Thursday's Starting Lineup

Good Thursday morning. Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) has a book deal, but that's not necessarily a sign he's made it in DC. The fact that DC superlawyer Robert Barnett negotiated the deal for Brown? That's a pretty good indication.

Here's Thursday's Starting Lineup, previewing the people who will make news in politics today:

SEN. JOHN ENSIGN: Amid ethics scandals consuming Dems, from Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) to ex-Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY), GOPers have launched new ads highlighting Speaker Nancy Pelosi's infamous pledge to run the "most open and most ethical" Congress in history. It's an effective argument, and one that helped Dems bring down the GOP majority in '06.

But the pox is on both houses, and Ensign will be at the center of the Dem pushback. New emails reveal Ensign went farther than previously disclosed in helping to secure a lobbying position for a family friend and former top aide after Ensign had an affair with the man's wife. Investigations into Ensign's actions are ongoing, both in the Senate and through the FBI, and GOPers eager to paint Dems as mired in the corrupt swamp of DC will face another roadblock in their efforts.

Dems plan to turn the spotlight on other GOPers who face ethical questions, and there is no shortage of those on both sides who have made questionable decisions. But if one party doesn't "own" the scandal label, the only sure thing is that distrust in Congress and in DC will grow. And for the GOP, out of power on both sides of Pennsylvania Ave., that's not necessarily a bad thing.

SENATE GOPERS: The GOP had the opportunity to derail the health care bill before it passed the House in Nov., but they took a pass. Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-MI) anti-abortion amendment passed with near-unanimous GOP support, but if it had failed, pro-life Dems would have thought twice about voting in favor of the final bill. The GOP considered voting against the amendment to try to scuttle the bill at large, but pro-life groups balked at the deal and announced they would score the bill as part of their legislative report cards. Only Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) voted "present" instead of supporting the measure.

Now, the Senate GOP has the same opportunity, and faces the same delicate negotiations with top officials at pro-life organizations. 41 GOP senators sent a letter to Senate Maj. Leader Harry Reid to inform him they will unanimously object to violations of the so-called Byrd Rule, which prohibits certain topics from passing via reconciliation. Abortion language is one of those topics -- and Dems will need to woo pro-life members of their own party with promises that the Senate bill's language will be fixed.

But that means the Senate GOP will be forced to take a pro-choice vote in order to stop the sidecar legislation from passing. There is an historic mistrust between the upper and lower chambers, and the fact that GOP senators appear willing to vote against National Right to Life, the Family Research Council and other pro-life groups, as part of the larger strategy of derailing the entire bill, is exactly why House Dems can't be certain their Senate colleagues will deliver. House members are increasingly citing those nerves as their reason for holding out support.

LABOR GROUPS: They're mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore. Unions are waning in power in the U.S., but their votes and their political power still hold serious sway as a key part of the Dem coalition. But when Dems won big in '08, unions' top legislative priorities went exactly nowhere; EFCA remains a non-starter for some conservative Dems, and health care legislation was stalled for months by those same middle-of-the-road members.

So unions are going to try and change Dems from within. Several major national groups have already targeted Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), lining up against her in favor of LG Bill Halter (D) and pledging $4M to beat her in a primary. And they are promising she won't be the only one. "This is a new day. We are going to play in the primaries," AFSCME president Gerald McEntee said yesterday.

The netroots have pledged to run primary challengers against any Dem who votes against health care reform, hoping to win back seats they believe more progressive Dems should hold. But while the netroots can raise some money -- MoveOn.org has raised $1.2M for Halter so far, leading the pack of groups aiming to help him -- it will be the unions that mobilize their voters against recalcitrant Dems. If they sustain their effort to beat moderate incumbents, they could make life uncomfortable for those not used to intra-party rivalries.

Then again, success may prove elusive, as Dem incumbents rarely lose in a primary. Off the tops of our heads, we could only come up with a few members -- ex-Reps. Al Wynn (D-MD) in '08 and Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Earl Hilliard (D-AL), both in '02 -- who lost their seats in Dem primaries.

Did we miss anyone? Email us to let us know.