Blogger jmelli over at BlueJersey is talking about the latest Quinnipiac poll that puts Senator Corzine 12 points over Forrester one week before New Jersey goes to vote. Of course the poll hasn’t been backed up by others, but there’s a more important result in this poll.

On the question of who is better to deal with corruption and property taxes, Corzine has finally taken the lead.

New Jersey voters now say 38- 35 percent that Corzine would do a better job reducing property taxes, an issue on which Forrester had led in previous polls.

In a similar shift, voters say 39 – 36 percent that Corzine would do a better job handling corruption.

And the next result, man this one must really be causing the Newark Star Ledger to kick themselves in the ass:

Voters say 67 – 24 percent that Corzine has the right kind of experience to be Governor, compared to 54 – 30 percent for Forrester.

More polls should be coming out this week and we’ll see if this poll is outside the normal 6-7 point lead we saw last week, or if Corzine has jumped to double digits.

Yesterday, when Senator Reid invoked rule 21 and brought the Senate into a closed-session, he did something more courageous than any other Democratic leader. Senator Reid forced discussion regarding Phase II of an investigation being conducted by the Intelligence Committee. Phase I covered the failures of the intelligence agencies, but didn’t include information on the White House Iraq Group or the White House’s use of intelligence, that is what Phase II was for, and as we can imagine it has been long over-due.

Republicans cried politics and dirty tricks, but that’s not what happened. Instead the Democratic Party became the party of the opposition, it marched into the Senate and used today to set a deadline for findings and to force Congress to act in regard to the possible misuse of intelligence in advocating for the Iraq War. No one knows what was said, but we can all imagine that Senator Reid was speaking intensely, as he never once left the Senate chamber to address the media in the corridor remaining inside the entire time rallying the troops and keeping us on message.

Republicans would have loved for the story to be about a “hijacked Senate” and everything else, but the media and sees it differently, because at the end of the session emerged answers and commitment to the investigation, obviously things were accomplished.

This is what Democratic leadership is all about. Most importantly, this is a message to the American people, that the Democratic Party despite being a minority is still working for the people, still working to find answers, and more than capable to retake the reigns of government in 2006 and make a positive change.

The Senate is back from a closed session, it has been announced that each party will choose three members to form a six member task-force in order to investigate and report on the progress of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s progress in Phase II of the investigation, and will report back with the information and a date for completion no later than the close of business on November 14th. More to come, but it looks like while the Republicans are complaining, the over all goal of the closed session, forcing debate on this issue and moving Phase II forward, has been at leat mostly accomplished.

Reported first by The Raw Story Senator Reid has taken the Senate into a Clossed Session at 2:25pm in order to discuss Iraq War intelligence and the CIA Leak Case. No other news sources are confirming at this time, but turning to C-SPAN confirms this and are replaying Reid’s statement that called for the session, the Senate is at this time in clossed session for the first time since the Senate discussed matters pertaining to Clinton’s impeachment in 1997. Here is part of the statement by Reid:

This past weekend, we witnessed the indictment of the I. Lewis Libby, the Vice President’s Chief of Staff and a senior Advisor to President Bush. Libby is the first sitting White House staffer to be indicted in 135 years. This indictment raises very serious charges. It asserts this Administration engaged in actions that both harmed our national security and are morally repugnant.

The decision to place U.S. soldiers in harm’s way is the most significant responsibility the Constitution invests in the Congress. The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really about: how the Administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions.

As a result of its improper conduct, a cloud now hangs over this Administration. This cloud is further darkened by the Administration’s mistakes in prisoner abuse scandal, Hurricane Katrina, and the cronyism and corruption in numerous agencies.

[...]

We demand that the Intelligence Committee and other committees in this body with jurisdiction over these matters carry out a full and complete investigation immediately as called for by Democrats in the committee’s annual intelligence authorization report. Our troops and the American people have sacrificed too much. It is time this Republican-controlled Congress put the interests of the American people ahead of their own political interests.

More on this as it develops. Give ‘Em Hell Harry!

UPDATE: 3:24pm: The AP Wires are now running a story, apparently Senator Durbin seconded the motion, the Republican leadership apparently claims they didn’t see this one coming, but Senator Durbin told reporters that the Republicans were informed right before Reid’s speech.

UPDATE: 3:27pm: Senator Durbin and Senator Levin are talking to reporters, they have said that the purpose of this closed session is to gain a committment to force a full investigation of the Iraq War’s casus belli, of failures in intelligence. Levin has been saying that this investigation was supposed to start over a year ago, and it needs to begin now Senator Levin argues that he believes the delay is coming because of where the investigation will go, despite a committment that the chair of the Select Intelligence Committee and the Majority Leader signed a pledge to compelte this second phase of the investigation.

On a question of timing, the reason is because the committment was made one year and three months ago before the election that phase two would be conducted after the investigation, today marks one year from the last election, with the promise unmet.

Reporters brought up Republican claims that Democrats were filibustering investigation votes and that there is a draft report. Levin handeled the question immediatley, no draft has been shown to Senator Rockerfeller or other members of the committee, a date has not been announced, and no votes have been made.