Politico GOP favorite to campaign for Indiana GOP Senate pickCNN (blog)Marco Rubio of Florida will be the first top name Republican to team up in person with Richard Mourdock, the two-term Indiana state treasurer who soundly defeated longtime Sen. Richard Lugar in last week's GOP Senate primary. A Rubio aide confirmed to …Can Sowards [Continue]

Bloomberg Senate Confirms 2 for Fed BoardNew York TimesWASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday confirmed two nominees chosen by President Obama for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, overcoming Republican objections and bringing the seven-member board to full strength for the first time since 2006, …JPMorgan Loss Helps Senate Confirm [Continue]

Tea party-backed candidate is coming off an upset win in the Republican primary Alexis Levinson The Daily Caller » Politics [Continue]

Salon Nebraska Upset Shapes Republican US Senate StrategyBusinessWeekBy Jennifer Oldham on May 17, 2012 A little-known Nebraska rancher who bills herself as “sharp as barbed wire and tougher than a cedar fence post” will ride an upset win in the state's Republican primary for US Senate this week into a general election …GOP Upset [Continue]

AFP Surprise: Hardly a sure thing for the Republicans, Senate control has become …Washington PostWASHINGTON — Divisive Republican primaries, an out-of-nowhere GOP retirement in Maine and an unexpectedly competitive race in North Dakota add up to an unpredictable battle for control of the Senate this fall, confounding early forecasts that [Continue]

**Written by Doug Powers Did I say narrowly? I meant massively, but you probably guessed that: President Obama’s budget suffered a second embarrassing defeat Wednesday, when senators voted 99-0 to reject it. Coupled with the House’s rejection in March, 414-0, that means Mr. Obama’s budget has failed to win a single vote in [Continue]

CBS News Democrats' Odds of Retaining Senate ImproveNew York Times (blog)Since then, however, Republican fortunes have diminished somewhat because of problems with the quality of some candidates and key retirements. Although Republicans are most likely to gain seats on balance because Democrats have considerably more …Moderate Dems [Continue]

Democrats controlling the Senate have rejected for the second consecutive year a budget plan passed by House Republicans. FOXNews.com [Continue]

A Senate committee has approved legislation to give benefits to same-sex partners of federal workers. FOXNews.com [Continue]

**Written by Doug Powers The race to fill the seat of outgoing Dem Ben Nelson was narrowed down to two last night: Nebraska state Senator Deb Fischer pulled off a surprise upset victory against Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning in the state’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday, marking the second contest in two weeks in which [Continue]