Maybe Bingaman feels like going fishing at long last. It would be more pleasant, and well deserved after his stints in DC. NM, on the other hand, is a state of mind rather than a place. Enjoy!

I count only 10 Repubs among all 33 senators on the 2012 ballot. All but two or three Repubs seem secure. Yet there are a lot of blue dog Dems at risk. I think the GOP is likely to go from a deficit of three to a majority of three. I won’t like that, except my hunch is Obama will squeak by, so there would still be divided gov’t.

Any othjer guesses out there?

What does it matter? Dem/Republitard, same old same old.

Well, there is now an opportunity for a great progressive/liberal to step up. Someone like Jerry Ortiz y Pino.

The Senate is a disgusting pile of elephant dung. It no longer works because it is so tied up in its own rules that it can’t function properly or as intended. Let them all resign and we’ll start over.

NM – The next Arizona!

On an aside, 33 seats is a serious opportunity for Progresssive legislators, especially when 6 seats are open.

The larger point is this. Thirty-three Senate seats are up for grabs in the next election. Six of them are now open seats.

If the teabaggers run some decidedly nutty candidates again, maybe the Demos will have a shot at retaining the majority. I’m going to suggest that the Repugnant party brass will do their level best to control and direct the baggers, although they may not be successful in that effort. (Run Christine wannabes, run…)

So far, the bagger blade has been cutting two ways. Let’s hope that trend continues.

Thanks for the update. I confess to knowing next to nothing about Bingaman, but if he has any kind of conscience at all, it must be a relief to get the heck of the Senate, which seems ever more toxic and bought off with each passing moment.

Good opportunity for really true progressive candidates. Hope the good citizens of NM can step up to the plate with a good candidate.

Polling has already been done, including with Wilson and former Gov. Gary Johnson. Wilson will mos def be in the race, at least the primary. Maybe she can work something out with Pearce.

Republican women love them some Heather.

The Dems will have to work hard to hold the seat. Although I think there are plenty of Dems who voted for Susana who have serious buyer’s regret. That could help the Dems.

shame and disgrace

Caliguas horse better Senator,than all cept Bernie,and mebbe whitehouse

A great opportunity, alright. If there is a way for the Demos to screw it up, they’ll find it.

Which is why, in my comment above, I predicted NM being the next AZ :)

There’s nothing the Democrats can do right at this point. Except in Wisconsin.

I think that our politicians have screwed the place up so badly they don’t see a part for themselves anymore. Let me tell you, if there were a way for them to squeeze more out for themselves they would.

Maybe he sees the writing on the wall and understands that there is no economic activity happening and he won’t be able to bring bacon home for a dust bin. All the states are beginning to have the same view with fewer and fewer businesses.

Even New Yorkers are complaining that the streets no longer have the same flavor as they are being remade into condos instead of the worldly businesses it once was.

What we are witnessing is real simple

Politics just got real

USA citizens need food
USA citizens need shelter
USA citizens need clothes
USA citizens need Jobs

the things above are not sexy!

Most of our millionaire senators don’t want to waste their lives away helping poor Americans make a living.

Plus Blogs like FDL report the crappy stuff they do.

Most of these senators miss the good ole days when networks like CBS, ABC, and NBC lied for them, and made them look like heroes, now their citizens know they are ass holes who hate the middle class.

the only way Obama can win, is if

the tea party runs Sarah Palin, Ron Paul
against Mitt Romney

Obama needs a three way race to win, and he still may lose.

If it is Obama vs a GOP candidate he will lose, and lose big time

Bingaman was a real liberal, one of the few who voted against the Iraq terrorism by the U.S.

my hunch is Obama will squeak by, so there would still be divided gov’t.

Say what?! With Republicans already firmly in charge of the White House and the House, how does them taking control of the Senate add up to divided government?

After spending 30 years as a public hs teacher in AZ – 28 of them living & teaching on the Navajo Reservation in northeast AZ – I retired to NM in 04. I met Bingaman in 06, and made a point of personally thanking him for his 02 no vote on the Iraqi War Resolution. He is a good old-fashioned liberal and in Dec of last year he and Tom Udall both voted against extending Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy. Bingaman will certainly be missed by many of my neighbors when he retires.

Yep. This government is most definitely united, against the people and against the country. The D and the R next to a name means (next to ) nothing.

NM will never be the next AZ. It has the distinction of actually banning the death penalty, unlike AZ and Texas. Its new gov Susana “Tejana” wants to make death penalty legal again but I hope that thinking people will prevail.

He becomes the sixth Senator – three Democrats, two Republicans, and Joe Lieberman an asshole–

There, fixed it for ya.

Most of our millionaire senators don’t want to waste their lives away helping poor Americans make a living.

I think it’s a little more calculating than that. The ones who see the writing on the wall want to get out now, before people really start protecting and chipping heads, literally. Let some new patsy take the hit while they fish behind their Xe secured gated communities.

Bingham could be one of the eexceptions as I hears he;s pretty decent and could win again. I suspect he’s just past fed up fighting the stupidity and it may not be in him to be a real activist flamethrower, like a Bernie Sanders. So, retire now and do something else.

sorry but Bingaman is no liberal.

He is a Blue Dog.

Bingaman is not a liberal. He is a Blue Dog.

Perhaps Jerry Ortiz y Pino would be interested in the seat. He IS a liberal/progressive.

Sorry bluevistas, saying Mr. Bingaman is a Blue Dog doesn’t make it so. I’ve followed Mr. Bingaman’s career since he was first elected to the Senate in 1982, and his voting record and his beliefs make him a liberal/progressive. Mr. Bingaman is no Blue Dog.

I also have followed Bingaman’s voting record since the early 80s and on some issues he votes like a liberal might and on too many others, he’s a horrible disappointment.

Is Obama a liberal as you see it? What about Heinrich? Is Bingaman a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus? (no)

& also Re: BeachPopulist @ #17. . .

I don’t think Palin, Paul will go anywhere, and are distractions for the left. There are smarter obsessions, though.

I had thought a Thune, Pence, Daniels, Pawlenty, or some similar, would eventually float to the top. And yet now a “right-to-work lite” juggernaut is ginning up in the Midwest which will make waves for any Repub pol nearby. The tiff is not limited to WI and OH, judging from the plates on busses arriving in Madison.

Romney will eventually fade due to RomneyCare, but also due to his slick, predatory aura which will turn off others who are nominally comfy with Mass healthcare. There is just something toxic about him and his travels in recent years. Romney’s not well liked in Mass by too many folks who would be expected as ardent supporters. I’d bet it’s the same elsewhere, enough to stop his progress.

I think the Repubs will end up with a translucent nominee, and Obama will pull it off. From now on he’ll wield a veto pen when Reid has to cover his at-risk blue dogs. Occasionally Obama will toss overboard a core interest group which is small enough to let go, or which can be co-opted with an alternate issue.

He’ll know what to do and it’ll be risky. I’d give him 2-1 odds at this moment, and time will tell.