The calls for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to step down from his leadership post likely will not end with Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's comments Sunday on "Meet the Press."

"Whether he steps down today, or I retire him in November, either way he will not be the majority leader in 2011," said Steele.

Although the RNC chairman is facing grumblings within the GOP about his own leadership position because of some of the things he's said -- as well as his new book and the committee's fundraising numbers -- his sentiments yesterday will likely be echoed by other Republican leaders as Congress swings back into action this week (in the House) and next (in the Senate).

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) criticized Reid on TV this morning, and his committee pushed the argument in press releases throughout Monday morning -- including digging up Reid's reaction in 2002 to then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's infamous comments.

"This is a double standard from Senator Reid, and there's no doubt that voters in Nevada will see through his hypocrisy as he refuses to step down as Majority Leader," said NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh. "Fortunately, Nevadans will finally have an opportunity to retire Harry Reid and his controversial rhetoric for good in November."

Reid's re-election prospects took another hit this weekend as a Mason-Dixon poll revealed he trailed by as much as 10 points to two relatively unknown Republican challengers.

A Public Policy Polling survey released Saturday night showed a potential upset in the making, with Republican state Sen. Scott Brown (R) leading Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) in the Massachusetts Senator special election.

Now, a survey from the University of New Hampshire in Sunday's Boston Globe (554 LVs, 1/2-6, MoE +/- 4.2%) shows a much safer result for Democrats, with Coakley ahead by double digits.

Special Election Matchup (No Leaners)
Coakley 50
Brown 35
Und 9

There is this caveat, from the Globe story:

Although the Senate race electorate is fairly firm in its choices - 61 percent say they have definitely decided whom they will support, and 15 percent are leaning toward a candidate - special elections can remain volatile until the last minute. Turnout is also highly unpredictable in an election that follows a holiday and could be affected by winter weather.

Coakley's lead is 53-36 when you include voters who are leaning toward one candidate or another. But in a special election, these voters are considered less likely to turnout. In the original sample, Brown trails by just 1 point among independent voters, 41-40 percent.

Democrats have been playing a careful game as the Massachusetts Senate contest winds down, raising the stakes in an effort to keep supporters engaged, but unwilling to admit any real concern. But this survey out late Saturday from Public Policy Polling (D) (744 LVs, 1/7-9, MoE +/- 3.6%) is sure to have Democrats across the country in a more obvious panic.

Special Election Matchup
Brown (R) 48
Coakley (D) 47
Und 6

Brown, who has had the airwaves largely to himself since the December primary election, has strong net +32 rating, while Coakley is just +7. And that is helping him with indies. From PPP:

Brown leads 63-31 with independents and is winning 17% of the Democratic vote while Coakley receives only 6% support from GOP voters. Both candidates are relatively popular, with 57% viewing Brown favorably to only 25% unfavorable and 50% with a positive opinion of Coakley to 42% negative.

Brown has run on the idea that he would be the "41st vote" in the Senate to oppose health care, and it seems those who are more likely to vote on January 19 would favor that decision: 47 percent oppose the Democratic plan, while 41 percent support it. President Obama's approval rating among these likely voters is a slim 44 percent, to 43 percent who disapprove.

It seems unlikely a final health care vote will happen in the Senate until after this special election, which certainly raises the stakes for Democrats here. The Coakley camp has announced that President Clinton will campaign with the attorney general this Friday. Perhaps now you'll see some sort of direct appeal from the White House. And Democrats will certainly have to try and raise Brown's negatives and tie him to the national GOP if they are to right the ship.

Though he's been clear he'd side with his party on the key issues like health care, Brown called himself as an independent in an interview with RCP this week who wouldn't be beholden to anyone if he was elected. You can read more from that interview here.

I can appreciate that Peggy Noonan might enjoy being a minion of the Republican Party, but gosh, how about a little cross-party consistency? I nearly dropped my latte this weekend when I read this passage in her Wall Street Journal column:

I am wondering if the Obama administration thinks it vaguely dishonorable to be popular. If you mention to Obama staffers that they really have to be concerned about the polls, they look at you with a certain . . . not disdain but patience, as if you don't understand the purpose of politics. That purpose, they believe, is to move the governed toward greater justice. Just so, but in democracy you do this by garnering and galvanizing public support. But they think it's weaselly to be well thought of.

For years, Noonan had been fulminating against Bill Clinton for his desire to be liked. She called Clinton a "poll driven animal" in a 2004 column for The Journal.

Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, was well thought of, Noonan insists, precisely because he didn't pay much attention to polls. She writes this about Reagan in Newsweek in 1995:

But his positions were not poll driven, and the people could tell. So even when they disagreed with him, they still respected him.

www.fromaharrop.com

He still has 10 months before he faces re-election, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid seems to have hit a new low this weekend, on several fronts.

The hot story involves statements attributed to Reid in "Game Change," a new book from Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. Reid is said to have believed that Obama would make a better nominee in the 2008 campaign because, "He was wowed by Obama's oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama -- a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.'" The comment was reported late Friday by Marc Ambinder.

Reid apologized this morning for "using such a poor choice of words," and now the White House has issued a statement from the president accepting that apology:

"Harry Reid called me today and apologized for an unfortunate comment reported today. I accepted Harry's apology without question because I've known him for years, I've seen the passionate leadership he's shown on issues of social justice and I know what's in his heart. As far as I am concerned, the book is closed."

All this comes as new polling from Mason Dixon (625 RVs, 1/5-1/7, MoE +/- 4%) in today's Las Vegas Review-Journal shows him at his lowest point in matchups against potential Republican foes.

General Election Matchups
Lowden 50 (-1 vs last poll, 11/30-12/2)
Reid 40 (-1)
Und 10 (+2)

Tarkanian 49 (+1)
Reid 41 (-1)
Und 10 (unch)

Angle 45
Reid 40
Und 15

Tarkanian leads Reid by 6.3, and Lowden by 7, in the RCP Averages. Here's an especially troubling stat in the survey:

In each of the three Reid-GOP matchups polled, for example, the senator would get only about one-quarter of the independent vote, according to the latest Mason-Dixon poll. The three potential Republican opponents would get more than half the independent voters' support if the race against Reid were held today: Lowden (59 percent), Tarkanian (56 percent) and Angle (53 percent).

As you can see, Reid peaks at 40 even against Sharron Angle, a little-known figure statewide. Again, the only thing working in Reid's favor is the open Republican race, which the poll (300 RVs, MoE +/- 6%) shows is still largely unsettled.

Primary Election Matchup
Tarkanian 28 (+4)
Lowden 26 (-1)
Angle 13 (unch)
Amodei 1
Und 32 (-1)

Reid's favorable rating is down 5 points, and his unfavorable is up 3.

Favorable Ratings
Reid 33 / 52
Angle 21 / 11
Lowden 32 / 17
Tarkanian 33 / 16

Another challenge for Robert Gibbs today to the notion of a supposedly transparent White House. It's been months since President Obama has opened himself to questions from the full White House press corps, and Gibbs was asked today if there were any plans to change that. Here's the exchange from today's daily briefing:

Q: He has spoken quite a bit on the Christmas Day incident but he hasn't opened himself up to questions from the media. Do you think he might entertain some questions on that --

MR. GIBBS: No.

Q: and isn't it unusual that on an event this big that he would not open himself up to questions?

MR. GIBBS: I don't want to speculate. He's not taking questions today.

Q: Well, Mr. Knoller, I think, will back me up on this. He hasn't had a press conference since July at the White House. Why can't we get him to respond to questions rather than just give statements on issues like this?

MR. GIBBS: We did this before. I think the last time we did -- we talked about the President's media schedule, and here you all, to a person, reminded me of our dramatic overexposure.

Q: No, I certainly don't feel that way.

MR. GIBBS: You don't now.

Q: Well, that was then. (Laughter.)

MR. GIBBS: I appreciate at least that we've isolated the flip-flop, and now we can just --

Q: Are there any plans for a press conference?

MR. GIBBS: Not that I'm aware of.

The president has had a few "one-and-ones" with other heads of states, and some one-on-ones with the likes of Oprah and "60 Minutes." But he hasn't had a full press conference since a prime-time East Room gathering last July. It should be noted that that event ended with an off-script answer that led to the "Beer Summit" saga.

The response from Gibbs referring to the older meme that Obama was overexposed is a bit tired, since it's not a sentiment you hear much anymore, and rarely did from the White House press corps themselves. And since the White House rejected the notion that he was overexposed to begin with, surely there's a better answer than this.

An interesting e-mail appeal from Rep. Artur Davis (D), attempting to capitalize on Alabama's BCS Championship win last night in his run for governor.

Our state schools have made a commitment: any 18-year-old who can punt the ball cleanly enough, block hard enough, tackle aggressively enough, run fast enough, or throw crisply enough will be guaranteed free room and board and access to college.

Three times in the last decade, our young men gave us in return an undefeated regular season, and this time they gave us a championship.
But what if we said the same thing to any 18-year-old in this state who has a work ethic and can win a science fair as we said to football recruits? What if we said the same to every 18-year-old in this state who has the skills to excel in literature or mathematics?

Imagine what those young people could give back to Alabama.
We should all be proud of the young men who delivered victory on the field last night, but we shouldn't stop there.

The e-mail to his supporters, of course, includes the big red "CONTRIBUTE" button at the bottom.

The retirement of Gov. Jodi Rell (R) has given Democrats their best chance at winning back the governorship in Connecticut for the first time in decades. A new Public Policy Polling (D) survey (522 RVs, 1/4-5, MoE +/- 4.3%) shows that each Democratic contender has an edge in the early going.

General Election Matchups
Bysiewicz (D) 50 -- Fedele (R) 25 -- Und 25
Bysiewicz (D) 48 -- Foley (R) 26 -- Und 27

Lamont (D) 40 -- Fedele (R) 30 -- Und 29
Lamont (D) 40 -- Foley (R) 29 -- Und 30

Malloy (D) 37 -- Fedele (R) 26 -- Und 36
Malloy (D) -- Foley (R) 27 -- Und 36

Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz is clearly Democrats' strongest candidate at this point. But the party is eager to avoid its primary, and she told the Associated Press Thursday that she's considering switching to the attorney general race now that Richard Blumenthal is running for the U.S. Senate.

Favorable Ratings
Bysiewicz 39 / 16
Lamont 29 / 28
Malloy 18 / 15
Fedele 9 / 12
Foley 10 / 14

Rell still has a respectable job approval rating as she steps down, with 49 percent of state voters approving and 39 percent disapproving.

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee announced today it will hold a hearing Jan. 20 "to discuss how to further improve the nation's security in light of the Christmas Day terrorist attack."

Testifying before the committee will be Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter. They will speak on, among other things, the progress of the 2004 intelligence reforms recommended by the 9/11 Commission.

"We will ask Admiral Blair and Director Leiter why the intelligence community was unable to bring together pieces of intelligence held by various agencies to detect this plot and whether the DNI and NCTC have the authority to integrate the intelligence community into a single, integrated enterprise," said Chairman Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.).

"From Secretary Napolitano, we will want to know how -- even after reforms designed to prevent it -- Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was able to exploit passenger pre-screening systems and the international aviation security system to board a plane bound for the United States with an explosive device."

News came this morning that we still have an unemployment rate of 10.0 percent. Why? The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts it plainly: “Employment fell in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale trade, while temporary help services and health care added jobs.”

December construction employment decline: 53,000.

Manufacturing employment decline: 27,000.

Wholesale trade employment decline: 18,000 (notably, mostly in durable goods).

Since the recession began, construction and manufacturing alone have lost 3.7 million jobs! I've belabored this invisible workingman crisis throughout 2009, how we view this he-cession's raw deal as a culture and the historic resulting jobless gender gap.

At the risk of berating readers, three in four total job losses in this recession are traditional blue collar jobs. Two-thirds of total losses are experienced by blue collar workingmen. As a result, today, one fifth of men age 25 to 54 have no job.

The employment crisis has lessened since early last year. But the blue collar recession carries on with force, decimating the working class edifice of America. And so they yearn — impatient, exhausted, disillusioned — for leaders who rally to their cause.