In the first poll taken following Tuesday's primary, Rep. Mark Kirk (R) leads Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) by 6 points.

The Rasmussen survey (Feb. 3, 500 LV, MoE +/- 4.5%) finds the moderate Kirk leading 59%-22% among independents, and with a higher favorable rating (55%/33%) than Giannoulias (46%/39%). In his home state, 54% approve of the job President Obama is doing.

Kirk 46
Giannoulias 40
Und 10

To see other general election matchup polls between the two nominees, click here.

On a day when President Obama urged Senate Democrats to "finish the job" on health care, Erica Werner of the Associated Press captures a remarkable response from two moderate House Democrats that really speaks for itself:

The legislation remains stuck in limbo, and there were fresh signs Wednesday of greater skepticism among some rank-and-file Democrats.

California Reps. Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa, both moderates who voted for the House-passed health bill, burst out laughing when asked about the issue's fate.

Democrats are "having great difficulty trying to figure out what the art of the possible is," Costa said, adding, "some of our colleagues want their wish list to be the art of the possible."

Progressive Democrats in the House are fighting to revive a proposal for the government to sell health insurance in competition with private industry. That proposal was left for dead months ago when it became clear it could not pass the Senate. The Progressive Caucus in the House renewed its appeal for the so-called public option, and Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., circulated a letter in support of the idea that has attracted signatures from about 120 House Democrats.

Cardoza and Costa scoffed at that.

"Those people are delusional," Cardoza said.

Republican Congressman Jeb Hensarling of Texas sent out a fund raising pitch today boasting of going 'toe-to-toe' with President Obama in a televised confrontation at the House Republican retreat last Friday. In the email Hensarling says President Obama  "questioned my integrity" and says he's now being unfairly attacked as a "radicial ideologue" by everyone from the New York Times to Chris Matthews to Daily Kos.

"Clearly the Left is out to discredit me simply because I laid bare the harsh realities about the record-setting spending coming out of Washington," Hensarling writes, asking for donations to help him fend off the "smear campaign" against him.

"I am sick and tired of Washington politicians who claim to be fiscally responsible yet propose budgets that place our nation on the brink of bankruptcy," Hensarling continues, adding, "I want to rescue the American people... and most importantly, our children and grandchildren... from the fiscal tsunami of deficits and debt that Team Obama and Pelosi have in store for them."

Full text of Hensarling email below the jump.

(more...)

"Also in the front was Sen. Pat Leahy, who was taking pictures of the president throughout the meeting like a White House tourist." - From the pool report of President Obama's visit with the Democratic Senate caucus today.

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says there's no need for him to apologize for the IPCC report's erroneous claim about rapidly melting glaciers in the Himalayas which, as reported this week by the Daily Telegraph, turned out to be based an article from a climbing magazine and a graudate student's dissertation.

"You can't expect me to be personally responsible for every word in a 3,000 page report," Pachauri told the Guardian newspaper.

Plus there was this:

In his Guardian interview, Pachauri defended the IPCC's use of so-called "grey literature" – sources outside peer-reviewed academic journals, such as reports from campaign groups, companies and student theses.

In other news, a draft of the IPCC's next report on climate change is reportedly set to include claims from other "grey literature" such as Timmy Johnson's 4th grade report on polar bears and the children's book, Planet Earth Gets Well.

After Friday's unprecedented Q&A session with House Republicans in Baltimore, there's a new push this morning to "Demand Question Time," i.e. have similar sessions on a regular basis in the future. But today's event with President Obama at the Senate Democrats' retreat is an example of why such an exercise may never really take off.

Hardly anyone could have expected Obama to face tough questions from members of his own party (unless Joe Lieberman was called on, perhaps). But the list of questioners drawn up by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid points shows the kind of careful political strategic planning that sucks all value out of this format. Here's the order of questioners:

-- Sen. Arlen Specter (PA)
-- Sen. Michael Bennet (CO)
-- Sen. Blanche Lincoln (AR)
-- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY)
-- Sen. Barbara Boxer (CA)
-- Sen. Pat Leahy (VT)
-- Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH)
-- Sen. Evan Bayh (IN)

Including Reid, the emcee, every incumbent in a race classified as "Toss Up" or "Lean D" by the Cook Political Report got some face time today (Leahy, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, was the only safe incumbent called on). The only person on that list not facing re-election in 2010 is Brown, but Ohio is always a critical state in the world of politics, and there is a marquee open-seat Senate race there, as well as a gubernatorial race featuring an incumbent Democrat trailing in the early polls.

The value of these sessions should also be to have candid exchanges. And yet health care, the 800 pound gorilla facing Democrats in Congress, was not addressed (unless you include Gillibrand's question about health care for 9/11 first responders). Other questions instead focused on parochial interests to the senator's state, or a general bemoaning of the state of politics today and the unfairness of Republican attacks.

Perhaps the lesson is that any future Q&As should include both Democrats and Republicans. But the reason Friday's session was hailed by many was because it was so unexpected. You can be sure that both parties will plan much better if these are to go on in the future.

The Mayor of Las Vegas is incensed at President Obama for singling out his city -again - and pulls no punches in his response, calling the Leader of the Free World a "real slow learner." Ouch.

Following up on yesterday's primary numbers showing Gov. Rick Perry (R) ahead of the GOP pack, today Rasmussen releases general election matchups (1,000 LVs, 2/1, MoE +/- 3%), all of which show former Houston Mayor Bill White behind.

General Election Matchups
Perry 48 (-2 from last poll, 1/17)
White 39 (-1)
Und 8 (+2)

Hutchison 49 (-3)
White 36 (-1)
Und 7 (+1)

Medina 41 (+3)
White 38 (-6)
Und 16 (+3)

Job Approval Ratings:
Obama 41 / 58
Perry 50 / 48

White launched his first TV ad this week, attempting to get a bit of a jump on the Republicans duking it out in the March 2 primary.

MSNBC President Phil Griffin tries to explain away Keith Olbermann's plummeting ratings thusly:

He [Griffin] attributes Olbermann's January ratings slip to a news cycle in which international news, rather than domestic politics, was the No. 1 story. "On big, breaking international news, CNN tends to do better than us. They did a great job in Haiti, and I tip my hat to them," he says. "We're the place for politics, and there are times when politics does great, and there are times when it doesn't."

Domestic politics wasn't a big story in January? What about the, er, special election in Massachusetts and the State of the Union? Griffin tips his hat to CNN for covering Haiti but doesn't mention (of course) that FOX had its biggest January ratings ever thanks in large part to its political coverage.

I don't blame Griffin. Like Baghdad Bob - the former Iraqi Information Minister whose public statements were at comical odds with reality - Griffin is simply trying to put the best possible spin on the fact that he and his network are losing the media war - badly.

UPDATE: Andrew Malcolm: Countdown begins for end of Keith Olbermann's 'Countdown'?

After Toyota screwed up and had to recall hundreds of thousands of cars its CEO publicly apologized to customers saying he was "deeply sorry."

After Goldman Sachs screwed up and had a hand in causing the worst global economic meltdown in seven decades its CEO went public defending the company and its new multi-million dollar bonuses saying he is "doing God's work."