Polling shows Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s numbers keep dropping and a solid Wisconsin majority wishes Democrats were in control of the Wisconsin Senate. A Democrat won a super-GOP district in New York. Tea Party paragons in Arkansas — think Jon Hubbard, Jason Rapert, Mark Biviano, the theocrats in Hot Springs city government, Secretary of State Mark Martin — have left a slug-like trail of discredited ideas, incompetence, petty corruption, arrogance and sheer meanness. Sensible Republicans are running like scalded dogs from the Paul Ryan plan to dismantle Medicare and Medicaid and give windfall tax breaks to the rich.

Standing firm with Republican plutocratic orthodoxy, however, are Reps. Tim Griffin, Rick Crawford and Steve Womack and Sen. John Boozman. Their stance suggests THE question for 2012:

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How smart are Arkansas voters?

Will it again be enough to be a member of the party NOT headed by the black man with the funny name to get elected in Arkansas? Much is riding on the answer.

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