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Seriously, Mr. Vice President?

VP Joe Biden on Monday accused Senate GOPers of holding their top members’ votes hostage in exchange for ranking committee posts, assailing the GOP as sitting “on the sidelines” while the economy nearly collapsed.

“I know at least 7 [GOP] senators, who I will not name, but were made to make a commitment under threat of losing their chairmanships, if they did not support the leadership on every procedural vote,” Biden said at a fundraiser Monday night.

Is there a reason to protect these senators or their extortionists?

Name names.  

In a dingy, wood-paneled restaurant with a pizza buffet, Ken Buck is waging the latest fight with a Republican Party establishment that favors candidates with shinier political pedigrees.

Those of you already immersed in the community of political giving know the importance of this date. June 30th is the FEC deadline marking the end of the second quarter of the 2010 election year. Campaigns have until the end of today to tally up their fundraising receipts, which must then be reported to the FEC during July.

This is a critical report. A lot of target lists get made in these summer months, because by the time the next quarterly report is due, it is only a couple of weeks before the election. Therefore, this is the report in which campaigns absolutely need to make a show of strength.

So, if you are considering helping out excellent Democrats in this election cycle, now is the time.

Earlier in the week, Laura Clawson got the ball rolling, asking for fifty new donors for each of the five candidates on our Orange to Blue list. As of last night, you have pushed all five of them past that barrier.

So, as we often need to do when you guys are this awesome, some goalpost-moving is in order. Let’s get our fantastic five candidates over the following barriers by the time the clock strikes midnight:

And, in case you need reminding what the stakes are, let’s recap:

• Jack Conway (KY-Sen): Conway, Kentucky’s Attorney General, is the firewall protecting us from having to utter the phrase “United States Senator Rand Paul.” Plus, he’s one of the most solid statewide candidates to emerge for Democrats from the South in a very long time.
• Alan Grayson (FL-08): The right wing would love nothing more than to get Grayson, in no small part because he gets after them in a way that too many modern-era Democrats are unwilling or unable to do.
• Joe Garcia (FL-25): Garcia represents one of the best chances in the whole country of flipping a GOP-held seat. How do we know that? Because he almost did it in 2008, with a well-known incumbent holding the seat. In an open seat against a GOP frontrunner already enmeshed in scandal, he stands a real chance, if he can get some help from us.
• Ann McLane Kuster (NH-02): In a must-hold open seat for the Democrats, Kuster is a must-have. Not only is she facing Joe Lieberman’s #1 fan in the Democratic primary, but she then goes on (most likely) to face Bush-era retread Charlie Bass in the general election.
• Manan Trivedi (PA-06): Not only does Manan Trivedi seem like one of those better Democrats we keep talking about, but he is running in a district that leans Democratic. This Philly suburban district went with Kerry and Obama, and Republican Jim Gerlach is always just an eyelash away from getting beat here. Trivedi can finish the job, given the proper support.

Four solid challengers who would make great additions to the Congress, plus one incumbent that would make Republicans across the nation weep if he emerges victorious in November. What more incentive do you need?

I am headed over to ActBlue right now to give some love to these worthy Orange to Blue candidates. Come join me.

AP – The Senate has unanimously confirmed Gen. David Petraeus as the next commander of the Afghanistan war. The vote was 99-0.

BP and the Coast Guard are sending oil-scooping skimming ships in the Gulf of Mexico back to shore because Tropical Storm Alex is churning up rough seas and powerful winds.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was in the Afghan capital to talk with officials about improving the justice system and fighting corruption Wednesday.

The Newsroom – For all the Sturm und Drang from the Republican Senators on opening day, when all the cameras were rolling, by the afternoon of Elena Kagan’s first day of questioning, it appeared that the Republicans were already pretty much giving up the fight.

Top Democratic House and Senate negotiators who worked out an overhaul of financial regulations regrouped to eliminate a billion fee on banks that put the legislation at risk.

Kentucky’s Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate Rand Paul says that until he’s running for minister, he doesn’t have to say how old the earth is:

Paul, a Presbyterian layman, campaigned at a Christian Home Educators of Kentucky convention where he was peppered with questions about his religious beliefs, brushing aside one about the age of the earth that he later described as ridiculous.

“I’m not running for minister,” Paul said later. “I’m more than willing to stand up and say I’m a Christian, but I don’t think I have to go into every detail of what my religious beliefs are. If I were going to be the minister of their church, they’d have a right to ask me that.”

No, people don’t have to know every detail of his religious beliefs. But the voters of Kentucky might want to know if Paul thinks that dinosaurs walked the earth with humans.

Although the convention attendee who asked the question and who hoped that Paul agreed with him that the earth is 6,000 years old, understood why Paul refused to answer:

“I’m not at all surprised that he didn’t want to answer that question,” Willis said shortly after posing it. “I know that is hugely controversial.”

No, it’s not hugely controversial. Unless Rand Paul believes it.

Just how extreme are Nevada’s Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate Sharron Angle’s views?

Manders: Is there any reason at all for an abortion?

Angle: Not in my book.

Manders: So, in other words, rape and incest would not be something?

Angle: You know, I’m a Christian and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.

So, what do most people believe?

And there’s probably a lot of people among those 44 percent who think they’re Christians too.