What Did I Tell You About Her?  —  Christine O'Donnell's first TV ad of the general election campaign:  —  The American Spectator, July 27: … With a smile like that, she's awfully hard to hate.  The Castle campaign tried to demonize her and it backfired.  Maybe Baldy the Tax-Hiking Wanker will have better luck.

Democrats gain in poll but GOP still leads as midterm elections near  —  Less than a month before the midterm elections, the political landscape remains strongly tilted toward Republicans, although Democrats have made modest improvements with voters since their late-summer low point, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The wreck of the Jim Oberstar?  —  In “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” Gordon Lightfoot refers to “the gales of November” on Lake Superior.  In Minnesota the shores of Lake Superior lie within the Eighth Congressional District.  According to a poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies …

On the right, hateful words are fired like bullets  —  I still ride a bike.  I do 12 miles, several days a week, and as I do so I listen to music — the Pandora service on my iPhone.  I have created a station that plays folk rock.  Lately, it has repeatedly played the Neil Young song “Ohio” …

Mondale to Obama: Ditch the ‘idiot boards’  —  Former Vice President Walter Mondale suggested in an interview today President Obama stop relying on “idiot boards” — teleprompters, that is — to deliver his message to the American people.  —  “He uses these idiot boards to read speeches in television …

With Tagline, MSNBC Embraces a Political Identity  —  MSNBC, once the also-ran but now the No. 2 cable news channel, has a new tagline that embraces its progressive political identity.  —  The tagline, “Lean Forward,” will be publicly announced Tuesday, opening a planned …

Glenn Beck: Can abortion be a kindness?  —  Audio Available:  —  GLENN: The first thing I want to play for you, though, however, is an interview from an environmentalist who is on the BBC yesterday and she's talking about the compassionate thing today.  She believes the compassionate that abortion is compassionate.

Frank's Own Battle Erodes Help for Fellow Democrats  —  It's the kind of political year in which even Rep. Barney Frank is being forced to break a sweat.  —  The Massachusetts Democrat, one of Congress's most well-known members, usually wins re-election by steamrolling his opponents.

Elections are likely to trim number of women in Congress  —  GLENWOOD, Ark. — Blanche Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1992, a time when women gained so much ground in the House and Senate that it was dubbed the “Year of the Woman.”  —  Now, the Arkansas senator, who faces Republican John Boozman …

Sen. Murkowski Asks Alaska Stations Not to Air Tea Party Ads  —  JUNEAU, Alaska — U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's campaign is warning Alaska broadcasters not to air ads by a national tea party group that the campaign says are “littered with lies and intentional mischaracterizations” about her and her write-in campaign.

U.S. Military Orders Less Dependence on Fossil Fuels  —  With insurgents increasingly attacking the American fuel supply convoys that lumber across the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan, the military is pushing aggressively to develop, test and deploy renewable energy to decrease its need to transport fossil fuels.

National Review Writers Defend County Whose Subscription-Only Firefighters Watched Home Burn Down  —  As ThinkProgress reported earlier this morning, South Fulton firefighters from Obion, Tennessee, last week stood by and watched as a family's home burned down because their services …

Rail Service Expansion Imperiled at State Level  —  Republicans running for governor in a handful of states could block, or significantly delay, one of President Obama's signature initiatives: his plan to expand the passenger rail system and to develop the nation's first bullet-train service.

Hacker infiltration ends D.C. online voting trial  —  Last week, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics opened a new Internet-based voting system for a weeklong test period, inviting computer experts from all corners to prod its vulnerabilities in the spirit of “give it your best shot.”

Federal judge charged with buying drugs from stripper  —  A longtime federal judge was freed on a $50,000 bond Monday after his arrest on federal charges that he bought cocaine and other illegal drugs while involved in a sexual relationship with an exotic dancer for the past several months.

Centrist Democrats may reign in House  —  If Democrats retain a slim hold on the House next year, a handful of the party's most conservative members could find themselves in the catbird seat, wielding wide influence over the Democratic agenda.  —  In that scenario, the finicky Blue Dog Coalition …

The Bill Gates Income Tax  —  If Washington's most famous billionaires are really worried about their state's finances, they'd write personal checks to the government and leave everyone else alone.  —  Framed on a wall in my office is a personal letter to me from Bill Gates the elder.

Cities in Debt Turn to States, Adding Strain  —  Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, dodged financial disaster last month by getting money from the state to make a payment to its bondholders.  —  It did so even though the state warned that the money had to be used for city workers' pensions.

New Fuel for Local Papers: Medical Marijuana Ads  —  COLORADO SPRINGS — When it hit the streets here last week, the latest issue of ReLeaf, a pullout supplement to The Colorado Springs Independent devoted to medical marijuana, landed with a satisfying thud.

Who's Got West Wing Juice?  Look to Flickr  —  Pete Rouse has a lot of work to do if he wants to match the influence that Rahm Emanuel had as President Obama's chief of staff.  —  That's the conclusion from a highly unscientific survey of the White House Flicker feed …

How to Keep Your Seat 101: Don't mention that you're a Democrat  —  With voters in an anti-incumbent mood and a national headwind against their party, some freshman Democrats are touting themselves as unaffiliated outsiders — and it may help them win reelection.

No joke as Brazil clown tops votes for Congress  —  Tiririca won far more votes than any other candidate  —  A Brazilian clown has had the last laugh by winning a seat in Congress with more votes than any other candidate in Sunday's elections.  —  Tiririca, or Francisco Oliveira Silva …

Cuccinelli reissues global warming subpoena to U-Va.  —  Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has sent a new civil subpoena to the University of Virginia, renewing a demand for documents related to a work of a former university climate scientist that was stymied when a judge blocked his previous request in August.