October's GOP Asshat of the Month....and an Amendment to My Senate Predictions

With the flurry of election season and a full plate at work, I forgot about my monthly GOP Asshat of the Month coronation ceremony. Without much fanfare, I'll give this month's crown to Rush Limbaugh, whose outrageous accusations of Michael J. Fox faking his Parkinson's symptoms sucked the oxygen out of what could have a successful Republican counterattack against an over-the-top campaign ad featuring Fox, where he implied that Republican candidate Jim Talent was gonna let him die because based on Talent's opposition to federally-funded embryonic stem cell research. The would-be crisis was averted, thanks to Limbaugh who vastly trumped Fox's ad in the below-the-belt department.

I actually have two amendments to my Senate predictions from mid-October. I was a skeptic until the end, but I have now seen enough information to conclude that Democrat Sherrod Brown will defeat incumbent Republican Mike DeWine in Ohio. However, I predict Brown's victory will be a zero-sum game because I now expect Republican Michael Steele to score the upset of the night against Ben Cardin in Maryland. I held onto my prediction for Cardin until Monday, when more than half of the black members of the Prince George's County board (Steele's home county) endorsed Steele. Polls released today showed Cardin holding onto a modest lead, but I'm expecting a large number of black voters to switch allegiances in the clutch, ultimately choosing race over party.

I'm nervous about Jon Tester's ever-shrinking lead in Montana, but I expect he'll hang on. I stand by all of my House predictions from mid-October, even though I'm really skeptical about whether John Barrow will hang on in GA-12. I also stand by gubernatorial predictions, but have doubts about my guesses in Minnesota, Iowa, and Maryland.