Absurd

It's been a while - I guess I've been enjoying the fact that we actually won something meaningful for the first time in at least a decade. There are many reasons why people contribute to a blog like this, and rage is certainly cheif among mine. I'm not proud of it, but when I'm happy, I seem to have less to say...

That brings us to the current debate about Iraq. What bugs me most about this is the false tone of seriousness being affected by both sides. On one side, you've got McCain making the "tough" and "serious" statement that we in fact need to increase our troop levels in Iraq in order to win. He proposes 20,000 more troops. So - in McCain's eyes, adding 14% more troops is going to make this problem 100% better. That is quite possibly the most absurd thing I've heard; sending 200,000 more troops would be serious enough to make a difference (perhaps), but 20,ooo won't even be noticed. But, but the guardians of our political discourse deem it courageous and serious, and so it is.

On the other side, you have Barrack Obama coming out and saying we need start to bring our troops home, starting in 4 to 6 months. This has become a popular trick of politicians, and it is disappointing to see Obama engaging in it. This 6-month ploy allows Obama to be on the side of troop drawdown without having to actually be accountable for the process. To think that George Bush is going to start drawing down troops starting in 4 to 6 months is absurd. If you want to troops to come home, you have to start NOW, otherwise it will never start. As Atrios says, the posture has to be changed from a force that is staying to a force that is leaving. Punting the ball downfield is not helpful.

I fear that we are witnessing the parameters of the debate, though - 2 theoretical positions that have no chance of being effective yet allow the politicians and pundits to feel like they're engaging in a serious debate. Very diasppointing.

Post Mortem

It looks like Goerge Allen is going to be forced to concede, thus ending the career of the only Senator known to have stuffed the head of a deer in an African American's mailbox. (Now, I've seen my share of college pranks, but that one takes a hell of a lot of work. First you have to find the deer, then you have to kill it, then you have to saw off its head, then you have to drag it to the mailbox and stuff it in. At some point, wouldn't you just say, "aw, fuck it - I'll just TP his house. But, I digress...)

We're already seeing the analysis that tells us that voters weren't voting for Democrats, they were voting against Republicans. Democrats had no plan.

Let's pretend this is true, and try to forget for a moment the fact that the Democrats put out their First 100 Hours Plan weeks ago. The Republican party has won in previous cycles because they mercilessly appealed to their base and ignored the portion of the country where their ideas are not popular. Bush's approach was you're either with us or your against us. Isn't it understandable that, with the political dialog dominated by this approach, sooner or later a bunch of people would say, "well I'm not with you...".

The Repbublicans got beaten on Tuesday because they have completely lost their way. Blue-blood, corporate types are saying, "I'm not sure that I'm with you," as evidenced by the fact that there's only one republican congressman in New England. Traditional conservatives, such as William Buckley and George Will, are disillosioned because of the Iraq adventure and overspending. Religious-types are turned off by the constant scandals and sexual perversion. The Republican party, which found its vessel in the conservative movement, has lost its sense of identity.

It is silly to act as if this is an example of just a few bad apples run amok. This failure was top to bottom. From Hastert, to Delay, to Bush, to Lay, Wolfowitz and Foley to lesser known types like Ted Haggard and Ralph Reed. The corruption of the Republican party encompassed people from virtually every wing and every level of the GOP. To attempt to separate the conservative philosophy from the leaders charged with implementing it is absurd.

Republicans can disect the results any way they want, but if I were them, I wouldn't take too much comfort in the notion that voters didn't vote for democrats, but against republicans. If that's true, it signals a judgement rendered on a movement, 40 years in the making, and a rejection of a philosophy that was supposed to deliver a permanent Republican majority.

Thank You

For the first time in 10 years, we have reason to really celebrate. It now appears that Democrats not only captured the House, but also will capture the Senate (in numbers remarkably similar to these).

So, some thank you's are in order:

Karl Rove: Thanks for insisting that Stay the Course with the right campaign theme for Republicans.

Rush Limbaugh: Thank you for giving us control of the Senate; your attack on Michael J. Fox gave Claire McKaskill the boost she needed to win the Missouri Senate Race

Dennis Hastert: Thank you for so clearly articulating, in your inarticulate response to the Foley scandal, how Republicans care more about power than people.

Others??

Ubelievable

With all this stuff Republicans are pulling, it will be a wonder if Democrats win a single seat today.

Ignore It

No matter what happens today, we will definitely be treated to the cool kids in the media telling us that the Democrats missed a major opportunity today. We will also hear how Karl Rove is an intergallactic genius because peasants with pitchforks didn't come to the white house and drag his boss out by his pubes.

Don't worry about it. If Democrats take the house by one seat, all the committee chairs change from nutcase gay bashers, racists, constitutional torchers and torturers to more sane people who don't wear tin foil on their heads. A minimum wage bill can acutally get to a vote. Rumsfield can be compelled to explain why we're still in Iraq 4 years after it was supposed to be a cakewalk. That is a victory, no matter what Rush Limbaugh says.

Cheaters

This is outrageous. They can't win fair and square, so they cheat.

Seriously - this kind of stuff is hapenning all over the place. Is there anything that typifies the modern Republican party more than this?

Sickening.

My Picks

The world has been breathlessly awaiting this, so here it is:

I think the Democrats will take 26 house seats and 6 Seante seats. My guesses for Democratic pick-ups in the Senate are:

MO: McKaskill (overt Talent)
PA: Casey (over Santorum) - a victory in itself
MT: Tester (over crazy Burns)
VA: Webb (over racist Allen)
OH: Brown (over Dewine)
RI: Whitehouse (over Chafee)

It would be great if Harold Ford wins over the incompetent and racist Corker in Tennesee (and it's looking more possible than it did 24 hours ago) but I feel like the Republicans Southern Strategy will prevail.

Post election prediction - Lieberman will replace Rumsfield as Secretary of Defense, giving the Republican governor the opportunity to appoint his replacement, swinging the Senate back to the jagoffs.

How to Construct a Nuclear Bomb

I guess allowing the North Koreans to go nuclear isn't enough for the Bush Administration. Now they want everyone else to be able to do it too.

Turns out that a US Government public web site, put up to show how mean and nasty Saddam was, posts documents that provide detailed instructions on how to build a nuclear bomb.

Turns out I have most of the ingredients in my garage...

Stupid is the New Smart

I am struggling with competing desires to not jinx things but to also say something smart before everyone else does. The latter is winning out...

I have always resisted the notion that Karl Rove is some evil genius (evil, yes..). After all, this is the same man who sent his candidate, George W. Bush, into the bluest of blue states, California and New York, the weekend before the 2000 election to con the press into thinking that the Bush people were so confident that they could afford to expand the playing field. Polls before the election showed Bush with a 2 to 5 point lead, and, as we know, he ended up loosing the popular vote. Katherine Harris would still be handing out drivers' licenses if it weren't for Hot Karl's brilliance.

I am sure that the media will play up the "if it weren't for Rove, the losses would have been greater", but it seems to me that, if the Democrats have a good night on Tuesday, Rove is at least partly the one to thank. Rove built the entire republican mid-term campaign strategy around the phrase of "stay the course". That hardly seems like the work of genius when only 29% approve of the course that we are staying on...

Stay the course has become a national punch line and one of the Democrats most reliable weapons with which to bludgeon their opponents. If Karl is still around in 2 years, maybe we can even take the White House.

Ok - back to your regularly scheduled pessimism...

Too Good to be True

Horseface is in a little bit of trouble.