The Democrats taking the House is the political equivalent of a Republican own goal. It is be simply the byproduct of 1) the disaster in Iraq which has become so obvious that the Republicans can no longer lie and spin their way out of it and 2) Mark Foley. — and the Democrats deserve no credit at all for the political benefits that flow out of the Iraq debacle. They have been pathetic on Iraq and everyone knows it. The Democrats, including Rahm Emanuel, get no credit for anything except for just happening to be there to pick up the pieces.

It is vitally important that the current leaders of the party and various groups that claim to speak for the party not be allowed to claim credit for our success this November. Simply stated, our “leadership” has been a joke. The gains we made in a midterm election in the 6th year of the worst president in history are only loosely related to anything any of them did. If they hadn’t been such a bunch of pussies, we might be well on the way to a full-scale long-term partisan realignment, as they held the Republicans accountable for having fucked up every aspect of government. Instead we came away with significantly fewer seats than did the Republicans in 1994.

In policy terms, it will be a long time before we face a president or a Republican party that has as bad a record as this one. Flagrant disasters like the Iraq War, thankfully, are few and far between. It is far from certain that the Iraq War will will have the same nationalizing effect in 2008 as it did in 2006, and the water will be muddied by some degreee of imputed responsibility to the new Democratic Congress, which may or may not learn how to stand up and defend itself against Republican demagoguery. Then what will we do?

Well, that didn’t take long. The DieBold machines haven’t even properly cooled off, and The Spin Is In.

Rahm, I’m going to enjoy spending the next two years telling you to vertically fornicate yourself while I continue to send donations to the DNC.

We get to do this ALL OVER AGAIN in 18 months.

America, get ready.

-GFO

No, I’ve already started. I’m emailing around the CA-10 (Tauscher) for someone interested in running as a Democrat in the ‘08 primary. Remember this?

“I think there’s tremendous agreement and awareness that getting the majority and running over the left cliff is what our Republican opponents would dearly love,” Ms. Tauscher said, adding that this was something “we’ve got to fight.”

It’s an expensive district to run in, but the winner of the Democratic primary is almost guaranteed to win, it’s gerrymandered to include liberal pockets of the East Bay, and even the conservative areas have had several years of liberal Bay Area residents moving in for the “affordable” homes.

Short version, Tauscher is one of 30 or so blue dogs, we pick 15 of the bluest, win 6-7 primaries, 4-5 seats. We do the same thing in 2010, and 2012 and I’d wager we wouldn’t have to bother in 2014.

Caveat: This is an EXPENSIVE district to run in. Here’s a list of blue dogs: http://www.house.gov/cardoza/BlueDogs/members.htm
Does anyone have a better district to look around in?

Great post Cujo359 @ 168.

Would add that the DCCC dumped completely ineffectual and even counter-productive millions into MN-06. They produced completely ham-handed and misleading ads “she’s gonna raise your taxes” (like her supporters will believe that) against the lunatic Michele Bachmann when they should have attacked her on her really far-out religious nuttery to alienate her fiscal conservative, but libertarian supporters. Oh, that and her church thinks the pope is the anti-christ and her district has a huge catholic population that was part of her anti-abortion base. There was that too…..
The DCCC ads here were lame and a waste of money.

I hear that herb. What an embarassment for Minnesota. What a waste of opportunity. Patty Wetterling is a good person and a hard worker; this race just needed a better political candidate (ie. someone more hard hitting) or better marketing, exactly as you’ve described. It was winnable, but throwing foolish dollars at it was a waste. That money would have been beter spent on Cowleen Rowley.

“There’s sheep in there….and….and…They’ve got GUNS!”

Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy has been more than vindicated. He’s the hero of this election cycle, along with Ned Lamont, who made it possible to nationalize the election on the Iraq occupation. Had that not happened, Rumsfeld would still be SecDef.

It is critical to understand that is simply NOT true. Rumsfeld’s firing cannot have been the result of the election because they had his replacement already vetted and ready to announce at the same time. That means they must have made the decision to replace Rumsfeld days, perhaps even weeks ago.

They were just waiting until after the election so as not to demoralize their base.

The real reason Rumsfeld is gone is the revolt of the senior military chiefs — as openly displayed in the Army Times article.

This is important because Rummy’s firing is now just part of the new Bush strategy to bring Democrats in as human-shields in his phony “bi-partisanship” — which is nothing more than a cover for “stay the course.” Only now he will get to blame Democrats for his failures in Iraq — “they were responsible for the failure in Iraq because of their failure to support our troops.”

Shift the blame. It worked for Hitler, why not Bush? When you have a failed war and no way out, always remember: “Mistakes have been made, others will be blamed” is the Republican’s motto.

Ugh. I listened to Tweety tweet for hours last night. Now I turn on MSNBC to watch Bush preside over Rumsfeld’s funeral, and suddenly, there’s Tweety again. I wish he’d take a vacation. Give us Olbermann!

Speaking of heroes… I’d nominate Keith too. His Murrow-like Special Commentaries over the last several months have been passed (via YouTube and CrooksandLairs links both) around as much as anything on the innertubes. A rising media star raising consciousness and a national treasure. Give us Olbermann all the time!!!!

Politicians Sweep Midterm Elections
Resounding Victories In All States, Counties, Cities, Towns

After months of aggressive campaigning and with nearly 99 percent of ballots counted, politicians were the big winners in Tuesday’s midterm election, taking all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, retaining a majority with 100 out of 100 seats in the Senate, and pushing political candidates to victory in each of the 36 gubernatorial races up for grabs…

That’s funny.

Great post Cujo359 @ 168.

Would add that the DCCC dumped completely ineffectual and even counter-productive millions into MN-06. They produced completely ham-handed and misleading ads “she’s gonna raise your taxes” (like her supporters will believe that) against the lunatic Michele Bachmann when they should have attacked her on her really far-out religious nuttery to alienate her fiscal conservative, but libertarian supporters. Oh, that and her church thinks the pope is the anti-christ and her district has a huge catholic population that was part of her anti-abortion base. There was that too…..
The DCCC ads here were lame and a waste of money.

Thanks.

Part of what makes D?CC money so ineffective is that it comes bundled with D?CC consultants, who usually seem to miss the point. Sounds like the MN-06 race was no exception. Some of the ads they ran out here weren’t that bad, but they didn’t say much about Reichert’s support for the Military Commissions Act. Reichert spent a career in law enforcement. While I’m sure he found it to be frustrating at times, he should have understood the need for habeas corpus better than most people.