We’ve covered the whole Monserrate mess, from the misdemeanor assault conviction of his former girlfriend to his tacit support of anti-gay fliers, so I’ll repeat nothing tonight. It’s good to know this guy is gone from doing the people’s business.

In just the past two weeks, Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln became the latest Democratic incumbent to attract a primary challenger, anti-abortion Democrats fought hard to derail President Barack Obama’s health care measure, and civil rights advocates and environmentalists likened the Democrat to George W. Bush.

Few pieces of the mosaic that is the Democratic Party seem happy.

Labor and gays are restless. Blacks and Hispanics are grumbling. Liberals and moderates are battling. Even some in Hollywood are disappointed.

Obama must bring together – and fire up – the many Democratic coalitions if he hopes to minimize expected losses for his party this fall in his first midterm elections. The risk if he doesn’t is that Democrats could become so disaffected that they stay home in November.

It’s far from too late. Passage of the health care overhaul would mean a monumental victory for Obama just when he needs one. This president will have accomplished what others before him couldn’t, a triumph that would give the fractured rank and file something to rally around.

David Axelrod, a senior White House adviser, isn’t panicking.

“We are a broad party,” he said in a recent interview. “There’s always going to be some degree of tension.”

Axelrod voiced confidence that the vast majority of the party’s loyalists will get behind its candidates this fall because the philosophical differences between Republicans and Democrats are so great.

“Whatever divides us,” he said, “that fundamental split is still animating.”

Despite the dissension, 84 percent of Democrats approve of Obama’s job performance in the latest Associated Press-GfK poll.

Republicans are wrestling with their own deep splits. There’s a family feud over whether the GOP should strictly adhere to conservative principles or be more inclusive. That infighting is prominently on display in a slew of contentious primary contests.

But the fissures among Democrats, festering for months, are striking because the party controls both the White House and Congress, and unity was in style just a year ago as Democrats celebrated the first months of Obama’s tenure with bigger majorities on Capitol Hill.

Then, the governing began in earnest – and so did the complaining.

Some of it was expected.

The Democratic Party has always been more of a coalition party than the GOP, bringing together varied factions that include labor, minorities, civil rights activists, social progressives and anti-war protesters. Each part seldom gets everything it wants. Expectations were lofty, with given the Democratic control of the government. A high bar brings the potential for serious letdowns and, thus, infighting.

“I don’t think you can say that the party’s in any state of disarray,” said former Rep. Martin Frost of Texas, a past chairman of the House Democrats campaign committee. But, he added, there are clearly divisions and divisive primaries are “not helpful.”

Perhaps nothing better illustrates the Democratic splits than the Senate race in Arkansas.

A moderate, Lincoln infuriated liberals by backing the 2008 Wall Street bailout while opposing a public insurance health care option and key union-organizing legislation. She was considered among the party’s most vulnerable incumbents for months when Democratic Lt. Gov. Bill Halter got in the race.

Now, Lincoln is promoting her independence, saying in an ad: “I don’t answer to my party, I answer to Arkansas.”

Halter has the backing of the liberal MoveOn.org and is collecting big money from labor groups.

Two other Senate Democrats facing tough races – Sens. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania and Michael Bennet in Colorado – also have primaries even though the White House is backing the incumbents.

The fractures have been on display in other ways as well this month:

-The American Civil Liberties Union ran a full-page advertisement in The New York Times showing Obama morphing into Bush and asking “Change or more of the same?” The ad criticized Obama for even considering military tribunals for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

-Defenders of Wildlife ran a TV ad featuring actress Ashley Judd assailing Obama for not reversing a Bush decision lifting the federal protection on wolves in parts of the Northern Rockies. Judd says: “You promised change. But by adopting the Bush plan, your administration weakened our endangered species law and has allowed this killing to happen.”

-A dozen or so anti-abortion House Democrats are opposing Obama’s health care overhaul plan – and putting its passage in jeopardy – because it includes a provision they don’t like. The absence of a public insurance option in the legislation also has angered the left.

-Many members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against a jobs bill that they said didn’t focus enough on job training programs or summer employment. They complain that they’re getting too little support from the country’s first black president. Obama met with them last week.

-Hispanics privately continued to question – after a year of virtual inaction – whether Obama is sincere in his promise to overhaul the immigration system even as he met with senators trying to write a bipartisan bill on the issue and repeated his pledge.

-Unions said they will take sides in primary races and labor officials complained that the White House hasn’t pushed legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize workers. The AFL-CIO also rebuked Obama for condoning mass firings at a poorly performing Rhode Island high school.

-The gay community is fretting over the pace at which Obama has addressed their top issues such as repealing the 17-year-old law that bans gays from serving openly in the military. Obama needs Congress’ blessing to do that, but there’s resistance.

“There are frustrations that we haven’t been able to get as much done that we would like to, especially as health care drags on,” acknowledged Gov. Martin O’Malley, D-Md. He predicted “less griping and more coalescing” once that’s completed, and unity come November.

Ford had voted twice for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Speaking Wednesday to the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York, Ford was interrupted numerous times by protesters. They said they don’t trust him and shouted that he is “anti-gay.”

Ford said all he can do is explain he was wrong in the past and has changed his mind.

Ford is considering challenging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in this fall’s Democratic primary. He moved to New York after losing the 2006 U.S. Senate race in Tennessee.

He says he is close to deciding whether to run.

Hayworth, a conservative talk-radio host, is inaugurating his effort with a rally in Phoenix Monday morning followed by a three-day statewide tour.

Conservatives in Arizona have long been skeptical of McCain, who carved out a niche as a maverick senator working with Democrats on key issues.

But McCain has consistently evaded political threats from the right and lately has staked out solidly conservative positions.

McCain also plans a campaign event on Monday, with a group of mayors set to announce their support for him at an American Legion lodge in Tempe.

Hayworth is positioning himself as the race’s reliable conservative in contrast to an erratic McCain who he says can’t be trusted to support Republican values.

As evidence he points to a series of McCain flip-flops that Hayworth calls “campaign-year conversions” on issues including gays in the military, climate change, campaign finance and immigration.

He’s lined up big-name conservative backers including Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for his tough policies targeting illegal immigration, and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan.

McCain has aligned his own list of prominent conservative backers, including his former running mate Sarah Palin and recently elected Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, both of whom will campaign for McCain in Arizona next month. He also has the support of Arizona’s GOP congressional delegation, including Rep. Trent Franks, who endorsed one of McCain’s opponents in the 2008 presidential primary.

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist has also backed McCain, saying he’s been a consistent voice opposing government spending and has never voted for a tax increase. McCain has, however, opposed tax cuts, saying taxes should only be cut in conjunction with spending.

“McCain has a historic leadership role on that issue and is not a Johnny-come-lately to the idea that spending too much is the problem,” Norquist said last week.

McCain is the clear front-runner, well-known after two presidential campaigns and almost three decades representing Arizona in Congress. He also has more than $5 million in the bank, not including the $2.5 million he’s already spent, according to his latest campaign finance report. Hayworth said last week his campaign is approaching $100,000 in contributions.

A former television sportscaster, Hayworth was among a wave of Republicans elected to the U.S. House in 1994. He spent the next 12 years representing his district covering part of the eastern suburbs of Phoenix and, for a time, American Indian reservations.

Democrat Harry Mitchell defeated Hayworth in 2006, winning the GOP-leaning district amid a rough national climate for Republicans and questions about Hayworth’s dealings with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Hayworth ran a conservative campaign emphasizing his opposition to illegal immigration. But he was dogged by a reputation for being an angry and bombastic partisan, highlighted by a scathing editorial in the state’s largest newspaper recommending voters choose “Mitchell over the bully.”

McCain and Hayworth face Minutemen co-founder Chris Simcox in the Republican primary.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is getting ready for a fight. Sure Harold Ford is talking smack by calling her a “parakeet,” but the junior senator is making sure she gets as many allies as possible. First she has the full support of the White House. President Obama’s former campaign manager David Plouffe will be in New York City on Feb. 22 for a fundraiser.

Aside from White House love, Gillibrand also has Christine Quinn, New York City’s first openly gay City Council speaker, in her corner. When she announced her support last week, Quinn noted the senator, unlike Ford, has always been an LGBT ally.

“We have in Senator Gillibrand someone who has always supported marriage equality, who would never tamper with the Constitution to take away people’s rights,” Quinn said. “So, from my perspective, we have the gold standard as it relates to the LGBT community. Why would we look anywhere else? Particularly, unfortunately, to someone who would change the constitution to limit my rights.”

Getting her endorsements nice and tidy has been good for polling.  In the most recent Marist survey, she is ahead of Ford 44 percent to 27. However, in a general election with former governor George Pataki, Gillibrand trails 43 to 49. Right now this isn’t a problem; he’s not even hinted he wants to run.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it: all you Empire State queens who love Gillibrand better have your wallets out. Last thing she needs is a bruising primary.

UPDATE: Here is Ford on The Colbert Report last night. He refers to Gillibrand as a “young lady”,  and flubs his pivot from voting for the Defense of Marriage Act to now loving marriage equality. If this interview doesn’t make you send some cash to Gillibrand nothing will.

The Delaware attorney general told supporters in an e-mail that he will run for re-election to his state post instead of running against GOP Rep. Mike Castle for the seat the elder Biden held for 36 years. He cited a need to focus on prosecution of a high-profile child molestation case.

“I have a duty to fulfill as attorney general, and the immediate need to focus on a case of great consequence. And that is what I must do,” Biden, 40, wrote. “Therefore I cannot and will not run for the United States Senate in 2010.”

He left open the door of a candidacy in future years.

Biden’s decision makes the Democratic-held seat vulnerable as the Democratic Party and its leader, Obama, are licking their wounds following Republican Scott Brown’s victory last week for the Senate seat in Massachusetts once held by Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy; the GOP upset ended the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Two weeks before that, Sen. Byron Dorgan chose to retire in North Dakota rather than face re-election, putting a once-safe Democratic seat in serious trouble. No less than three Democratic senators were already vulnerable, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Michael Bennet of Colorado.

The GOP also is making a play for the Illinois seat once held by Obama; Sen. Roland Burris, who was appointed to the seat, is not running. And Republicans are planning to fight for the Senate seat held by the retiring Christopher Dodd in Connecticut. Given a political environment tipping their way, the GOP also is keeping an eye on Sens Barbara Boxer in California, Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania and Kirsten Gillibrand in New York.

Biden’s decision was a surprise, given that his father’s confidant and former Senate chief of staff, Ted Kaufman, was appointed to the seat by Delaware’s governor essentially to keep it warm for the son until he was able to run.

But then Castle, a former two-term governor and one of the most successful politicians in Delaware history, entered the race, dramatically increasing the likelihood of a competitive race.

With Biden declining a run, Democrats in Washington said they were turning to New Castle County Chief Executive Chris Coons in hopes he would run. Coons was noncommittal last week when asked whether he would seek the nomination if Biden bows out, saying only that he looked forward to supporting Biden.

While Obama didn’t call the younger Biden, White House officials said the president and vice president discussed the race regularly, as recently as Friday. Obama had asked his No. 2 to tell Biden the president’s belief that he would win if he ran. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.

Since returning home in September after a yearlong deployment to Iraq with his National Guard unit, Beau Biden had been focused on his family and his job as attorney general.

In recent weeks, his agency has been enmeshed in the case of a Delaware pediatrician charged with sexually assaulting several of his patients. Prosecutors believe Dr. Earl Bradley of Lewes, who was arrested in December, may have molested more than 100 children over the past decade.

“The reality is, it became increasingly clear over the last several weeks that it was impossible to mount a Senate campaign in the face of dealing with both the prosecution in Lewes as well as the things I need to do, our office needs to do, for victims,” Biden told The Associated Press.

Biden vowed while campaigning for attorney general in 2006 that he would crack down on child predators, and he made the creation of a separate child predator unit within the state Justice Department his top priority after winning office. Had he turned his attention from the Bradley prosecution to running for Senate, he likely would have faced criticism from some voters, but Biden told the AP he was not thinking in such terms.

“I knew I had to be entirely focused on this case and the victims in it,” he said. “I sought this office and ran for this office to create a child predator unit. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to be attorney general.”

Biden said he and his wife, Hallie, made the decision before informing family members, who he said were supportive of their decision.

Castle, 70, announced in October that he would not seek a 10th term in the House but would run for this fall’s special election to fill the remaining four years of the Senate term Joe Biden won in 2008.

Castle, a leader of GOP centrists who has demonstrated crossover appeal among Democrats as well as unaffiliated voters in Delaware, has a significant head start over the Democrats in fundraising. He has taken in more than $1 million since announcing his Senate bid in October, ending 2009 with about $1.7 million in his campaign chest.

Biden ended 2009 with slightly less than $100,000 in his attorney general campaign fund, having raised only about $6,500 in cash contributions during the year.

Also on the rise: the few Republican moderates left in Congress, the tea party movement and, paradoxically, both legislative stalling and dealmaking.

Losers? Just have a glance at President Barack Obama’s swollen to-do list. Instead of checking off his planned health care overhaul, climate legislation, energy priorities, judicial appointments and more, he might have to cross some off.

A compendium of winners and losers after Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy on Tuesday:

WINNER: GOP moderates and Maine.

Maine moves closer to the center of the political universe, thanks to its two moderate Republican senators and their likely clout.

Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are sure to be courted hard, if not on health care, then on other legislation. It’s a strong position to be in and one they know how to use to advantage.

Snowe was the only Republican senator to vote for any version of health care legislation, but Democrats patched together the necessary 60 votes without her to move the bill along. Now they’re short.

LOSER: Obama.

Obama might be able to salvage a health care overhaul of some sort. It’s a big if. Beyond that, other big-ticket items are in jeopardy, and so are smaller ones. It’s difficult to see where he gets the political capital to fulfill promises on letting gays serve openly in the armed forces, for example.

To be sure, Democrats still control Congress. And if Republicans overplay their new hand, voters can take retribution against them in the fall and restore the primacy of Obama’s agenda.

WINNER: Bipartisanship, the force-fed kind.

Until now, odes to bipartisanship have been nothing but cotton-candy words on both sides. Democrats assembled their health care plan and brought it to the brink of becoming law without Republican support. Now the two parties have to eat their veggies and engage for anything meaningful to get done.

Still, the threat of filibuster looms over everything. With all 41 members on board, Senate Republicans can delay most things to death. That’s why they have to be cut in on legislation in ways that were avoidable, just barely, before.

—

LOSER: Party labels.

Campaigning in one of the bluest of states, Brown rarely mentioned a rather important fact: He’s a Republican. He emphasized his independence instead. A similar approach helped Republicans win governor races in New Jersey and Virginia last year.

Democrats might be expected to follow suit, dissociating themselves with the party brass.

—

WINNER: Political insurgencies.

Brown’s win emboldens other newcomers who would normally be written off. Could the race to replace Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut in the Senate also become competitive? How about Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s seat in New York? What about conventional favorites on the other side, such as Gov. Charlie Crist in the Florida Republican Senate primary?

The tea-party activists, who powered a summer of discontent over the health care legislation, showed their influence Tuesday in swinging behind the Republican who presented himself as a pickup-driving populist. Grass-roots politics is also a powerful tool of the left, and one Obama used to great effect in his campaign.

But it’s tougher now to attack the establishment when you’re at the pinnacle of it.

—

LOSER: Americans without health insurance and some health care providers.

Americans with health insurance might gain or lose under the overhaul, depending on which side is right. There’s little question, though, that the uninsured would be helped. And they are bound to have to wait now, or see some protections bargained away.

It’s a mixed bag for providers. Although a health care law would make them live with tough new rules and perhaps pinched profits, they would also gain millions of new customers and become part of a system they helped shape in negotiations.

Drug makers, for example, spent tens of millions of dollars over the past year in support of the Democrats’ effort and had agreed to contribute more than $80 billion to help finance the revamping.

—

WINNERS and LOSERS: Women.

On one hand, Brown’s victory was a defeat for the activists who labored to get another liberal woman in the Senate. On the other hand, independent women voters went 2-1 for Brown, pollsters for both parties say, after strongly siding with Obama in 2008. That makes them swing voters to watch.

—

LOSER: Climate change legislation.

Brown’s win makes Obama’s chances of getting a climate and energy bill through Congress more of a long shot. Senators working on a bill to limit heat-trapping pollution already were short of the 60 votes needed for passage. Now they have lost another vote. And fence-sitting Democrats and Republicans are likely to be less willing to support a bill that will increase energy prices heading into midterm elections.

—

LOSER: Foreign policy.

Obama must still focus on winding down the war in Iraq, where critical national elections soon will require his leadership, and on the increasing U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. But the threat to his domestic agenda from Brown’s victory is bound to distract him from foreign policy broadly.

He has made almost no progress on his vow to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table for work on a two-state solution. Also up in the air: completing a deal with Moscow on a nuclear arms reduction pact and persuading Russia and China to agree to tougher sanctions on Iran.

—

And the side that successfully argued to revoke the gay marriage law last month spent $3.8 million, less than the $5.8 million spent by those supporting the law. Maine’s total population is around 1.3 million.

The Kennebec Journal is reporting that 20 groups spent money to influence the vote.

The campaign finance reports were released Tuesday.

The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices says the amount of spending on the gay marriage vote is believed to be second only to a vote in 2003 on a proposed tribal casino.

In a matchup against billionaire former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, Brown leads just 43 percent to 37 percent.

Brown surprised many in 2008, when he filed court papers calling for the overturning of Proposition 8, which banned equal marriage in California, declaring that “the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification.” Usually, sitting attorneys general are required to uphold and defend all state laws.

Brown, the state’s attorney general and a former two-term governor, has yet to officially announce a run for the Democratic nomination but has been furiously fundraising and has chased nearly all challengers from his party’s field.

Some Democrats are growing concerned about his wait-it-out strategy.

On the Republican side, the three candidates have been campaigning for months. Whitman, a billionaire, has poured millions of dollars from her personal fortune into a cadre of professional consultants and a series of radio ads, while state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a multimillionaire, announced this week that he would add another $15 million of his own money to his campaign.

Despite their efforts, the poll finds 44 percent of likely GOP voters still don’t have an opinion on the race. The most common response when asked whether they support Whitman, Poizner or former Congressman Tom Campbell was undecided or unengaged.

“Six months before the gubernatorial primary, the four major party candidates expected to be on the ballot are attracting little enthusiasm or attention among Californians likely to vote,” pollsters wrote in a summary of the survey.

Among those Republicans who do have an opinion, 32 percent favor Whitman, 12 percent favor Campbell and 8 percent support Poizner.

Fewer than half of all likely voters said they’re closely following news about the candidates, prompting many consultants to say they are dismissing polls at this point.

“The PPIC poll shows over half the voters have no opinion yet of any of the candidates and confirms that this race is wide open,” said Jarrod Agen, a campaign spokesman for Poizner.

The poll was based on a telephone survey of 2,004 Californians interviewed in English or Spanish from Dec. 1-8. It had a sampling error rate of plus or minus 3 percent for all likely voters, and a slightly higher rates for smaller groups.

The institute also surveyed respondents about a slew of initiatives that could be on the ballot in 2010.

A measure to reduce the requirement for a two-thirds majority of the state Legislature to pass a budget was rated as most important, followed by initiatives dealing with gay marriage, an open primary measure in which the top two candidates would advance regardless of political party and an initiative to legalize marijuana.

Annise Parker, the controller of Houston, won a  run-off last night for mayor. Her victory  made her the first openly gay politician to win an election to lead a large American city.

“Tonight the voters of Houston have opened the door to history,” Parker said in her victory speech,  with her partner Kathy Hubbard and their three adopted children standing next to her. “I acknowledge that. I embrace that. I know what this win means to many of us who never thought we could achieve high office.”

Parker, mayor-elect of the  country’s fourth largest city,  defeated her opponent Gene Locke 53 percent to 47 percent.

Will write more about this later on today.