Congressional disapproval ratings are the highest since the year Republicans took back the House.

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The Cleveland Plain-Dealer is endorsing early in the Ohio Democratic Senate primary, and it's choice is Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher.

The paper praises Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner for fighting the party establishment in the race, but says Fisher would be a superior senator. It also finds fault with some of Brunner's work in her current post:

But Brunner's preference for quick decisions and her disdain for nuance and second thoughts are also her undoing. As secretary of state, she made some good calls: Dissolving Cuyahoga County's dysfunctional elections board leaps to mind. And she made some terrible calls, including an egregious decision to reject thousands of GOP absentee ballot requests on a technicality. Although she now says the job taught her to collaborate, Brunner's style tends to be tough and top-down. She needlessly alienated some local elections officials and experts and still leaves the impression that she'd cross a busy street to argue with a Republican.

As much as Brunner's contentiousness may excite the Democratic base, it's unlikely to change the ugly tone in Washington. In the end, she and Fisher would compile very similar voting records, but Fisher's smooth, seasoned approach seems more likely to build the alliances and strike the pragmatic compromises that successful legislating requires

Fisher is a heavy favorite to win the May 4 primary, given the establishment support and the fact that Brunner has struggled to raise basically any money. She remains within striking distance in the polls, though.

Minnesota state Sen. Tarryl Clark has won the state Democratic party endorsement to face Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

Clark was expected to win the backing and has rounded up much of the establishment support from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. But Dr. Maureen Reed is raising good money and has said she will run against Clark in the August primary.

Whoever wins that primary is expected to be a top Democratic hope for a takeover in November.

Bachmann was reelected in 2008 with plenty of help from a third-party candidate. She was held to less than 50 percent of the vote, but she defeated Democrat El Tinklenberg 46-43.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is hoping actors Danny DeVito and Rhea Pearlman will provide her campaign a much-needed boost this weekend.

The incumbent Democrat enlisted both Hollywood comedians' help on Saturday in an e-mail sent to supporters, ahead of a 2010 re-election fight she described over Twitter on Sunday as "no laughing matter."

In the e-mail, both DeVito and Pearlman call themselves as "two of Barbara's biggest fans." They then implore California voters to help Boxer's campaign reach its $250,000 fundraising goal by March 31, the Federal Election Commission's next reporting deadline.

"It’ll be a chance for the “chattering class” of press and pundits, as well as Barbara’s opponents, to see where everybody stacks up as campaign season really heats up," wrote the two actors, who also hosted a fundraising dinner for Boxer at their house this weekend.

"We can’t imagine Washington, D.C. without Barbara Boxer," they continued. "We’ve got to make sure that Barbara is in as strong a position as possible — and that means helping her campaign reach its $250,000 grassroots fundraising goal before March 31."

According to the campaign, Boxer is less than $100,000 away from reaching that goal. Still, Boxer's latest fundraising pitch underscores how much the California Senate race has changed, just in the past few months.

Pundits once belived Boxer had locked up another term, but increasing criticism of Boxer's voting record, combined with an electoral landscape that seems to favor newcomer Republicans, has kicked the Boxer campaign into high gear. Even the president plans to visit California next month to stump for Boxer, who still holds slim leads over all three of the senator's possible GOP competitors.

The two Senate hopefuls sparred over everything from the stimulus to the price of Marco Rubio's haircuts.

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MESA, Ariz. -- Protesters twice disrupted Sarah Palin’s rally with Sen. John McCain as the former Alaska governor praised the Tea Party movement

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MESA, Ariz. -- A young man interrupted Sarah Palin's speech Saturday and was forcibly removed by McCain campaign staff and volunteers.

The man yelled at John McCain (R-Ariz.) for supporting the bailout. Palin stopped, turned toward him and said, "Young man, stick around and listen to what we're going to say, sir, maybe you'll learn something."

He continued his disruption, however, and was hauled out of the gym.

Updated at 6:10 p.m.

Reps. John Shadegg and Jeff Flake encouraged the crowd of mostly seniors at Dobson High School to vote out Democrats.

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Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) will make Florida history on Monday when he and his wife deliver more than 130,000 signed petitions to state election officials, securing his place on this year's Senate ballot.

No other statewide candidate has entered a race in that manner, as most instead choose to pay the roughly $10,000 entry fee to appear on the ballot, Meek told the Miami Herald this week.

But the Miami congressman has nonetheless remained determined for almost a year now to enter Florida's already tough Senate race by petition, in part to increase his visibility and create contrast with Gov. Charlie Crist (R) and state Speaker Marco Rubio -- two Republican candidates still slugging it out in a vicious, hard-fought primary.

Meek only needed 112,476 signatures to make the 2010 ballot, though the congressman told the newspaper he expects to deliver more than 130,000 on Monday.

"I thought it was very, very important that the people of the state of Florida place my name on the ballot to be the next U.S. senator,'' Meek told reporters in advance of Monday's event. "And I thought it was important for me to listen to the needs of Florida, from Escambia County to Monroe County."

"I knew it would make me a better candidate and a better senator," he added.