*James Taylor is doing a pair of benefit concerts in Great Barrington, Mass., to raise money for Haiti. WAMC Northeast Public Radio will simulcast the Friday show and have volunteers ready for phone pledges. Learn more here.

*I promise I'd say the same thing if the Republicans had a big majority in Congress: It doesn't seem appropriate that the Democrats' ability to forward legislation falls apart because a 60-40 margin has become 59-41. If a presidential candidate won an election by 59-41 it would be considered a landslide. (Yes, political scientists, I know about filibusters.)

*The inability of our representatives in Washington (and often in Albany) to come together on the major issues of the day will do long-term harm, it says here. Our polarized country is in a mess and it will take statesmen, not talk show hosts, columnists, bloggers or those on the fringes, to rise up and be heard.

*Forget possible Democratic challenger Harold Ford Jr. as a threat to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. If a Republican can win a Senate seat in Massachusetts, who says some little known GOP candidate can't beat Gillibrand in New York?