Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Yes, election good times are over. I could have blogged about this last night, but was up all night watching the commentators, who were similarly strung out. They got a little honest, which was fun. Chris Matthews, Pat Buchanan and Keith Olbermann at 4:30 am got honest about how they felt about a lot of things, including the election, certain candidates, and random marvelling at occasional Irish ethnicity (no kidding, Matthews was all over it). More importantly, there was that little election thing where 33 Senate seats, 435 House seats and 36 governorships were all on the line. Oh, and the futures of the Republican party. The real story is how Bush helped the Deomcrats win this thing.
First of all, The Associated Press is now calling the Virginia senate election for Jim Webb, the Democratic challenger against Senator George Allen. Webb is ahead by 7200 votes in the all counts, but the canvassing (which is basically the confirmation of the initial reports of counts) of all the precincts will not be completed for a couple of days. So far, all the reports are the initial reports are accurate and Webb is ahead by 7200 votes, give or take. Now, Virginia law offers a free recount to a challenger if the ending results have a difference in votes of less than 1/2 of 1 percent, or about 11,500 votes in this case. So, Allen could have the right to ask for a recount at state expense, but the question remains will he. After all, he could ask for a recount, and Virginia is good at them. Virginia just had one last year over the Attorney General's election, which was decided by less than 350 votes. Of course, that recount was completed until December 22. And the country would not be happy waiting to hear about the future of the Senate until the last night of Chanukah.
So, now the Democrats have 49 seats, the Republicans have 49 seats and there are two independents, Joe Leiberman (regular independent, ex-democrat) and Bernie Sanders of Vermont (who calls himself a socialist). The two independents have promised to caucus with the Democrats, so when it comes time to choose committee seats, they'll be Democrats. And with the committee chairs, comes the ability to call the dance tune. And while the Democrats have said they won't go immediately into impeachment hearings, but have consistently called for more oversight on the whole government thingy. This would include things like how Iraq is going, how the defense contractor realm is going and all the presidential "signing statements" that were once tossed aside as cute and interesting, but are now going to be examined for possible failures to follow the law. And while the House still officially with some seats undecided, it looks like the Democrats are going to have at least 35 seat majority. Which is, for the record, bigger than the Republicans ever had over the Democrats since 1994. The Democrats run the table at this point, and are already preparing the seats.
So, the Democrats won, mostly on the "we want to clean up this whole mess" ticket. They pointed to all kinds Bush problems, Iraq having the bloddiest month ever and Bush generally being inept. There were also all kinds of attacks on Donald Rumsfeld, and especially about Bush's comments about rumsfeld staying until the end of the term. That was a week before Rumsfeld annoucned he was stepping down as Secretary of Defense. Between that solid support and the infamous "you're doing a heck of a job, Brownie", any kind of support from Bush would seem to mean start polishing up the old resume. As this was done on the day after elections, and as there was a replacement already in place to be announced. Which means, Bush could have annonced Rumsfeld stepping down Friday when it would have done the most damage to Democrats. While it may not have saved Santorum, it would have saved, Allen, Burns and Talent. Three Republicans who fought hard because they were loyal to the president and they didn't want any kind of flip-flopping.
In this morning's afterglow/hangover, many are wondering about the future of the Republicans. Sen. McCain of Arizona (like that had to be added) held a press conference about the results of the election. He said, when asked why the republicans got their asses kicked like a chess pro at a football game, that the Republicans had wandered far from the original goals of the Republican party: lower taxes, the smaller the government the better, responsible spending and general NOT doing what Bush has been doing for the past six years. And now with two of the key standard bearers of the neo-conservative movement (Allen and Santorum) voted out of office, conservatives like McCain, Warner, Graham can take back the Republican party from the neo-cons. Or, more hopefully, a new breed of conservatives, younger conservatives can take the reins of the party. Pare down government, smarten up foreign policy and promote massive government reform, from both within (a la Foley) and without (vis a vis lobbyists).
And the neo-cons are caught between a President who didn't help them as much as he could have and a big blue Democratic Congress.
So it is written, so do I see it.
First of all, The Associated Press is now calling the Virginia senate election for Jim Webb, the Democratic challenger against Senator George Allen. Webb is ahead by 7200 votes in the all counts, but the canvassing (which is basically the confirmation of the initial reports of counts) of all the precincts will not be completed for a couple of days. So far, all the reports are the initial reports are accurate and Webb is ahead by 7200 votes, give or take. Now, Virginia law offers a free recount to a challenger if the ending results have a difference in votes of less than 1/2 of 1 percent, or about 11,500 votes in this case. So, Allen could have the right to ask for a recount at state expense, but the question remains will he. After all, he could ask for a recount, and Virginia is good at them. Virginia just had one last year over the Attorney General's election, which was decided by less than 350 votes. Of course, that recount was completed until December 22. And the country would not be happy waiting to hear about the future of the Senate until the last night of Chanukah.
So, now the Democrats have 49 seats, the Republicans have 49 seats and there are two independents, Joe Leiberman (regular independent, ex-democrat) and Bernie Sanders of Vermont (who calls himself a socialist). The two independents have promised to caucus with the Democrats, so when it comes time to choose committee seats, they'll be Democrats. And with the committee chairs, comes the ability to call the dance tune. And while the Democrats have said they won't go immediately into impeachment hearings, but have consistently called for more oversight on the whole government thingy. This would include things like how Iraq is going, how the defense contractor realm is going and all the presidential "signing statements" that were once tossed aside as cute and interesting, but are now going to be examined for possible failures to follow the law. And while the House still officially with some seats undecided, it looks like the Democrats are going to have at least 35 seat majority. Which is, for the record, bigger than the Republicans ever had over the Democrats since 1994. The Democrats run the table at this point, and are already preparing the seats.
So, the Democrats won, mostly on the "we want to clean up this whole mess" ticket. They pointed to all kinds Bush problems, Iraq having the bloddiest month ever and Bush generally being inept. There were also all kinds of attacks on Donald Rumsfeld, and especially about Bush's comments about rumsfeld staying until the end of the term. That was a week before Rumsfeld annoucned he was stepping down as Secretary of Defense. Between that solid support and the infamous "you're doing a heck of a job, Brownie", any kind of support from Bush would seem to mean start polishing up the old resume. As this was done on the day after elections, and as there was a replacement already in place to be announced. Which means, Bush could have annonced Rumsfeld stepping down Friday when it would have done the most damage to Democrats. While it may not have saved Santorum, it would have saved, Allen, Burns and Talent. Three Republicans who fought hard because they were loyal to the president and they didn't want any kind of flip-flopping.
In this morning's afterglow/hangover, many are wondering about the future of the Republicans. Sen. McCain of Arizona (like that had to be added) held a press conference about the results of the election. He said, when asked why the republicans got their asses kicked like a chess pro at a football game, that the Republicans had wandered far from the original goals of the Republican party: lower taxes, the smaller the government the better, responsible spending and general NOT doing what Bush has been doing for the past six years. And now with two of the key standard bearers of the neo-conservative movement (Allen and Santorum) voted out of office, conservatives like McCain, Warner, Graham can take back the Republican party from the neo-cons. Or, more hopefully, a new breed of conservatives, younger conservatives can take the reins of the party. Pare down government, smarten up foreign policy and promote massive government reform, from both within (a la Foley) and without (vis a vis lobbyists).
And the neo-cons are caught between a President who didn't help them as much as he could have and a big blue Democratic Congress.
So it is written, so do I see it.