If the predicted tidal wave of Republican victories takes place on November 2, there will still be two months between the elections and the swearing in of new lawmakers during which the current Congress can and most likely will try to push through more unpopular and unaffordable legislation. Representative Tom Price (R-Georgia) offered a resolution in July that would have cancelled that so-called lame duck session, calling for Congress not to assemble on or between November 2, 2010 and January 3, 2011 except in the case of an emergency requiring immediate action. It cites reasons including the 111th Congress' loss of the public's trust "by engaging in unprecedented political procedures to advance a partisan agenda." Not surprisingly, Democrats defeated that resolution.

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Did Illinois US Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias lie to voters or to the IRS? Those would seem to be the only two possibilities considering the Democratic candidate for President Barack Obama's old seat took a $2.7 million tax deduction for working hundreds of hours at his family's failed Broadway Bank in 2006. But the candidate has been telling voters he left the bank by late 2005.

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The White House has announced that First Lady Michelle Obama will be fundraising and campaigning for Democratic candidates in at least nine states during the month of October. But will it matter to voters which Obama is at the podium? While Mrs. Obama's approval rating is slightly higher than her husband's, she's at just 50% and trending downward due to her own actions and her association with an increasingly unpopular president.

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In the high stakes game for his political future, the Democratic candidate for US Senate from Illinois is going all in with his strong ties to President Barack Obama. State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has released a new ad in which the president states, "Alexi's my friend. I know his character. You can trust him. You can count on him." But as Mr. Obama's popularity wanes even in his home state, the ad may do more harm than good in Mr. Giannoulias' neck-and-neck race against Congressman Mark Kirk (R-Illinois).

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Meet Mike Niecestro, the self-proclaimed "disgusted Republican" who is planning to enter the race for US Senate in Illinois as an Independent. With the filing deadline to run less than a week away, the conservative Mr. Niecestro says he already has the 25,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot, will spend at least a million of his own dollars on the campaign, has raised an additional $100,000 and has a website to promote his candidacy.

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