Lt. Gov. John Cherry pulled out of running for governor of Michigan, although he never had a chance there.  The state is going to have a Republican governor as of next year - maybe Rep. Pete Hoekstra?

Obama is below 50% approval and that is only there because people generally like him.

The job market is not going to improve no matter what D's do.

Congress/Senate are about to jam through a very unpopular bill politically and then might even take up Cap and Trade which is even more unpopular.

Demas will get hammered in Nov.  It's only a matter of how much and do they loose either the Senate or House.

The retirements of Sens. Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan will set off a scramble among more junior senators who covet the chairmanships and senior committee positions these veteran senators have held for years.

The top plum is Dodd's Banking Committee chairmanship, and Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), a banking-industry-friendly senator, is next in line for that gavel. This chairmanship is not as meaningful going into 2011 if Dodd is able to cut a deal and move a massive financial reform bill through the Senate this year, but it's still a powerful perch for any senator during tough economic times. There has always been speculation that because of Johnson's history of health problems he could get passed over for the Banking Committee chairmanship, and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), considered a rising star in the Democratic Caucus, could also be next in line.

Dorgan's departure leaves an opening in leadership with the chairmanship of the Democratic Policy Committee, creating an opening to any number of senators to grab a spot that is a potential steppingstone for higher Senate leadership spots. The most likely scenario is Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) -- especially if Majority Leader Harry Reid wins reelection and there's no other vacancy in leadership.

Dorgan's departure, meanwhile, opens up the chairmanship of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee -- where he oversaw billions in spending on infrastructure and water projects. It's unclear who would take that spot --it depends on how the Appropriations Committee shakes out -- but Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), whose home state benefits greatly from the energy and water spending, could grab that chairmanship.

Dorgan is also chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee -- traditionally held by senators from states with large Native American populations -- and the next two senators in line for that gavel already hold more powerful chairmanships. So the leadership could fall to Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii).

Dorgan is also the second most senior Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) would be poised to move up a notch on that panel.

And Dodd's departure also allows senators on other committees to move up the seniority ladder -- the most notable being Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who has long wanted the Foreign Relations Committee chairmanship and would now be the No. 2 Democrat on that panel to Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.)

As to Dorgan, his seat will flip to R.  That simple.

What this does is twofold:  both Dodd (to a greater degree, at least in public) and Dorgan (less out-front) were strong advocates for civil liberties and against the creeping police state we are seeing coming into the open.  They will both be replaced by people less favorable to civil liberties and more in the liberty-antipathetic conserva-dem mould which Rahm and Obama prefer. Replacing Dorgan with a Republican gives the Democrats, Harry Reid first among them, followed closely by the White House, a ready-made excuse for doing nothing to reform or otherwise change (other than in a more corporate-friendly way) anything.  They just throw up their hands and say that without 60 they can't do anything, so we either pass a Repuiblican program or nothing.  In reality, the Dems need 63 or 64 given that Lie-berman, Nelson, Landrieu and Lincoln are bound to repeat their prior performance on the health care bill, and hold out for writing into any bill more graft for themselves, their states and their contributors.

So, we see at best a maintenance and more likely an acceleration of the pace of continued corporate looting of average Americans' pockets and futures.

One, I think it confirms for a lot of people that the Dems do not have the wind at their backs, what with a rash of retirement announcements, party switches, Dems declining to run or backing out of running - not just at the Congressional level, but at the local level.

Two, with so much emphasis now on bipartisanship, strong signals from the WH that the new place to be is right of center, I think the chances are good that replacement candidates, even if they win, will be in that mold, and I think we lose the more reliably left of center voices.  

So, there's the perception, which can take on a life of its own, and become self-fulfilling, there's the mindset that may have brought us to this point in the first place - that all that matters is having those (D)'s behind the names, regardless of whether they stand for traditional Democratic positions, and then there's the "New" Democratic party, which fully intends to move to the right and will be pleased to replace someone like Dodd with someone more compliant with the new order of things.