic-held House seat in Hawaii in the district where President Obama grew up — the latest triumph for the GOP as it looks to take back control of Congress.

Djou’s victory was a blow to Obama and other Democrats who could not rally around a candidate and find away to win a congressional race that should have been a cakewalk. The seat had been held by a Democrat for nearly 20 years and is located where Obama was born and spent most of his childhood.

“This is a momentous day. We have sent a message to the United States Congress. We have sent a message to the national Democrats. We have sent a message to the machine,” Djou said. “The congressional seat is not owned by one political party. This congressional seat is owned by the people.”

USA Today (AP) article continues here.

Republicans served notice they will highlight Elena Kagan’s lack of experience as a judge, and the little time she has worked as a courtroom lawyer, when the Senate considers her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

That lack of judicial and litigation background — 14 months as U.S. solicitor general and two years as a private lawyer after finishing law school — leaves opponents without much of a record from prior cases with which to criticize President Barack Obama’s second high-court nominee.

While some Republicans questioned Kagan’s support for university protests against the Defense Department ban on acknowledged gays and lesbians, or pointed to her work with judges they consider too liberal, Democratic leaders said the former Harvard Law School dean would win approval.

“She will be confirmed,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, calling Kagan a “superb nominee.”

Bloomberg article continues here.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) accused Republicans of being “anti-American” by demanding changes to a Wall Street regulation bill before it’s debated openly on the Senate floor.

Speaking to reporters just before the Democrats’ third attempt to break a GOP filibuster on the issue, Reid said that Republicans “keep stalling, keep stalling.” He charged Republicans with trying to pick apart the bill before it even comes to the floor where both sides could offer amendments and openly debate the measure.

“Even some Democrats would like to offer amendments on this bill,” Reid said. “All of this talk from Republicans about wanting to do something about this bill before it gets on the floor is really anti-Senate and anti-American.”

Politico article continues here.

Undaunted by a Senate setback, Democrats appeared increasingly confident Monday they will be able to take advantage of Americans’ anger at Wall Street and push through the most sweeping new controls on financial institutions since the Great Depression.

The Senate, in a 57-41 vote, failed to get the 60 supporters needed to proceed on the regulatory overhaul. One Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, joined with the Republicans.

But the evening vote was just part of a legislative ballet keeping bipartisan talks alive. At the end, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid switched his vote to “no,” too, but that was just a maneuver that will enable him to call for a new tally as early as Tuesday.

Yahoo! News (AP) article continues here.

Superintendent Warren J. Riley and members of the New Orleans Police are asking the public’s assistance in locating and identifying several suspects wanted in connection with an incident that occurred in the 600 block of Saint Louis Street . The incident occurred Friday April 9, 2010, at approximately 10:45 P.M.

According to investigators, the victims were walking from a function at a restaurant in the 400 block of Royal Street . When they entered the 600 block of Saint Louis Street , three to five Caucasian males made derogatory comments to the 25-year-old female and her 28-year-old male friend. When the male victim turned towards the group of men, one or more of the suspects struck the victim several times. At some point the female victim fell to the ground and screamed. The suspects then fled on foot. Officers in the area heard the female screaming and responded to the scene and broadcasted a description of the suspects and requested Emergency Medical Paramedics. As the female was waiting for EMS , she used her purse as a pillow. When the victim was in the ambulance, she discovered her purse was missing.

Gateway Pundit article continues here.

Four in 10 Tea Party members are either Democrats or Independents, according to a new national survey.

The findings provide one of the most detailed portraits to date of the grassroots movement that started last year.

The national breakdown of the Tea Party composition is 57 percent Republican, 28 percent Independent and 13 percent Democratic, according to three national polls by the Winston Group, a Republican-leaning firm that conducted the surveys on behalf of an education advocacy group. Two-thirds of the group call themselves conservative, 26 are moderate and 8 percent say they are liberal.

The Hill article continues here.