Right On The Money

First off, last night's election is exactly what I predicted would happen 14 months ago: I said then that it was a good thing that John Kerry lost the election in 2004 because that meant that during the election of 2006 the American voter would have nobody to blame except George Bush and the Republicans. And, boy oh boy, that is exactly what they did.

Overall, I actually thought the Democrats would do better in the House. Several Representantives that I really expected (wanted) to see lose (Musgrave in Colorado, Schmidt in Ohio) are still with us, and several candidates who seemed really likely to win (Duckworth in Illinois, Kleeb in Nebraska, Trauner in Wyoming) didn't pull it out. (And how about Busby in California, losing the same election twice in 6 months? Jeez.) My hometown Congressman, Republican Randy Kuhl barely snuck out a win, where I had expected him to be defeated.

The Senate, however, is a complete shocker in the other direction. The Virginia Senate, where I expected Republican George Allen to win without problem instead has the Democrat James Webb in the lead. The vote is close enough for a recount, but it looks like about 4,000 votes have to shift away from Webb for that to change, which I predict won't happen.

The Montana Senate race is actually coming closer to a tie as the votes are counted, but as of this writing, it looks like the Republican Senator Conrad Burns is going to run out of precincts before his deficit is completely eliminated.... but it will also be close. (In the "What comes around" category, expect it to be the Republicans this time crying foul over the voting machines when this particular election is done.)

What's really funny is Missouri. It may very well be that Senator Talent's loss was due to the not-particularly-newsworthy-until-Rush-Limbaugh-said-something, Michael J. Fox pro-stem-cell-research commercial. Limbaugh's accusations of... uh... anti-doping, and his subsequent not-quite apologies are being debated on television and around the internet as the potential little bitty bit that put Claire McCaskill into the winner's bracket in Missouri. "Rush Limbaugh Costs Republicans The Senate" may actually be a headline tomorrow.

(Heh. And everyone was talking about how Kerry was going to be blamed for his botched stupid soldier joke. What comes around, redux.)

Anyway, therefore, much to everyone's surprise, out of 4 Senate contests which were "Toss up, leaning Republican", 3 of them went to the Democrats. (Tennessee went Republican.)

Finally, to wrap this election up, it was a particularly bad night for Republican gubernatorial candidates, losing 6 states and their majority. But to put it in real perspective: 504 major offices were in play tonight, and not one single incumbant Democrat lost an election. Not one.

If nothing else, I think this truly marks the end of the "Neocon" and "Theocon" presence in Washington politics. Real Conservatives are finally beginning to see that Republicans have become the party of huge budget deficits, bridges to nowhere, Terri Schiavo, kickbacks, faith-based initiatives, power grabs, gerrymandering, torture, spying, signing statements, and closed-door law-making. They recognize that this time out of power is a time in which to reclaim the Republican party for themselves. They can either get rid of the moral extremists and budgetary profligates and disavow their enablers in the media and pulpits, or they can continue their moral and political decay from the minority side of the aisle.

Truly: This election was not only a referendum on George Bush, but on James Dobson as well.