Warren Now Lone Democrat In Mass. Senate Race

Elizabeth Warren has all but sealed the Democratic ticket in the Massachusetts Senate race against incumbent Scott Brown. 

Warren, a Harvard law professor, gained name notoriety after being tapped by President Obama to head his Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 

Warren’s entrance into the Massachusetts senate race has caused several of her opponents to drop out and, according tot he Boston Globe, the last of her Democratic challengers is expected to announce his departure Monday. 

State Representative Thomas Conroy was Warren’s lone challenger but in an interview with the Globe, he said that the Warren factor caused the departures of “the other strong candidates” in the race. 

Conroy said that he stuck with his campaign because there remained an opportunity for him to gain traction in debates, a notion he said “proved to be more theoretical than real.”

Poll: 64% Think Lawmakers Lack Ethics

It appears that a sizable majority of Americans have little faith in the morality of members of Congress.

According to a new Gallup poll, 64 percent of Americans rate the “honesty and ethical standards” of lawmakers as very low or low. In contrast only 7 percent would rate them as very high or high. 27 percent responded that they would rate them as “average.”

The poll showed that Americans hold more trust in the moral practices of bankers, labor union leers, ad executives, telemarketers and care salesmen. Only lobbyists come close to being similarly disparaged, with 62 percent of respondents rating them poorly on moral issues.

The poll was conducted among 1,012 adults between November 28th and December 1st. It was released Monday.

Pelosi Hits GOP For Adjourning Before Payroll Relief Is Passed

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized Republicans Friday for choosing not to work through the weekend on payroll relief.

“Americans can’t wait,” Pelosi said during a press conference. “We must act now.”

Pelosi’s comments came on the same day that Republicans released their alternative to Democrats’ plans to extend the payroll tax cut.

Candidates Graded On Their English

By Tim Young

ProEnglish, an organization whose goal is to “defend English’s historic role as America’s common, unifying language,” released a report card today showing where all of the current Presidential candidates stand on doing the same.

According to the report card, Ron Paul is the only candidate to receive an A for defending the language, Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich each received an A-, and no other candidate received above a C. 

Jon Huntsman, Rick Perry and President Barack Obama each received an F.

“We think that voters will be surprised, not only by the candidates who earned the top grades, but by those who scored the worst,” said ProEnglish Executive Director Robert Vandervoort.

The grades were based on six categories, ranging from the obvious things such as whether or not the candidate advocates English as the official language of the United States, to the not so obvious Puerto Rican Statehood.

Hoax Claims SEIU Not Endorsing Obama

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is still endorsing President Obama in the 2012 election, despite claims in a fake press release that circulated Tuesday night.

“We stand by our Nov. 16, 2011 endorsement of President Obama as part of a broader ‘99 percent’ strategy to create good jobs now, end devastating cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and require everyone to pay their fair share,” read a statement on the SEIU blog.

The fake press release quoted SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry as saying, “Our members gave $60.7 million dollars to the Obama campaign in 2008 and fought hard for his election because we were promised change. We’re still waiting.”

No word yet on the identity of the prankster or the purpose of the hoax.