The Denver Democratic headquarters was vandalized last night, the long bank of windows that fronts the building smashed. Authorities reportedly apprehended the vandal but no details on his identity or motives so far have been released. [...]

7News Denver Channel quotes Democratic Party Chairwoman Pat Waak, who said she received a call from police at 2:54 a.m. notifying her of the attack.

“There is a poster up on the wall that is kind of anti-health care reform and I didn’t see it yesterday, so it begs the question whether that was part of it,” Waak said. “I know that tempers are really hot right now and they are being fueled. I would hope that people would take this at least as a sign that we need to have a little calmer debate about health care reform, which everyone needs right now.”

Littman has previously served as policy director for Sen. Barbara Boxer and as the top staff member of the House Subcommittee on Government Activities and Transportation. He’s also run his own lobbying firm, Littman Associates, and taught at American University.

“With Drew leading our team, I know that my office will be able to uphold the Minnesota tradition of excellent and responsive constituent service,” Franken said in a statement announcing the move. “With his years of experience and his expertise in helping new senators hit the ground running, Drew has become a trusted advisor and a valuable resource as I prepare to take office.”

This is the second major personnel move that Franken has made since a three-judge panel determined that he won the senate election by 312 votes. Last week he picked Alana Peterson, a veteran of Rep. Jim Oberstar’s (D-Minn.) office, to be his state director.

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Paul Demko is a reporter for TWI’s sister site, The Minnesota Independent.

- Tom Swan, who managed Ned Lamont’s 2006 Senate campaign.

- Bob Fertik of Democrats.com, who you used to see at every liberal event pushing for the impeachment of former President George W. Bush.

- Paul Hogarth of BeyondChron.

- Todd Beeton of MyDD.com.

- John Arovosis of AmericaBlog.com.

So some of the people you’d expect to join this, but not really a landslide of anti-Specter sentiment. I can think of dozens of prominent progressives who have not joined this particular cause.

“There is nothing more important for our Party than bringing the truth to bear on the Democrats March to Socialism,” said Jeff Kent, the Washington state committeeman who proposed the resolution. “Just like Ronald Reagan identifying the USSR as the evil empire was the beginning of the end to Soviet domination, we believe the American people will reject socialism when they hear the truth about how the Democrats are bankrupting our country and destroying our freedom and liberties.”

This sort of thing was an issue, if sort of a minor one, in the RNC race that Steele won. At the end of 2008 the RNC conservatives drafted a resolution condemning the Bush White House for the Wall Street bailouts. The resolution, which in its ideological harshness was a big step away from what the RNC usually does, was supported by … Michael Steele. The argument against that resolution was that it would set a dangerous precedent, and that argument doesn’t look wrong today.

The Huffington Post reports that McCain has paid $175,000 to Lincoln Strategy Group, a political consulting group based in Arizona and run by Republican operative Nathan Sproul, who’s been accused of voter registration fraud in several states — in the form of throwing away Democratic registration forms and suppressing Democratic voter turnout.

HuffPost also reports that the Republican National Committee separately paid Lincoln Strategy another $37,000 to register voters for this election. Sproul, meanwhile, has donated nearly $30,000 to the McCain campaign. He’s also a former leader of the Arizona Republican Party and of the state’s Christian Coalition.

My hotel, next door to the convention center, was adorned with a large “McCain-Palin” sign. I walked around the corner to have dinner at a nice little bistro called Croc’s (where they make a dynamite seafood risotto) and found numerous signs on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, endorsing various Democrats — including former Gov. Mark Warner for Senate and Sen. Barack Obama for president.

According to RealClearPolitics, Obama leads by an average of 6.3 percentage points in recent polls in Virginia, a state that hasn’t voted for a Democrat for president since 1964.

However, the data appears to be trending even more in Obama’s favor — four of the six most recent surveys listed found Obama leads by eight points or more.

So, with just 22 days until the general election, McCain and Palin find themselves campaigning hard in a state many used to consider a sure thing for Republicans.

After the rally here, Palin will move on to Richmond for another rally this afternoon. In a further sign of the zeitgeist, McCain will move on to North Carolina — a state that hasn’t voted for a Democrat since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

With such little time remaining, one has to wonder if the McCain campaign is now playing catch-up. The Wall Street Journal reports that Obama, his wife, Michelle, and Sen. Joe Biden have made nearly twice as many appearances in swing states as the McCains and Palin.

In the five weeks since the fall campaign officially began, Sen. Obama, his wife, Michelle, and vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden have appeared at a total of 95 separate events in states that both sides are contesting.

Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, have appeared at 55 events in those areas, with Cindy McCain, the nominee’s wife, adding only one more to the total, according to a Wall Street Journal tally based on schedules provided by the campaigns.

The gap makes a difference in the amount of press that each ticket gets in critical markets — and is mirrored by a similar disparity in TV advertising. Sen. Obama outspent Sen. McCain and the Republican National Committee on ads in 15 states for the week ended Oct. 4, according to the Wisconsin Advertising Project, an initiative at the University of Wisconsin. The Republicans spent more in just two states.

The effect: The Democrats are being seen much more often, in free news coverage and in paid advertising, in the states that will determine the winner.

With Bill Kristol calling for McCain to “fire his campaign” and basically start over from scratch in his column in The New York Times today, McCain reportedly will try a different tack: acknowledge the tough position, but remind voters that McCain relishes the role of the underdog.

From Politico’s Mike Allen:

“The national media has written us off,” McCain says in excerpts released by the campaign. “Senator Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq. But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we’ve got them just where we want them.”

Is this the last-ditch strategy? The New York Times reports that, despite an assurance over the weekend from Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) that a comprehensive new tax plan would be forthcoming, there are no new economic proposals on the docket. In addition, McCain advisers “did not know why Graham said that.”

This kind of amateurish confusion this late in the game must not be comforting to  already-disgruntled McCain supporters.

Without the infusion of new ideas, McCain has just one debate remaining to shift the momentum. If his candidacy rests on a change in style rather than substance to turn this thing around, it may  be too little too late.

Mark Warner and Barack Obama on the campaign trail in Virginia. (flickr)

Friday afternoon, former Virginia state Sen. Russ Potts, who once ran for governor as an independent, opened his Winchester home for a landmark event. Ten prominent Republicans gathered to endorse the Senate campaign of former Gov. Mark Warner before a fund-raiser attended by 200 people — Republicans, Democrats, independents.

More than a fund-raiser, or even a grand photo-op, the event signaled just how powerful a grip Warner has in his Senate race to replace retiring Republican stalwart Sen. John Warner. Some polls have the widely popular Warner leading by as much as 30 points over his GOP rival, Jim Gilmore. The state long considered a Republican fortress seems poised to have two Democratic senators, in addition to a Democratic governor.

One would think that such circumstances would shine brightly for Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, who’s campaigned vigorously throughout the state. But the challenge for Obama is tough. Virginia hasn’t gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. The presence of military bases in the state have created a solid conservative voting bloc that most always votes for national Republican candidates.

Illustration by: Matt Mahurin

But if you haven’t noticed, we’re in once-unimagined political territory this campaign season. The more one travels the country, the more one realizes that the old party affiliations have begun to crumble. More and more people are declaring themselves independents — voting from their guts and their pocketbooks. This all makes Virginia a state very much in play.

With a little less than a month from the election, Obama leads Sen. John McCain by four points in the most recent CNN/Time/Opinion Research Poll. This is the Virginia that McCain, in late May, enjoyed a 9 percentage point lead in a poll taken by Virginia Commonwealth University, according to a recent CNN.com story.

“What you’re seeing now is the opposite of what usually happens,” said Cordel Faulk, director of communications at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “Warner, the Senate candidate, is actually helping Obama.”

But the question remains, how much?

Looking at comparable races across the country, nowhere is there the kind of disparity of poll numbers for a Democrat in a open statewide race versus the top of the national ticket. In Colorado, Democrat Mark Udall leads by four percentage points over his opponent, a number that closely mirrors Obama’s state numbers. In New Mexico, Tom Udall has opened up a 14-point lead over his opponent, while Obama averages a seven-point advantage over McCain.

Neither case shows anywhere near the gap between the lead Warner enjoys and the dogfight Obama’s in. So, like, what gives?

To answer, one need not look any further than Potts, a disaffected Republican known for saying what he wants when and where he wants to. In a long conversation Wednesday, Potts pretty much railed against all things Republican — the Bush administration, the war in Iraq, the damages to this country’s infrastructure and economy.

“The grass-roots efforts of the Republican Party in Virginia have been pathetic,” Potts said. “The far right has frightened off so many people. You have a Republican meeting here, and 12 people show up — and it’s the same 12 people wanting to talk about social issues when Rome is burning.

“We’ve got the worst economy in god knows when, and they want to talk about Bill Ayers or abortion. Meanwhile we have a president, a Republican president, who’s presided over the largest deficit in the history of mankind, and they don’t seem to care. The Republican Party in Virginia is like an alcoholic — you have to hit the absolute bottom if you want to turn it around.”

After he spent several minutes praising Warner and trashing Gilmore and McCain, Potts got around to Obama.

“I have not decided who I’m going to support,” said Potts, whom you might have expected to break out into a chant of “Yes, we can!”

“I’m extremely disappointed with McCain. He’s run a lousy campaign. Their message has been off, and to top it all off — he chose someone completely unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. But I’ll still weigh everything.”

Potts’ ambivalence demonstrates just how far support of Warner can help Obama. After remaining neutral through the primaries, Warner formally endorsed Obama in early June at an event in Bristol, in conservative southwest Virginia. He next teamed with him in August, in Martinsville, where Warner remains popular because of his efforts to bolster the region’s economic base.

The truth of the matter is Virginia is a difficult state to, well, “get.”

In interviews with influential Republicans, Democrats and longtime observers of the state’s political trends, it becomes apparent that Virginia doesn’t behave the way people seeking a simple solution would like.

Race cannot be considered the overwhelming factor, just as the Warner’s popularity does not seem to transfer to the top of the national ticket. The state is trending Democratic — but toward Democrats that fit neither the northern liberal ideal or that of the Old South. Population changes have made Northern Virginia fertile for Democratic victory, but the defense industry’s interests still loom large, and has many tilt toward McCain.

Thus, of all the supposed battle states, Virginia remains perhaps the one most difficult to read strategically for both national campaigns. Yes, George W. Bush’s popularity ranks low here, while Warner’s is ungodly high. But just as McCain isn’t Bush, neither is Obama the same man as Warner.

“Virginians know Mark Warner better,” Faulk said of the gap, “and they’re not fond of Jim Gilmore. The thing with McCain is he’s a Virginia-moderate- type guy who simply plays well here. And McCain can win for that reason. But it’s just a matter of fact that Virginians know Warner so much better than Obama.”

However the question looming large — like a blimp over a sporting event — is could the Warner campaign do more for Obama?

Craig Brians, a Virginia Tech political science professor, observed, “I’m not seeing the kind of linkages being made between Gov. Warner’s campaign with Obama’s campaign. Maybe it is occurring or is about to occur — but right now I’m not seeing it.”

“In the southwestern part of the state,” said the University of Virginia’s Faulk, “a lot of people have joined this kind of McCain-Warner alliance. It is not something Warner is trying to clamp down. He’s not telling them to ‘Stop, please vote Obama-Warner.’”

Needless to say, the Warner campaign and the Virginia Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign have differing views on this. They point out that the literature being hand-delivered to Virginia homes by volunteers show both Warner and Obama together. A Warner campaign spokesperson added that Warner has done his best to do joint appearances with Obama — appearing with him four times and accepting his request to be keynote speaker for the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

L. Douglas Wilder

“We’re campaigning aggressively for both the governor and Obama,” said Emily Kryder, a press secretary for the Warner campaign. “Drive around areas like Roanoke and you’re seeing Obama-Warner signs. All the pieces of literature from the coordinated campaign have Obama-Warner on them. We’re taking nothing for granted. It’s not like we’re eating bonbons till Election Day. That’s part of making sure we’re successful up and down the ticket on Nov. 4.”

Jared Leopold, communications director for the state Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign echoed Kryder’s sentiments. He also pointed out how much better Obama is faring in the state compared to John Kerry, and even Al Gore — both of whom lost by 8.03 and 8.20 percentage points, respectively.

“Every week we knock on 100,000 doors in Virginia,” Leopold said. “There are thousands of pieces of literature with Obama’s face next to Warner’s face. Mark Warner’s a very popular figure in this state, and his presence helps when we go to doors where people are sure about Warner and not so sure about the national presidential race. But for Obama, there’s no stronger vailidator than Mark Warner.”

Of course, the one issue rampaging in this campaign, with everyone running from it in mortal fear, is race.

The dynamics of racial politics resonate in Virginia, the state that elected the nation’s first black governor, L. Douglas Wilder. In his historic 1989 bid, Wilder held a double-digit lead in polls but won by only one-tenth of a percentage point. Many political analysts since have cited this election in saying that while white registered voters might tell pollsters one thing, they will not admit that they cannot vote for an African-American.

The truth is we won’t know if “the Wilder effect” will be applicable to Obama until after Election Day. What we do know is that despite all the literature and joint appearances — and even a remake of “I SPY” where Warner and Obama reprise the roles of Robert Culp and Bill Cosby — linking the success of the two campaigns will prove difficult.

What Virginia represents is a more nuanced political future. Yes, Warner — like Gov. Tim Kane and Sen. Jim Webb — belongs to the Democratic Party. But he, like Webb and Kaine, enjoys success as an individual that Virginians trust. Whether they’re Democrats seems beside the point.

“It’s just hard for me to see the effect a Senate race would have on a presidential race,” said Frank Atkinson, a venerable figure in Virginia politics who served in Ronald Reagan’s Justice Dept. and also as policy director for George Allen during his time as governor. “It’s possible there would be some, but the two campaigns are framed differently.

“Obviously you have a very close race — which is not really surprising,” Atkinson continued. “My thesis is that I’m tired of Virginia being described as a red state. It’s still considered a red state because of the way it’s voted in presidential races — but you should really consider the state purple.

“This is a state of winning streaks,” Atkinson said, ” In the ’80s it was dominated by Democrats. In the ’90s, it was the Republicans. Now in the 2000s we’ve seen a Democratic decade. I don’t think Virginia is a strong candidate to tip blue in a strong election — namely because of the strong Republican voter concerns about homeland security issues.”

But Atkinson, like many others, agrees that should external circumstances remain as they are, Obama might have the best chance since President Bill Clinton in 1996 to bring the state to the Democratic side of the ledger.

It might be true that Warner’s popularity can position Obama to win. But Warner cannot carry the day for the Democratic nominee, cannot let him glide in on what will most likely be a monstrous Senate victory.

Instead, Obama — so fond of basketball — has been delivered a decent look at the basket by Warner. Whether he can actually make the shot will be up to him.

President Bill Clinton (WDCpix)

All eyes were focused last week—or most of them anyway—on the bailout negotiations, more specifically on the shenanigans of Sen. John McCain as he sought to swoop in and be the white knight of the whole mess. Will he, won’t he, will he, won’t he go to the debates?

He got all the attention he wanted, but it certainly felt political to the max, no matter who spun it otherwise.

But there was another large presence making the rounds last week, seeking public attention — former President Bill Clinton. Yes, his Global Initiative Conference was in full swing in New York, providing the media with a reason to give him a whole lot of air time. And fill it up he did, with his smarts and reach, his talks of AIDS and education, and the need for all of us to care for the unlucky.

Illustration by: Matt Mahurin

But deeply embedded in Clinton’s eloquent dissection of global problems was his still palpable bitterness over his wife’s loss to Sen. Barack Obama, whose name Clinton seemed to have a hard time uttering as he worked those mikes.

He was finally more gracious when introducing Obama at his own conference. But up until that point, as he talked to Larry King and the women at “The View” — now friskily empowered to be election-year players — he had a difficult time camouflaging the wounds from his wife’s loss. He mentioned Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton by name, over and over, her gifts, what she has spent her life working for, all while straining to give a full-hearted endorsement of the Democratic nominee.

The former president doesn’t seem to have any simpatico with the cool post-boomer now climbing in the polls. In fact, he has expressed far more natural sympathy with McCain. Clinton made a point of saying, over and over, how much he likes the GOP nominee — displaying not just sympathy but an almost respectful envy, from a Vietnam-era guy who didn’t serve to to a genuine war hero.

But Clinton went farther as he made his rounds, expressing his approbation for both Palins. He spoke warmly of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd. “I like the idea that this guy does those long-distance races,” Clinton said, “Stayed in the race for 500 miles with a broken arm. My kind of guy.”

These are real folks, just like me — and unlike that other guy whose name I am having some trouble with. That’s the theme.

Forget that their policies and politics are 180-degrees away from everything both Clintons have been about. Clinton is, without a doubt, as complex and flawed and gifted a man as ever to be at the helm. But the page is turning and he knows it. There is a sense of the limelight moving on.

Look, what Clinton is doing now is good, no question, and he has the stature and moxie — and need — to make it work, to galvanize other rich folk to try to help solve the world’s problems. Clearly he means to make a profound difference in his later years — and if part of that is a need for redemption after his public fall from grace, fine.

But there was evident these past days, as there often is, a visible fight within Clinton — between his bigger self and his smaller self, between his professed altruism and his narcissism.

I think he’ll win, he said of Obama, through clenched teeth, or a clenched heart, or both. But there was not much energy or enthusiasm in that prediction. He sounded impassioned and folksy and as smart as anyone who has ever occupied the White House. In his performance now, there is always the winking sense of: hey, America, look what you’re missing. You blew it; you could have had us back.

I thought about all this, about Clinton — and for that matter, about McCain — and how both men behaved last week, when I was reading the obituaries for Paul Newman, who died of cancer at 83.

Paul Newman (Flickr: Heather Lucille)

He was the other man to get some air time as the week ended. A class act, everyone agrees, a marvelous film actor, whose ego never showed — on screen or off. No entourages, no messy affairs.

He was a man, by all accounts, with a tenacious love for his spouse; a man unassuming about his gifts, though driven to be a really good actor; a man who kept acting, and didn’t get all hammy in his later roles like some other big stars like, say, Al Pacino.

Newman was also a man who did the philanthropy thing — with his salad dressings and spaghetti sauces — pouring the $250 million he made into camps for sick kids. All done with an easy hand. All done without saying: look at me, look at me.

He left the planet a better place. He left us the marvelous films and the legacy of giving back — rare for anyone, rarer still for someone in a profession like show business — and he did it without leaving ego fingerprints all over the place.

It was a lovely and sad note, Newman’s passing, in a week full of posturing and political gamesmanship.

Anne Taylor Fleming is a novelist, commentator and essayist for “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.” She is the author of a memoir, “Motherhood Deferred: A Woman’s Journey.”

In his view, Sarah Palin ticket takes Montana, Georgia (and Alaska) out of play for Democrats, although adviser says he never thought they were in play anyway. In weeks ahead, adviser anticipates that campaign will use Palin not just in small and medium markets, as is traditional for a vice presidential candidate, but in large markets as well.

If Palin plays as strongly with Christian conservatives as pundits suggest, voters in heavily evangelical swing states like Iowa, Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia will be seeing an awful lot of her. As my colleague Ari Melber notes, there is plenty of time for numbers like this to change — but Palin appears to be wildly popular, at least initially.

That’s the benefit of being a virtual unknown.

If Palin can tip the balance in just a few close states, she could fundamentally reshape the map and give the Obama campaign a good reason to re-evaluate its quixotic 50-state strategy.

With two months left, it may prove practical for the Democratic Party to focus its resources more exclusively on the battleground states where Obama actually stands a chance. Particularly if McCain is able to compete financially.