First Read: “The multiple sexual-harassment allegations against Cain may not have ruined his candidacy, though they certainly knocked him off message. His pregnant pause when talking about Libya might not have killed his chances, but it did bring into question his lack of experience and knowledge about world affairs. And this new allegation of an affair might not be the final nail in his political coffin, but we aren’t seeing the same conservatives rallying around Cain that we saw after the sexual-harassment allegations first surfaced. But when you take them all together, it’s pretty clear we’re watching a replay of the Sixth Sense: Everyone knows this candidacy is dead, except the campaign. Cain and the allegations have become a sideshow, bordering on a distraction to the rest of the field.”

The Note: “The issue isn’t will this sink Cain’s candidacy — it had been slowly
sinking already — the question now is: how fast will he fall and who
benefits from it? Cain is still commanding significant support national
and in the early primary states and those voters have to go somewhere.”

Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-MA) decision yesterday to retire from the House
of Representatives marks the 17th Democrat this cycle to opt not to run
for reelection, compared to just seven Republicans, dimming the
prospects that Democrats can win the 26 seats necessary to retake
control of the chamber in 2012, reports The Hill.

“All
[seven] GOP members are departing to run for another office, while only
eight of the 17 Democrats have their eyes focused
upward… Anticipating the blowback it would receive following two
high-profile retirements in less than a week, the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) released a memo Monday showing
that a number of Democratic retirements are in left-leaning districts
where the party is likely to retain control even without an incumbent.”

Politico:
“It’s a familiar trend: When parties lose the majority, the path back
to power appears too steep for many members to stick it out. After
Democrats lost the majority in 1994, 29 Democrats did not seek
reelection — eight more than the number of Republicans who retired.
After Republicans lost the majority in 2006, 27 Republicans did not seek
reelection — 21 more than the number of retiring Democrats.”

“What the hell are we paying you for?”

— New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by Politico, calling President Obama “a bystander in the Oval Office” for not getting involved in supercommittee debt talks.

Organizers seeking to oust Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) say they “already have gathered more than half of the signatures they would need to force the new Republican governor into a recall election,” the Green Bay Gazette reports.

More than than 300,000 signatures “have been gathered during the first 12 days of the recall effort, which was officially launched on Nov. 15. Organizers would need to gather 540,208 valid signatures by Jan. 17 to get the recall on the ballot next year.”

Herman Cain told CNN that another woman will come forward to accuse him of having an extramarital affair over 13 years.

Said Cain: “I wanted to get out in front of it. I have nothing to hide, I have done nothing wrong.”

However, Cain’s lawyer issued a statement to Fox 5 Atlanta that was less-than-helpful:

“This is not an accusation of harassment in the workplace — this is not an accusation of an assault — which are subject matters of legitimate inquiry to a political candidate. Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults — a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public. No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life.”

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Pennsylvania find Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) leading all of his possible GOP rivals by double-digits, though he doesn’t match his 17 point margin of victory against Rick Santorum in 2006.

Sam Rohrer (R) comes closest but still trails Casey by 11 points, 47% to 36%.

A new Magellan Strategies poll in Nebraska finds Attorney General Jon Bruning (R) leading Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) by six points, 45% to 39%.

In other possible match ups, Don Stenberg (R) edges Nelson, 41% to 40%, while Nelson tops Deb Fischer, 41% to 35%.

Walter Shapiro: “There is no doubt, certainly, that Rove is influential. But, as I spent time speaking to insiders from both parties about him, I initially struggled to pin down the exact nature of his resurgent influence. The classic line on Rove has always been that his political instincts are unrivaled by any Republican since the heyday of his mentor, Lee Atwater. Yet, while Crossroads undoubtedly played an important role in the 2010 campaign by flooding the airwaves with ads for Republican Senate candidates, the only thing memorable about these ads was their omnipresence.”

Said GOP strategist Matthew Dowd: “The whole Rove brand as an evil genius is wrong. Karl is neither.”

“I wouldn’t lie to the American people. I wouldn’t switch my positions for political reasons.”

— Newt Gingrich, quoted by the New York Times, in a not-so-veiled reference to GOP primary rival Mitt Romney.

Howard Kurtz says Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) insists he’s not interested in a vice presidential bid in 2012, noting that his party can’t solve its Hispanic problem just by drafting “a person whose name ends in a vowel.”

However, while his aides welcome the veep chatter “because it gives him a larger megaphone,” they want “to preserve his option of running for president in 2016 — which Rubio would forfeit if his ticket beat President Obama this time around.”

A new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll finds President Obama would beat former President George W. Bush in a hypothetical election match up, 40% to 31%, with 27% picking neither.

A bizarre web video from Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Steve Welch (R) explores the possibility that Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and President Obama were “separated at birth.”

The spot’s highlights include a dramatic soundtrack, telegenic host, and fake experts in behavioral science, statistics, and body language.

[Read more…]

A new Majority Opinion Research poll finds Newt Gingrich leading Mitt Romney, 32% to 23%, followed by Herman Cain at 14%, Ron Paul at 6%, Rick Perry 5%, Michele Bachmann 4%, Jon Huntsman 3%, “someone else” at 4%, and no opinion at 11%.