Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

This should be a busy week. On the legislative front, the Senate will probably wrap up its work on the Wall Street reform bill. It's going well for the most part, which means the GOPers, on behalf of their Wall Street benefactors, haven't been able to weaken the legislation (yet).

Today is the "K Street Showdown" here in DC. The AFL-CIO, SEIU and several other groups are holding a protest against lobbyists for Wall Street and the big banks at 11:45 a.m. More info. here and here. And, the event will be livestreamed by the AFL-CIO. Lobbyists are often vilified, but rarely are they mentioned by name. That's changing.

Also, today's the last day of campaiging for primaries in Arkansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. The premiere races in each state are the Senate races. In Arkansas, conservadem Blanche Lincoln is facing a fierce challenge from Bill Halter. It's likely there will be a runoff in Arkansas. In Kentucky, there's an open seat. On the GOP side, Mitch McConnell's hand-picked candidate, Trey Grayson, is probably going to lose to teabagger candidate Rand Paul. On the Democratic side, the Lieutenant Governor Dan Mongiardo is running against Attorney General Jack Conway. That one should be close. In Pennsylvania, GOPer turned Democrat Arlen Specter is getting a tough challenge from Rep. Joe Sestak. I'm pulling for Sestak in that one.

Obama is meeting with the Women's NCAA Champs from the University of Connecticut today.

What do we need to know?