Senator McDreamy

Now here's a guy who ought to make that thrill go up Chris Matthews' leg. Meet Scott Kleeb, who decisively won his primary race against a Republican-turned-Democrat in Nebraska yesterday with 69 (now, STOP it!) percent of the vote. Kleeb is running for the seat of the retiring Chuck Hagel against former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns.

The good news? Well, LOOK at him, fer cryin' out loud. The other good news? His big push is about R&D into alternative energy, he's an environmentalist, and favors diplomacy over shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later. He's a bit more hawkish than I'd like, his talk of "simplifying the tax code" sounds kind of right-wing dog-whistle-ish, and he falls into the trap of assuming that retraining is some kind of panacea for job outsourcing. But he's about as progressive as you're going to get out of Nebraska, he's an ranch hand-turned-college professor with a Ph.D. in history, and well, uh, LOOK at him.

This would be a very nice Democratic pickup. It would mean that the Democrats would have picked up seats that used to belong to some of the most high-profile Republicans in the Senate and House.

With West Virginia proving yesterday that there are still far too many people who simply Will Not vote for a black man for president, getting to that 60-seat threshhold in Congress is going to be very important as a precaution against a McCain presidency run amok. Kleeb is running against an extremely well-financed opponent, so if you want to target a Senate race for donations, you could do worse than this one.