Charles Mahtesian over at Politico reports on the anti-incumbent sentiment at the state legislative level, which is considerable and growing.

Note that 44 Democrats and 90 Republicans have been turned out in primaries at the state legislative level. Something to keep an eye on.

Btw,I love tu quoque aru­ments (as you can prob­a­bly tell). Is it sup­posed to dis­credit them when you note them every­time I make one or do you just like not­ing it? 

Noting the tu quoque non-defense indicates that you haven’t addressed the actual issue, and have instead attempted merely to change the subject. You seem to be saying that the only support conservatives have for their position is to falsely accuse The Other Side of doing similar things. This is an acknowledgement that your position is actually indefensible. I’ll accept that surrender, but I’ll also point it out.

Geez, a tu quoque argu­ment com­par­ing Bach­mann to Reid

Btw,I love tu quoque aruments (as you can probably tell). Is it supposed to discredit them when you note them everytime I make one or do you just like noting it? 

Rhetor­i­cal ques­tion: How will Tea Partiers reward their
con­stituen­cies and buy votes if they only cut spend­ing and there­for
never bring home any pork?

Its a good one. We shall see if the TP’er method of not greasing palms in governing or in getting releeccted can work. I suspect it’ll change anyway as time goes on. Even the most idealistic politician eventually realizes consituents don’t get fired up by politicians that promise to give them nothing. Thats part of Romney’s problem right now too.

Monetreme– Good article. Thanks for the time and effort. I am reminded of growing up in the district of Silvio O. Conte (R) in solidly democratic Western Massachusetts. He was almost universally loved for a number of reasons not the least of which was “bringing home the pork”.

Rhetorical question: How will Tea Partiers reward their constituencies and buy votes if they only cut spending and therefor never bring home any pork?

SC– I like your answers in #1 and was tickled by #4. I think I actually understood on the first read. Guess you hit on areas my Profs. covered on the few days I stayed awake in class.

Barring Republicans winning both the Senate and the White House, I don’t see an end to the gridlock, either. And if they do win both the Senate and the White House, I’d expect to see an immediate change in the Senate rules to bar filibusters altogether, followed by a wholesale passage of Republicans’ Greatest Hits.

@mclever,
Yes, you’ve clarified what I was saying.  Let’s go a bit farther down the mathematics, shall we?

fact 1: about 40 percent of eligible voters actually vote.
fact 2: it requires only 50 percent + 1 to get elected.

Conclusion: when approval is at 20–30 percent, you can get re-elected, even against an opponent with only one head, provided you GOTV.

However, with an approval rating, nation-wide, of 12–16 percent, the probabilities change.

rgbact: I think you somehow personify the voters in a district as if they were paying close attention to the voting patterns of their congresscritter and judging that person on that basis.  We already know that the typical American voter pays very little attention to what goes on in Congress.  The only time a Congressional vote or other official act matters is when the opponent brings it out in a campaign commercial (recall, for example, the Willie Horton episode).

There have been precious few such votes in the last two years, so the electorate is likely going to vote the way it traditionally has: rather like the molecules in a gas, ping-ponging around as they are struck by random perceptions, and largely motivated by how they feel about the universe on that day in November.  (This may explain my reference above to Thermodynamics).

Geez, a tu quoque argument comparing Bachmann to Reid? Really? I think we can file that in the dictionary under “desperation.”

rgbact,
If you tried to make every district D+25 or R+25, and equal in population, you’d likely have a D-controlled Congress, as it currently stands.  Which is part of the point.  A lot of the dissatisfaction with Congress is going to come out in the voting booth, just as it did in 2010, as anti-incumbent votes.  You can imagine that this will not be stronger in the areas in which it has already proven to be strong — namely the districts that put the tea party folks in — but that’s ignoring history.

By the way, in an amusing twist, several of the tea party caucus in the House are running without mentioning their incumbency at all.  You like to talk about how Obama doesn’t emphasize his record, but at least he’s not trying to pretend he’s not the incumbent.

As for Bachmann vs Reid.  Reid is a fellow Mormon, and one of the things that Mormons keep track of is each other’s finances.  He says he heard his rumor from a Bain investor (and also, likely, a Mormon), who would be in a position to know.

Bachmann, on the other hand, knows absolutely nothing, according to everything she’s so far displayed.  She’s an utter disgrace to the species Homo Sapiens (“sapiens” meaning “thinking”).  I’m on her mailing list — I get her material that she sends out to supporters — and there’s been no evidence presented by her or anyone else that supports her insane claims.