REUTERS/Jake Stevens
–Mexican President Felipe Calderon is in Washington today for a slew of public meetings and a state dinner with President Obama. Drug violence and immigration will be the issues to get top billing; our colleague Tim Padgett explains why Calderon needs a talking to on police reform and anti-poverty measures.
–As Michael writes, anti-establishment sentiment was widely evident in Tuesday’s marquee contests, but there’s a bit more going on: Democrats say they feel a lot better about November that they did 48 hours ago. Their turnout was higher than expected in a number of races, arguably stronger general election Democrats won their primaries (Sestak, Conway) and Mark Critz’s healthy margin of victory in the Pennsylvania special election to replace John Murtha showed establishment Democrats can beat back Tea Party style Republicans trying to nationalize tight races. Rand Paul proved it is possible to meld the enthusiasm of his father’s libertarian wing with a traditional GOP base jaded on the establishment, but he stayed in fairly traditional territory issues-wise. If you haven’t already, read Jay’s great political epitaph of Arlen Specter.
–More from Nate Silver, Marc Ambinder, Mark Halperin and Chris Cillizza.
–While all attention was focused on horseraces, the financial reform debate took some twists and turns: Chris Dodd and Bob Corker had a falling out, Byron Dorgan went to war for his naked derivatives ban, and Blanche Lincoln’s harshest derivatives measure got punted — it’s staying in, but wouldn’t go into effect for two years while federal regulators study whether it’s warranted (read: kill it.) Another cloture vote may come today.
–Also largely lost in the shuffle: The Senate Intelligence Committee released a damning report on the Christmas Day bomb plot, citing widespread failures that allowed Abdulmutallab to board the flight to Detroit.
–And Richard Blumenthal is probably glad there’s no shortage of political news right now. The New York Times talks to a “friend” who expands on Vietnam embellishment. Connecticut paper ed boards are just beginning to weigh in.
What did I miss?
