In order to hold onto the Senate Democrats need to hold onto key seats in the South, or earn even more, and that looks increasingly likely as frustration with the Tea Party builds.

Courtesy of The Daily Beast: 

After the 2008 elections, the pundits were certain: the GOP was in danger of being a rump party, one that only had power and influence in the South and a few older, whiter precincts in the Plains and mountain states. 

The cry was heard again in 2012, louder. But as 2014 approaches, a quirk of the calendar has meant that Democrats, forced to defend the majority in the U.S. Senate they have consolidated over the last several election cycles, will need to hold on to a couple of key seats in Dixie, a land where Democrats were supposed to be banished. If they hope to have any kind of cushion against losses elsewhere, Democrats may even need to steal a couple of seats now held by Republicans in the region. 

And they just might do it. 

“The Democratic Party is a lot stronger in the South than many people believe,” said Ronnie Musgrove, governor of Mississippi from 2000 to 2004. “If Democrats start focusing on the South the way they have focused nationally, then you will start to see some big gains here.”

And just to drive that point home, we have this from Bloomberg News:  

Signs of the Republican Party rift between business and the Tea Party are showing up where Democrats most want to see them: in the campaign account of Michelle Nunn, daughter of four-term Georgia Senator Sam Nunn. 

“The vast majority of Americans say they don’t want the government to shut down, they want middle ground,” said John Wieland, founder of John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods Inc., who together with his wife penned checks totaling $10,400 to Nunn’s Democratic U.S. Senate bid. In the 2010 midterms, the Wielands each gave $4,800 to the Republican Senate candidate. With the help of son, Vinson, left, and husband Ron, U. S. Senate candidate Michelle Nunn Martin and other volunteers stuff book bags with school supplies for residents of the Georgia Industrial Children's Home on Aug. 7, 2013. Photographer: Beau Cabell/The Telegraph/AP Images 

“Michelle understands that middle ground, and that’s why we wrote the checks,” Wieland said. 

In addition to Wieland, Nunn’s donors include Jim Cox Kennedy, the chairman of Atlanta-based communications company Cox Enterprises Inc., who contributed $2,600 to her candidacy, after giving $30,800 to the Republican National Committee and $5,000 to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012. 

She’s also got support from Tom Cousins, former chief executive officer of Cousins Properties Inc. (CUZ) and a developer who helped shape downtown Atlanta in the 1970s and 1980s, who has given her $5,200. Cousins donated $50,800 to the RNC and $5,000 to Romney. Both Kennedy and Cousins declined to comment on their donations. 

The financial push-back by the business community against the small-government Tea Party movement extends to Virginia, where Republican businessmen are cutting checks and commercials to support Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the governor’s race rather than state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican Tea-Party favorite. 

In Arkansas, Democratic Senator Mark Pryor is facing U.S. Representative Tom Cotton, a House Republican who voted against opening the government and a five-year farm bill. Pryor is highlighting both votes to draw donations from the agriculture community and other boardrooms.

At this point I think I will characterize my mood as cautiously optimistic. However as much as I think the political curve is going to continue to bend toward the Democrats, I am also aware that a creature can do a hell of a lot of damage while in its death throes and. as we have already seen, the Republican party is no less dangerous.

Having said that I really DO think that 2014 is potentially a HUGE year for Democrats if we can, at least for a little while, put aside our habit of nitpicking about certain progressive causes which might just have to be put on the back burner for awhile and come together to present a united front. 

Once we have a solid majority in both houses we can then address Gitmo, drones, spying, global warming, and just about everything else we can imagine.