I'm going to bed shortly --- yes, it's almost 8PM, I'm such an animal --- but I've got a couple of things I want to say before bed.
First, yes, it looks like the Democrats will make some gains. Now that the horse race is over, I want to be among the first to make a little analytic statement. As a cynical, warhawk libertarian Republican Party Reptile, the thing I always remember is that it's always our job as citizens to keep our eyes on whoever is in the government and try to keep them from doing stupid crap. If the gains mean that the Democrats are in control of the Legislative Branch, the difference is which stupid crap we're going to have to try to stop.
Second, there are several places where we have made big government (and Big Government) efforts to improve thing over the last six years. (Good God, it's been six years since the 2000 election.) Among those is how elections are run. I think it's fair to say, even before people start whining on one side or the other, about election problems, is that billions of dollars and years of strife have not helped.
I have my own questions, honestly, whether some of the issue doesn't come down to people in control not wanting election procedures to improve.
And so to bed.
17 comments:
I am giving up on really knowing what happens tonight.
My two cents? I think that silly nonsense like immigration and Dubai really cost the Republicans. It created internal friction they did not need.
BTW, some of the people who lost tonight were very right wing, it is not just guys like Chafee and DeWine.
Terrye,
I don't think that there's an overarching theme. The Dems picked people off one at a time for the most part. I'll take a look at it tomorrow but it looks like most of the Reps tainted by scandal got booted, Hayworth in AZ is now unemployed - due in part to immigration plus the fact that he can't keep his mouth shut. Shoot, Ellsworth and Schuler may turn out to be more conservative than the Reps they are replacing.
Emanuel ran a good set of campaigns with a lot of cheap shots. Some of the Reps deserved the shots they took and some might not have but it's a very instructive lesson.
Rick,
Captain's Quarters is reporting that Catholics may have switched in large numbers in OH, PA, and VA. If so, that is very significant. The question is why.
Please, Please, Please [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Tell me Tony Snow didn't say this. Via a reader: "FoxNews reporting from the White House: White House spokesman Tony Snow reacted to the change in House control by allowing they're disappointed, but that it presents some intriguing opportunities, such as passing comprehensive immigration reform which failed in the previous Republican House."
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House does the right thing.
Loses because of Bush.
Bush gets a second chance to give the country away.
(Hispanics vote 65% Dem, NEA teaches their kids to hate Amerika)
I've written from time to time here and elsewhere that the two parties will survive us all. I think that prediction a no-brainer.
Nobody, me included (I've lucked out two elections in a row in what prognostication I've done) knows much of anything and we're knowing less and less all the time.
I think there are 728 days to go.
...and so it goes.
loner:
This is true.
doug:
70% of the people in this country supported comprehensive immigration reform.
In my district, Hostettler was a fence only kind of guy. He got beat.
To say they lost because of Bush is to completely ignore all the stuff at play here. Bush won his election. In fact he has a higher approval rating than Congress.
You may never vote for a Dem again, but it won't matter:
Hispanics vote 65% Dem.
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70% did not support Amnesty, but that's what it was, all Bush's, McCain's and Kennedy's LIES notwithstanding.
Conservatives did not like being lied to, condescended to, and ignored, but they were, by a Yaley in a Stetson.
And Bush condemned himself before he got started by leaving all of Clintons lying leaking traitors in Washington.
Clinton "cleaned" house when he arrived, but Bush brought a "new tone", ignoring minor unpleasantries like enemies within.
So we lost.
Bush won his election BEFORE some of his lame-brained actions and lack of actions in the past two years.
Old Supremes will probably quit with Leahy in Charge.
Maybe we'll get Bush's Church Lady again.
Libertarian voters delivered the Senate to the Dems.
Cold comfort for us all.
A New Voter Fraud
Democrats are getting people to vote for moderates in order to put extremists in power.
By Thomas Sowell
(Some of the "moderates" aren't:
Tester is a left-wing moonbat who goes pro-gun to win.)
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Alcee Hastings the crook for Intelligence:
Jane Harmon offends Nancy.
doug:
Give it a rest. Bush was never a fence only kind of person and he won on that, he never hid it. And Conservatives lost because they did too much of what you are doing right now.
Save me a slice, DT. I didn't even get my own district right. He was tarred with the Abramoff brush and a first guess as to a rationale for about half the losses would be that if the "values voters" that were noted as carrying weight in '04 decide that a candidate's actions don't show much in the way of values then he doesn't get the vote.
It looks like the incumbent return rate in the House is about 96%, which is very normal.
Chuck,
Any same day analysis of exit polling has to be a bit tainted, doesn't it? The deal with the Catholics - especially in Ohio is a set up for '08. It's a baby meme. There may be some truth in it but "scandal ridden" Ohio only gave up one seat in the House where "clean" Indiana gave up three. The scandals in Ohio (aside from Ney) were on the state level and the Dems picked up the governorship as a result. It might be part of the reason that DeWine got the boot but I think a larger reason for that was his display of lack of party loyalty by joining the (now reduced) gang of dimwits.
Ohio "threw the bums out" but they threw the right bums out.
Excuse me, my humble crow pie is ready and I don't wish to miss the opportunity for a good meal.
Terrye,
That did not excuse him for refusing to enforce the law re:
Workplace enforcement.
(worst record in history, AFTER 9-11)
Nor did it give him a VALID reason to ignore Conservatives Begging him to ENFORCE the EXISTING law!
Terrye:
Bush and the Pubs made it easy for the Dems to out-conservative them.
Emanuel's strategy was simple.
Shut up Nancy and Harry, and let the "Conservative" candidates carry the election.
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Thomas Sowell
Sowell: A New Voter Fraud
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Democrats are getting people to vote for moderates in order to put extremists in power.
doug
Sounds like you're more worried about who gets the Hispanic vote than you are about illegals. I'd suggest honing your rhetoric a bit ;)
David
A discussion about value free novel writing required a philosophical mind
Does it? My favorite author these days is Janet Evanovich. No mind required at all. But then I doubt it requires a philosophical mind to discover that women think about sex almost as much as do men.
---which Allen completely lacks!
with you there!
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