Dems to take the House

shando · Post by **shando** » November 7th, 2006, 10:28 pm

So sayeth CNN. The night is only half over. Senate still too close to call.

arthursimone · Post by **arthursimone** » November 7th, 2006, 10:31 pm

shhhhhhhhhh

arthursimone · Post by **arthursimone** » November 8th, 2006, 12:23 pm

ok, with a healthy margin in the House and the race just being called for Tester in Montana Senate and Jim Webb ahead and claiming victory in Virginia, I will risk the jinx and say that I'm a happy shitpig.

Rick Santorum, J.D. Hayworth, Conrad Burns GONE! The votes are still out on Heather Wilson and Jean Schmidt. Assholes all. The only major asshole I was hoping to see go down was Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado. You can't always get what you want.

Some good people voted in! Sherrod Brown! John Tester! Patrick Murphy, Tim Walz, and wow Dave Loebsack!!

The Northeast is becoming for Republicans what the South has been for Democrats for the past decade. About time.

shando · Post by **shando** » November 8th, 2006, 12:51 pm

arthursimone wrote: and wow Dave Loebsack!!

My peeps in Iowa done good.

erikamay · Post by **erikamay** » November 8th, 2006, 1:15 pm

i'm so ridiculously happy about this.

don't get me wrong - i am not a dyed in the wool Dem - but the current assholes were just BEEEEyond the pale. thank you to those of you that volunteered (shannon, arthur).

bush just announced that rumsfeld is "stepping down" and being replaced by Bob Gates (former CIA chief and bush family friend. whadda shocker.) the press conference can be heard off the homepage of CNN.

good thing the democrats "measured the drapes".

eh.
e

mcnichol · Post by **mcnichol** » November 8th, 2006, 1:36 pm

also excited here about the House and trying to contain excitement about the Senate until things are official. As of right now, Webb is leading by about 6700 votes, though they are still coming in (and coming in from absentee voters.)

Somewhat related to the Virginia race, is this interesting story:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/07/ ... index.html

Also, for fun, listen to today's press conference as Bush tries to rectify his statement that he made a week or two ago (that Rumsfeld and Cheney will remain with him through the end of his presidency) with the statement he made today (that Rumsfeld is leaving). I'm sure the timing is coincidental.

kbadr · Post by **kbadr** » November 8th, 2006, 1:38 pm

Also listen to how snippy he gets with the british journalist. He must be holding some patriotic Revolutionary War resentment.

"no...that dudn't what it means"

nadine · Post by **nadine** » November 8th, 2006, 1:40 pm

Ok. This is what made me the happiest:
South Dakota rejected the sweeping abortion ban. YES!

And Arizona defeated an amendment to ban gay marriage. The first state!!

Missouri approved a measure backing stem cell research.

Whoa. All in one day!!!!!!

arthursimone · Post by **arthursimone** » November 8th, 2006, 1:41 pm

I loved the obvious jab at Karl Rove.

Let the infighting begin, you hubris-soaked godfuckers!

Miggy · Post by **Miggy** » November 8th, 2006, 1:59 pm

I'm not easily classified in politics so I've taken to referring to myself as an extreme centrist since I can manage to get pretty much anyone angry.

Anyway, having seen this movie before, I can say that whatever your emotions are on the results, be respectful of folks who might feel differently. While I don't doubt this community would be more liberal than not, it's a statistical improbability that we don't also include conservatives/republicans/libertarians, etc.... To those people I would say don't feel excluded.

I think we're all old enough to have been on the wrong side of some groups' politics at some point. I know I am at work and I'll tell you that Nov. 8th 2004 was a crappy day to be around the office.... but the personal emotions eventually die down after this once a year ritual.

-Mike

mcnichol · Post by **mcnichol** » November 8th, 2006, 2:01 pm

Arthur wrote:I loved the obvious jab at Karl Rove.

Yes! I giggled inappropriately here at work listening to that.

Kareem wrote:Also listen to how snippy he gets with the british journalist.

I loved it. He was snippy with everybody today it seemed. But I think the British accent ticked him off or something. "people were happy with..." vs. "people were satisfied with..." Come on! stop playing the victim here, buddy. You know what you meant.

Nadine wrote:South Dakota rejected the sweeping abortion ban. YES!
And Arizona defeated an amendment to ban gay marriage. The first state!!
Missouri approved a measure backing stem cell research.

Yes! These were the real winners yesterday, the sweetest being that SD rejection. I honestly didn't expect it to go that way, and hearing the result made me unbelieveably happy.

btw, I just checked and that statement about Rummy staying was made just one week ago.

now this: Enough people clapped, so Bush is coming back out for an encore at 2:30 our time, with Rumsfeld and Gates.

Wesley · Post by **Wesley** » November 8th, 2006, 2:24 pm

I can say that whatever your emotions are on the results, be respectful of folks who might feel differently.

Bah!
The big-L Libertarians lost months ago, they've had plenty of time to get over it by now.
Besides, what have they got to complain about? They racked up 0.006% of the vote in the governor's race, a new party record.

phlounderphil · Post by **phlounderphil** » November 8th, 2006, 2:33 pm

And Michael Badnarik lost his run for a seat in the house.

He's an awesome guy I've been privileged to meet, and I could've sworn he'd do better than he did (3% of his district).

Ugh. down with the two-party system.

erikamay · Post by **erikamay** » November 8th, 2006, 3:09 pm

...be respectful of folks who might feel differently. it's a statistical improbability that we don't also include conservatives/republicans/libertarians, etc.... To those people I would say don't feel excluded.

oh certainly, mike! no one should take my personal (and now public) glee on the election outcomes as a personal affront to their political ideology. i like people of all political stripes, and think demonization of republicans in broad brush strokes is dumb.

that said, i'd be hard pressed to suppress my excitement for the outcome of these elections. i won't go into the personal details on why i am happy for this outcome, but will say that--after 2000 and 2004--i was convinced the pendelum was permanently stuck on "neo-conservatism".

i detest the neo-conservative ideology that has perverted core republican ideals. hence, my excitement.

everyone should feel free to engage in a spirited, and respectful, debate here.

Wesley · Post by **Wesley** » November 8th, 2006, 3:16 pm

Here, here, Phil!

That's my one complaint. I mean, I'm happy a lot of things fell out like they did around the country last night, but I just can't fall into the camps of "The Dems 'won'" and "the R's 'lost.'" For me, so long as any single party maintains a 50%+ stranglehold on either (and especially both) Houses of Congress, then the Republic lost.

It's the climate we live in, but to me 51-49 is BS and we should all be unhappy with it. I cannot wait for the day the reports come back "It looks like it's going to be a 30-30-20-10 split in the Senate this year."

All we did last night is willingly hand the majority power to essentially bully through legislation to the other party. Maybe they'll bully through legislation you like, granted, but there was no great awakening or change that happened. The system remains controlled, brutal, and self-preserving. The pendulum may swing, but less has changed than we'd like to think.

Vanitas vanitatumâ€”

The AIC political cynic,
Wes