David Drucker of Roll Call reports:

Senate Democrats say they see no need to abandon the idea of using reconciliation to pass health care reform this year just because President Barack Obama has scheduled a bipartisan summit next week to try to break the impasse on Capitol Hill. [snip]

“I think it should be constantly pursued,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said Thursday when asked whether Democrats should take a break from drafting a reconciliation bill until after Obama's summit.

“I think the Republicans are pretty committed to the notion that obstructing everything that President Obama would like to accomplish is very key to their base and their political success,” Whitehouse added. “I don't see them departing from that strategy.”

Last Monday in a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel,  Minority Leader John Boehner and Whip Eric Cantor asked President Obama to take reconciliation off the table as "an important show of good faith" about his seriousness of seeking a bipartisan compromise on health care legislation.

This just in:

"McCain was trying to use me," Wurzelbacher said, according to public radio correspondent Scott Detrow. "I happened to be the face of middle Americans. It was a ploy.”

"I don't owe him s—," Wurzelbacher continued. "He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it.”

I don't know the whole inside story, of course, but I'm pretty sure no one held a gun to Joe's head to do all those media interviews and campaign stops in 2008.

And the idea that a politician in the middle of a political campaign would seek to take advantage of the positive publicity created by associating himself with someone representing "the face of middle America?" Why, it's so shocking I just can't imagine where anyone would get such an  idea.

Let's state up front that both parties can act stupidly, and both can engage in almost comically self-destructive behavior at times. History is littered with examples. But never in my lifetime have I seen members of a party engage in such willful self-deception as liberal Democrats are doing today.

The core of the self-deception is the ongoing infatuation with the argument that the proper response to the red flags voters (particularly Independents) have thrown up over the last six months  in New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts, is to ram through their current health care bill.

How many times have we heard this argument over the past few weeks? "Something is better than nothing," is how it goes, often followed by citing the demise of HillaryCare as a contributing factor in 1994's tidal wave.  This is, as Sean has pointed out on various occasions, not only rank speculation but a bad rewrite of history. And it certainly appears to be less than convincing to all those House Democrats sitting in districts won by John McCain in 2008.

Which brings us to Evan Bayh. The red state Democratic Senator was pretty clear about his reasons for deciding to retire even though his chances for reelection remained decent:

"There's just too much brain-dead partisanship, tactical maneuvering for short-term political advantage rather than focusing on the greater good, and also just strident ideology," the Democratic senator said on "Good Morning America" today.

"The extremes of both parties have to be willing to accept compromises from time to time to make some progress because some progress for the American people is better than nothing, and all too often recently, we've been getting nothing," he added.

There's no question he's talking about Republicans, but he's also speaking about his Democratic colleagues - perhaps especially those in charge of setting the agenda in Congress: Pelosi, Reid, and President Obama.

And what is the liberals' response to Bayh's complaint about there being "too much partisanship" and too much "strident ideology" in Washington? You guessed it: more partisanship and strident ideology. In an email to the Huffington Post responding to the news about Bayh, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos urged Obama to jettison "irrelevant bipartisanship," adding:

"Republicans never doubt their agenda, and will use any tool at their disposal to ram it through," Moulitsas wrote. "Democrats have internalized the criticisms about their agenda... dilly and dally and beg Republicans to join them... instead of following the lead of their opponents."

The problem with this line of argument, of course, is that for most of last year it wasn't Republicans who prevented Democrats from passing legislation but the Democrats themselves.  Again, I'd be surprised if the House Democrats in McCain-leaning districts campaigned in 2008 on passing cap-and-trade and universal health care.

Along the same lines, the usually sensible Steve Kornacki writes a ridiculous column knocking Evan Bayh's centrism and chastising him for not being as much of a crusader for liberalism as his father. Please. It is one thing for liberals to run a guy like Joe Lieberman out of the party because his hawkish national security views conflict with the Democratic base of his deep blue state. It's something different for liberals to tell Evan Bayh "good riddance" because he was a centrist from a red state who chafed at swallowing whole a decidedly left leaning agenda pushed by Nancy Pelosi in the House, Harry Reid in the Senate and Barack Obama in the White House.

Kornacki doesn't have to worry, though. The way things are going, after November there'll be less Democratic centrists in the Senate to kick around - but quite a few more Republicans.

That sound you just heard is cable news producers screaming with glee.

Today, at an event in Saudi Arabia during her Mideast trip, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked about the possibility of Sarah Palin running for president. Per NBC:

A student asked Clinton if she thinks Sarah Palin will be president and whether Hillary would move to Canada if Palin were elected.

The audience laughed -- so did Clinton -- before she said, "Well, the short answer is no. I will not be immigrating. I will be visiting as often as I can."

She added, "Our political seasons never end" and that she will continue to support President Obama. She said she is "very well-acquainted" with running for president.

Once the video comes in, you can expect to see it aired and re-aired for days.

UPDATE: RCP Video has the exchange.

Lost in the coverage of Evan Bayh's decision to retire yesterday were two new warning signs for Democrats in seats that they need to hold in order to maintain their majorities. Rasmussen's latest polling in California and Washington show Republicans within striking distance in the former, and a good recruit away from potentially winning the latter.

In Washington, Sen. Patty Murray (D) does appear safe unless former state Sen. and two-time gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi (R) runs.

Washington Senate Matchups (500 LVs, 2/11, MoE +/- 4.5%)
Rossi (R) 48 -- Murray (D) 46 -- Und 5
Murray (D) 50 -- Benton (R) 38 -- Und 12
Murray (D) 49 -- Didier (R) 34 -- Und 13
Murray (D) 48 -- Widener (R) 33 -- Und 14

In California, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) continues to lead the three announced candidates, but by no more than 5 points. More to the point, she's below 50 percent in each matchup.

California Senate Matchups (500 LVs, 2/11, MoE +/- 4.5%)
Boxer 46 (unch vs. last poll, 1/14) -- Fiorina 42 (-1) -- Und 5 (-3)
Boxer 47 (+1) -- DeVore 42 (+2) -- Und 5 (-5)
Boxer 45 (-1) -- Campbell 41 (+1) -- Und 10 (+1)

President Obama's approval/disapproval split is 51 / 48 in Washington, and 58 / 41 in California.

RCS has a cool page keeping track of the medal count in Vancouver. With Bode Miller's bronze in the downhill yesterday, the US leads with 8 medals while Germany has 5, including its gold in this year's star crossed luge event.

There's been no shortage of commentary on Sarah Palin recently, and today is no exception. RCP's David Paul Kuhn looks at the polling and sees long odds for Palin in 2012, as does Jules Witcover in the Baltimore Sun. Not surprisingly, Richard Cohen takes a far more opinionated and less charitable view in the Washington Post.

Mitt Romney was attacked on an Air Canada flight from Vancouver Monday morning.

From the Boston Globe:

Romney, 62, reportedly asked the passenger sitting in front of his wife to raise his seat during takeoff after the passenger had reclined his seat. The man allegedly became violent and took a swing at the former 2008 presidential hopeful.

A Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, first reported the story, saying that Romney was “physically threatened” by a passenger.

"Gov. Romney did not retaliate, but instead allowed the airline crew to respond to the incident," Fehrnstrom said in a statement to the Globe.

Romney was not injured. The pilot returned to the gate, and the suspect was removed from the plane by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The same plane took off a short time later and later landed safely in Los Angeles.

Former state Sen. Jim Waring holds a substantial lead in the GOP primary race to replace the retiring Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), according to a survey conducted by a polling firm affiliated with his campaign and leaked to the media.

Waring's closest competitor in the 3rd Congressional District is former state Sen. Pamela Gorman, followed by former state Rep. Sam Crump, Paradise Valley Mayor Vernon Parker and three others below 3 percent.

Waring 50
Gorman 27
Crump 9
Parker 7
Others 6

The Summit Consulting Group poll was conducted Tuesday and Wednesday in legislative distrists 6, 7 and 11, which largely correspond with Shadegg's 3rd Congressional District. The survey of 300 likely GOP voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.6 percentage points.

Chad Willems of the Summit Consulting Group acknowledged that the company is working with Waring, but said the Waring campaign "did not commission the poll. This was done independently by my firm." He added that the Summit group will be "conducting surveys in other races (local, state, federal) that we are not affiliated with."

The White House released the following statement from President Obama on the retirement announcement of Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh:

"For more than two decades, Evan Bayh has devoted his career and his life to serving his fellow Hoosiers. During that time, he has fought tirelessly for Indiana's working families, reaching across the aisle on issues ranging from job creation and economic growth to fiscal responsibility and national security. I look forward to continuing to work with him on these critical challenges throughout the rest of the year. Michelle and I thank Senator Bayh for his leadership and service and wish him and his family all the best in their future endeavors."