I'm not sure what it will take to have the Republican reign of terror and obstruction of anything that might benefit the American middle class and those living below the poverty line in our country to be declared "over" -- or what it will take for the members of our beltway media like Chris Matthews and Howard Fineman to quit sucking up to power and worrying about who the next person either of them might get a chance to interview could be if it raises either of their profiles -- but I do know one thing.

Howard Fineman used to come across as a decent human being and one who cared about progressive ideals back in the days when Al Franken had him on as a regular guest on Air America. Ever since he was hired by Arianna Huffington, he looks like he just sold out, and his discussion with Chris Matthews about how the midterm elections are shaping up from this Tuesday night is just the latest example of him doing just that.

Never mind that it's been the Republicans blocking jobs bills, improvements to infrastructure, or anything that improves the lives of their constituents that should be the real cause of concern with the GOP taking control of Congress, it's the Democrats that need to "reinvent themselves" all over again in Fineman's world.

Rough transcript:

MATTHEWS: Let's talk about audacity, which is really the key to politics. The ego, the person who is willing to run the race they can't win, but they do win. Maryland, Virginia, New Hampshire, audacity. Ed Gillespie's gonna' beat Mark Warner. You've gotta' be kidding me. That's about 49/49.

You're kidding me that a Republican is going to be governor of Maryland. You mean, you're kidding me. A guy can move from one state to the next and can't even vote there hardly. He shows up and says I can run anywhere. Audacity. It seems to me the Democrats don't have a whole lot of audacity.

And in the end the party that does have it tends to win. Because you keep going on offense and the other party's playing defense. Talk about that.

FINEMAN: Well Chris I think that Republicans were invited to be audacious this year because of the weakness of the president, because of his lousy poll numbers, because of the general sour mood about the economy generally, even though there's been some progress on the economy.

So you get a guy like Ed Gillespie, who after all spent most of life as an insider, as a lesser figure than Steve Schmidt, but still an insider in Republican politics, he runs. Imagine Steve Schmidt running for the Senate you know out there. I think it could have been done if he wanted to do it this year, because that's the kind of year it was. […]

But the point is in this atmosphere, in this kind of sulfurous atmosphere and especially with the president being as weak as he was politically, it's going to invite Republicans to take chances. It's going to invite Scott Brown to mosey on across the border for Massachusetts to New Hampshire. It's going to invite Ed Gillespie, one of the ultimate insiders to run an outsiders campaign in Virginia.

How audacious was that? He almost pulled it off. I think you've seen that all over the country by Republicans because they're feeling, because they're feeling feisty right now, because Mitch McConnell's strategy of basically locking up action in Washington and then blaming it on the president has worked brilliantly and I mean, that's the story.

MATTHEWS: One last question. We'll take one answer.

FINEMAN: Yes.

MATTHEWS: Which party has the spark right now?

FINENAN: Oh, the Republican party for sure. The Dems have to reinvent themselves all over again. The Obama era is over.

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