Political Schadenfreude

Nowadays, in the Scott Brown, tea party/town hall, "we're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore", era of politics, there is such a superabundance of stories like this one, from the Telegraph, that I was loath to post it. That said, after reflecting on the shameless rodomontade, lectures and ego trips that flowed from the '08 election cycle, why not overindulge, as a conservative?

Barack Obama faces mid-term humiliation after Senate exodus

There was speculation on Tuesday that the next to join an exodus ahead of the November elections could be Blanche Lincoln, who represents the conservative southern state of Arkansas and is behind every putative Republican challenger in opinon polls.

The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, is meanwhile trailing all his potential Republican opponents in his state of Nevada, and even Mr Obama's old Senate seat in Illinois is expected to be close run.

The White House was rocked on Monday by the announcement by Evan Bayh, a popular, centrist senator from Indiana, who became the fifth senator to confirm he will not run for re-election. The latest speculation of more senators coming forward will only add to President Obama's woes and raise the prospect his party could lose its majority in Congress.
The emerging consensus in Washington is now that the Democrats have only a 50-50 chance of keeping control of the Senate, where they currently hold 59 out of the 100 seats, in what would be a stunning reversal of fortune after the party's clean sweep in 2008.