Will The Beltway Democratic Party Become Just Like The Mississippi Democratic Party?

Two of the most reactionary and bigoted Democrats to have served in Congress in modern times were Mississippi Blue Dogs Gene Taylor and Travis Childers. Both amassed voting records that would make any right-wing, hate-filled yahoo delighted. Yesterday each announced his far-fetched plan to get back into Congress. Taylor, who represented Mississippi's Gulf Coast between 1989 and 2011, finally admitted what I've been saying for over a decade: he's nothing but a Republican. He'll be primarying Steve Palazzo, the GOP incumbent who beat him in 2010, 52-47%. The qualifying deadline was yesterday at 5pm.

At the same time, Childers, who was just as far to the right as Taylor announced his intention to run for the Mississippi senate seat as a right-wing Democrat. He was defeated on the same day as Taylor-- the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse-- by Republican Alan Nunnelee, 55-41%, after just a term and a half. He was one of the assholes who voted for the Stupak Pitts Amendment to make the Affordable Care Act anti-Choice and then voted against the overall bill anyway.

His only path to victory would be for neo-fascist and Confederate secessionist state Sen. Chris McDaniel to beat incumbent Thad Cochran in the Republican primary, leaving a way for Childers to point out that he's the "true conservative" while McDaniel is an anti-American proto-Nazi. It may be a distinction to fine for the Fox-washed voters of Mississippi but… it's a chance. But if Childers wins, what do the Democrats get at vote time? Remember, he was one of the 5 misongynist Democrats who took up arms in the Republican War Against Women to vote against the Lily Ledbetter Paycheck Fairness Act. And what makes anyone think he wouldn't follow Taylor right over the fence at the drop of a hat? Even funnier, the other "Democrat" in the Senate primary is failed Tea Party Republican Bill Marcy.

It's just an absolute disgrace that the DSCC has fallen this low-- to support someone who is so not a Democrat-- while ignoring excellent progressives, Shenna Bellows and Rick Weiland in far more fertile states, Maine and South Dakota. Even more tragic is for Beltway faux journalists to take their stories directly from the DSCC and dub Childers a Top-Tier Recruit.

Childers is following a similar path to  Sen. Joe Donnelly, who jumped from the House into a 2012 Senate race against Sen. Richard Lugar in Indiana, hoping he would lose to a conservative rival. Lugar lost the primary to Richard Mourdock, whose outspoken conservatism proved out of step, even in a Republican-friendly state.

Cochran is regarded as the most vulnerable Republican senator in a primary, and outside conservative groups are united behind McDaniel. Cochran, a veteran appropriator, hasn't faced a challenging campaign since he was first elected to the Senate in 1978.

Regardless of the Republican nominee, Mississippi is still a very tough state for Democrats to contest, especially in a midterm year. President Obama won just 44 percent of the vote in 2012, and African-American turnout is lower in a midterm election. Childers won reelection in a presidential year-- he was first elected in a 2008 special election-- but lost by 14 points to GOP Rep. Alan Nunnelee in 2010.

The last time Democrats contested a Mississippi Senate race was in 2008, with former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove as their nominee. But Musgrove lost badly to Sen. Roger Wicker, by 16 points.

PALIN BOASTS ABOUT SPEECH IN WHICH SHE PRE-CONDEMNED THE RAID THAT KILLED BIN LADEN

Sarah Palin is crowing because words written for her five and a half years ago seem to have -- belatedly -- come true:

In 2008, when she was the GOP vice presidential nominee, Palin questioned in a speech whether then-Sen. Barack Obama would have the foreign policy credentials to handle a scenario in which Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.

"After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence – the kind of response that would only encourage Russia's Putin to invade Ukraine next," she said in Reno, Nevada on October 21, 2008.

The former Alaska governor was happy to highlight her prediction on Friday and scold those who criticized her 2008 comments.

"Yes, I could see this one from Alaska," she said on Facebook.

Or, um, her speechwriters could. Or, to put it more precisely, they could see an imminent crisis that, as it turned out, wasn't so imminent. And in the same speech, the words they put in Palin's mouth condemned in advance what's turned out to be the greatest foreign policy triumph of the Obama presidency, the raid in which Osama bin Laden was killed.

Let's start at the beginning. In a speech on October 19, 2008, Joe Biden predicted an early foreign policy crisis in an Obama presidency:

"Mark my words," the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

"I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. "And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you – not financially to help him – we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we’re right."

Two days later, in what The Weekly Standard called "prepared remarks" -- translation: Palin wasn't the author -- the Alaska governor did a riff on possible foreign policy crises that might result from Obama policies. Now, please note two things:

First, Palin's speechwriters were predicting a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine "next," presumably in (to use Biden's words) the first "six months" of an Obama presidency. It's more than six months since Barack Obama became president, according to my calendar.

And second, Palin's speechwriters were condemning an invasion of Pakistan without the country's assent -- which is precisely how Osama bin Laden was killed.

Transcript of Palin remarks via the Standard -- emphasis mine. Video is at the end of the post.

Did you hear what Senator Biden said at a fundraiser on Sunday? He guaranteed that if Barack Obama is elected, we'll face an international crisis within the first six months of their administration. He told Democrat donors to mark his words - that there were "at least four or five scenarios" that would place our country at risk in an Obama administration. Thanks for the warning, Joe!

He didn't specify what all those four or five scenarios will be, but for clues, let's review the Obama foreign policy agenda.

Our opponent wants to sit down with the world's worst dictators. With no preconditions, he proposes to meet with a regime in Teheran that vows to "wipe Israel off the map." Let's call that crisis scenario number one.

Senator Obama has also advocated sending our U.S. military into Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government. Invading the sovereign territory of a troubled partner in the war against terrorism. We'll call that scenario number two.

He opposed the surge strategy that has finally brought victory in Iraq within sight. He's voted to cut off funding for our troops, leaving our young men and women at grave risk. He wants to pull out, leaving some 25 million Iraqis at the mercy of Iranian-supported Shiite extremists and al Qaeda in Iraq. By his own admission, this could mean our troops would have to go back to Iraq. Crisis scenario number three.

After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence - the kind of response that would only encourage Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine next. That would be crisis scenario number four.

But I guess the looming crisis that most worries the Obama campaign right now is Joe Biden's next speaking engagement. Let's call that crisis scenario number five.

(Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that Palin also criticized Obama's plan to withdraw from Iraq in that speech. Hey, Sarah, are you going to call for us to send troops back in now?)

Palin said that "Senator Obama's reaction" to the August 2008 Georgia crisi "was one of indecision and moral equivalence." It will probably not surprise you to learn that the McCain-Palin characterization of Obama's response was, to use a CNN fact-checker's word, misleading:

Obama, on August 8, issued a general statement strongly condemning the "outbreak of violence in Georgia" and urging "an immediate end to armed conflict." "Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full scale war," Obama said in the statement. As facts emerged about the fighting, Obama issued a statement on August 9 condemning Russia's "aggressive actions" and saying Russia had "escalated the crisis." Obama reiterated his "call for an immediate cease-fire."

... as facts emerged about Russia's actions, Obama's statements shifted to criticizing Russia.

Meanwhile, McCain went Full Metal Johnny as usual, declaring that "we are all Georgians" and expressing his solidarity with Ukrainian Georgian president "Misha" Saakashvili. McCain's chummy use of the nickname can be explained in part by the fact that the McCain campaign's top national security adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was also a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government. Once Palin was chosen as McCain's running mate, Scheunemann drew the dirty job of trying to get her up to speed on foreign policy. Hence the speech Palin is so proud of right now -- the one in which she predicted an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine that happened five years later, and that pre-condemned the raid the got bin Laden.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy