November 7, 2006
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Congratulations. Gillibrand won!
Hi, Ian. I am a long time lurker on this site (English wife to Richie Harrill, Tarheel and sometime Tuesday night basketball player here in New York) -- and I am finally moved to come out blinking into the light. I am a political obsessive - even in other people's countries - and, thanks to you, I watched the NY-20 race like a hawk last night. A good night all round, but that result brought tears to my eyes. Great great great.
Thank you, Jesus. And I say that with every ounce of sincerity that remains in my not-yet-cynical heart. And I'm even going to remain uncynical about the fact that the Senate currently lies in the hands of Virginia and Montana. Virginia, maybe. Montana?!? Lord, give me strength. And Congrats for Gillibrand!
Congrats to Gillibrand and to you Ian for playing an important part in her success. I believe that American is tired of watching it's dollars and lives go quickly into Iraq while problems in this country only get worse. I myself am frustrated that Iraq and terrorism issues are pushing healthcare to the bottom of the list of reforms and hope that soon that may not be the case. Health care is one thing that Iknow I can intelligently discuss (unlike some who think they know everything about everything which bugs me) and I know that right now we are in a disasterous state. If you think that care is not being rationed and there are not waiting lists already you are simply looking at it from a point of privilege. The dean of UNC Med school got a $400,000 bonus this year while numbers of uninsured went up (that was piddly compared to bonuses of CEOs of managed care companies however). Lots of important services for children are being cut and the rich get richer. That is the point of my comments yesterday Matt.
As we celebrate, let's not forget that marriage amendments passed in Virginia, South Carolina, Colorado, Idaho, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Tennessee.
A happy Ian, post-election! That's a joy in itself. ;)
Congrats Dems! It will be interesting to see what they do with the opportunity.
Beyond the headlines: If Repubs had held both the House and Senate in 2006 given Repub victories in 2000 and 2004, it would have been a huge, historic win. Instead we have an average to below average give back (compare with 1986 or 1990). Also, beware the cost. Dem control of one or both houses will help Repub presidential candidate in 2008 because it provides something to run against besides other Repubs.
It's been a long, LONG time since I've felt this proud to be an American.
Happy as a clam, now let's see what they do with their newly gained power.
It feels so much better to be a winner rather than a loser...
Finally an election to be happy about!!
I hope we can forge an agenda to make things happen. I am concerned that our party may not have a good alternative plan. Of course, the current plan is not good either.
I would rather win the 2008 election than this one.
Let's hope the new blood does not drop the ball and that the country works together to help foster some positive change. 12 years is long enough for either party to have such complete control. I'd really like to see a feasible plan for Iraq. I work in an office where one of my co-worker's husbands is there. Puts a human face on the headlines more than anything you find on the web.
Katie, did your husband graduate from UNC LAW in 1998?
Cautiously optimistic.
Well, I danced wildly to Cool & the Gangs "Celebration" around 11:00 PM last night...not a pretty sight and certainly enough to make my wife think I had gone off the deep end. Still, I have hope, small, but still it is in here, some where deep in my chest I feel it....HOPE.
Now, it is time to hold the Dems' feet to the fire. No self destruction. No corruption. No ideology over policy. This is not the time to run a partisan operation despite my own desire to do so. We must rise above and truly show America how the Dems are different from the crazied right wing gasbag pill-popping perverted pedophile meth-heads in the republican Party!
YAAAAA. I feel great.
I felt really good about this election. From about 12 AM CST to 1AM CST.
I went to bed thinking that the challenge of bringing about positive change and constructive consensus in the USA is to winning this midterm election as Climbing Mount Everest is to getting to the top of a short hill on a bicycle.
Everyone looks noble when they're an underdog. The Vietnam War proved that Democrats are capable of fucking shit up every bit as much as the Republicans.
Politics is easy, government is hard.
I hope this brings an era of serious policy and an end to pigs posturing on morality legislation. As a "republican in recovery" I am ashamed of the time wasted trying to deny Americans their right pursue happiness with a marriage ammendment while we are at war. With more than 50% of heterosexual couples taking their vows about as seriously as a Blockbuster video return date, I look forward to a Congress and Senate that deals with real threats. I did vote for our Republican Governor Sonny Perdue and our new Republican Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, because I have enough personal contact and experience with these men to know that I can trust them on Child Welfare issues and the improvement of our social services system. This is the most important issue to me in my state of Georgia and our Governor has earned my confidence.
Kent has an excellent point. An analyst this morning pointed out that, "Grenades are easier to throw than they are to catch." I'm going to say a prayer for Nancy tonight.
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss.
i'm with bzmary and alan. cautiously optimistic at BEST, hella pessimism still reserved for the dems. and what about that prop 87, eh? i thought vinod had it in the bag, but those smarmy chevron ads at the end may have worked.
[off topic...a belated reply to GFWD (sorry; been wrangling my 9 month old for the last several hours) yes, he did gradute UNC law in '98, and was also an undergraduate there, '88 - '92. You too?]
talk about rejoicing - rumsfeld resigned, now that is cause for celebration! the old prune fnially got kicked to the curb.
"the bush stands alone, the bush stands alone" -sung to the tune of farmer in the dell.
Salem, your posts always move me--most often to giggles, but sometimes (like today) to misty eyes. Well said, my friend.
Kent, could not agree more--though I'm not sandbagged into cynical dare-not-hopeness at the prospect of the struggle ahead. I believe in the next two years we can at least begin the process of righting some of the wrongs wrought by this administration, which are among the worst ever made in this nation's name. And there have been some doozies.
Bush is using Rummy as his goat, and I think that it's a pretty shrewd (though tragically tardy) move. Still, good to see him go. The AP and the Billings Gazette have called the race for Tester. Now the worst case scenario is a tie, with equal representation on the committees. What a great night for us!
woohoo!
Katie, your hubby must be my former classmate. We attended undergrad and law school at the exact same time. If I recall correctly, he either studied or traveled or has ancestors from Hungary and he used to translate lines from The Usual Suspects for me. I believe my nickname for him was "Keyser Soze". Please tell him Greg says hello.
Salem, I missed the voting deadline by 12 minutes due to bad traffic on the Connector, but I would have voted for Sonny Perdue as well. I think he's done admirably well for a first time Republican governor in a heavily entrenched Democratic region, especially after he basically alienated those who voted for him hoping he would change the state flag.
Glad of the way things turned out. Just a little bummed that my state of TN couldn't have been one to step up to the plate. It was a very close race. I, and many others I know, would have liked Ford to win but the good ole boys won again. sigh.
Hail to the victors. Seriously, you ran a great national campaign and deserved to win.
Now, will you attempt to govern, or will this be two years of "screw Bush"?
Greg -- sounds like the right Richard. He and I met in Hungary (though I am English). I will pass on your greetings as soon as I can unplug him from watching election-related news...
Who's the decider now, bitch!
The silver lining is that 2 years of controlling at least half of congress is more than enough time for Democrats to blow it with voters.
if only everyone took voting as seriously as this lady...
Congratulations. I agree with CL . . . it is a pleasure to see you happy, too!
Thrilled that my vote counted this time...for Webb in VA!!!
OMG, this is BIG! I have been in a news blackout all day and just found out about the Senate thing. OMG OMG OMG.....
Hey, it's LFMD....how ya doing' Laurie?
Dear Conservative readers,
There are plenty of places you can pat yourselves on the back about how you're the ones that see clearly, that the Democratic party are a bunch of corrupt, immoral fools who just want to run the country into the ground. This isn't that place.
The fact you can't deny is this: Even though most people in the US are somewhere to the right of the Democratic Party's mainstream, the Republican Party is to THEIR right at this point, and what the election tells the Republican Party is this: YOU BLEW IT.
All politicians are human, which means they're corruptible, and prey to all sorts of of delusions fantasies. The fact that some Democrats may be corrupt, or silly, or loudmouthed jerks implies in no wise the superiority of the Republican Party.
Yesterday, the citizenry spoke and what they said is that the Republican Party has let the country down. It remains to be seen if the Democrats do any better. But I categorically refuse to cede any sort of ideological or moral high ground to the Republicans.
I didn't agree with the Republican Party about a lot of things when they were just the party of Capital, but I acknowledged that Capital needs to be reprepresented at the table when the country thrashes out what to do. In the past 6 years, the Republicans have denied anyone else a place at the table.
Americans don't want leather boys buggering in the rotunda while grade school teachers hand out LSD to their students. Americans don't want bread and circuses socialism. They just want the nightmare to stop. That's the mandate.
chaircrusher, Congressional Republicans did indeed blow it, in many ways, and I agree with much of what you wrote. However, here's a few other observations:
Quite a number of Democratic gains were made by running relatively conservative candidates in traditionally Republican strongholds. That is, Democrats won congress by running candidates who are more like Republicans, especially on social and fiscal issues. Wise move on the DNCs part and not exactly a kick in the crotch for conservatives. And as Chris M pointed out above, the seat swing against the encumbant party is well below average for a 6th year presidency. It has been much worse every time since WWII.
Notice also that there are no calls from conservatives that the election was stolen (Diebold, etc.), as we hear constantly whenever Democrats fail. Still, I maintain that 2 years of Speaker Pelosi will bode well for Republicans in 2008.
Finally, as others here have said, I'm glad you guys finally have something to be cheery about. Seriously.
Matt, of course Democrats ran right. They're politicians, so what comes out of their mouth reflects their perception of what their constituency wants to hear. No different than Republicans.
On the other hand, do you seriously think that any committed conservatives voted Democrat Tuesday?
No. Plenty of conservatives are still suckers for any fool willing to spout bigotry against homosexuals, bloody-minded militarism, breast-beating religious piety, and anti-scientific claptrap.
This is not a mandate. Close races were the rule in this elections. Half of the people in the United States would wear sunglasses at night if Bush said it was daytime.