The Republican Party isn’t dead. Republicans can survive, and even thrive, if they appear to embrace moderation. But yesterday, the Sarah Palin-“movement conservative” wing of Republicanism was shown to be wildly unpopular.

As you surely know, Democrat Bill Owens defeated Conservative Party candidate Douglas Hoffman yesterday in the Special Election for Congress in New York’s 23rd district. This was a stunner because the 23rd is a bedrock Republican district—essentially held by the Republican Party for the entire 20th century.

Republicans made the “mistake” of nominating a moderate-conservative woman, Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, who supports gay rights and abortion rights. The right wing was appalled. The likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck denounced the Assemblywoman.

Sarah Palin jumped on this right-wing bandwagon and endorsed Hoffman over Scozzafava and the race became a cause célèbre for “movement conservatives” across the country. As the New York Times reported:

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The financial reform effort was dealt a significant setback in the House Financial Services Committee when it voted today to exempt firms with a market capitalization of as much as $75 million from accounting rules designed to prevent Enron-style corrupt practices. But that fight is not over.

The issue is the application of the Sarbanes-Oxley law, which was passed in 2003 in the wake of the Enron scandal to require publicly traded firms to conduct independent audits of their finances to expose fraud and accounting errors. ever since the law was passed, the small business lobby has complained that the law imposes an undue burden on them, and Congress has deferred enforcing the law for firms worth less than $75 million while the Securities and Exchange Commission studies the issue.

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What do last night's election results tell us about the electorate? Some numbers from New Jersey, Virginia and Maine.

In 2008, Sen. John McCain lost the presidential race in NJ after garnering 1,613,207 votes. In 2009, Chris Christie won the governor's race with 1,140,134 votes. (Barack Obama had 2,215,422 votes while Gov. Jon Corzine received only 1,038,170.)

In 2008, McCain lost VA after getting 1,725,005 votes. In 2009, Robert McDonnell won the governor's race with 1,159,003 votes. (Barack Obama got 1,959,532 while Creigh Deeds got a mere 815,350.)

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The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day

Kerry-Graham Climate Talks Advance Despite GOP Cmte Boycott

Chamber of Commerce (the real one) moves towards supporting Kerry-Graham climate compromise. Politico quotes top Chamber lobbyist: "Senators Kerry and Graham have set forth a positive, practical and realistic framework for legislation, one that echoes the core principles that the Chamber embeds in all of its communications on climate policy."

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At a meeting with bloggers before last week's Building The New Economy conference, AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka talked about how we have developed two economies, one real and one financial. As he said, originally the financial sector was designed to support the real economy by providing capital as needed for building manufacturing facilities, public infrastructure, etc. But in recent decades the power of Wall Street has twisted that relationship until the real economy now feeds the financial economy.

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So all day long I'm hearing the gasbags blather on about how this lame, off year election is a referendum on liberalism and Obama and things are looking grim, grim, grim.

The Democratic blue dogs have it all figured out:

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Today's CNN poll, assessing President Obama one year after election day, confirms that America remains a center-left nation. Yet don't expect pundits to tell you that.

For example, poll analysis from the Wall Street Journal's John McKinnon implies that declining approval for Obama's handling of specific issues is down as perceptions of the president as "too liberal" are up:

In just about every specific policy category, Obama’s approval rating has declined significantly since the last time pollsters checked.

On the economy, it’s down to 46%, compared with 54% in September. On health care, it’s 42%, down from 51% in September. On the federal budget deficit, it’s 39%, versus 46% in September (although up from 36% in August). On Afghanistan, it’s 42% versus 49% in August.

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Economist Robert Johnson says progressive activists are going to have to fight more aggressively against the forces on Capitol Hill and the White House who are working on behalf of the financial services industry to block financial reform, given the kinds of deals now being cut by the Obama White House and some Democrats in Congress.

Johnson, in the video interview above, says that while there is some good news in the recent moves toward creating a financial consumer protection agency, legislative proposals to curb the behavior of so-called "too-big-to-fail" banks remain seriously flawed.

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The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day

GOP Boycotts Today's Climate Bill Mark-up. No One Cares.

Sen. Boxer to proceed with climate bill markup today despite Republican delay tactics, after offering procedural concessions. Climate: "Boxer still plans to begin the markup at 9 a.m. with opening statements. But she agreed to suspend the markup at 2 p.m. for an open-door meeting with U.S. EPA officials to answer committee members' questions about the economic modeling of the legislation ... Republicans, who ignored yesterday deadline for filing amendments, also now have until 5 p.m. today to submit any suggested changes to the bill ... [GOP Sen. George] Voinovich declined to say whether he would attend the question-and-answer session ... But Voinovich did say he had no plans to back down on the boycott until he gets a more complete assessment of the climate bill from EPA..."

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Wind energy is supposed to be able to create thousands of manufacturing jobs, but unfortunately the early wind energy manufacturing jobs financed by US stimulus money have all gone to overseas manufacturers. There are at least three reasons why this happens, some easier to fix than others.

The Easier Problem

First is the problem of US wind turbine manufacturing capacity. It's tiny.

This could be improved by the adoption of a well-designed feed-in tariff. Feed-in tariffs are where the government sets mandates for renewable energy and supports the purchase of the resulting electricity at a rate that pays for the initial market entry.

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On Friday, the Wall Street Journal trumpeted the news that a Chinese firm will be the exclusive supplier to one of the largest wind-farm developments in the U.S. and that the developer of the project would be seeking U.S. taxpayer assistance. The 36,000-acre West Texas development announced that it would purchase 240 2.5-megawatt wind turbines from Shenyang Power Group, a five-month-old alliance with operations in China.

Question: Why aren’t American firms building this clean energy project?

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The Supreme Court may decide as soon as tomorrow on the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case involving a corporate-funded anti-Hillary smear ad. It is likely the conservative-dominated activist court will overturn precedent and rule in favor of removing restrictions on corporate spending in elections, with terrible consequences. The 5-4 ruling will say that large companies injecting vast sums to sway election results is “free speech.” Imagine, vocal cords on a Cayman Islands post office box!

Common Cause has a report out, titled, Corporate Democracy: Potential fallout from a Supreme Court decision on Citizens United. "Lifting the ban on corporate political spending could unleash a flood of money into the political system and further diminish the public’s voice," the report says.

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The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day

Health Care Advancing, Bit By Bit

NYT offers optimistic update on health care legislation: "... President Obama’s arms-length strategy on health care appears to be paying dividends ... The bills have advanced further than many lawmakers expected. Five separate measures are now pared down to two. But the legislative progress has come at a price. In the absence of specific guidance from the White House, it has moved ahead in fits and starts. From here on, the challenges will only grow more difficult ... In the House, where leaders have vowed to pass a bill by Nov. 11, a fight over abortion coverage could still imperil the legislation, and Mr. Obama could lose some votes from liberals upset that the bill includes a weakened 'public option,' ... Last week’s back-and-forth in the Senate was emblematic of a process that has at times seemed on the brink of anarchy."

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Investing recklessness at Harvard is making 'the best and the brightest' look awfully silly — almost as silly as a nation that lets staggering quantities of wealth continue to concentrate.

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The Chronicle of Higher Education released a survey of chief financial officers at four-year universities across the country and it is no treat; their outlook for this budget year (FY 2010) was gloomy, by next year? Even scarier. According to universities surveyed, 62% of officials expect the worst of financial pressures are still to come, with higher education budgets dripping in red ink, bitten by the recession looking forward.

This is despite the fact that universities have already slashed budgets, passed hair-raising tuition hikes, and in some cases chopped enrollment. At least 34 states already took the ax to public colleges and universities, reducing faculty and staff, coupled with steep tuition increases for the upcoming year.

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