Wednesday morning, and a busy one here, as the Senator John Kerry and Senator Joe Lieberman will finally introduce the American Power Act this afternoon. You'll notice Senator Lindsey Graham was not mentioned, something I'll have more on in a minute.

First, a little redux from West Virginia last night. It reads like this: Incumbents Beware. Alan Mollohan, a 14-term congressman who ran unchallenged two years ago, was unseated in the Democratic primary last night, by State Senator Mike Oliverio. This is the first time since 1967 that the 1st seat will be held by someone outside the Mollohan family.

There were some external factors, such as ethics allegations and the fact that Oliverio ran to the incumbent's right, but the numbers don't lie: less than one in three people say they would vote to re-elect their congressman right now. Mollahan just became the first House victim.

That led to this post, by The Fix, entitled "Danger, Incumbents, Danger." Despite the fact that there were factors specific to the two races we've seen - every race has those - it is clear that incumbents are not safe. The key evidence is in the other, unknown challengers.

Last Tuesday, Indiana Republican Rep. Dan Burton won his party's nod with less than 30 percent of the vote while unknown and unfunded challengers to North Carolina Democratic Reps. Larry Kissell and Heath Shuler took more than a third of the vote.

Next Tuesday should be even more fun, when both Senator Arlen Specter and Senator Blanche Lincoln face serious primary challenges. Specter has been running ads featuring President Obama, in an attempt to show voters he is loyal to the Democratic party. Remember, when switched parties last year, he made no secret that he knew he couldn't get re-elected as a Republican.

Take a look at some of the more recent polls available and you'll see that Specter and opponent Joe Sestak are within the margins. Scroll down to May 5 to see that Patty Murray is above 50 percent against everyone but Dino Rossi, who she is finally leading consistently. Washington state voters don't go to the polls until August 17, but filing date for Rossi is next month.

Want some more on elections? How about taking a trip across the Atlantic, to London, where the conservative party missed a majority by 20 seats. One of the more fascinating things to watch is how the British parliament has to remake itself when this happens, although it's been some time. For the first time since World War II, the country will be run by a coalition government, albeit an awkward one between conservatives and liberal democrats. What a novel idea.

David Cameron, head of the conservative party, was installed as Prime Minister, after Gordon Brown sped the process up by resigning. This literally all happened yesterday. Considering the immediate work that must be done, that is a good thing for a government that is trying to prevent the demise of the pound.

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Speaking of demise, honor and civility took a pretty big hit yesterday, at Senate hearings looking into the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Representatives from British Petroleum, Transocean, and Haliburton testified before two committees yesterday, almost immediately following a story suggesting Haliburton may really be to blame.

The executives raised their right hands to be sworn in, right before passing off all responsibility to someone else. Have you ever laughed at a situation where two kids are standing next to each other and when you ask them who did someone, they both point at the other one? I watched that for five hours yesterday. Grown men. BP said they didn't operate the machines that screwed up. Transocean said they thought the well was cemented (a way to seal the well, which would prevent a blowout). And both Transocean and Haliburton said, ultimately, the fault lies with the rig owner/lesser, BP.

There were no solutions. At one point, after the BP rep. had said about 25 times that the company would, "pay all legitimate claims" (without ever defining "legitimate"), Senator Maria Cantwell just went down a list of effects of the Exxon Valdez spill, asking after each one if BP would pay for it. The rep. caved and said he couldn't comment on specific cases.

And you know you've screwed up when Senator Jeff Sessions, whose Alabama accent is so thick I can rarely understand him, is chewing you out. And Sessions was relentless. He basically asked the Transocean rep. directly, "what do you know about what happened?" The rep. had nothing for him. He said it was BP's job to answer that type of question. Transocean operates the rig.

Quote of the day had to come from Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey. Menendez pointed out that the hearing room they were in was the same one used to investigate the Titanic sinking, get this, almost 100 years ago (wow!). Both the Titanic and this rig were considered so technologically advanced as to be immune to failure. Actually watched the beginning of the James Cameron movie the other day and saw the line, "God himself could not sink this ship." Both failed. Both sank.

Said Menendez: "I don't get the sense that you were truly prepared. I get the sense that you are making things up as you go along."

Obviously this is a big deal. Today, however, it takes on a whole new meaning, as Kerry and Lieberman prepare to introduce their bill. A CBS News poll just showed up in my inbox, showing that more the 4-in-5 Americans have seen, heard or read about the oil spill. Only 46 percent favor new offshore drilling, while 41 percent see it as too great a risk. The former is a 16 percent decrease from previous polls, the latter a 13 percent increase.

Just watched Kerry on MSNBC say that the new bill does not allow new drilling, at least until after the cause of the the Gulf incident is known. As was pointed out in the hearing yesterday, this rig had plenty of redundancies designed specifically to prevent a blowout, including a thing called a blowout preventer. They all failed.

The Hill got a copy of the summary document on the American Power Act and released it yesterday.

Under the key provisions header are refunds to consumers to prevent increased energy costs (a central worry among opponents), a national carbon cap that would preempt any like policy unique to a state (though compensation is promised to states that would lose revenue), a specific price on carbon, financing for a transportation transformation (natural gas, highway, public transit updates), as well as giving states power to opt out of drilling within 75 miles of their shores, and more.

Yes, the bill includes carbon sequestration funding. It also only regulates the largest carbon emitters (about 7,500 factors and power plants). Here is the more detailed version. There is a press conference at 1:30 today. I'll be at it. Follow the Consequence Twitter page for my reactions.

If this bill gets an traction, prepare for a legislative fight like you've never seen before. Health care was just a warmup.

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- My favorite politician, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, was re-elected last night. He also happens to be my favorite person I follow on Twitter. He won by about a 2-1 margin, in an election that appears to have had about 100,000 voters. That would be about a third of the total population of New Jersey's largest city. Booker, who is just 41, won his second term after significantly lowering the city's crime rates, while continuing to fight gun violence.

Here is his tweet from this morning:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it's the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill - Thank you Newark! Lets continue!

Everything you need to know about this guy can be found in the documentary from his first attempt to run for mayor of the city, as a 32-year old in 2002. Booker, a Rhodes Scholar and Stanford grad, moved into one of the city's worst neighborhoods. Four years later he became mayor.

- Got a chance to pay a visit to a freezing cold, windy and wet Camden Yards last night, to see Cliff Lee and the Mariners take on the Orioles. The M's are now 4-0 against the O's, 9-19 against everyone else. It was the visit out the warehouse, however, that made the trip worth it.

Yes, for those who guessed, that is the plaque on the spot where Ken Griffey Jr. (who was awake the whole game, I promise) nailed the warehouse at the 1993 All Star Game. He was the first and last to ever do so, with a majestic 465-foot blast to straightaway right field.

Beautiful ballpark by the way, though it is still built like the older ones with the concourse back behind the stands and not in full view of the field. Also, the location, literally right in downtown, makes it feel much smaller than reality. However, the standing room and fan-friendly seating make it worth the trip. As did getting a chance to see Lee pitch for the first time.

Lastly, in case you are missing this, take a minute to read about Danielle Lawrie. The fifth-year senior is having an absolutely dominating season, on the way to quite possibly becoming the greatest athlete in University of Washington history. She is in her fifth year not because of redshirting, but because she spent 2008 playing for the Canadian Olympic team, an organization that probably wish they had used her a bit more. Lawrie beat the U.S. National Team when she was 18 - yes, you read that right, has a national championship, National Player of the Year, and this year alone has been named national player of the week three times. This weekend she will set the Pac-10 career record for strikeouts, if she even pitches as her 33-2 record has helped the Huskies (43-5, 15-3) clinch the Pac-10 Championship already.

Lawrie holds just about every UW pitching record, while also being one of the top hitters on the team this year. She hit a walk-off homerun against Stanford on Saturday. Just think about these two numbers: Lawrie has 19 shutouts and 392 strikeouts.

Ridiculous.

Have a good one y'all.