The primary that gives McCaskill a stomach ache
Sen. Claire McCaskill, locked in her own difficult reelection battle, plans to play mediator in the primary between St. Louis Reps. Russ Carnahan and Lacy Clay.
She's cursory in her comments about her goal, but it sounds like she wants to prevent it from happening altogether.
"The prospect of that primary gives me a stomachache, and I'm hoping it gets worked out," McCaskill said.
"I'm not going to go into what I'm talking to any of them about," McCaskill said. "I'm just saying that I'm talking to both of them and hopeful that we can get something worked out so that we don't have the kind of primary that is really, really hard on our party."
One train of thought: McCaskill could fear that supporters of the loser in the August showdown may end up so dismayed and jaded they decide to sit on their hands in the general. That's a prospect the first-term Democratic senator can't afford.