Post Election Stuff

More commemmorative than anything else. After elections everyone tries to spin what it means into what they believe and want anyway.

Oh so close:
In such a close election everyone second guesses every little thing. There's a "for want of a nail post" looking at Conrad Burn's insult to firefighters. A "butterfly effect" post revolving around Macaca. The Demagogue sends an amusing list of liberal thank-yous for various Conservative mistakes, including the Rush Limbaugh's mockery of Michael J Fox's terminal disease, which in addition to being contemptable, bought McKaskill free air time. Somewhere there was a post on how Kerry's stupid troop comment didn't break the Democrats, despite the dangerous timing and immense stupidity. On the flip side, if it removes Kerry from the presidential campaign pool I think that will benefit Democrats in the end.

To all of these I will add the sordid case of Michael Scanlon, one of Tom Delay's aides who is pretty much responsible for not only Delay's political death, but also a lot of the corruption theme. Scanlon was engaged to a pretty young Republican staffer, Ms. Emily Miller(this one). Anyway, if you're into dirty things (ie criminal) it's a really bad idea to cheat on your partner (with a manicurist - what a delightfully irrelevant detail!) because your fiancee might rat you out to the Feds.. Later, while you play stoolie and jailbird, others will give you credit for the premature implosion of the party and everything you've ever worked for. But not exclusive credit, there's so much to share.

A simple truth:
Kevin Drum captures 90% of it here.

But I want to add one more thing so simple-minded that I'm almost embarrassed to mention it. Here it is: if you pursue popular policies, you win. If you pursue unpopular policies, you lose. Ideology is secondary.

In George Bush's first term, Republicans passed tax cuts, No Child Left Behind, campaign finance reform, Sarbanes-Oxley, a Medicare prescription drug plan, went to war against Afghanistan and Iraq, and appointed a bunch of conservative judges. Liberals may not have liked all of this stuff, but all of it polled pretty well. They were popular policies.

In Bush's second term, Republicans pursued Social Security privatization, made a spectacle over Terri Schiavo, and fiddled while New Orleans drowned. In addition, they passed a bankruptcy bill and an energy bill that didn't win them any points with rank-and-file voters, fought over immigration legislation, refused to expand stem cell funding, and wouldn't even allow a vote on widely supported measures like a minimum wage increase. This did not exactly reflect the popular will.

Of course being a huge fuck-up and damaging the country doesn't help either.

The next Congress:
Here's my 2 cents on the next Congress. The Republicans not only went with the same A-holes who were in leadership when they lost (minus Hastert), they brought back Trent Lott from political exile. Lat's hope for their sake the electorate is as fond of 2nd chances as the leaders are.

Thankfully, the Dems avoided the lightning rod of Jack Murtha and picked a leader I'd never heard of (that's how I like Congress: quiet and undistinguished). That, coupled with the recent political diminishings of John Kerry and James Carville, brings hope of a Democratic Party that can tell it's head from it's ass.

And a follow-up...
Q: How glad are Republicans that they never invoked the nuclear option in the senate? (btw Lee predicted a Senate swing over a year ago - that's an impressive call 5 months after Bush's re-election)
A: Not as glad as they may be in 2008 if they get spanked again and (maybe if I say it, it won't happen) Hillary Clinton's Democratic Congress is putting people in power.