"And as for Liz Cheney, well, how rich to be called a racist by someone whose ideological forebears opposed the entire progressive 20th century, and I mean all of it. Not just federal civil rights legislation but, you know, women's suffrage and the end of child labor, too. Not to mention the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the Great Society, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, worker safety, fair housing, federal aid to education, public education generally, health insurance for indigent children, the Voting Rights Act, and the minimum wage. For the past century they have fought tooth and nail these things that have helped make America great." - Mark Warren, co-author of Harry Reid's book "The Good Fight," on Cheney calling Reid's "negro dialect" remarks racist.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) endorsed Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio today, according to the Rubio campaign. Pence serves as the Republican Conference Chairman -- the third-ranking Republican in the House -- and briefly considered a Senate candidacy of his own this year.

Here is Pence's statement in full:

"I am proud to endorse Marco Rubio for the United States Senate. Marco Rubio's faith in free markets, limited government and traditional moral values make him the right choice for Republicans in this race. At a time when the American people long for leaders of principle, Marco Rubio will be a courageous check and balance on the current Washington establishment.

“With Washington spending money we don't have and empowering the government at the expense of individual freedom, we need more leaders like Marco Rubio who are willing to take a stand for the common sense and common values of the American people."

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) was the first member of Congress to endorse Rubio over Gov. Charlie Crist, who was endorsed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee within minutes of formally entering the race.

Garrison Keillor gets taken to the Wobegon woodshed by Chuck Chalberg:

But a reader needn't be much of a sleuth to detect another source of anger -- Mr. Keillor himself. Oh, he does his best to hide behind well-cultivated folksiness and well-advertised geniality. But behind it all is anger -- as in how could all those good citizens of liberal Massachusetts reject his party, his president and all those 50 million Americans without health insurance?

It has to be sputtering anger that leads him to dredge up all the anti-Obama fringe charges (birthers and the like) and suggest that they represent the majority of Massachusetts voters who just dispatched a used truck to Washington.

Has Garrison Keillor forgotten about Paul Wellstone's rusty bus? Was candidate Wellstone angry? Not really. If anything, the professor was a wild-eyed optimist.[snip]

Maybe, just maybe, voters in Massachusetts were more worried than angry. And maybe, just maybe, they were hopeful as well, hopeful that if we do what Scott Brown suggests and start over we can figure out a way to adopt needed reform without creating a bureaucratic nightmare.

Keillor is too angry to be very hopeful. What's worse, he's angry at the sort of folks who can be found in Lake Wobegons everywhere, including Massachusetts.

If only he'd take the time to go home again, he might meet a few.

From the photo editors at the Washington Post:

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA 12), an 18-term congressman from southwestern Pennsylvania, died today at age 77. He had been hospitalized for complications related to gallbladder surgery.

Murtha's death comes just days after he became the longest-serving member of Congress in Pennsylvania history. Murtha represented the 12th District since winning a special election in February 1974. Beginning with his election to a full term later that year, Murtha never won re-election with less than 58 percent of the vote.

Murtha's passing will set the stage for the seventh House special election in the 111th Congress, in a district that was evenly split in 2008 between John McCain and Barack Obama. Murtha had faced his toughest race that year as well, on the heels of a controversial remark about people in his district being "racist." He's also been the subject of scrutiny over earmarks he's secured for his Johnstown-based district.

This year, Murtha was facing a primary challenge from Ryan Bucchianeri, a former Naval officer and placekicker on the Navy college football team. Republican Bill Russell, whom Murtha defeated with 58% in 2008, is running again, as is Republican businessman Tim Burns.

Whoever replaces Murtha will have the impossible task of filling in for one of the more powerful members of Congress. Murtha, the first Vietnam veteran elected to Congress, was an Appropriations committee "Cardinal" -- a title given to the chairmen of the various Appropriations subcommittees. Murtha chaired the Subcommittee on Defense.

The area that now makes up the 12th District was heavily Republican from the Civil War to the 1930s, according to the Almanac of American Politics. Without Murtha, it is the quintessential swing district. McCain won it by fewer than 1,000 votes; John Kerry won it by 8,000 votes four years earlier.

Democrats have won every House special election in this Congress, including one pick-up from the GOP in New York 23. Another is set in the Florida 19th on April 13, with yet another seat opening soon when Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) steps down to run for governor.

Kyle Trygstad contributed to this report.

Politicos are still questioning why Clark County Commission chair Rory Reid decided this was the year to run for governor, when his father is having his own political struggles. Sure, the incumbent Republican is in huge trouble. But with Jim Gibbons unlikely to be renominated, a new Rasmussen poll (500 LVs, 2/3, MoE +/- 4.5%) confirms that the younger Reid starts with a double-digit deficit in the general election if his opponent is Brian Sandoval.

General Election Matchups
Sandoval 45
Reid 33
Und 12

If Gibbons does get renominated, Reid would defeat the incumbent 44-35, however. Reid has a smaller lead of 40-36 over a third potential candidate, North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon.

In a sign that the Reid name is largely to blame, Rory has just a 40 percent favorable rating and a 52 percent unfavorable rating, with a third viewing him very unfavorably. Sandoval, a former state attorney general who resigned as a district court judge last year, is viewed favorably by 39 percent and unfavorably by 30 percent. Gibbons has just a 32 percent approval rating, while 67 percent disapprove.

A new Marist national poll shows President Obama with a 44 percent job approval rating, the lowest in its polling so far. Now 47 percent disapprove of his job performance. The result moves the RCP Average Job Approval to 47.7 percent, near the lowest point.

Looking inside the numbers, only 29 percent of independents approve of his job performance, while 57 percent disapprove. On another question, 38 percent of independents say the president has met their expectations while 53 percent say he's fallen below expectations. Only four percent say he's exceeded them. Overall, 51 percent of all voters say he's met or exceeded expectations, while 47 percent say he's fallen below.

On the midterms, 42 percent of voters say they would support their incumbent members of Congress, while 44 percent would back a new candidate. Half of independents say they'd back a new candidate. One-in-five voters say the election will be about sending a message to President Obama, while a third say it's about sending a message to Democrats in Congress.

The survey includes a hypothetical three-way race in 2012 between Obama, Sarah Palin and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Obama wins with 44 percent, followed by Palin at 29 percent and Bloomberg with 15 percent. While 84 percent of Democrats would back Obama for another term, only 57 percent of Republicans would vote for Sarah Palin.

In the Week Ahead over at Politics Nation, we noted the potential political bombshell in New York this week, with rumors trickling out during the Super Bowl about a forthcoming New York Times story that may be devastating to Gov. David Paterson (D).

Well now, the Lazio campaign is taking the speculation more public, issuing this statement this morning from the candidate:

"The rumors about the Governor are a sad reflection of Albany politics. No public official deserves to be the subject of over a week of innuendo and nasty speculation. If the New York Times is working on or has a story then they should confirm or print it. If they do not, then they have an obligation to stop this rumor mongering right now. Common decency demands it."

Lost in the stories coming from the Tea Party convention in Nashville this weekend are some eye-popping numbers from a Des Moines Register poll. A third of all Iowa voters, including nearly half of all independents, say they support the tea party movement.

As the Register points out, "The findings are the first up-or-down test of the tea party's support in a midterm battleground state. They also shed light on a movement that could affect the campaign for Iowa's leadoff Republican presidential caucuses next year." The fact that 17 percent of the tea party movement's supporters are Democrats shows that the party can't ignore these activists.

From the 2010 perspective, the survey also finds that voters are evenly split when asked if they are inclined to keep or replace incumbents at the federal level, and slightly less inclined to back incumbents at the state level. Democrats hold a majority of Iowa's Congressional seats, though Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) is also on the ballot this fall; Gov. Chet Culver (D) is already considered one of the most vulnerable incumbent governors seeking re-election. By comparison, 60 percent of voters say they'd likely keep incumbents in office at the local level.

The survey was conducted January 31-February 3 among 805 adults and had a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percent.

Former Rep. Rob Portman (R) holds on to a slight lead over both potential Democratic opponents in a new Rasmussen poll of the Ohio Senate race (500 LVs, 2/5-6, MoE +/- 4.5%).

General Election Matchups
Portman 43 (-1 vs. last poll, 1/12)
Fisher 39 (+2)
Und 13 (-1)

Portman 42 (-1)
Brunner 38 (-2)
Und 15 (+2)

Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (D) polls at the same level as Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D) after having underperformed her for most previous surveys. Fisher is the choice of most establishment Democrats, while Brunner has struggled to raise money to run a viable campaign. And yet in the RCP Averages for Ohio, she runs closest with Portman, trailing by 4.0 rather than Fisher's 5.3 percent deficit.

President Obama's job approval rating is 49 percent, while 51 percent disapprove. That's a slight improvement from the 46/54 split in January. Gov. Ted Strickland (D) has a 46 percent approval rating, up 3 points from January.