Capitol Hill rag Roll Call breaks down who within walls of Congress reigns supreme in personal wealth.

The newspaper's annual report, based on financial disclosure forms, proved that Members of the House and Senate are not immune to the country's economic climate -- many of the wealthiest Members reported significant losses from the year before, including California Rep. Jane Harman (-50%) and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry (-28%).

Of the Top 50, 28 are Democrats, 22 Republicans, and 11 are freshmen. Kerry returns as the wealthiest Member of Congress.

Here are the Top 10 in 2008 minimum net worth:
1. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., $167M
2. Rep. Darrel Issa, R-Calif., $164M
3. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., $112M
4. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., $85M
5. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., $72M
6. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., $71M
7. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., $49M
8. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., $48M
9. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., $42M
10. Rep. Harry Teague, D-N.M., $40M

Head over to Roll Call to see the entire Top 50.

The gap has narrowed somewhat, but the latest Monmouth University/Gannett poll of the New Jersey gubernatorial race shows Chris Christie (R) still well ahead of Gov. Jon Corzine (D).

General Election Matchup -- Likely Voters
Christie 47 (-3 from last poll, 8/4)
Corzine 39 (+3)
Daggett 5 (+1)
Don't Know 7 (-1)

There were no major shifts in the candidates' favorability ratings. That's bad news for Corzine, who still has a high net-negative rating. Independent candidate Daggett is still an unknown.

Favorable Rating
Corzine 37 / 53
Christie 48 / 30
Daggett 11 / 6

Corzine's approval rating among likely voters is 34 percent, with 58 percent disapproving. Voters say that on the key issues -- economy and taxes -- Christie would do a better job than Corzine.

But New Jersey Democrats point to the fact that Christie hasn't cleared the 50 percent hurdle. And Monmouth's pollster finds that the electorate is still unsettled. “A Republican holding a steady poll lead is unprecedented in recent New Jersey elections and this shouldn't be discounted. But the results also indicate there is a lot of churning in this electorate. Despite the incumbent's continued unpopularity, there is still a sense that anything can happen," Patrick Murray said in a release.

The survey of 531 likely voters was conducted September 8-10, and had a margin of error of +/- 4.3 percent.

With 50 days left until Election Day, the RCP Average has Christie with a lead of 6.8 percent.

Rob Miller, the Democrat challenging Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) next year, has raised more than $1 million since Wednesday night, when the GOP congressman interrupted President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress with a shout of, "You lie!" The campaign announced that the total came from 25,000 individual donors.

"We will put this generous support to work to restore common-sense leadership to Washington, create jobs, and stand up for men and women in uniform," said Rob Miller in a released statement. "If there was ever a time to put bickering and name calling aside and be part of the solution, it's now."

Miller is a retired Marine and Iraq war veteran. This is the second straight election he has challenged Wilson. In 2008, Wilson won by just 8 points -- his smallest margin of victory since coming to Congress in a December 2001 special election. Miller, who was outspent two-to-one by Wilson, can likely thank much of his 46% take to Obama's get-out-the-vote efforts. The 2nd District is more than a quarter African American.

Pat Buchanan's concise column yesterday, “Is America Coming Apart,” is garnering a good deal of attention. It occurs to me that a similar column could have been written in the late 19th century, and probably was. We are not more partisan today. Then, there was also an urban-rural divide. And we may be arguably more homogeneous today than in the 1890s, if one does not limit the definition to race and religion.

I believe there was a movement in 19th century Wisconsin by German immigrants, for example, to make German an official language. My city, New York, was littered back then with innumerable newspapers of every tongue.

Yet Buchanan is also right. Past immigrant generations did generally attempt to Americanize. They held onto their ethnic or religious identity but they did want to feel a part of that “melting pot”--a many melting to a one. By the 1970s, difference was celebrated. By the 1990s, we were hyphenated Americans.

The recent deaths of Michael Jackson and Walter Cronkite also remind us that the age of unified popular culture is likely receding. Cronkite told Americans what was news and what mattered in the news. Today, ever increasingly, people consume what I term Echo Chamber Journalism--agenda news that only hardens readers' agenda. We no longer share the same news filters, and some are grateful for it.

Michael Jackson's reach--across generation, race, nation--also seems impossible in this new age of fragmented media.

People always unite in tragedy. I believe it's an Arabic saying that goes, "I against my brother; my brother and I against my cousin; I, my brother, and my cousin against the stranger”—or the world. Common enemies breed unity. And we are a long way from the unity in the months following September 11, 2001.

We are today indeed agog over silly debates on whether the president can speak to children or this shouting match or that, but we have lived here before. There remains a vast moderate public that has swelled to the highs of 1992 and remains under covered. But that's just the way these things are. Car accidents earn spectators, and so it goes in politics as well.

It does often feel like we are our own non-compatriots. This is indicative of the politics in the time of Clinton, W. Bush and Obama. It is only Obama's failed promise to unite the two tribes that highlights our divisions.

The irony of Buchanan surveying what splits us--and he did so well--is that he was one of the innumerable architects of this divisive age. As an advisor to Richard Nixon in 1971, Buchanan suggested Nixon separate the majority from the radicals, and unapologetically seek "the larger half."

Obama is not Nixon. He is not a political Napoleon attempting to divide and conquer. But Obama now too seeks "the larger half" on health care reform. And to be fair, health care was always going to be a partisan debate. Still, we remain entrenched in the red and blue America that Obama promised to take us from. But one should step back as well; it would have been more historically peculiar if the exaggerated promise and media analysis of Obama, vintage '08, would have proven correct (at least so soon).

A landslide today, after all, is 53 percent. Obama never had a landslide by historic standards. But he was compared to the giant presidents of past, in part, because our expectations are far lower. We are still in a political culture that seeks "the larger half." This is why Buchanan captures our time so well.

A snap poll conducted by the Democratic firm of Public Policy Polling shows that Rep. Joe Wilson (R) is trailing in his re-election bid.

General Election Matchup
Miller (D) 44
Wilson (R) 43
Undecided 13

Asked about Wilson's outburst at President Obama's joint session speech, 29 percent approve of it, while 62 percent disapproved. Thirty-five percent say it made them more likely to vote for Wilson in 2010, while 49 percent said they were less likely to vote for him now.

It's hard to read too much into this poll, however, given how far we are from the vote and the nature of the fallout. The district his heavily Republican, with a Cook Partisan rating of R+9. In the survey, President Obama has a 50 percent approval rating, with 46 percent disapproving.

Asked if they think Obama lied about illegal immigrants not being covered by his plan, 42 percent said yes and 46 percent said no. Overall, 45 percent say they support Obama's health care plan, while 48 percent oppose. But 44 percent say they support the idea of a public option, while 39 percent oppose it.

Wilson's job approval rating is net negative, 41 percent approving, 47 percent disapproving. The survey was conducted September 10-11 among 747 voters, with a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percent.

14 months out from election day, Democratic Senator Chris Dodd is in a heap of trouble.  According to Rasmussen Reports, not only is he below 50%, he is below 40%, and his likely GOP opponent, former Representative Rob Simmons, is almost at 50%.  Dodd trails 49%-39%.  Dodd trails former ambassador Tom Foley 43%-40%.  He leads state Senator Sam Caliguri 43%-40%, and venture capitalist Peter Schiff 42%-40%.  His statewide favorables stand at 40%; his unfavorables stand at a whopping 59%

To put things in perspective, this is only slightly better than where Rick Santorum was in 2006.  A September Strategic Vision (R) poll had it at 52%-38% Casey; Keystone had it at 50%-37% Casey, and Quinnipiac had it at 52%-34% Casey.  Santorum lost by 18 points.

There's a long way to go to election day, and Connecticut is a deep blue state right now.  But this has to be considered at least a "Slight Lean Republican" right now, if not a "Lean Republican."  Very few incumbents come back from numbers like this.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) continues to lead potential Democratic challengers despite his perpetual sub-40% approval rating, a new PPP survey finds (Sept. 2-8, 600 RV, MoE +/- 4%).

Democrats the survey matched up against Burr in hypothetical general election races include: former state senator Cal Cunningham, U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy, attorney Kenneth Lewis, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall (who filed her candidacy paperwork Wednesday) and former Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker.

Burr 42 - Cunningham 30 - Und 29
Burr 41 - Etheridge 34 - Und 25
Burr 43 - Foy 29 - Und 29
Burr 43 - Lewis 27 - Und 29
Burr 42 - Marshall 31 - Und 27
Burr 42 - Wicker 31 - Und 27

Two new surveys released this morning find an increase in support for President Obama and comprehensive health care reform.

A CBS News poll reports a 12-point leap in approval of Obama's handling of health care since last week. Forty percent of adults interviewed last week (Aug. 27-31) said they approved, while 47 percent disapproved. When the same sample was surveyed the day after Obama's speech (Sept. 10, 648 A, MoE +/- 4%), 52% now approve of the president's handling of health care while 38% disapprove, which CBS reports is "the best marks of his presidency."

Also, more people now say that Obama has explained his health care reform than did last week. Just 33% felt the president had explained his proposals last week; 42% now say he has, though 43% still say he has not.

A Rasmussen survey (Sept. 9-10, 1000 LV, MoE +/- 3%) finds support for the Democrats' health care reform proposal at 46% -- up 2 points since the two days prior to Obama's speech. The speech appears to have had more of an impact on Democrats, though, as Rasmussen reports that the boost comes "entirely from those in the president's own party."

One of the less-appreciated legacies of George W. Bush, but the one that may have the greatest effect in the long term -- is the damage done to the GOP's farm team during his Presidency.  GOPers from swing districts -- those who have the most experience with moderate voters -- were wiped out in Congress and at the statehouse level.  Downticket statewide Republicans (Attorneys General, etc.) were similarly obliterated.  This has made it increasingly difficult for the GOP to recruit top-tier candidates to run for higher office.

Nowhere is this more pronounced than Colorado.  Both the Governor and the new Senator are exceedingly vulnerable.  Two earlier polls (reported below) had Governor Bill Ritter hovering around 40% -- a Santorum-2006-ish number.  The GOP has managed to find two high-quality challengers to him, and Ritter is in real trouble heading into 2010.

But what of the Senate race?  Rasmussen reports that Senator Michael Bennet loses to Ryan Frazier 40%-39%, and leads Ken Buck 43%-37%.  Again, not many sitting Senators with numbers around 40% win their re-election efforts, unless they hail from states that ultimately match their ideological profile (ie Bob Menendez, 2006).

Who are Ryan Frazier and Ken Buck?  Why, of course, an Aurora City Councilor and the Weld County (Greeley) District Attorney.  That Bennet is losing or barely leading these unknowns speaks to just how weak he is.  But the fact that a sitting Senator with these abysmal approval ratings hasn't drawn a top tier opponent speaks to the state of the Colorado Republican Party, and how badly damaged it has been over the past eight years.  Apparently the Colorado Democratic Party is having trouble giving away its Senate seat, and that is obviously not good news for the GOP.