It’s not just the Tea Partiers and Town Hall  crowds who are fed up with government. Three of ever four voters are angry at the federal government’s policies, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey released Monday:

Part of the frustration is likely due to the belief of 60% of voters that neither Republican political leaders nor Democratic political leaders have a good understanding of what is needed today. That finding is identical to the view last September, just after the tumultuous congressional town hall meetings the month before. But only 52% felt this way in November.

Americans are united in the belief “that the political system is broken, that most politicians are corrupt, and that neither major political party has the answers,” Scott Rasmussen explains in his new book, In Search of Self-Governance.

Not surprisingly, 89 percent of Republicans are angry with the government’s current policies. More sobering than that statistic are the poll’s findings that 78 percent of independent voters agree, as do 61 percent of Democrats.

Rasmussen also found that the split between mainstream voters and political leaders is more sharply defined than ever:

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Mainstream voters are angry, but 84% of the Political Class are not. Those numbers include 57% of Mainstream voters who are Very Angry and 51% of the Political Class who are not angry at all.

But then 68% of Mainstream voters don’t think the leaders of either major political party have a good understanding of what the country needs today. Sixty-one percent (61%) of the Political Class disagree.

Among specific government policies opposed by most voters are ObamaCare and bailouts of the financial and automobile industries. Voter opinions of the February economic stimulus plan are mixed.

49 percent of voters are concerned that the federal government will try to do too much to help the economy, and 59 percent believe cutting taxes is better than increasing government spending to create jobs. Fully 72 percent say they expect the president and Congress will increase spending instead.

- JP

Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) died  Monday at the age of 77:

The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. He died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said.

In 1974 Murtha, then an officer in the Marine Reserves, became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress. One of Congress’ most hawkish Democrats, he wielded considerable clout for two decades as the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending.

Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but Murtha’s growing frustration over the administration’s handling of the war prompted him in November 2005 to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Murtha had been the center of controversy in recent years. In 2006 he accused U.S.Marines of murdering Iraqi civilians “in cold blood” at Haditha, Iraq, after one Marine died and two were wounded by an IED. Charges were eventually dropped against seven of the eight Marines involved.

In 1980 Rep. Murtha became involved in the Abscam investigation, in which undercover FBI agents posed as brokers for Saudi nationals attempting to bribe their way through the immigration process into the U.S. Murtha was caught on video tape refusing an offer of $50,000, but saying that he might be interested in accepting the offer at a later date. He agreed to testify against two Congressmen, and he was not charged with a crime.

Murtha has been named by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a left-leaning watchdog group, as one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress. In 2008, he was named by Esquire Magazine as one of the 10 worst members of Congress for his historical opposition to ethics reform and his practice of garnering $100 million a year in earmarks for his Congressional district. The Wall Street Journal has called him “one of Congress’s most unapologetic earmarkers.”

The Congressman caused another dust up in January, 2009, when he said that he would be willing to house prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in his congressional district when President Obama closes Gitmo prison. Murtha’s district only has a minimum security prison, and he was accused of making the offer to try to get a new maximum security facility built in the district.

He joined the Marine Corps in 1952 during the Korean War, and served until 1955. Murtha returned to Johnstown, PA to run the family business and finish his undergraduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1962, and he signed up for the Marine Corps Reserve. During the Vietnam war, he volunteered for combat and served near Da Nang in 1966 and 1967.

Murtha had been a member of the U.S. House of of Representatives since 1974. In 2006, with the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he made a bid to be elected House Majority Leader, but lost to Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Murtha had chaired the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee from 1989 to 1995, and he served as the panel’s ranking Democrat from 1995 to 2007. In 2006 he became chairman of that subcommittee for the second time.

Update: A special election will be held to determine a successor to fill out the remainder of Murtha’s term:

According to state law, the governor has ten days once the vacancy is officially declared to decide on the date for the special election, which can come no sooner than 60 days following that proclamation.

That likely means the special election will be held on May 18, which is the date already set for federal primaries around the state. (Special elections costs the state huge sums of money and it’s likely that Gov. Ed Rendell will choose to go with an already established election day to save some cash.)

Murtha’s passing comes at a tenuous time for House Democrats as they seek to convince some of their older members to re-up for another term in the face of what looks to be a difficult national political environment for the party.

- JP

Kenneth T. Walsh of U.S. News is hearing from Democrat strategists that if President Obama’s re-election prospects begin to look too bleak, he could throw Vice President Joe Biden under the bus and pick Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential running mate for 2012:

It’s inside-Washington speculation at this point, but the strategists make a good case for such a shift. “Biden was named in the first place to shore up Obama on foreign policy issues, and Obama doesn’t need that anymore,” says a former Clinton adviser. That’s because Obama has learned the ropes and has assembled a strong foreign policy and national security team including Robert Gates as defense secretary, Jim Jones as White House national security adviser, and Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.

Elevating Clinton to the vice presidential slot would accomplish several objectives: It would appeal to female voters and the still-powerful cadre of Clinton admirers, give Obama more of a pragmatic luster, and shunt the gaffe-prone Biden aside. And it would theoretically discourage Clinton, a former senator from New York, from challenging Obama in the 2012 primaries, Democratic insiders say, because as vice president she would be considered Obama’s heir for 2016. Clinton would be 69 that year, the same age as Ronald Reagan when he won the presidency in 1980.

Secretary Clinton, has said that she does not envision serving a second term as Secretary of State. Although she said that she is “absolutely not interested” in running for president again, she still didn’t rule out the possibility completely. Also, she was never asked about running for vice president.

The White House, of course, dismissed speculation about Biden and Clinton as “cocktail party chatter” and insisted that Obama is “very pleased” with Biden’s job performance.

You’re doing a heckuva job, Joey!

- JP

Just after Scott Brown’s remarkable victory in Massachusetts, GOP strategist Patrick Hynes pondered its significance for other states in a post-election online analysis. Hynes’ concluded that if New Hampshire goes the way of Massachusetts, it could be very bad news for the Democrats:

Voters in New Hampshire and Massachusetts have traditionally been polar opposites. “Taxachusetts” has earned the contempt of Live Free or Die skinflints. But over the past two election cycles (and signs of this can be traced further back), New Hampshire Democrats have been in the ascent and the political climates of these two New England states have, at times, become very similar.

The entire southern boundary of New Hampshire borders Massachusetts and many of the towns on either side are indistinguishable. Tens of thousands of families whose income earners work in Massachusetts nevertheless set up house on the New Hampshire side of the border to take advantage of tax benefits. These areas represent some of the fastest growing communities in New Hampshire. A majority of the state’s population lives in two counties that border Massachusetts, which are occasionally derided as “Massachusetts North.”

Even Hynes was likely shocked by the results of a new poll which indicated that liberal U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy is rapidly giving up ground to a well-financed Republican opponent who has the backing of Scott Brown’s top strategists:

The WPRI-12 poll showed the Rhode Island Democrat with a 56 percent unfavorability rating in his district - a negative that grows to 62 percent statewide.

Only 35 percent of voters in Kennedy’s district said they would vote to re-elect him. Another 31 percent said they’d consider a different candidate and 28 percent said they would vote to replace him, according to the poll.

Republican John J. Loughlin II, a veteran state lawmaker, formally announced his campaign yesterday against Kennedy, saying the son of liberal icon Edward M. Kennedy is out of touch with Rhode Island voters as he seeks a ninth two-year term.

If the overall survey numbers sound bad, the poll’s internals look even worse for Kennedy:

Majorities in every age demo give Kennedy either “fair” or “poor” job approval numbers

Only 40% of women give him “excellent” or “good” ratings, with 57% negative

59% of union households rate him fair or poor

Democrats approve of Kennedy 57%/40%, while independents show 25%/72%

On ObamaCare, the overall mood of the state is significantly negative, 38%/50%

Loughlin, who achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve, spent 10 years on flight status as a helicopter pilot. In 1986, he became the the Adjutant General’s Public Affairs Officer, a full-time job in the Rhode Island National Guard. Loughlin saw duty in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995 and 1996, and he trained units for duty in Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina in 2003. Loughlin is a businessman who owns and operates a television, radio and film production company, producing television commercials as well as industrial videos for corporate clients.

Loughlin very astutely hired Eric Fehrnstrom and Peter Flaherty, two of Brown’s top consultants. for his fledging campaign. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) took a look at Loughlin’s campaign and found it sufficiently promising to provide national support:

“Independents are running from the Democratic Party, and that benefits candidates across the northeast,” said Tory Mazzola, spokesman for the NRCC.

It’s been a tough year for Kennedy, who has struggled with depression, alcoholism and addiction for much of his life. Rhode Island Bishop Thomas J. Tobin denied him communion over the Catholic Congressman’s pro-abortion stance, and he botched his endorsement of Brown’s Massachusetts opponent Martha Coakley, referring to her as “Marsha.”

“Camelot’s over,” declared GOP consultant Holly Robichaud, the Herald’s Lone Republican blogger.

But a defiant Kennedy has characterized Brown’s election as “a joke.” If the son of the man who used to occupy the Senate office which is now Brown’s isn’t able to turn things around for himself in Rhode Island, Patrick Kennedy may discover in November that the joke is on him.

- JP

Scott Brown is on his way to Washington, D.C., and he expects to take the oath of office as the Junior Senator from Massachusetts Thursday:

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed the certification of election to make him the next U.S. senator.

Patrick signed the certification around 9:30 a.m. ET, which he was planning to do anyway on Thursday. Brown will be sworn in by Vice President Biden in a mock ceremony for the cameras at 5 p.m. ET.

Brown had originally planned to be sworn in next Thursday, but some potentially important votes are scheduled to be taken before then, so the Senator-elect decided to speed up the process of getting himself seated in the Senate chambers:

Among those votes are approvals of two of President Obama’s nominees — one to the National Labor Relations Board and another to the General Services Administration.

The vote of Craig Becker to the NLRB has raised objections from Republicans, who say they want to filibuster the man who reportedly does not believe employers should have a say in whether employees unionize.

Having Brown in the Senate potentially could allow Republicans to block the nomination.

Brown has made no secret of his intentions to stop President Obama’s health care reform agenda. He campaigned as the “41st vote” on ObamaCare, and his election has been taken as a warning by some Democrats who see the vote as a public affirmation of opposition to the plan.

It’s not clear how Brown will vote on some other administration priorities, including climate change, energy policy and judicial appointments, as he has stressed his independence, saying he does not intend to be a “rubber stamp” for Republican efforts to foil Democrat’s priorities.

- JP

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman had some choice words for President Obama in response to remarks made by the President only hours before:

During the president’s town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire, he discussed the need to curb spending during tough economic times. “When times are tough, you tighten your belts,” the president said. “You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”

The president’s comments come nearly a year after he criticized companies that received federal money for taking corporate junkets to Las Vegas. “You can’t go take that trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on taxpayers’ dime,” he said at the time. Local business leaders say Nevada tourism suffered last year in part because companies canceled trips to Las Vegas in the wake of the president’s comments.

Oops! He did it again…

Goodman didn’t pull any punches in his response to Obama:

“He didn’t learn his lesson the first time, but when he hurt our economy by his ill conceived rhetoric, we didn’t think it would happen again, but now that it has I want to assure you, when he comes I’ll do everything I can to give him the boot back to Washington and to visit his failures back there.

“I gotta tell you this, everybody says I shouldn’t say it, but I gotta tell you the way it is. This president is a real slow learner.”

Even Obama ally Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was none too pleased with the president’s remarks:

“I just spoke to the White House and told them that while the president is correct that people saving for college need to be fiscally responsible, the president needs to lay off Las Vegas and stop making it the poster child for where people shouldn’t be spending their money,” Reid said. “To truly reenergize our economy, we need people to travel to Las Vegas. I would much rather tourists and business travelers spend their money in Las Vegas than spend it overseas.”

In response to the Senator from Nevada’s criticism, Obama had to draft a letter to Reid, whom he addressed as “Harry”:

“I hope you know that during my Town Hall today, I wasn’t saying anything negative about Las Vegas. I was making the simple point that families use vacation dollars, not college tuition money, to have fun,” Obama wrote. “There is no place better to have fun than Vegas, one of our country’s great destinations. I have always enjoyed my visits, look forward to visiting in a few weeks, and hope folks will visit in record numbers this year.”

For a public figure who was so touted by “progressives” and the media for his loquacity and articulateness, this president sure seems to have a penchant for putting his foot in his mouth.

- JP