The day after being spanked over the Ryan Medicare-Killing Budget, Senate Republicans voted for it almost unanimously. The “no” voters were Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe, and Rand Paul. Paul said the cuts in the budget weren’t deep enough.

Newt continues his quest to be the most pathetic man on the planet. He is now pledging his loyalty to the Ryan budget an instead is attacking “Obamacare.”

However, I say leave Newt alone about the $500,000 in charges at Tiffany’s. It appears at least some of the bling went to Callista. Compensation for, um, consortium? I mean, he’s Newt. At least she’s getting some nice jewelry.

Don’t miss these videos (transcripts included) of GOP Rep. Rob Woodall. Watch me first; watch me second.

Brief comments on three different news stories —

First, on the New York 26 election. Nate Silver is hyper-cautious about drawing conclusions from the election. Even so, the numbers should cheer Democrats and worry Republicans. The numbers say the Republicans can’t blame the loss on vote splitting by the Tea Party candidate (although of course that’s what most of them are falling back on today). Going by what is “normal” for that district, even with a split vote the Republican should have won, Nate says.

Rightie bloggers are blaming Jane Corwin for being a poor candidate and also low Republican voter turnout. But the Republican Party had pulled out every stop it could find to win that election. If Republican voters stayed home anyway, that’s not something the GOP can shrug off.

Erick Erickson says the race really was about New York state issues, not Medicare —

The public is furious at the New York state legislature — both parties — for refusing to pass Governor Andrew Cuomo’s property tax cap, ethics reform and other Christie/Walker/Daniels-style reforms. (The tax cap may finally have broken through just today). Cuomo’s been barnstorming the state for his agenda.

If they are furious with both parties, why should that have caused a Republican loss, especially when the election was about a U.S. House seat, not a state seat? And in any event, I live in New York, and I don’t see “furious.” The New York legislature has been so incompetent for so long the public pretty much ignores it.

And much credit goes to Kathleen Hochul, who is sharp and articulate and ran a tough, focused race. Democrats had better be noticing that they don’t dare squander the Medicare issue by caving to the GOP as it holds the debt ceiling hostage.

Second, tornadoes. The National Weather Service today has most of Illinois and a fair-size portion of Missouri, including St. Louis, under a tornado watch today. So the killer tornado streak could, possibly, continue. And the weather still appears stormy over Kansas and Oklahoma.

President Obama is in London today, Tomorrow he is supposed to go to France for a G8 summit, and on Saturday he has meetings in Poland. I think he should at the very least skip Poland and get home early. And Vice President Biden should cancel whatever else he is doing until the President gets home and be visibly present in the areas struck by tornadoes over the past few hours. These were significant storms.

Third, Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. I understand why Republicans wanted to play up Netanyahu’s disagreements with the White House. This was a big, fat signal to the Republican base as much as to AIPAC. President Obama has been on a streak of late, and the gOP will grasp at any straw it can find to embarrass him publicly.

But I read that Democrats were cheering and applauding Netanhahu’s insulting speech also, and that I do not understand. Knee-jerk support for Netanyahu at the expense of their president is not necessarily going to get them Jewish votes next year, AIPAC notwithstanding.