KC Buzz Blog

State of the Union - the day after

   Sen. Claire McCaskill sat down with the Missouri media contingent encamped along the Potomac to hash over the president's State of the Union speech. She gave him credit for raising the issue of how to help the more than 40 million Americans without health insurance. But she didn't like his solution.

    President Bush basically wants to tax the middle class by allowing families to deduct $15,000 a year to cover the costs of their health insurance. That tax break would be paid for by taxing the difference between the $15,000 and the actual costs of the insurance.

    "It's another example of where the president continues to beat the drum to make tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans permanent, while he's proposing another hit on the same folks who are struggling with higher college tuition and struggling with higher energy costs, struggling with other financial realities," McCaskill said.

    She said a better idea would be tax incentives for businesses to encourage them to pool their risks and offer coverage to broader number of employees. People with catastrophic health problems are "really going to get hurt here because they're not going to have access to large risk pools," she said.

    Bush's plan would also "chase people to the private markets where the companies are going to be able to cream off the low- risk," she said, leaving high-risk people in trouble.

   On Iraq, McCaskill said that expectations for Gen. David Petraeus, slated to become the war's top commander, were too high and "unfair."

    "Because he's got a great reputation, everyone is very hopeful that somehow he's going to go over there and single-handedly turn things around," she said. "If the Iraqi government is somehow unwilling to unable stand up and help, this will not work."

    McCaskill opposes the escalation and said she won't back a resolution against it if it calls for defense cuts because that could hurt troops already in the field.

    "How do I talk about the lack of body armour...and then turn around and cut money?" she said. "We need to make sure (the troops) have everything they need...But it's going to be a remarkable accomplishment if we pass a resolution rejecting President Bush and what's he's doing in Iraq that gets a lot more votes than just Democrats. And I think that's going to happen...There are questions being asked now."

Posted by David Goldstein

Remember the first day of kindergarten?

   Apparently that's kind of like the seating chart for a president's State of the Union speech. A wild scramble ensued last night and seniority does have its perks.(Apparently the "good" aisle seats to be able to glad-hand on national teeevee the president as he walks in and out of the House Chambers require staking 'em out 12 hours or so beforehand.)

   One of those on the aisle was Sen. Kit Bond, who was next to Penn. Sen. Arlen Specter on the Republican side. His bipartisan display was a blue paisley tie.

  On the Democratic aisle side no, that wasn't Congresman Emanuel Cleaver mauling President Bush last night and saying he was going to pray for him. That was his near twin, Rep. Sanford Bishop.

   A spokesman for Cleaver said Cleaver sat dead center in the Democratic side of the House chambers. Cleaver grabbed a salad beforehand and got to the chambers early. He said he couldn't imagine the pressure the president faced last night.

   Afterward, as Cleaver was on the telephone doing an interview with KCUR-FM, he waved at Sen. Claire McCaskill as she prepared to do an interview with KMBC.

   During the speech, McCaskill was several rows back from Sen. Hillary Clinton, which got her on television a bit. But apparently even closer to her and thus getting more camera time was Congressman Dennis Moore, who is today on The New York Times Web site thanks to this picture.

  He may be in the minority now, but Rep. Roy Blunt was one of the first to make his way to Bush after the speech. Cameras caught him broadly smiling his accolades to Bush. Right behind Blunt, but not seeking Bush out for any back slapping would be Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott, who blamed Bush in part for him losing the title of majority leader. Lott was smiling jovially to everyone else on his way out.

   Getting the biggest post-speech interview from our neck of the woods was McCaskill who charmed MSNBC's Joe Scarborough. (Check it out here). She was rewarded with almost 10 minutes of airtime, a lifetime by teevee standards. The best part of the interview was when she joked about the difficulties in knowing when to stand and clap and when to sit stoically.

   "It's a mess!" she joked, adding it was "silly" the whole "game" about when to stand up.

Posted by DeAnn Smith

Stop the presses: McCaskill to talk

   The headline from a news release today from U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill:

"McCaskill Delivers Remarks Before and After the State of the Union Addrerss."

   Knowing the senator, she'll be commenting during the address as well.

Posted by Steve Kraske

McCaskill, other women senators on ABC

   U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri recently joined the other 15 female senators for an official portrait of the record 16 women senators.

   Take a look at it here.

   McCaskill and the group will appear tomorrow and Thursday on ABC's Good Morning America to discuss the historic number of women senators and what they aim to accomplish.

•    On Wednesday, the group is to appear, briefly, between 7-7:30 a.m.
•    On Thursday, the group will appear in a longer piece between 8-8:30 a.m.

    Facts you've got to know:

• The first woman senator was Rebecca Latimer Felton in 1922. She was appointed to fill a two-day vacancy.
• Prior to 1992, there were never more than two women senators at the same time.
• The current dean of the women senators is Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland. She was elected in 1986.
• McCaskill is this country's 34th woman senator.

Posted by Steve Kraske

McCaskill takes the gavel

   A senator for less than a week, and Claire McCaskill already is presiding over the place.

   The freshman will lead the chamber from 1:15 to 3 today, her office said this morning. You may be able to catch it on C-Span II.

   Look for a picture of her with gavel in hand in her next fund-raising appeal.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Enjoy the easy ones

    Every Senate vote should be this easy. Claire McCaskill cast her first vote as a United States senator today and there was no need to weigh the pros and cons. She and her new colleagues unanimously approved a resolution to honor the late former President Ford.

     "It was exciting just to walk in there and hang out and talk with the other senators," she said afterward.

Posted by David Goldstein

I hate to sound like a wimp on my first day

    Thus sayeth Senator Claire McCaskill this morning when dodging NBC's David Gregory's question about how New York Sen. Hillary Clinton versus Illinois Sen. Barak Obama would fare in the Missouri presidential primary next year. Gregory grilled McCaskill on MSNBC about Iraq (she said she needed to know more about the mission of the troop "surge" but sounded doubtful about supporting it) and ethics reform. She was wearing a primarily white jacket with dark trim and pearls.

    She also did an interview on CNN. Here's part of her interview from a transcript via Nexis.com regarding Iraq and President Bush.

   "It doesn't appear that he has ever really opened up the process of the decision-making in Iraq to beyond a circle of one or two people. And I think the problem we've got with the surge that he's calling for is that we don't have a mission. How do we put more precious lives in peril without having a clearly defined mission as to what they're actually supposed to be accomplishing there. And until we hear that kind of plan, until we understand what it is they're trying to do, I for one am going to reserve judgment as to whether this is a good idea, and frankly, I'm leaning toward thinking it's a very bad idea."

Posted by DeAnn Smith

McCaskill looking for way to repay mega loan

   Remember that $1.6 million loan that Claire McCaskill lent her campaign for governor in 2004?

   Turns out she's now trying to repay it by seeking an exemption from federal rules. That apparently would allow her to generate unlimited donations, thanks to a new Missouri law that removed campaign limits for state races, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports.

   Missouri Republicans and a congressional watchdog group are having a field day with this, saying McCaskill should live by federal rules aimed at discouraging influence peddling.

   "Once Claire McCaskill becomes a U.S. senator, there's going to be a million people who want to curry favor with her," Gary Ruskin, executive director of the Congressional Accountability Project, told the P-D.

Posted by Steve Kraske 

McCaskill's big family adventure is also KC's political adventure

    Mayor Kay Barnes is there. Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders is there. Ditto for political mastermind Steve Glorioso and Democratic stalwart Dutch Newman. In fact, the question is who in KC/JaCo politics isn't in DC now for favorite daughter Claire McCaskill's senatorial swearing in? And who is left behind minding the store?

Posted by DeAnn Smith

The McCaskill family's big adventure

    "This could get ugly," Claire McCaskill said.

    But she was smiling. The day before her swearing-in, Missouri's new senator-elect was trying to herd her massive, blended family from her temporary digs inside D.C.s' Hart Senate Office Building - the end of the hall, past the ladies room, next to the stairwell - from the eighth floor to the basement. There they took the  underground train for the short trip to the Capitol for a tour.

   They numbered 32 in all, ranging in age from 8-month-old step-grandchild Issac, to 78-year-old mom Betty Anne. In between were waves of children, step-children, cousins, aunts, uncles and sisters, brother-in-laws and other relationships too complicated to sort out.

    "She's my wife's aunt's sister," said Peter Moroh, a Chicago lawyer there with his wife and twin 9-year-old boys.

    The entourage moved down the historic corridors in a big, cheery clump.

    "It reminds me of The Griswolds Go to Washington," said McCaskill's sister Anne Moroh, likening their family's Capitol tour to the mapcap misadventures in the National Lampoon "Vacation" films.

     The Capitol guards were patient. They'd seen this kind of controlled mayhem before. They even let all 32 of them onto the Senate floor, but barred the door to anyone with a press badge, if you can believe it.

    "The Senate's going to be easy after these two days," McCaskill said.

Posted by David Goldstein

The politics of fashion

     On the cover of this month's Vogue is Angelina Jolie, draped in a $2,400 Bill Blass raspberry evening dress. Inside on Page 68 is a stock photograph of Claire McCaskill by way of Andy Warhol, tinted in shades of red, blue and purple, alongside an article about her Senate victory.

    "Her values mirror its delicate balance of the red and the blue," the story says, referring to Missouri's hybrid politics. "Color her a deliberate purple."

     Aide Adrianne Marsh said her boss was leery at first when the Bible of the fashion industry called, but was persuaded when the writer convinced her they just wanted to do a simple political story.

    And it is Vogue, after all.

    "There were two things that happened this year that are kind of hard to imagine," McCaskill said. "One being elected to the United States Senate, and then being in Vogue magazine."

Posted by David Goldstein

McCaskill reaches out and touches....

    Democratic Sen.-elect Claire McCaskill has chosen an aide to former Rep. Dick Gephardt as her chief of staff, her office announced Tuesday. Sean Kennedy, 36, spent nearly a decade as Gephardt's legislative director and counsel until 2004, when he left Congress to become a lobbyist for SBC Communications, now part of AT&T.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Michael J. Fox is political celeb of year

   The National Journal weighs in with its political celebrity of the year.

   The pick: Michael J. Fox, star of a Claire McCaskill TV spot.

   Fox "gave Democrats a personal angle on a tough issue for Republicans. So when conservative pugilist Rush Limbaugh accused Fox of exaggerating his symptoms in the Missouri ad, McCaskill's campaign -- and Fox's role in it -- went national."

   For other of the Journal's awads of excellence, go here.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Federal "hanging" judge Dean Whipple taking senior status

   Who is going to be the next Johnson County or Jackson County prosecutor is so yesterday's news. The legal community now is buzzing about who will get the really plum gig: a federal judgeship. 

  KC Buzz Blog heard through the grapevine that Federal Judge Dean Whipple had taken senior status and was trying to confirm it. And lo and behold having lunch today at see-and-be-seen Pierpont's was KC NAACP President Anita Russell and U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr.

   And Gaitan kindly confirmed that, yes, Whipple's last "full-time" day is April 30 and that he will no longer be chief judge as of Jan. 22. What Gaitan modestly did not mention is that he will be the next chief judge.

   Taking senior status is not the same as retiring. Whipple will still have an office and staff. He can keep any existing cases that he chooses, but will have more say over which new cases he takes. There are already two senior judges and both carry heavy caseloads.

   Whipple is best known as the final judge in the 26-year, $2 billion Kansas City School District desegregation case. He often railed about patronage and micromanagement in the district and when he ended the case he said the district had a long ways to go before becoming a public school system that KC residents could be proud of. He also oversaw the Kansas City Housing Authority case and often provided wry and punchy quotes from the bench in a variety of cases.

   Whipple came to the bench in 1987 through an appointment by President Ronald Reagan. He had served 13 years as a state court judge in the Lake of the Ozarks area. He had previously served as a county prosecutor. 

    Colleague Dan Margolies says Whipple obtained a reputation as a "hanging judge" while on the state court bench, which Whipple confirmed in one of his earliest cases. In December 1988, he sentenced a real estate developer to 10 years in prison for bank fraud charges. In handing down the sentence, Whipple said he wanted to "send a message" to white-collar criminals, says Margolies who covered the sentencing.

   Politicos and attorneys are also curious to see how partisan of a replacement appointment does President Bush make with the Senate now controlled by Democrats. But several attorneys and politicos said today that Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican, is good about making sure the president nominates a well-qualified candidate.

  Of course, incoming Sen. Claire McCaskill can have her say and put a hold on anyone she objects to (remember Ronnie White?). Which brings to mind an election-eve comment from Bond about how important a Jim Talent win was to him: "I've tried it with my vote being canceled on every important issue I've worked on."

   Look for a story from reporter Mark Morris in Thursday's Star about Whipple.

Posted by DeAnn Smith

McCaskill speaks

   Missouri Sen.-elect Claire McCaskill met with reporters in Washington today in the warren of temporary offices she is sharing with nine other new senators in the basement of a Senate office building. The grandeur of Senate life! Among the nuggets she shared in a storage space-turned-meeting room:

    On the Armed Services Committee: Chairman-to-be Carl Levin of Michigan plans a series of hearings on Iraq. "I think it will be all Iraq on Thursdays in January," McCaskill said. Among the topics: accountability and contracting.

    On federal finances: "There's going to be a major train wreck down the line" because of unfunded liabilities (read: entitlements).

   On entitlement reform: "No way that we go after the really tough decisions on unfunded mandates if we don't have the guts to go after the low-hanging fruit" like earmarks. "We have to crawl before we can walk."

    On working with Missouri Republican Sen. Kit Bond: They share some priorities, such as the University of Missouri and the state's crumbling infrastructure. Where they disagree, they will be frank with each other: "There won't be any cloak-and-dagger stuff...I don't really have a problem working with anybody."

   On Sam Fox of St. Louis, the GOP money-man President Bush nominated this week as ambassador to Belgium: "I would be proud to introduce Sam Fox and I think he'd be an outstanding ambassador and I'll be proud to support him."

    On Jim Talent: They had an "amicable" meeting yesterday, their first since the election. She would say nothing more.

    Speaking of Jim Talent: KC Buzz Blog ran into him in the Capitol this afternoon. Seemed chipper. Still contemplating his next move.

Posted by Matt Stearns

McCaskill applauds Study Group report

   U.S. Sen.-elect Claire McCaskill is out today with a statement on the Iraq Study Group:

   "Today’s report by the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group is encouraging. This report embraces the changes in policy that I have been advocating for the last six months. We now have a strong blueprint for a way to find common ground and make positive progress out of the mess in Iraq."

Posted by Steve Kraske

Notes from a confirmation hearing: Claire and Pat

   Who was that woman in red sitting in the spectator section during the comfirmation hearing of Robert Gates as defense secretary?

   Missouri's own Democratic senator-elect, Claire McCaskill.

   McCaskill, who will join the Armed Services Committee next month, said she thought it was important to listen to what Gates had to say: "I hope I don't ever have to remind him any of his answers, but I wanted to be in a position to."

   And what did she think of those answers? "I was very pleased that he did talk about change at the very opening of his remarks, that he repeatedly said all options are on the table."

   Among McCaskill's future colleagues on the committee will be Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas. Roberts asked pointed questions about the potential of a regional war in the Middle East if the U.S. withdraws from Iraq and urged help from the Pentagon for National Guard units dealing with major equipment maintenance problems upon their return from Iraq: "We're in a world of hurt."

   He also brought up a matter dear to Kansans when he suggested to Gates, now the president of Texas A&M University, that "Texas A&M go a little easy on Kansas and K-State."

Posted by Matt Stearns

Kit Bond to escort McCaskill to swearing-in

   Incoming Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill hopes to surround herself with some experience when she's sworn in Jan. 4.

   Veteran Sen. Kit Bond will escort McCaskill that day to the Senate floor. She also reportedly has asked former Democratic Sens. Jean Carnahan and Tom Eagleton to accompany her.

   Bond, a Republican, has pledged his full cooperation, returning a favor he received from Eagleton when Bond was elected to the Senate in 1986.

   "Senator Bond will do everything he can to make Senator-elect McCaskill's transition to the Senate as smooth as possible," Bond spokesman Rob Ostrander said. "He has instructed his top staff to be available to assist in any way. Working together will be the key to getting things done for Missourians and that process has already started."

Posted by Steve Kraske

McCaskill takes aim at waste

   The AP reports that one of the first calls freshman Sen.-elect Claire McCaskill made when she arrived in Washington was to the Government Accountability Office.

   She'll be meeting soon with David Walker, who heads the investigative arm of Congress that audits and evaluates the performance of the federal government.

   "Regardless of what I'm doing and what committee I'm on, that issue of efficiently spending taxpayer money is going to permeate, hopefully, everything I do," the Missouri state auditor said.

  She'll be asking Walker to send her 20 audits performed in the last two years that he thinks every new senator should read. She wants to see whether she can "focus to whatever limited extent a single freshman senator can, the attention of Congress on some of the issues that they've discovered in some of their audits."

   Arriving in Washington on Saturday, she and her husband went house-hunting for "someplace where I could hang my coat at night." She picked a place close to the Capitol.

   She says she felt a mixture of "goosebumps and the heart beating a little faster" Tuesday, the first time she visited the U.S. Senate chamber since narrowly defeating incumbent Sen. Jim Talent on Nov. 7.

Posted by Steve Kraske

McCaskill on a mission

   Looking deeper into the transcript of Sen.-elect Claire McCaskill's appearance Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation,"  KC Buzz Blog would like to point out this quote:

   "But I know as a new member of the Senate, and as a new member of the Armed Services Committee, I want to ask some questions, because this supplemental appropriation of $150 billion the President is going to ask for, clearly we need to have some accountability. People have gotten rich off this war, and I want to make sure we put a stop to that."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Skelton: 'It's a political decision'

  Rep. Ike Skelton appeared on "Meet the Press" Sunday (you can find the MTP home page here; click around a bit to find a video excerpt.)

  Skelton told host Tim Russert that the ultimate solution in Iraq depends on the Iraqis "standing up" to handle the country's security crisis.

   But he also said he doesn't think the current government can disarm the various militia now battling in the country.

   Also on the Sunday shows, and talking about Iraq, were Sen.-elect Claire McCaskill and Sen. Sam Brownback.

     Here's Brownback on ABC's "This Week:"

    "We cannot face the public again in 2008 with the current situation still in hand for the United States. We have to push for a political solution in the region. And I think we've really got to start pushing people there on the ground and in the area to come together, to work together, because we can't have this same situation 18 months from now facing the United States."

    Here's McCaskill of Missouri on CBS's "Face the Nation":

   "...we have to begin to engage (moderate Arab countries) in order to have them weigh in. If we do not do that, what has become a civil war is going to disintegrate and begin to impact other nations besides Iraq, and then we really have created an incredible mess...I think all of us know that we have made a terrible mistake in Iraq. There are no good answers right now, none..."

To read more quotes, click here.

Posted by Dave Helling and David Goldstein

Like we all wouldn't have skipped freshman orientation if we could have...

   Sen.-elect Claire McCaskill may not be in Washington for orientation week, but she's definitely made it: McCaskill got her first starring mention at wonkette.com, DC's must-read gossip blog.

  The subject: Her decision to skip orientation. And her rumored whereabouts.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Claire's Committees

   Claire McCaskill got her top choices for Senate committee assignments today. Aide Adrianne Marsh said she was excited about getting her first choice - a seat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

   Currently the Missouri state auditor, she said McCaskill wanted to serve on the committee that does on the federal level what she has done in Jefferson City - conduct oversight to make sure that government programs are working the way they're supposed to.

    McCaskill will also serve on the Armed Services, Commerce, Aging and Indian Affairs committees. She is on vacation and could not be reached for comment.  Marsh would not disclose where.

    "After having had your personal life splashed on the screen for months, her family deserves a little privacy at this point," Marsh said.

Posted by David Goldstein    

Welcome to Washington

    The photograph on page 3 of today's Washington Post shows eight smiling senators-elect. They're seated in Democratic leader Harry Reid's office beneath the Olympian gazes of John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt. But one soon-to-be-minted senator was missing: Missouri's Claire McCaskill.

    The Democratic victors are in town this week for freshmen orientation. They learn how to choose an office, a chief of staff, a committee; even how to get paid. McCaskill is not as "Senate School" because she fled Missouri last weekend for a long-planned vacation to an undisclosed location. But aide Adrianne Marsh said she had already spoken with Reid about leaving and put in her bid for a spot on the Homeland Security and Governmental Reform Committee, so her absence was not a problem.

    After all, a Senate aide noted, that was Reid widely seen giving his office TV screen a big smooch election night when McCaskill was declared the winner in Missouri.

    It's not as if she has been missing attention while she's been missing in action. Both McCaskill and freshly elected Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Boyda of Kansas are among the political celebrities of the moment. Both got their mugs on the front page of Sunday's New York Times. Both get numerous mentions in the media as the chattering class chews over the election and "What It All Means."   

    It's a heady time and newcomers will have to adjust to Washington's weird ways. Indeed, to piggyback onto the estimable Scott Canon's earlier post today about Boyda, her "not in Kansas anymore" moment was not just her wide-eyed gaze at the inspiring image of the Capitol dome. It was when The Post, in a story about incoming freshmen, said that "she planted her derriere on the marble balustrade" to stare at the postcard-perfect view.

    It's not often you get elected to Congress, your picture in The Times and your "derriere" mentioned in The Post all in the same week.

Posted by David Goldstein 

Isolation cell

  Slate.com (and, earlier, The Washington Post) examines the politics of embryonic stem cell research, as first played out in Missouri.

  If you've got time, read it, then return here and answer this question:

  Did the stem cell question help Claire McCaskill?  Or.... did Claire McCaskill help the stem cell question? 

  Or.... was it a wash?

  Political pundits want to know.

Posted by Dave Helling

Haven't seen enough Claire lately?

   In that case, tune into MSNBC tonight at 6. She'll be on "Hardball."

Posted by Steve Kraske

McCaskill: She's No. 97!

Per The Hotline:

   Assuming that all current vote leaders are eventually declared the winners, the following represents the Senate seniority of the new class of senators. Seniority between incoming senators is determined by the extent of their prior service, in order, as a former Senator, U.S. Vice President, House member, Cabinet Secretary, Governor, and finally state population.

91.) Ben Cardin (D-MD) 92.) Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 93.) Sherrod Brown (D-OH) 94.) Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA) 95.) Jim Webb (D-VA) 96.) Bob Corker (R-TN)

97.) Claire McCaskill (D-MO)

98.) Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) 99.) Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) 100.)Jon Tester (D-MT)

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

McCaskill: The day after

    Democratic Senator-elect Claire McCaskill sat down with The Star this morning to talk about her victory Tuesday over Sen. Jim Talent. Never one to sugarcoat her point, here are some of her comments. The full story will apear in Thursday's Star.

     On her victory: "This wasn't an overwhelming victory. This was a narrow victory. I've got work to do to earn the respect and trust of the Missourians who didn't vote for me. That's some heavy lifting."

    On the Democrats:  "I just want to make sure no one out there takes this election as a mandate. There is no mandate in our country right now. Our country is very divided. We need to be respectful of the other party and try to work together. If I've got to raise a ruckus about that within my own conference, I will."

     On some of the campaign advice from national party officials:  "I respected their political acument and certainly appreciated their help, but it was about Missouri. They kind of needed to like, I don't want to use the term 'butt out,' but they needed to back off. It was important that the campaign be about Missourians."

    On Republican Sen. Kit Bond, who called to congratulate her Wednesday:     "He gave me some great advice. We've known each other a long time. It's great to lay down all the partisan stuff and talk as colleagues. I look forward to working with him. We're going to disagree. At the end of the day, we both care about Missouri."

     On Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton:  "Ike Skelton will be a huge mentor for me when it comes to military matters. He's exactly the kind of Democrat we all need to be rallying around. He's got great common sense and great expertise. He's a guy I'll be watching."

Posted by David Goldstein

Did Dems' GOTV in Missouri top GOP effort?

    At the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee political director Guy Cecil spent months developing GOTV programs in Montana and Missouri that effectively harnessed those states' blue waves.

  The Hotline reports that in Missouri, for example, the DSCC had 5,400 volunteers and paid staff on the streets Tuesday. They targeted 250,000 drop-off voters and 350,000 swing voters outside of St. Louis and Kansas City. While the Republicans bragged about making 3 million voter contacts on the Saturday before the election, Democrats made about 3.5 million contacts.

   (If anybody knows what a "drop-off" voter is, chime in.)

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

El Sermono

  El Rushbo gave a pep talk to his Dittoheads today. Rush Limbaugh reminded them that politics and government shouldn't control their lives. But that yesterday's losses should motivate them in future elections.

   He said Republicans lost because they forgot their conservative roots and moved to the middle too far. He said Republicans were too "wishy-washy" and acting too county-club, blue-blood like. He said we would now find out whether Republicans would "cut and run" when it comes to terrorism and security. He blamed elderly voters unconcerned with America 10 to 15 years for now for Rick Santorum's Senatoral defeat in Pennsylvannia and Bob Casey Jr.'s name recognition and refusal to take positions.

  Among his callers was Connie from Blue Springs who described herself as "devastated" due to the victories of Claire McCaskill and the stem-cell initiative. Limbaugh said he appreciated McCaskill giving him partial credit for her victory and said she should say that as often as possible.

  Here's a partial transcript.

Posted by DeAnn Smith

GOP smart guy: St. Charles hurt Talent more than Greene

   A Republican smart guy tells KC Buzz Blog that despite the talk about Democrat Claire McCaskill keeping Republican Jim Talent to slim margins in SWMO's Greene County, that's not what really hurt.

    Talent's people insisted through election night that they won Greene within their targeted margins (they wanted a 10,000 vote margin, they got 11,000. When Talent beat Jean Carnahan in 2002, he won Greene by 16,000).

   What killed Talent's re-election chances, says the smart guy: Thin margins in St. Charles, a GOP-heavy suburb northwest of St. Louis.

   Talent won St. Charles by 12,000 votes, or less than 54 percent. In 2002, he won it by 17,000 votes, or about 58 percent.

   And: Republicans were surprised by the big Kansas City turnout.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Kansas City beats St. Louis in turnout

    Here are some interesting turnout tidbits:

   Kansas City turned out more voters than St. Louis City in the Senate election, 94,400 to 93,300. That's highly unusual (In 2002, when Jim Talent beat Jean Carnahan, St. Louis city accounted for 95,000 votes and KC for 87,000).

   Also: Conventional wisdom said McCaskill needed turnout of 100,000-plus in St. Louis City to win; in fact, turnout there was a little lower than in 2002, when Carnahan lost.

   So: Yes, McCaskill's outstate focus helped a lot, especially in Greene County, where she held Talent to slimmer-than-needed margins.

   But she needs to give a big shout out to Kansas City for putting her over the top with a big, big turnout and a margin of 50,000 votes.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Just in: McCaskill claims her victory

   Claire McCaskill captures Missouri's Senate seat from GOP Sen. Jim Talent.

   We'll have quotes from both in a minute.

   Also, looks like Amendment 2 is passing.

   2:10 a.m. UPDATE on Amendment 2: Yes, 956,354; No, 942,552

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

The Kristol Ball: Dems take Senate too

   Via The Hotline: The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol said on Fox News that he expects Claire McCaskill's lead in the Missouri Senate to increase.

   "I believe now that Missouri is going to go Democratic," he said. "If you had to bet right now, you'd have to bet on a Democratic Senate."

  Kristol is obviously looking at preliminary numbers that show Jon Tester winning by about 15,000 votes over Republican Sen. Conrad Burns and Democrat Jim Webb leaving in the soon-to-be-recounted Virginia Senate race.

   Kristol's fellow conservative commentator, Bob Novak, was even more gloomy Tuesday night. He said the Republican Party begins Wednesday some serious soul searching.

Posted by DeAnn Smith

Dems rock the downtown Marriott

   A hoarse Claire McCaskill took the stage about 8:10 p.m. Tuesday at the downtown Marriott in KC before jetting off to St. Louis. She was wearing the same chocolate-colored suit as she wore this morning while voting.

   She thanked her long-time Kansas City supporters noting they knew her when she had "all kinds of blonde hair and weighed a few pounds less." She promised that Missouri voters would "reject politics of personal destruction" and said voters want the U.S. Constitution respected when it comes to checks and balances. She said she expects to wake up Wednesday as senator-elect.

   "I will not forget you. I will go to Washington and make you proud."

  She received a warm introduction from Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes. Her Honor was wearing a sleek scarlet and black suit with an oversized red flower. Democratic State Auditor candidate Susan Montee and Claire's husband took the stage with the two powerhouse women.

     Oh and there were boos and hisses from the Democratic crowd when CNN announced that Joe Lieberman had won re-election to his Senate seat.

Posted by DeAnn Smith

Exit polls

   Unconfirmed -- repeat unconfirmed -- on the blogosphere.

   McCaskill +2.

   Dems strong everywhere else.

   Click here.

Posted by Dave Helling

Don't touch that dial

      Former President Bill Clinton, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and Senate candidate Claire McCaskill will start hitting the airwaves shortly.

     Clinton, Cleaver and McCaskill will all do call-ins to African American radio stations in Kansas City and St. Louis beginning around 4:20 p.m. to encourage a bigger turnout.

Posted by David Goldstein

Everybody say "Oooommm"

    How's Claire McCaskill doing as she plays hopscotch around Missouri today?

     Call it "Zen and the Art of Election Day Maintenance."

     "She doesn't seem nervous," aide Adrianne Marsh said as McCaskill was leaving Columbia for Springfield. She's due in Kansas City after that and will remain until after the polls close.

    "She's not asking for numbers. She's not in a numbers-crunching mode. Seems like she's going with the flow, just hanging out."

     (Was that a sitar we heard in the background?)

     Marsh said the campaign is excited about the high voter turnout reports. Meanwhile, they've had to figure out to deal with "volunteers falling from the skies," she said.

      Still, and here's that Zen thing again, Democrats have felt they've had good turnouts and get-out-the-vote operations in the past. "We've been disappointed before, but clearly we're pleased."

Posted by David Goldstein

Voting his wallet

    Near noon, 56-year old ironworker Mike Horton was heading down a St. Louis sidewalk to a repair job on the doors at the Federal Reserve building. Though union through and through, he admits to sometimes voting for Republicans. But his reasons for choosing Democrat Claire McCaskill in the Senate race all had to do with the money in his pocket. Or lack of it.

     "We are so far in debt, (President) Clinton was the last time I made lots of money on my stock," he said.

     Now he's got a child in college and frets over tuition bills. He voted against the stem cell initiative because he doesn't think the public can afford the potential research bills 

     "If we pass this, the public pays," Horton said. "I might have voted for it."

Posted by David Goldstein 

McCaskill gets GOP help from the Big Apple

   The New York Daily News reports today that New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a Republican, sent five aides to Missouri to help out in the Senate race.

   To help Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill.

   The paper, citing unidentified sources, points to McCaskill's support for early stem cell research as Bloomberg's chief motivation.

   A billionaire who was a Democrat until running for mayor, Bloomberg is stoking an increasingly national profile.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Election Jeopardy

  The answer: $40 million

  The question: How much have the campaigns of Sen. Jim Talent, Claire McCaskill and independent groups spent on the Missouri Senate race?

   Talent and McCaskill are the election's biggest beneficiaries of independent expenditures. For more details, check Rick Montgomery's and Scott Canon's story tomorrow in The Star and on kansascity.com.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

McCaskill: 'I'm feeling pretty good'

      In the Senate campaign’s 11th hour, Claire McCaskill had lightness in her step and the energy that comes from realizing the race was within her grasp.
    After months of work and a near-sleepless weekend of nonstop campaigning, the Democratic challenger was still rushing up to strangers with a friendly, “Hi, I’m Claire,” and offering a vigorous handshake.
    “Who’s more motivated?” McCaskill said, campaigning outside a Schnucks Market in St. Louis, coatless in a morning drizzle. “People who want to hold on, or people who want change. I’m betting for change.”
     Her message even touched three Georgians, who took off from work and drove to St. Louis from Atlanta on Sunday to enlist after hearing about the high political drama up in Missouri.
    “It’s such a close race and we want to help her and take back the Senate,” said 42-year-old Steve Lott, in between calls to voters at a McCaskill phone bank.
    Outside Schnucks, McCaskill reassured a woman with huge bag of dog chow that she wouldn’t raise her taxes because she supports President Bush’s middle class tax cuts, just not his big breaks for the wealthy.
    She encouraged another to get his family to the polls. “You’ve got to take your auntie, your mother and your father,” McCaskill instructed him.
     “My grandma?” he asked?
     “Get your grandma,” she replied. “Load her up.”
     When several shoppers said they were praying for her, she said, “I’ll take all the blessings I can get.”      
     McCaskill recalled that on this day two years ago, when she was running for governor in a race she would narrowly lose the next day, she was “so stressed that I couldn’t get a breath. I am much more relaxed and much happier.”
     She said she “kind of checked out the last two months” of that campaign because she was busy being “the candidate” and left strategy decisions to others. But not this time, she said.
     “The good thing is I’m not going to second-guess it because I did it the way I thought it should be done and I’m proud of the effort we made, and now I’ll be proud, regardless of the outcome,” McCaskill said, “although I’m feeling pretty good.”

Posted by David Goldstein

Last-day roundups

   The latest AP reports on:

    Talent, McCaskill

    Ryun, Boyda

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

All hands on deck for Talent

  AP reports that in final hours before Election Day, several Republican campaign staffers are going to quit working for their candidates. Instead, they'll undertake an effort to get any and every Republican they can find out to the polls, said Lloyd Smith, a senior adviser to Sen. Jim Talent.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

No more Mrs. Nice Guy?

   She didn't talk this tough in 2002.

    "This adminstration has drained our hopes, they have divided our nation and they have dimiinished our moral authority," former Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan said Sunday.

    She was speaking at an outdoor St. Louis rally for Claire McCaskill. Democratic supernova Barack Obama was the headliner, and the Illinois senator delivered as rousing a political war cry as you'd expect. Maybe Carnahan, who lost her seat in 2002 to McCaskill's opponent, Republican Sen. Jim Talent, has been saving it up. She unleashed a blistering attack on the Bush administration.

      "They have debased truth and made a mockery of public service," she said. "It's not just their fear-mongering and their corruption and their incompetence. The most troubling thing about this administration is what they hold dear. We can no longer accept what they believe is some quaint political aberration, because what they believe is scary."

   "It's up to us to turn this country around. It is up to us as Democrats to make this nation whole again...And Missouri will lead the way."

Posted by David Goldstein

Talent goes rural, talks ethanol and biodiesel

   Republican Sen. Jim Talent spent the final Sunday before the election barnstorming through rural Missouri, holding rallies in small towns for support he said will be critical on Election Day. "A big turnout in the rural areas makes it much easier for me," Talent said after a campaign stop in Cape Girardeau.

   Even Talent's opponent admits he has an edge in small towns.

   Speaking Sunday to more than 50 people at the rally here, Talent won strong ovations by speaking against abortion and gay marriage.

   But Talent spent most of his time on economic issues, especially focusing on the   emergence of crop-based fuels like ethanol and biodiesel. He said the new fuels would be a boon for small town economies.

   "In Missouri, we grow the corn and we grow the beans," Talent said.

   He highlighted his support of mandates in the Federal Energy Act of 2005 that will require more use of alternative fuels.

   "This new initiative is going to mean for Missouri what oil has meant for states like Texas," Talent said.

    Here's the AP's Missouri campaign round-up as of 6 p.m. Sunday.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

McCaskill tells Fox: 'Iraq has not turned out to be the ally we need...'

      Claire Caskill appeared Sunday on “Fox News Sunday” and said the United States must tell Iraq its troops “will not stay forever.”
     “The government of Iraq has not turned out to be the ally we need it to be against terror,” she told host Chris Wallace. “They’ve supported Hezbollah. They’ve refused to disarm some of the militia that are killing our men and women.”
    “This is a failed policy,” she added, “and the president and Sen. (Jim) Talent are becoming more and more isolated from the American people for their failure to recognize that.”
    McCaskill also hailed the death sentence handed down to Saddam Hussein on Sunday.

   McCaskill said Democrats were better prepared this year to compete with the GOP’s vaunted get-out-the-vote operation. “We have the infrastructure in place to make sure people know about this election, but ultimately which people vote on Tuesday is all about who wants change or do you want the status quo.
   Talent was invited to appear on the show but declined.

    Here's a transcript of McCaskill's appearance.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Peeking inside some GOP polls

    On The Corner, the National Review's Rich Lowry discusses internal Republican polls showing Sen. Jim Talent is up. He also looks at GOP polls in other Senate races.

Posted by DeAnn Smith

Bush goes all out for Talent

    Missouri’s Republican faithful got revved up by the biggest dog in the pound this morning: President Bush.
  Appearing for Sen. Jim Talent in Springfield – a second rally later was set for Joplin – Bush bounded onstage to the strains of “Eye of the Tiger,” the theme to "Rocky III" (Umm, wait. Doesn’t Rocky lose in that one? Not saying. Just asking.)
  The dress: Campaign casual. Bush wore a blue open-collar shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Talent, ever the law-school gunner, kept his sleeves buttoned.
  The message: Raw red meat, from taxes to terror to Iraq.
  “We will stay in Iraq…We will fight in Iraq…We will win in Iraq,” Bush told the crowd.
   More in tomorrow’s Star.

  UPDATE: Here's a transcript of the event.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Claire launches 24-hour blitz of St. Louis

   Where will Claire McCaskill be at 2:45 a.m. Saturday?

   Lemme see...I'm looking down the list...aha!...That would be the Waffle House at 12701 St. Charles Rock Road in Bridgeton.

   3:25 a.m. Saturday....Christy's Fuel, 8430 Hall St., St. Louis.

   6:30 a.m.....Uncle Bill's, 3427 S. Kingshighway Blvd.

   It's all part of McCaskill's 24-hour blitz of the St. Louis area that begins, officially, at 6 this evening and ends at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Phoenix Bar & Grill, 3924 Lemay Ferry Road.

   Reminds me of Bob Dole's around-the-clock campaign blitz in 1996 and wandering into the Independence Square to see him at, like, 4 a.m.

   Makes me tired just thinking of it.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Another poll with McCaskill ahead

   From a new Reuters/Zogby poll: "Democratic state Auditor Claire McCaskill took a 46 percent to 43 percent lead over Republican Sen. Jim Talent, who had a 4-point lead in early October. The see-sawing contest has been close all year, with neither candidate opening a significant advantage."

UPDATE:  Rasmussen has it Claire +1.

    Other Reuters/Zogby poll results (go to the link above):

    The Montana race has tightened, with Democrat Jon Tester's lead over GOP Sen. Conrad Burns down to one point.

    In Tennessee, GOPer Bob Corker has opened up a 10-point lead on Rep. Harold Ford Jr.

    In Virginia, Democrat James Webb now has a 1-point lead over GOP Sen. George Allen.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

The troops respond

                                             

   A picture, posted on the Hotline. (Click on the image for a bigger picture.)

UPDATE:  John Kerry apologizes, cancels campaign appearances.

UPDATE: Claire McCaskill's campaign spokeswoman: "(McCaskill) said it's a dumb thing to say and he should apologize."

Posted by Dave Helling

New ads coming from McCaskill

  Claire McCaskill says she's releasing a new series of TV ads "to personally rebut" accusations made by Sen. Jim Talent. She did not specify what the ads would address, but "said she was particularly bothered by accusations made about her husband," millionaire developer Joseph Shepard, and the couple's finances. There's more lower in this AP story.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Rasmussen: Talent up 2

    A Rasmussen poll out today has it Talent, 48 percent; McCaskill, 46 percent. Rasmussen notes: When leaners are added into the equation, Talent still leads McCaskill by two (50 percent to 48 percent). This is the first time (in the Rasmussen poll) that either candidate has reached the magic 50 percent level of voter support. Still, Rasmussen labels the race too close to call.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

McCaskill narrows cash gap, but lends campaign $500,000

     Claire McCaskill continued outpacing Republican Sen. Jim Talent in the final, furious days of fundraising, but disclosed Thursday that she took out a $500,000 loan to help her campaign buy TV ads.

    Spokeswoman Adrianne Marsh said McCaskill took out a "cash flow" loan from Enterprise Bank in St. Louis against the equity in her Kirkwood, Mo., home and lent the money to her campaign. The campaign already has repaid $200,000 of the loan, Marsh said, and expects to repay the rest by Election Day.

   Talent campaign adviser Lloyd Smith said McCaskill "has broken yet another campaign promise by using her family's wealth to further her political career." But Marsh stressed McCask