Looking at the retirement of Kansas Congressman Dennis Moore, Michael Barone suggests Democrats may be facing a tough year.

2010 undoubtedly looks like an uphill race for Dennis Moore. By announcing his retirement, he is free to vote for House Democratic leaders’ unpopular legislation without political repercussion and is spared the trouble of extensive campaigning. That’s fine for him. But if other Democratic incumbents in marginal districts—and, remember, the 3rd district voted for Obama—choose to follow Moore’s course, that could make it much harder to Democrats to maintain a big majority in the House and could make it easier for Republicans to gain most or all of the 41 seats they need to win a majority there.

In response to the political climate they face, the Democrats are looking to a new populist agenda to score points with voters.

Democrats’ last-minute scramble to salvage the special U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts is offering the first test of a populist pitch that party strategists hope to take to other campaigns this year.Central to the strategy is the new White House plan to tax big banks as punishment for their role in the financial crisis. President Barack Obama announced the proposal Thursday amid reports that financial institutions bailed out by the government are enjoying healthy profits and paying generous bonuses, and as a bipartisan commission began hearing testimony on banks’ role in the economic crisis.

In the meantime, Democrats continue to do little as the economy sputters and the Wall Street Journal notes plans by the Fed to rollback emergency lending and stop buying mortgages.

“I think that we are going to be waiting for the economy to improve in a strongly sustainable fashion and until that happens, then it’s unlikely that we would be changing policy,” Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, told reporters this past week.

High unemployment is one of several issues that nag at Fed officials as they attempt to gradually pull away from their role as the economy’s chief rescuer.

They also are antsy that the housing recovery could stall when they finish buying $1.25 trillion of mortgages in March; the Fed now holds $919 billion worth.

The economy and elections aren’t the only things beating the Democrats down, however.  An attack by insurgents in Afghanistan left 7 people dead and 71 injured.  The eruption of violence underscores the trouble the administration faces as it tries to reconcile a troop build up and plans for their stated withdrawal.

The siege once again highlighted the vulnerability of Kabul, where bombings and other attacks have become relatively common.

Afghan police, with the backing of the Afghan National Army, are responsible for security in the capital. But the training of Afghan security forces, here and throughout the country, remains a major concern for U.S. and NATO officials.

Finally, a Claudia Rosett column notes the story of Robert Park. Park walked into North Korea on Christmas Day as a protest over that country’s human rights record and slave labor camps. It’s a story well worth a read.