The boob-bomber? Oy. Half the women in Los Angeles will have to be put on the no-fly list.

RGA executive director Nick Ayers was having some fun at the expense of Democrats this morning on Twitter, in the wake of two Democratic candidates dropping out of their races yesterday. He went on to imagine some conversations that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel would be having with other embattled incumbent governors, and made this joke about New York Gov. David Paterson:

@nick_ayers Rahm: "Gov Paterson you should accept the ambassadorship to New Zealand. Its beautiful there. Have you not seen it?...oh, right, sorry."

Paterson, of course, is legally blind. Ayers' tweet was immediately flagged as crossing the line by some of his followers. He quickly apologized.

@nick_ayers Paterson tweet too far. A poor attempt at poking fun of White House. Deleting now. Apologies.

The offending tweet has in fact been removed from his feed. Other jokes, including one about Iowa floods and another about the White House social secretary, remain. You can see the original exchange preserved here.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) hinted this morning that he will seek re-election this year rather than challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).

His comments came during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "Good Morning America," during which King said he was "leaning against" a Senate bid.

Stephanopoulos later wrote on his blog that King's hesitation is due to his confidence "that Republicans will regain control of the House this year, which would make him the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee." King called that prospect "alluring."

The interview can be seen here.

The New York Senate race was also the subject of a New York Times article this morning, which detailed former Tennessee congressman Harold Ford Jr.'s interest. Friends told the Times that Ford will decide in the next 45 days whether he will challenge Gillibrand in the Democratic primary.

Ford moved to New York following his failed 2006 bid for Senate in Tennessee, becoming an executive at Merrill Lynch and a regular commentator on NBC and MSNBC. Ford appeared on "Morning Joe" today and did not deny the accuracy of the Times story, though he was not asked directly about it.

As Tom noted, Senator Byron Dorgan announced his retirement last night. I have four additional thoughts:

(1) What set off this announcement? This announcement came out of the blue; I hadn't heard any retirement rumors about Dorgan at all. Obviously there had been some bad polling for Dorgan right before Christmas , but it also looked like Governor Hoeven might not be running. Did he get wind that Hoeven was running? Did he get an earful from constituents over the break? In the wake of his vote for the healthcare bill, did his numbers against no-name opponents tank (even before the vote, he was only at 52% against perennial candidate Duane Sand).

Obviously only Dorgan knows the answer to this, but if it is the latter, I'd be very interested in seeing polling for Evan Bayh, Russ Feingold, and even Patty Murray.

(2) This sets up a very likely Senate pickup for Republicans, and is the Senate seat most likely to flip. This is true whether or not Hoeven runs. Democrats have a few high profile statewide candidates: Congressman Earl Pomeroy, Superintendent of Public Instruction Wayne Sanstead, and State Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson Doug Goehring. But Dorgan has spent forty years cultivating a relationship with North Dakotans, and again, he was struggling against "Duane Sand." It's hard to imagine any of these Democrats, with the possible exception of Pomeroy (who is rumored to be losing to "other" in polling ) doing any better than Dorgan was, especially since Republicans are almost guaranteed to produce a high quality candidate. Which brings us to:

(3) If Hoeven doesn't run, expect a competitive Republican primary. Senate seats in North Dakota come open only once in a blue moon: Dorgan's seat has only been open twice since 1944. With seven statewide officeholders in addition to Hoeven, expect all hands to come on deck for the opportunity to acquire what should be a fairly safe seat. (UPDATE: Looks like Hoeven is running.)

(4) If a Republican wins, he (or she) would be the first Republican to serve in Congress from North Dakota since 1986. That is amazing.

[Note: I have been informed that Roger Johnson resigned last summer to become President of the National Farm Bureau.  Republican Doug Goehring is the current Ag Commissioner.]

Amid all the chaos created by yesterday afternoon's avalanche of Dem retirements, this front page story in the Boston Globe might be the most frightening of all for Democrats:

Baker's funding shatters records
Patrick foe raises $2.3m in months
In one of the most aggressive political fund-raising pushes in recent memory, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Charles D. Baker has amassed a $1.85 million war chest over roughly five months of campaigning, tapping into a broad range of supporters and establishing himself as a major threat to Governor Deval Patrick's reelection bid.

Baker doubled, in less than half the time, what Patrick raised for the entirety of 2009, despite a fund-raising visit by President Obama this past fall for the Democratic governor. Baker's coffers currently hold more than 10 times the amount in Patrick's campaign account.

Let the implications of that last paragraph sink in for a moment.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) will announce today that he is seeking the Senate seat, following Sen. Chris Dodd's (D) expected retirement announcement. Blumenthal tells AP that he will announce his bid at noon in the state Democratic headquarters in Hartford.

A day after four, count 'em, four Democratic candidates abandoned 2010 races for Senate and governor, Rasmussen releases a new poll (4000 LVs, 12/28-30 + 1/3, MoE +/- 1%) showing the party at its lowest point in the generic ballot for House races in the midterms.

Generic Ballot Test
GOP 44 (+1 vs. last poll, 12/27)
Dems 35 (-3)

Just a year ago, Democrats had a 6-point lead in this tracking survey, 42-36. Republicans have hit 44 in the survey, but Democrats hadn't dipped below 36 in that time. More from Rasmussen:

There has been a notable shift this week among women, who now favor Republicans slightly 40% to 38%. Last week, women favored Democrats 45% to 38%. Men prefer Republicans 49% to 32%, showing little change over the past week.

Among all voters not affiliated with either party, the GOP leads 48% to 17%.

In the RCP Average for the generic Congressional vote, Republicans lead 2.8.

North Dakota Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan is reitring. Here is the full statement from his office:

“Representing North Dakota in the U.S. Congress for nearly 30 years has been one of the great privileges of my life.

“The work I have been able to do to expand our economy, create new opportunities in energy and water development, invent the Red River Research Corridor with cutting-edge world class research, build a stronger safety net for family farmers and much more has been a labor of love for me.

“In recent years, becoming Chairman of key Senate Committees on Energy and Water, Indian Affairs, Aviation and more has given me much greater opportunity to help our state and country.

“For the past year, I have been making plans to seek another six-year Senate term in next year's election. Those plans included raising campaign funds and doing the organizing necessary to wage a successful campaign.

“Even as I have done that, in recent months I began to wrestle with the question of whether making a commitment to serve in the Senate seven more years (next year plus a new six-year term) was the right thing to do.

“I have been serving as an elected official in our state for many years. Beginning at age 26, I served ten years as State Tax Commissioner followed by thirty years in the U.S. Congress by the end of 2010. It has been a long and wonderful career made possible by the people of North Dakota. And I am forever grateful to them for the opportunity.

“Although I still have a passion for public service and enjoy my work in the Senate, I have other interests and I have other things I would like to pursue outside of public life. I have written two books and have an invitation from a publisher to write two more books. I would like to do some teaching and would also like to work on energy policy in the private sector.

“So, over this holiday season, I have come to the conclusion, with the support of my family, that I will not be seeking another term in the U.S. Senate in 2010. It is a hard decision to make after thirty years in the Congress, but I believe it is the right time for me to pursue these other interests.

“Let me be clear that this decision does not relate to any dissatisfaction that I have about serving in the Senate. Yes, I wish there was less rancor and more bipartisanship in the U.S. Senate these days. But still, it is a great privilege to serve and I have the utmost respect for all of the men and women with whom I serve.

“It has been a special privilege to serve with Senator Conrad and Congressman Pomeroy, who do an outstanding job for our state. And although he inherited an economy in serious trouble, I remain confident that President Obama is making the right decisions to put our country back on track.
Further, my decision has no relationship to the prospect of a difficult election contest this year. Frankly, I think if I had decided to run for another term in the Senate I would be reelected.

“But I feel that after serving 30 years, I want to make time for some other priorities. And making a commitment to serve in the Senate for the next seven years does not seem like the right decision for me.

“So, 2010 will be my last year in the Senate. I will continue to work hard for the best interests of our state and country during this coming year. We need to get the economic engine restarted and put people back to work. We need to reform our financial system to make sure that which happened to cause this deep recession will not happen again. And we need to get our fiscal and budget policies under control. The federal budget deficits are not sustainable.

“But even as we face all of these difficult issues, I am convinced that our country will rise to the challenge.

“We are a great nation. And I have a deep sense of optimism about the future of our country.”

With today's resignation by Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine released a statement highlighting the ideological battle within the GOP:

“Today's right-wing led coup of Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer is a telling and unsettling sign about the extreme direction of the Republican Party - a direction that is narrowing the Party ideologically, demographically and, ultimately, electorally.

"We're not even a full week into 2010 and the extreme right wing of the Republican Party has claimed another trophy for its wall - adding Greer to Senator Specter and Dede Scozzafava in its quest to purify the Republican Party, eliminate moderate voices and enact an extreme right-wing agenda.

"By deposing the top party official in a state that is virtually unmatched in electoral importance, and that has perhaps the most contested GOP Senate primary race of 2010, the tea party movement has landed a powerful blow squarely on the chin of the Republican Party.
(more...)

Brian Lamb has put President Obama on the spot. Lamb is the CEO of C-Span, and today he wrote a letter to the leaders of Congress asking them to allow cameras in the room for the final negotiations on the health care bill. Lamb wrote:

President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation's editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation's health care system. Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between Chambers, we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American.

Indeed, this was one of Obama's signature promises on the campaign trail:

It's hard to get more explicit than that.

But that was then. Today, when asked for the 3rd time whether President Obama believes that the "standard" he set during the campaign for transparency on health care negotiations is being met by the current process (which now appears to include bypassing the formal conference process), White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gave a flaccid but telling response.

"I do not believe the American people have lacked for information on what's in these bills - the political and policy arguments around different people's positions - I think that's been well documented," Gibbs said.

With all due respect, the reporter did not ask Gibbs for his appraisal of what he thinks the public does and does not know about the health care bills. Rather, the question is very simple: will President Obama honor his campaign pledge and demand that the final health care negotiations are televised on C-Span? Judging from Gibbs' response, the answer is an obvious "no."