I haven’t been paying close attention (any, really) to the elections today, but here is a thread to discuss them.
And Denny Crane just shot his client in the knees.
by John Cole| 23 Comments
This post is in: Politics, Previous Site Maintenance
I haven’t been paying close attention (any, really) to the elections today, but here is a thread to discuss them.
And Denny Crane just shot his client in the knees.
Comments are closed.
SeesThroughIt
It looks like the Govinator’s beloved propositions are taking it on the chin. That’s a definite plus.
MI
Did Denny actually take out both knees? There’s something oddly (morbidly?) satisfying about that, and perfectly in line for this show.
I wish I remembered to watch it more often.
nyrev
Texas has voted to ban marriage. All marriage.
God Bless Texas
Ancient Purple
Just a few items for us liberals to gloat about:
VA-Governor: Kaine beats Kilgore by 6 points. (I guess I can rightly say: Up yours, Swift Boaters!)
NJ-Governor: Corzine beats Forrester by 10. (It isn’t a good day to be the ex-Mrs. Corzine.)
Maine – Repeal of Gay Anti-Discrimination law. Citizens of Maine say no to discrimination and keep the law in place… and how. The repeal fails by 12 points! (I hope James Dobson at least washed his ass before the radical right wingnuts in Maine kissed it.)
St. Paul, MN: Anti-Bush Democrat trounces Pro-Bush Democrat 2-to-1. (Hint to Democrats in Minnesota: Don’t ever been seen within 500 miles of Bush.)
KC
Here in California I’m watching the Governor speak thinking about how happy I am that 76 is failing badly. That the Governor even pushed for the kind of budget making power in that initiative is crazy. For me, I’m happy to see it failing.
Steve S
Mixed news in my small suburban community…
Of four referendums, 3 passed, one failed. Looks like we’re going to be getting an addition to the community center, new parks, and new trails. No new swimming pool for the kiddies, though. Thank god, the rugrats need a bath not a pool.
The three people I voted for in the school board election won. Evidence that I am the smartest rabbit. Although that was pretty much a no-brainer. The three who won had the most experience in the field.
Steve S
It looks like the inevitability of Republican rule forever and ever ain’t turning out so well.
Poor Karl Rove, he must be throwing a hissy fit right now.
KC
As a Californian, I have to say it was amazing to see the Governor look so, well, defeated in his speech tonight. I think he just made a big mistake when he decided, especially after the 2004 election, to make a hard right turn on a lot of issues. He really had the potential to do great things in this state. Oh well.
Veeshir
I find it hard to believe that a candidate, Kaine in VA, who ran on a platform of raising taxes actually won the race.
4 more years of being taxed on my vehicle each and every year. Joy. I also can’t wait until the gas tax is raised. At least I don’t own my own home so, while my rent might go up, my property taxes won’t.
Slide
Cole:
I don’t blame you John, your party took an old fashioned ass whopping last night. Lose in New Jersey by a hefty margin. Lose in red state Virginia. Arnold loses ALL FOUR of his propositions that HE called the special election for. And on a more local level, here in my Long Island, which is (was) very Republican territory, the headline in Newsday is LI DEMS SURGE. Even a GOP District Attorney that had been in office for a long long time got beat by a 30 female Dem in Nassau County. Wow.
Thank you George Bush. You were exactly what the Dem party needed – an example of what Republican governance looks like. Got the Senate. Got the House. Got the Presidency. Got your mandate. OK people, how you like what you got? Not very much it seems. Looking forward to 2006. My hope of course is that the Dems take at least one house and then guess what boys and girls? yes, we can have some REAL congressional hearings into he criminal Bush Administration with the Dems having subpoena power.
Ben
Slide,
Temper your emthusiasm a bit… here in Texas the gay marriage ban (and a ban between anything that looks like a marriage, i.e. contracts between same sex, not related people) passed by a huge majority. Overall, a win for D’s, but in Texas many of us are feeling shitty. Oh well, I’m moving back to DC in 3 weeks so I can be a person again.
Slide
Ben is that what the Republican plans to run on in 2006? banning same sex marriage? Hey, they ran on that in 2004, they have the Presidency, the senate, the house, why aren’t they doing something about it now? Where is the Constitutional Amendment that Bush talked about BEFORE the election? Even the religious “wackos”, as Republican strategist call them, are going to be a bit dubious next time don’t you think?
Shygetz
Finally! Tort reform, Charles Bronson-style!
Krista
Boston Legal was very amusingly demented last night…as usual. And yes, MI, he took out both knees. Tuesday night NBC is great lately…My Name is Earl, The Office, and Boston Legal.
MattD
I don’t understand the unabashed glee about the defeat of Schwartzenegger’s initiatives in California. What is so “hard right” about trying to curb spending in a state that has been out of control for decades; trying to make it more difficult for unions to siphen off the dues of their hard-working members for self-serving political purposes? Jeez, even Kos supported the redistricting plan aimed at loosening the grip of incumbants on the legistlature. I’m pretty sure you can chalk up all the gloating around here to the usual partisan hackery. As usual, every time the Democrats win a local election, it’s a “referendum on the Bush Asministration” and when they lose, then “the election had more to do with local issues.”
Personally, as a New Yorker, I am pleased Bloomberg won another term (and–this is gloating–seeing Al Sharpton behind Freddy Ferrer during the concession speech made it even better). He’s a good mayor, and Ferrer’s stock tax and embrace of Sharpton portended a return to the Dinkins years of high crime and low jobs. On the flip side, I’m sorry the transit initiatives passed, likely plunging our State’s debt situation from serous to critical within the next 10 years. This was a referendum on authorizing more state debt to pay for transit improvements and a face-saving mechanism for politicians who won’t have to take the blame when the budget deficit bankrupts the state.
h0mi
We’ll see no shortage of spin coming from both sides about how bad this was/no it really wasn’t so bad for the GOP until the 2006 elections are over & we find out for certain what the mood of the electorate is.
I still don’t know how Prop 77 or it’s cousin in OH failed, or how Bloomberg got re-elected.
Shygetz
Oh, so you are against corporate spending on lobbying, right? Spending their investors’ money for self-serving political purposes–the bastards. Please–most transparent partisan move in a while.
As far as the redistricting, I am for it if it is done on a nationwide basis. Doing it just in CA is, in effect, unilateral disarmament. If everyone will stop gerrymendering, that’s great. But wanting a liberal state to stop without everyone else stopping is silly. And I think that CA election was more of a referendum on Arnold–although Bush, as leader of his party, didn’t help.
I know nothing about NY politics, so I won’t comment on that.
fwiffo
The problem with the spending limits is that Californians like big government that provides lots of services, even if it’s expensive. The problem with the initiative about unions is that it’s completly partisan. It regulates traditionally Democratic groups but does nothing about similar Republican groups. Does it require Chambers of Commerce to get approval from their members before contributing to candidates? Does it require corporations to get approval from stockholders (or employees, or customers) to contribute political dollars?
I would have supported the redistricting measure (as it is an improvement over the current situation,) but there were some issues with its wording that would have subtly favored Republicans. There was an article about it on mydd.com – something about what information could/couldn’t be used to create competitive districts.
Now can anyone explain why the Ohio ballot measures failed so badly?
John Cole
Boston Legal is ABC.
Krista
John – oops, my bad. I don’t even pay attention to that stuff, because there are just too many channels on the dish to remember what network I’m watching. All I know is it’s channel 205.
Although, ABC probably doesn’t care if I remember that I’m watching their network, as long as I’m watching. :)
Lines
What will happen when a fully republican Supreme Court is forced to actually review gay marriage laws. Ooops, going down in a flaming ball of strict constructionism, baby!
Congrats, wingers, your homophobia will also cost you a lot more in the future.
Steve S
Well sure it was. It was a rejection of Auhnuld.
The guy’s an ass. Instead of trying to work with the people of California to solve the problems, he’s been calling everybody names. That’s not why they voted him in.
You know, that name calling thing might play well over on Jeff G’s blog, but most people don’t like it.
SeesThroughIt
I agree. The California proposition was interesting, and I do like the idea of not letting politicians continually rewrite the rules of the game they’re playing (“Let’s Get Elected!”) and instead having referees do it, but ultimately, prop 77 didn’t seem like it was the right idea. Also, it was pretty hard not to see prop 77 as Arnie’s attempt to rein in a Democratic legislature, considering how shady his other pet props were.