The mop-up.

Well, that was interesting.

[Koff.]

I expect we all know what we want to talk about, and the bar is open. A few thoughts:

* As always, things didn’t go entirely as planned for anyone. Angle, O’Donnell, Paladino, et al. Whatever coattails those stupid colonial-Williamsburg tea party outfits had, they didn’t extend all the way to the insane asylum.

* Still, very bad for Obama. This makes 2012 look pretty grim. On the other hand, don’t underestimate anyone or anything. For once, Maureen Dowd is instructive.

* The challenge, once you’ve gotten a job you’ve fought hard for, is to do it well. But I don’t believe for a minute the GOP intends to do any job in Washington other than making Barack Obama a one-term president. They don’t have a plan for health care; that’s been made abundantly clear over the past year. They don’t have a plan for the economy other than to cut taxes and blame the ensuing deficits on Obama. They don’t even have a legislative plan, other than to “cut federal spending,” except for Medicare, Social Security, defense, et al.

* Rand Paul — what a piece of work. Swaggering, arrogant, the contemporary embodiment of the mine owners who told their employees how lucky they were to get to shop in such a clean company store. Kind of an argument for battered wife syndrome at the state level.

* Dear Evan Joe Lieberman Bayh: Shut up.

* What is Michael Gerson so put out about? Tom Tancredo speaks for his people. As the lady in touch with Real America knows.

As for me, I need to pull together something for my other gig. Interesting results there — the moderate Democrat representing us in the Michigan House, the first one ever in the history of our district, kept his seat, and delivered a thumpin’ to his Republican opponent, in a year when something else entirely should have happened. Hmm. Of course, Rick Snyder won the governor’s office, as expected. Which means the tax incentives for filmmaking are dead. It was fun while it lasted, but it never lasts long.

Posted at 8:27 am in Current events |
 

87 responses to “The mop-up.”

  1. Sue said on November 3, 2010 at 8:39 am

    Bar’s open? Good. The black lace gloves that complete my head-to-toe mourning make it difficult to type, but I can definitely clutch a margarita, thank you.

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  2. Mark P. said on November 3, 2010 at 8:45 am

    The Southeast is Red.

    I am currently in Alabama. I watched the local TV report Alabama’s results. One new Republican congressman promised to cut spending and send defense money to his district. No one sees the contradiction. People whose entire income consists of tax money (namely, those defense workers) complain about paying taxes and federal spending. And old people vote for candidates who want to eliminate Social Security and Medicare.

    We are a nation of idiots.

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  3. 4dbirds said on November 3, 2010 at 8:51 am

    My sister-in-law, a devout christian, was raised as an army brat, married my brother an army officer and has two sons who are also both army officers. Every dime of salary that has ever gone into her household is federal money yet she feels government is too big. sigh.

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  4. coozledad said on November 3, 2010 at 8:58 am

    I think the Republicans will find that if they go after Obama (as shit-fer-brains Issa has promised), that phantom negro who’s been hiding beneath their bed is going to become very real. Even more real than the NBPP. But curiously larger and whiter than the darkamoor of their fever dreams.

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  5. Suzanne said on November 3, 2010 at 9:16 am

    I live in Indiana and I am depressed this morning. We elected a senator who has lived out of state for the past decade and became rich as a lobbyist (a profession conservatives SAY they hate), voted to put property tax caps into the constitution (a law wasn’t good enough) and turned down almost every school district’s referendum for more funding (keep those kids fat and dumb, so they do what you tell ’em). I used to be a conservative, until I had one too many conversations with conservatives who b***hed about the size of the government while they reaped the benefit of that same government’s largesse.

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  6. JC said on November 3, 2010 at 9:41 am

    While the national results were disheartening, my local and state races made me mostly happy. I went to sleep last night secure in the knowledge that the California governor’s office couldn’t be bought for $161 million. At least not this year. Carly Fiorina still hasn’t conceded the senate race to Barbara Boxer, even though it appears that Boxer has a healthy lead in the votes counted so far.
    Sorry that my state sent Issa back again. It’s not my district, honestly.

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  7. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 3, 2010 at 9:47 am

    P.J. O’Rourke — It’s not a mandate . . . it’s a restraining order.

    Word.

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  8. baldheadeddork said on November 3, 2010 at 9:48 am

    “Democracy is the theory that the people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” – Mencken

    What makes a good chaser for Brawndo?

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  9. Mark P. said on November 3, 2010 at 9:56 am

    I just checked the results in my home state of Georgia. “We” have elected a man who recently resigned from Congress to avoid an ethics investigation, while rejecting a man who as a previous governor removed the racist Confederate battle flag as an element of the state flag.

    Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.

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  10. Julie Robinson said on November 3, 2010 at 10:00 am

    Our son had a great summation of the night, and the future. As Glee ended (the one hour per week that our TV is tuned to Fox), one of their anchors came on and Matt said, “well, he looks like a prick”. We were laughing so hard that I didn’t catch who it was but I think it’s a line we’ll be quoting frequently over the next two years.

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  11. LAMary said on November 3, 2010 at 10:07 am

    What JC said. I’m cool with everything here. I was hoping the legal reefer measure would pass but I’m ok with it.
    Waiting for Fiorina to give it up. Her affected little smug smile was seriously getting on my nerves.

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  12. Jolene said on November 3, 2010 at 10:10 am

    Also coming soon to our national legislature: Allen West, R-FL, who has said publicly that his position as a retired lieutenant colonel gives him access to intelligence info that even the president doesn’t have. And Ben Quayle.

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  13. Jolene said on November 3, 2010 at 10:16 am

    Re Meg Whitman’s campaign budget: A factoid circulating on the web has it that the cost of her campaign is equal to the entire budget of the National Endowment for the Arts. Pretty amazing.

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  14. brian stouder said on November 3, 2010 at 10:18 am

    It was fun while it lasted, but it never lasts long.

    My lovely wife tells me that all the time

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  15. coozledad said on November 3, 2010 at 10:25 am

    I’m just trying to pinpoint the moment in my adolescence when PJ O’Rourke became a deadly unfunny irrelevance to me. I was either fourteen or fifteen, looking at a National Lampoon “Foto funnies” starring PJ and a woman without a shirt. PJ is drawing lines of coke out on a mirror and the woman sneezes, making PJ lose his coke. PJ says “You know, sweetiecups, tits or no tits, you really are an asshole.” The fact there were tits in the picture, and the “humor” was bluntly transgressive in a stupid way, stuck with me. And it occurs to me that PJ’s humor never evolved from that point. That’s the thing that sets coke apart from any other drug. It not only kills your sense of decency, it apparently never lets it come back again. The humjob he gave to the oligarchy in Guatemala “Now THAT”S how to run a country!” Is pretty similar to his current shitcart pushing for your 700 club.
    Brazenly stupid, coke addled, and turgid.

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  16. Scout said on November 3, 2010 at 10:31 am

    Living in Arizona depresses the hell out of me. This morning more than usual.

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  17. alex said on November 3, 2010 at 10:37 am

    Well, dispirited Hoosiers, as dumb as the people of our state may be, at least they’re not as dumb as the citizens of Oklahoma, who just amended their constitution to prohibit Sharia law. Or those of Kentucky, who just elected Rand Paul.

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  18. Randy said on November 3, 2010 at 10:38 am

    In all the lead-up to this election, I could never find a clear consensus on whether or not Obama actually accomplished anything thus far. Every tangible achievement gets completely denigrated by critics. But when the economy blows up and you’re financing two huge wars, how quick can you turn it around? Someone compared Obama to Jimmy Carter, but I can’t think of two presidents who are more opposite of each other.

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  19. adrianne said on November 3, 2010 at 10:39 am

    Here in the bluest of blue states (New York, baby!) the news wasn’t all bad. Five congressional districts flipped from Dem to Republican, but that was to be expected – the newbie Dems were all elected in the 2006 wave, and the Republican tide was too much. Happily, our self-financed moron from Buffalo (Carl Paladino) was resoundingly kicked to the curb. I’m more disturbed by my home state of Pennsylvania electing Mr. Club for Growth Pat Toomey as their new U.S. senator. This will only end in tears, Keystoners!

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  20. Jolene said on November 3, 2010 at 10:42 am

    Everyone should read Hank’s commentary on last night’s broadcasts of election results and analysis. As always, an intellectyual and linguistic delight.

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  21. Deborah said on November 3, 2010 at 10:51 am

    It’s depressing in Chicago today. The governor race is still pending, both of the candidates aren’t great in my opinion. I voted for Gianoulias for senator yesterday just because he was the Democratic candidate. Why in the world the Dems let him be their guy is beyond me.

    The Democratic party is beyond pathetic. I hope Kaine is replaced. Where is Dean these days? We need him back. We have the next two years to straighten up, but I’m not confident the Dems can do it. Groan.

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  22. Harrison said on November 3, 2010 at 11:01 am

    Suzanne, you said, and I quote:

    I live in Indi­ana and I am depressed this morn­ing. We elected a sen­a­tor who has lived out of state for the past decade and became rich as a lob­by­ist (a pro­fes­sion con­ser­v­a­tives SAY they hate), voted to put prop­erty tax caps into the con­sti­tu­tion (a law wasn’t good enough) and turned down almost every school district’s ref­er­en­dum for more fund­ing (keep those kids fat and dumb, so they do what you tell ‘em).

    You forgot to mention the election of a GOP-majority state Senate and House, therefore giving Mitch Daniels, aka Napoleon Combover, the backing to pass his agenda and feed his fantasies of running for president in 2012.

    You also forgot to mention the re-election of Mike Pence, who told some conservation convocation this year that he was a Christian first. Good sir, this deist will call you what you are: A pharisaical prick. He, Daniels, and Dan Coats will kiss up to Jesus so much in public that I’m halfway tempted to break one of the Ten Commandments just to prove that I’m not like any of them at all.

    Damn. Even Dan Burton’s re-election, which was expected, didn’t upset me as much as these things.

    And as for Palin, she acts less like a political figure and more like an unlikeable realty show star. She’ll go with the folks who will pay her attention because she craves it after the reality show run/presidental campaign is over. That pathetic woman.

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  23. moe99 said on November 3, 2010 at 11:05 am

    Dave Weigel had a good tweet about Evan Bayh’s editorial. Something about “Shut up quitter.” I can get behind that. Patty Murray is winning but the Seattle Times doesn’t want to give up their wet dream of Dino Rossi taking it away from her. I didn’t drink last night, probably just as well. A woman down the street from me committed suicide Sunday night. She’d been living with her mother, who went into a nursing home after a series of strokes rendered her incompetent and the other siblings were selling the house to pay for the care. This woman, who was in her late 40s early 50’s, had been into drugs, in jail for a period of time, had no job and faced being homeless. She’d lived off the proceeds of the estate sale of the contents of the house from earlier this summer but the money had run out. An offer on the house was received Sunday and she hung herself in the basement several hours later. Right before trick or treating started in my neighborhood.

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  24. Jeff Borden said on November 3, 2010 at 11:12 am

    I’m fucking depressed. In addition to electing an obstructionist Republican to Obama’s old seat, a reform candidate for county assessor got creamed, underscoring how damned hard it is for anyone without a D or an R after their name to get elected.

    I guess we’ll get what we deserve. While the rest of the world moves forward, we’ll continue to look backwards, to those sepia-tinged days of yore so alluring to Speaker John Suntan (R-Coppertone) as our infrastructure crumbles, our schools disintegrate and our health care system wheeze along.

    I’m sure they’re breaking out the bubbly on Wall Street and that the Koch Brothers are giving each other handjobs. All that lovely cash funneled anonymously to candidates –thanks Roberts court!– paid off huge dividends to them and their ultra-rich buddies. I’m sure Speaker Suntan cannot wait to begin currying favor with his financial masters. And the middle class will keep shrinking.

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  25. Holly said on November 3, 2010 at 11:20 am

    Now I get to go to work today and listen to everyone talk about how great the election turned out. I work at a Catholic nursing home. 99% of the people in that place are Republican. Should be a fun day.

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  26. coozledad said on November 3, 2010 at 11:20 am

    And in the meantime, another poster child for the ill-effects of cocaine begins to deny starting his own war:
    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/bush_i_was_a_dissenting_voice_on_iraq_war.php?ref=fpb
    Once a shambling, responsibility evading coward…
    These guys make Stalinist history book editors look like masters of subtlety.

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  27. moe99 said on November 3, 2010 at 11:54 am

    http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/how-obama-saved-capitalism-and-lost-the-midterms/

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  28. Peter said on November 3, 2010 at 11:57 am

    Well, I did my patriotic duty yesterday and was an election judge. It really is something seeing democracy in action, and folks, I don’t mean that as a compliment.

    Jeff, kind of tells you the quality of the competition, but when our precinct printed out the vote totals, it was Kirk and Brady over Giannoulias and Quinn by over 2 to 1. In the City. Imagine my surprise when we handed the ballots in and I found out that Quinn had a 14 point lead at the time.

    I’m fine with Kirk winning; Alexi is a real empty suit. The depressing thing is that Kirk is what passes for a moderate Republican these days.

    As for the Governor, unfortunately this is going to turn into a weeks long soap opera. They’re both incompetent and neither has the talent of getting the legislature to face reality. This state has systemic problems, and Bozo nor Himmler are up to the task.

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  29. Peter said on November 3, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    And another thing: People like Michael Gerson are shocked, shocked that Snowzilla gives props to criminally deranged yokels on the off chance they could get elected. Just like how the Ruhr and Rhine industrialists were shocked when their boy Adolf started veering from the playbook.

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  30. prospero said on November 3, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    What will the GOBaggers do with the House? Well, former chop shop entrepreneur and arsonist-for-hire Darrell Issa will investigate the mysteries of the President’s birth certificate.

    Given the friendly fire potential of the Real Teaparty freaks, and the fact that the Senate will remain the Hoover Dam of government, I don’t see that GOP really gained much on status quo nationally.

    It remains to be seen as statewide results emerge and are analyzed how much damage has been done. How may states end up redistricted, and what foul excrescenses may now be in place to play the part of Ken Blackwell and the Painted Lady in 2012?

    The California results gratify my black heart, anyway.

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  31. Judybusy said on November 3, 2010 at 12:18 pm

    We’re still awaiting the governorship decision here in Minnesota. Even if the Democrat wins, nothing will get done, as both the House and Senate went Republican. If the Republican wins, heaven help us. The cuts to services and education will be draconian. In Wisconsin, I was astonished that Feingold got so royally stomped. Minnesota used to be so Democratic, as many rural folks understood the Democrats were on their side. I remember my dad, a farmer, telling me when I was around 9 that the Democrats stood up for the farmers. Now I am sure he is a raging Tea Partier. The propaganda worked wonders on people like my dad, and all the rest of my immediate family. The social issues are a huge hook for them, and they have no clue about how the economic policies hurt them.

    This book looks like a great read on the subject of wealth transfer. I have already requested it from the library, and love that there’s a waiting list.

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  32. Catherine said on November 3, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    The other good news in the CA election is that we finally passed an proposition to allow state budget approval with a simple majority — like every other state in the country, heck, the world — instead of a 2/3 majority. While this will probably lead to new abuses, at least there is hope for an end to budget gridlock in Sacramento. No more IOUs and 100-days-late budgets.

    Not a huge fan of Barbara Boxer’s, but better than fired-by-her-board Carly Fiorina. And I love Jolene’s statistic about Meg’s personal spending on her campaign being equal to the NEA budget. What would you do with $140 million? I sure wouldn’t try to buy the governorship of California. Doubling national funding for the arts sounds like a lot more fun.

    Last note on the marijuana initiative: I have to admit, I cringed at the thought of someday lighting up a doob with my kids, legal or not. I think I need some more time to wrap my head around legal pot.

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  33. Rana said on November 3, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    Indiana’s results are shitty, yes, but they’re pretty much what I expected. One thing I didn’t expect, though, was how low the actual Tea Party-Libertarian candidates polled. I don’t think the revolution in this state is as great as some people would like to make it.

    That property tax thing, though? That’s going to be the death spiral of this state, and they don’t even realize it. 1% cap, really? I mean, really?

    I am also boggled at the idea of the public schools becoming even worse – I teach their graduates, and I can honestly say I’ve never taught more poorly prepared students in my life.

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  34. coozledad said on November 3, 2010 at 12:44 pm

    Moe: That’s an excellent editorial, and that pretty much sums up the petty rationale behind the Republican disgust with him. He’s a better captain of industry than they are. He’s a better market analyst. And he thinks more of the country than they ever will.
    We’ll just have to get out to the town hall meetings and start shouting Republicans down. I’m sure we can hire some people in feeb scooters to lend it an air of Americanishness.

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  35. prospero said on November 3, 2010 at 1:24 pm

    23 0f those lost “Democratic” House seats, were held by Blue Dogs. Big woof, and uh, boohoo.

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  36. LAMary said on November 3, 2010 at 1:59 pm

    Catherine, I don’t think I’d be getting high in front of the kids. I don’t even drink. I liked the idea of taxing weed and taking the market away from my local gangsters.

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  37. LAMary said on November 3, 2010 at 2:05 pm

    Harrison, I was thinking the same thing about $P. She’s out of politician mode and into some other weird phase of power tripping. I think the botox is impeding her ability to wink. She’s looking awfully firm facially. Like rigid. Or embalmed. Luckily for all of us her daughter will never be voted off Dancing with the Stars. She will win just for being so darn cute.

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  38. Suzanne said on November 3, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    In regards to Rana: “That prop­erty tax thing, though? That’s going to be the death spi­ral of this state, and they don’t even real­ize it…” Nope they won’t realize it until the house begins to burn and there aren’t any firefighters. Or they see a crime in progress and there aren’t any cops. Mini Mitch won’t care, because he’ll be sunning on the beach somewhere, with the millions he got speaking on the Hoosier Economic Miracle that never was.

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  39. 4dbirds said on November 3, 2010 at 2:33 pm

    I nearly sprayed the monitor with my diet coke after reading “peo­ple in feeb scoot­ers to lend it an air of Amer­i­can­ish­ness.”

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  40. Catherine said on November 3, 2010 at 2:50 pm

    LAMary, I too like the idea of taxing and regulating pot. And since I’m known to have a glass of wine of a Friday evening, that’s probably why I went there with the ganja. If it’s legal and we’re all adults, right? I’m not saying my squeamishness is entirely rational, but sometimes things that make sense from an economics standpoint don’t feel right personally. Maybe it will someday.

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  41. moe99 said on November 3, 2010 at 2:55 pm

    Catherine, Maybe when the glaucoma kicks in?
    (big grin)

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  42. alex said on November 3, 2010 at 3:02 pm

    Rana, you’re so right. I know a lot of people who voted “yes” on that Trojan horse of a referendum because on its face it looks like a good thing. What they don’t realize is that this won’t do a damn thing for the poor or middle class. It’s simply more tax relief for the wealthy at the expense of public education.

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  43. Catherine said on November 3, 2010 at 3:26 pm

    Moe, definitely then, and maybe sooner. 😉 I voted for the medical marijuana initiative, and it’s been interesting on two levels: One, to see the number of people genuinely helped; and two, to see the unintended consequences, like the wall-to-wall “clinics” on the Venice boardwalk.

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  44. Deborah said on November 3, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    I just got a new computer at work, so I’m testing it to see if it works here at nnc.

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  45. Sue said on November 3, 2010 at 3:43 pm

    Ok, now that the Margaritas have kicked in, I find myself more hopeful for a Feingold-less state. Because a state that can do this can do ANYTHING:
    (from the November edition of The Wire, http://www.customersfirst.org/wire/11_10/Nov10TheWire.pdf)
    “Cheese-o-watts
    You can make electricity, it turns out, from more things than most of us would have imagined. With help from a state loan announced last month, a Lafayette County cheese-making firm will meet most of its own power requirements by turning whey into kilowatts.
    The State Energy Program (SEP) will provide a $550,000 loan to Betin, Inc., one of the nation’s largest goat-cheese producers. The company will install an anaerobic digester at its facility in Belmont to process whey and wastewater. This will produce methane that can be used to meet as much as 80 percent of the company’s energy needs, according to an announcement from Governor Doyle’s office.
    Comprising a total investment of $3.5 million, the project is expected to create 13 jobs.”
    ***
    Of course, this kind of thing will no longer be happening under a Walker administration even without the heart-stopping bucks/jobs ratio. Damn, where did I put that marg glass?

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  46. Judybusy said on November 3, 2010 at 3:43 pm

    I just finished up yesterday’s comments, and wanted to give a belated thank-you to Catherine for the AZ immigration law story. Posted it to my FB profile, too.

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  47. brian stouder said on November 3, 2010 at 4:36 pm

    …and a Washington Post News Alert email informs me that the Buck stopped in Colorado (versus Bennet in their senate race). This morning I had 12 Washington Post News Alerts waiting for me from the night before, announcing winners. The interesting thing was, the oldest 5 all had headlines using the word “beats” – as in Coats Beats Ellsworth, Coons Beats O’Donnell, etc.

    The last of the “beats” emails was received at 2 minutes before 9pm, and after that, all the rest became “defeats” emails (as in Reid defeats Angle, etc).

    So now we know when the shift change occurs at the Washington Post e-news desk

    Jolene – I loved the Stuever article you linked, about the tv coverage; and moe, that was a terrible story about the dispossessed young lady

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  48. Jeff Borden said on November 3, 2010 at 5:41 pm

    Well, the outlook is grim as the dumber and the dumbest will file into Congress in January, but at least we don’t have the wee man from Crawford in public life.

    If you have not seen the interview with Matt Lauer pimping his new book, you may not have heard what George W. Bush calls the lowest point of his presidency.

    1. The war in Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that didn’t exist? No. Sorry.
    2. The 9/11 attacks that occurred after he’d been handed a memo months earlier warning Osama bin Laden was determined to strike inside the U.S.? Wrong. Keep guessing.
    3. Letting one of America’s greatest and most unique cities slowly drown while he diddled and Brownie did a “heckuva job” in New Orleans? Incorrect.
    4. Turning a budget surplus into a gigantic sinkhole of deficit spending thanks to tax cuts for the wealthiest and an extension of additional Medicare benefits without funding? Surely, you jest.

    No, the darkest moment for W. came when Kanye West declared on a TV awards program that “George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

    So, forget about the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people who are dead because of his foolish war; or those who still suffer as New Orleans slowly fights its way back to normalcy; or the debt load that is crushing us and future generations. It was Kanye West, hurting his poor little feelings, that represent the low point of his laughably inept and corrupt presidency.

    I’m sorry, but what a fuckhead.

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  49. Joe Kobiela said on November 3, 2010 at 5:53 pm

    Gee Im about to break out the cheese to go with all the whinning around here. So the Dems lost big, boo hoo hoo, Ithink it was probly Bushes fault some how. Look suck it up, go on with your lifes and try again in two years, that’s what I have been doing for the last 2yrs, if the ones in power fuck up boot them out, remember they are elected by a majority not by a minorety of people who think they no best. Tell you what, be the first on your block and say Iam going to try and do whatever I can to help those in power,hell somebody has to be the first to try that, If you do it now, I’ll promise to do it after the next election.
    Cheers,
    On a side note,took in the arch and did the budweiser tour. Had a nice lunch downtown St Lou, will be running along the Missouri river. Nice area down here.
    Pilot Joe

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  50. coozledad said on November 3, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    I have a question. When we were taking the signs down at Dem headquarters in Roxboro, someone had left a teabag on the doorknob of the building. Does this mean some lonely someone wants us to dip our balls in their mouth? It was decaffeinated tea. Does that mean they are in fact, nutless?
    I’m actually feeling energized by the prospect of putting aside the idiotic notion of bipartisanship, and going for the jugular. I’m starting a group called “Americans for AP English!”

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  51. Bob (not Greene) said on November 3, 2010 at 6:16 pm

    Aw, come on Joe. You say the ones in power fucked up. Fucked up what? You say we all think it was Bush’s fault.
    This election? No, it wasn’t Bush’s fault. The state of the economy certainly is Bush’s fault, and the GOP did a grand job convincing the rubes that it was Obama’s fault. The GOP did a grand job of leading the charge to invade Iraq and plunge us into years of war and incredible loss of life and money. That somehow has landed in Obama’s lap, too. The GOP has Rube America convinced TARP was a failure and that it was Obama who slammed it through. American believes the auto bailout was a failure. Of course, you know and I know that it wasn’t. It saved the Detroit auto industry from complete collapse and saved thousands of jobs. But the GOP has Rube America convinced it was flat-out communism.

    What the Dems seem to have the inability to do, to their eternal credit and ultimately their destruction, is prostrate themselves before idiots in order to get elected. The GOP, glad just to have any power at all, will happily lie to the rubes, pocket the cash and send this nation right over the cliff.

    Help those in power? The GOP? Fuck the GOP. Actually, Joe, I’m not nearly as mad at the GOP as I am at the Dems. They did indeed fuck up having complete power and pissing it away by being timid. The Blue Dogs, afraid of their moderate constituencies back home, tried to play it both ways instead of proclaiming and backing the good that was being done on behalf of people in this country — and they were summarily turned out for their efforts. Dumbasses all.

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  52. Dexter said on November 3, 2010 at 6:29 pm

    The American War Against the People of Vietnam was so long ago people are forgetting all about it, and who cares if a politician makes up stuff about serving there during the war?…nobody!
    Hey, this country is full of blowhard bastards who lie about all kinds of fictional life events , and even old Reagan waited until he was in office (he didn’t play up his lie about his fake military career to win votes) to pop off about his fake war heroics.
    Blumenthal used his lies to ATTAIN A US SENATE SEAT!
    He never served in Vietnam, so by saying he did he was mocking the 58,000 Americans who died there, and the two million who survived the war.
    When he was caught, months before tonight, he said he “mis-spoke”, and some sell-out veterans stood behind him when he said it.
    And now this scumbag is headed for the Senate.
    I know the people of Connecticut don’t care a damn thing about the Vietnam War, but they also don’t care about the character of their politicians, and that makes everyone who voted for Blumenthal a low crawling snake just like him.

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  53. cosmo panzini said on November 3, 2010 at 6:41 pm

    Damn. Lot of gloom and doom here. Yes, we are surrounded by idiots, but the elections were mid-terms, and if the economy starts to revive they will be a dot in the rear-view mirror. The Dems probably needed something to wake them up to James Carville’s wise words: IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID.

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  54. Jeff Borden said on November 3, 2010 at 6:57 pm

    Unfortunately, Cosmo, the Congressional Republicans will be pulling their 3-year-old tantrum antics to keep anything from getting done. I have no great confidence our economy will rebound enough in the next two years when you have a bunch of assholes who publicly proclaim their patriotism while they shit on the country they claim to love. When the Senate minority leader says publicly that Job One for the GOP is to make Obama a one-term president, what the fuck can you answer? They’d rather millions of our fellow citizens lose their homes, their jobs, their health care, their futures. . .if they can get a shot at the White House in 2012.

    This is not “the loyal opposition” we learn about in civics classes. This is a thuggish, selfish, nihilistic political movement more interested in power than governing. I continue to ask how a political movement built on a hatred of government can ever really govern?

    It’s a great day to be a rich motherfucker like the Koch brothers. Obama likely will roll over on the Bush tax cuts –a true fiscal disaster– in his ill-fated effort to be bipartisan. And McConnell, Boehner and the other loons will spit in his eye, regardless.

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  55. Tom M said on November 3, 2010 at 7:05 pm

    Oh, Dexter, you poor silly boy. While I’m not happy with Blumenthal’s prevarications (USN 1969-1973), scumbag seems a bit much. Plus, I’ve read up on Linda McMahon so maybe if RB had faced other than a silly candidate from the silly party, those lies might have hurt.
    When your choice is reduced to such, it’s hard to find fault with Connecticut-ans
    choosing pathetic over empty headed animal food trough wiper. But to each his own.
    Please don’t let your emotions run what obviously needs to become a better honed sense of cynicism.

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  56. LAMary said on November 3, 2010 at 7:06 pm

    Well, they got rid of the first woman speaker and they want to make sure having a black president was a one time aberration. They’re taking back their country.

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  57. Rana said on November 3, 2010 at 7:28 pm

    And, by painting right-centrist Obama and his Blue Dogs as radical left-wing socialists, they’ve succeeded in moving the goalposts so far to the right that even “centrism” makes someone like Nixon look like a wild-eyed hippy tree-hugger.

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  58. 4dbirds said on November 3, 2010 at 7:36 pm

    Be the first on my block to help the GOP out? Ha Ha it is to laugh. Fuck them. They didn’t do a thing to bring us together in 08. This is war and I’m prepping today to take them out in 12.

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  59. moe99 said on November 3, 2010 at 7:41 pm

    Well, Dexter, let’s be all bipartisan and talk about Mark Kirk who lied just as much about his military record or more, and still got elected as the Republican Senator from IL.

    ps. I meant to tell Sue I loved her initial post. And Jeff Borden, I am stealing your summary of the GWB interview. Damn fine snark.

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  60. Jeff Borden said on November 3, 2010 at 7:50 pm

    Moe,

    I wish it were an exaggeration, but those were his words. I’m so glad he is gone. I’m so sorry that he still lacks even a scintilla of graciousness.

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  61. moe99 said on November 3, 2010 at 8:06 pm

    The hits just keep coming. Erick Erickson of Redstate has a list of the next RINOs to be booted from the GOP Senate in 2012:

    John Barasso (WY)
    Scott Brown (MA)
    Bob Corker (TN)
    John Ensign (NV)
    Orrin Hatch (UT)
    Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX)
    Jon Kyl (AZ)
    Richard Lugar (IN)
    Olympia Snowe (ME)
    Roger Wicker (MS)

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  62. Jolene said on November 3, 2010 at 8:57 pm

    That is an incredible list, moe. Barasso, an MD, was on TV opposing the healthcare bill night and day during the long debate over it. And Kyl is a RINO? Good God!

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  63. nancy said on November 3, 2010 at 9:00 pm

    And booting Lugar is like sending Boxer to the glue factory.

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  64. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 3, 2010 at 9:19 pm

    Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.

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  65. Rana said on November 3, 2010 at 9:31 pm

    Just what I needed… may I produce, for the amusement of the crowd, Hungover Owls.

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  66. Dexter said on November 3, 2010 at 10:30 pm

    Anybody who stayed away from Vietnam military service has a reason and I truly respect them for that, Tom M.
    I have thought this out and for months I have blogged and called radio shows telling anybody who listened that Blumenthal was a poor choice for the Democrats , forcing Blue Dog voters to vote for this piece of shit or be stuck with McMahon, which was just crazy.
    Those of us who were conscripted or who volunteered to participate in those war zones of Indochina had to postpone and sometimes permanently disrupt, delay, and abort the plans we could have possibly completed if we had remained civilians.
    Some of us are still bitter about the whole thing.
    Blumenthal served , but for political gain, he said he went to Vietnam and fought. It is a lie. At that point, he still had a chance for redemption, and that would have been to step away from his campaign and leave politics for good. Instead , he chose to try to get away from his lie by just saying it was a little, unimportant bump in his road to the Senate.
    He capitalized on his lie to propel him into the Senate instead, and like I said already, nobody minded.
    Blumenthal could have joined the army and volunteered for Vietnam if he wanted to use that in the future for political clout, but instead he just lied and said he served there. He stepped on the backs of those who actually served there and boosted himself above the fray. And…the big reward is his.
    I am not the only Vietnam veteran (USA, 1970, 1971, I-Corps) who is infuriated by this whole mess, but most of us just brush it off, another knife in our backs; it ain’t the first time.

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  67. Jason T. said on November 3, 2010 at 11:23 pm

    Pilot Joe: We don’t agree on a lot of political issues, but I do agree with you that Democrats need to quit their whining.

    I am firmly convinced that Democrats lost control of the House — and nearly lost the Senate — because they’ve spent the last two years bickering like a bunch of whiny losers, and were unwilling to stand up and defend their own positions.

    If you’re not willing to fight for your own beliefs, you can hardly expect others to fight for them on your behalf. Act like a loser, and you will lose.

    Wah, wah, wah, Republicans are mean. Well, no crap, they’re mean. Either stand up for yourself, Democrats, or get used to being bullied. Doesn’t anyone know how to play this game any more?

    Mister, we could use a man like Harry Truman again. When he was attacked, he didn’t sit around bitching — he got mad and fought back.

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  68. MichaelG said on November 4, 2010 at 12:13 am

    This afternoon I was up I-5 at one of the “W” towns in a CHP field office briefing room watching the SF Giants victory celebration at SF’s Civic Center Plaza on the tube. The Governator appeared and was roundly booed by the happy, good natured crowd. If one could call boos friendly, these were friendly boos. Everybody knew the role was over and he was returning to where he belonged. Go Giants, bye-bye Ahnold. I love SF.

    Things could have been better on the proposition side of the ballot but given the state wide election winners and the few props that did fall the right way, it could have been a lot worse. Given the nationwide context, we have little to complain about here in CA.

    I don’t know what it means but it’s interesting to reflect that Dianne Feinstein is from San Francisco. Barbara Boxer is from Marin, Carly Fiorina is from the San Jose area, Meg Whitman is from Atherton, Brown lives in Oakland. Almost all of California’s statewide officeholders are from the Bay Area.

    While maybe not as strongly worked up over that poseur’s faux claims to Vietnam veteranhood as Dexter, I share his feelings 100%. Dexter stated his time in country, so I’ll state mine: July ’66 to July ’67, 1st Bde, 101 Abn and Feb through May ’68, 3d Bde, 82d Abn. I ended up vehemently opposing the war but I’m fiercely proud of my service and anybody who falsely claims to have served is the lowest piece of shit in the pond.

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  69. MichaelG said on November 4, 2010 at 12:26 am

    I’ve been reading in the comments about what a fine, high toned bunch we are. And truly, we are a gentile, civil lot. However, Tom M’s “Oh, Dexter, you poor silly boy.” comment had me closer than you will ever know to drastically lowering the tone of this place.

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  70. Denice said on November 4, 2010 at 1:16 am

    Bad night in our home. Poor Beb just couldn’t sleep And Snyder is quickly assembling his minions from John Engler’s leftovers. Yup. Thanks to all you brainwashed voters, we are in for a bumpy ride.

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  71. CTJohn said on November 4, 2010 at 1:36 am

    Dexter, not for nothing, and understand that I have nothing but the upmost respect for your service, but given the choice between a career politician (Mr. Blumenthal) and an opportunist to represent me in the United States Senate (Mrs. McMahon), I cast my vote with Blumenthal. Do I wish I had a better choice? Damn straight, Skippy. But when looking rationally at the two, it was apparent (to me) that Mrs. McMahon had no specific reason for going to DC, with no idea as to what was important to the southeastern CT voters (think jobs and the military – we have a US Navy Sub Base and our local all-mighty industrial military complex, Electric Boat), not the elimination of the estate tax. Blumenthal may not be what I call a “Tier One” Senator, but after co-existing with Lieberman for so many years, I am used to the taint of our elected Senators.

    On a lighter note, I am thinking of starting a “Nixon Republicans” group to counteract those Reagan Democrats that appear every two years. After all, while I am a lifelong Democrat, I could get behind a candidate that 1) created the EPA, 2) signed the Clean Air Act, 3) signed Title IX, 4) worked to desegregate schools, 5) opened dialog with countries of opposing viewpoints (USSR and China), and finally 6) left office after less than 8 years. Now if only our last Republican president was that successful.

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  72. Dexter said on November 4, 2010 at 2:00 am

    I uh, feel a little embarrassed to have written that Blumenthal’s electorate are all lowly snakes, as bad as he is. Of course I realize why CTJohn voted for Blumenthal; McMahon was no option for any Democrats to vote for. And Lieberman!
    I banged a keyboard to death writing my displeasure with that guy, so I shouldn’t have written that. Good job, CTJohn, and I love your lighter note words.
    MichaelG, thanks for getting my back.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3EV9wzROws

    I just got an email from my grandson in Las Vegas, where he has lived these past few years. He was just accepted to train as an US Army Combat Medic.
    His training is four months long. Forty years ago my medic training was just ten weeks. Mixed feelings here with his grandma and me. We both thought we had talked him out of the army yearnings, but it’s his life and he’s 18 years old, so now we support him. He leaves for Basic Training in a few months.

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  73. Jolene said on November 4, 2010 at 2:08 am

    I was an anti-war person back in the day, but I share Dexter’s disdain for Blumenthal. It’s pretty simple really. He just didn’t tell the truth, and he didn’t tell the truth about something that is very important to a lot of people. The war hurt everybody, it seems–people who went, people who resisted, people who belatedly come to realize that they let others bear the burden.

    In politics, unfortunately, we only get choices between the one guy and the other guy. Blumenthal seems, at least, to have conducted himself honorably in a long public service career, and I’m sure we can count on him to be a big supporter of veterans’ causes in Congress.

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  74. Dexter said on November 4, 2010 at 2:22 am

    Jolene, you hit on something that I regard as a phenomenon. When some of us got back, we had to adjust quickly, and some of us had really strong resentments and had no idea how to process them. Day by day, it got better for me and most of us, but I noticed something I never knew existed. My friends who had legitimate exemptions and did not go to the service seemed very content to have stayed home, in school, in apprenticeships, on the job somewhere, but my closest pals shared with me that they also hurt; some felt guilty to have not gone when so many of us did, but some felt deprived to have not had that part of life to reflect back on. It’s true, a veteran is always a veteran and it’s been 39 years since I got home and here I am in the middle of the night typing about it again. It’s just this time of year, you might think, Veterans Day coming up and all, but for me it’s pretty much every week or so I start re-hashing things.
    Now the only thing I regret is that when I returned home, got my foot in the college doorway, then got physically sick and missed a few weeks of school, went stone broke and had to quit school and go to work full-time, I regret that I didn’t pursue a way to go back and get a college degree, and as Frances McDormand said at the end of “Fargo”, “…and all for just a little bit of money.”

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  75. moe99 said on November 4, 2010 at 2:31 am

    Dexter, was the GI Bill gone by the time of VN?

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  76. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 4, 2010 at 7:35 am

    Pilot Joe, when you say you “did the Arch” in St. Louis, does that mean you flew under it?

    In all candor and with due fairness to both sides, if I lived in Connecticut, I would have had a hard time figuring out what to do. I dislike refusing to cast a ballot for an office because I don’t want either candidate, but I’ve done it a few times. This one might have been another. But I freely acknowledge it would have been the wimp’s way out.

    Ohio is going to be a real laboratory to watch. The county Job & Family Services head and I were talking yesterday (think “county welfare & unemployment agency” for many of you outlanders), and he and I both think, and thought, “whoever wins this election for governor & statehouse actually loses.” Kasich no less than Strickland, last four years aside, walks into a truly horrendous scenario of deficit and funding collapse. The only real difference between Kasich & Strickland as governor these next two years would have been that Ted S. would have likely felt worse about making the same slashing cuts Johnny K. will. And “revenue enhancements” will have to be part of the problem-solving, which will no doubt make Kasich’s and Statehouse GOP eyeballs bleed — but there is NO choice. You literally cannot entirely “cut” your way out of the current hole, and OH Republicans uneasily know this.

    What Ohio has pioneered, and other states are trying to copy, but we’re scraping down at barrel’s bottom to do, is find ways to switch around funding formulas so it’s the local governments and school districts who have to ask for the money they’ve chosen to spend. For all my abuse of them, school boards are wising up to how they’ve been played, and township trustees and county commissioners are starting to realize they have to look beyond their little fiefdoms and band together regionally, and even statewide, and start kicking down some Columbus doors. They’ve tended to stay focused on their own little patch, and just sigh and shrug at “the shenanigans down at the Statehouse.” But as they are getting stretched and stressed and demonized, and effectively being made their legal lackeys, they’re starting to organize. Hum a little “Les Miz” if you want, but instead of Cosette and bohemian students, think balding overweight guys in ill-fitting suits and stern looking Gary Larsen-esque ladies of a certain age, many lifelong (Nixon?) Republicans, starting to look up “how to build barricades” in the old set of Compton’s Encyclopedias on the parlor bookshelves.

    Ohio will again bear watching — the cuts, as they fall, and even more importantly, as they’re explained, and . . . the tax increases, as they are targeted, and as they’re explained, all will make a useful laboratory for other states and the nation. California apparently is going to try the bankruptcy and federal bailout approach, which a) may not work, and b) isn’t replicable.

    O-H . . .

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  77. John said on November 4, 2010 at 7:53 am

    Another Connecticut voter here who was disgusted with the Senatorial choices. Until a “None of the Above” option becomes available, I have to cast my vote for the lesser of two weasels.

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  78. Mark P. said on November 4, 2010 at 8:18 am

    The only thing to do when faced with a choice between two bad options is to choose the least bad. Why would you want the worse candidate to win? I made that choice once, back in the day, when a Democratic senator was found with too many dollars in his coat pocket. It was the last time I voted for a Republican for Senate, but it was the least bad option at that time.

    If “none of the above” could result in a new primary and election, then it would be a reasonable choice. If it meant just throwing your vote away, then it would be no better than not voting.

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  79. Joe Kobiela said on November 4, 2010 at 8:37 am

    nope just went up in it.
    Pilot Joe

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  80. MichaelG said on November 4, 2010 at 8:49 am

    Moe, the GI Bill was alive and well during the Vietnam era. It helped me to finish school and later to buy a house.

    mmJeff we have the same budget problem here in CA. You can’t cut your way out of the problem and you can’t raise taxes. The voters just passed a measure that removes that horrid 1/3 majority budget rule and replaces it with a more rational 51% rule. But they also passed two more props that limit the govt’s options for raising revenue. Win some, lose some.

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  81. ROgirl said on November 4, 2010 at 8:50 am

    If the economy weren’t still in such bad shape I think this election would have been a lot different. Obama would have gotten the credit and other politicians would have gotten the benefit. But under the circumstances, the Democrats did a remarkably shitty job of not countering the Republican drumbeat of negative, hysterical fearmongering, and that certainly didn’t help.

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  82. 4dbirds said on November 4, 2010 at 9:04 am

    Jason I agree, what a wonderful thing it would have been to actually have a fighting democrat. They did accomplish a lot but they didn’t know how to keep the process under wraps so as not to turn the average voter off. They also didn’t know how to tell the republicans to ‘shut the eff up’. It is apparent to me that Obama doesn’t know how to fight and get his hands dirty. I blame him for staying above it all. I’m still voting for him in 12 but unless some scrappy democrat emerges and starts leading, well I don’t want to think about it right now.

    The Virginia republican party is already on UTube with an ad about taking Obama and Jim Webb out in 12. You have to admire them in a way. They know how to play the game.

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  83. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 4, 2010 at 9:19 am

    I’m amazed at how many *Dems* are piling on Obama today — in my opinion, he’s personally kept the damage from being more like 70 House seats and 10 or 11 Senate desks. The process and final content of the Health Care bill, to the degree that it was hard to defend for many Congressfolk, was mangled by Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid, who were themselves perhaps overly insulated from getting voted out (or reality, so to speak). Pres. Obama did the best job anyone could do to put a good face on it, and to talk about the core, non-socialist rationale to the TARP he continued through the transition from Bush’s team, and the need for the auto bailout.

    This whole “chastened” Obama meme on the left — I don’t get it. He’s owed a fair bushel basket of thanks.

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  84. brian stouder said on November 4, 2010 at 9:26 am

    Well, let me just say – all this right-wing horse shit about how the health care bill is unconstitutional, mainly because it’s evil and unprecedented for the government to force you to buy a product is totally contradicted by this same crew’s apparent aims when it comes to education. Here in Indiana, our newly augmented Republican juggernaut seems to be hurtling toward grabbing our public schools away from locally controlled school boards, and making them into charter schools. And what happens then? The schools will be run by a selected private profit-making company, and the government will hand parents vouchers, and then all our problems will magically go away.

    If this is “waiting for Superman” – imagine how surprised we’ll be when The Joker* shows up instead

    *yeah I know – Joker is a Batman villain; but a villain is a villain is a villain, right?

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  85. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 4, 2010 at 9:44 am

    Action Comics 714-719.

    Geek win! Of course the Joker has fought Superman, they’re both in the DC Universe.

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  86. 4dbirds said on November 4, 2010 at 9:54 am

    Jeff (tmmo), We’re not piling on Obama ‘today’, the left has had this complaint about him for a while. He doesn’t get it.

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  87. Rana said on November 4, 2010 at 12:39 pm

    4dbirds – yes. We’re not complaining about Obama because his Blue Dogs lost; his party lost because we had complaints they failed to address.

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