I’m still a little stunned that Russ Feingold has lost his seat. I think this will be perhaps the single greatest tragedy of the 2010 elections. My only hope is that Feingold goes on to either serve in the Obama administration, or takes back his seat in a few years.
Reader Interactions
143Comments
Comments are closed.
Trackbacks
-
[…] my friends, the nitwits who would dare vote against America’s finest piece of legislation in the 21st century, the […]
-
[…] Im still a little stunned that Russ Feingold has lost his seat. I think this will be perhaps the single greatest tragedy of the 2010 elections. My only hope is that Feingold goes on to either serve in the Obama administration … […]
Quiddity
I blame the WATB Firebaggers for this loss.
Ailuridae
I like Russ and have a lot of admiration for him in a way.
But barring specific policy expertise the President shouldn’t consider bringing him into the administration.
Anya
There is a diary at GOS claiming that Feingold is not conceding. Apparently, they are yet to count votes from Madison.
The Dangerman
Boehner isn’t looking as radioactive tonight; he must have skipped some tanning sessions.
Bnut
Greatest Tragedy of the 2010 Elections? Christine O’Donnell Halloween costume no longer relevant.
BTW, the Boner just teared up in his speech and was rewarded with chants of “USA”. Magical.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Ailuridae:
I’m sure there are plenty of generic-ish jobs that he could fill in a second Obama term. Its not as if cabinet secretaries often have genuine academic credentials or professional expertise in their respective departments.
rb
[I] have a lot of admiration for him in a way
Well, if that’s not a decisive statement then I’ve never seen one.
freelancer
Boehner’s crying. He just succeeded Beck in having America’s most tear-soaked punchable face.
Silver Owl
Blue dogs fucked the dems in a major way. They should have stood up for the people rather than their dead asses and corporations.
Thoroughly Pizzled
That fuck who beat him blames global warming on sunspots. It’s almost as if Christine O’Donnell was a purposeful decoy to keep the media from focusing on other kooky Republicans.
Omnes Omnibus
Hold your horses, ED. No votes in Madison have been counted and Feingold is not conceding.
Violet
I thought Feingold wasn’t conceding because Madison hasn’t reported yet.
SIA
@Bnut: Boner always gets a little maudlin when he’s drunk.
maye
Sestak lost.
MaximusNYC
Maddow was saying on MSNBC that one of Feingold’s problems was that he is not really a party animal. He votes his conscience, and isn’t shy about making noise about it. You can be a maverick in the Senate, but that’s not the kind of person who gets hired into a presidential administration.
Joseph Nobles
Someone on Twitter said to replace Holder with Feingold. I was like, Why? What the hell has Holder done? If there’s been anybody pushing a liberal agenda on Capitol Hill, other than the DADT appeals, it’s Holder.
Put Feingold on the Supreme Court.
morzer
Rand Paul:
“We all either work for rich people, or we sell stuff to rich people. So just punishing rich people is as bad for the economy as punishing anyone.”
The word sociopathic hardly seems adequate to describe this miserable creature’s deluded vision of America.
Bob Loblaw
@Ailuridae:
Well, considering Russ is one of the worst company men in the history of Washington, having him as a hypothetical Attorney General would probably not work out too well for the powers that be.
Of course, I wouldn’t be against that for a change.
freelancer
I could swear I hear Gaga’s Poker Face being played behind Schultz at the Reid party.
FSM bless America.
Spaghetti Lee
I’m looking at TPM’s Map of the House, and the Republicans need 24 more seats for a majority. Almost none of the blue parts of the West Coast have come in, while gooper territory is mostly counted. Could the house not flip after all.
They called it for Toomey, though. Fuck.
James E. Powell
Why are stunned? Feingold had been trailing badly for a while. I am not in Wisconsin, but there was no race-changing news out of there to give any hope to his survival.
My feeling about this debacle is that the Great & Wise American voters are just too stupid to be citizens of a healthy democracy. That they would disregard that the Republicans are an openly the party of the rich and the large corporations; that Republicans are the party whose policies brought about the economic disasters of the last few years, that the Republicans have never done anything that benefited the middle class or workers, generally, is the only thing that stuns me.
freelancer
I could swear I hear Gaga’s PokR Face being played behind Schultz at the Reid party.
FSM bless America.
fuck mod hell
Mr Furious
@Joseph Nobles:
Bring it. That would be phenomenal.
Spaghetti Lee
Feingold is 53,000 down, and about a third of the precincts haven’t been reported.
J. Michael Neal
Actually, I kind of like the idea of Saint Russell on the Supreme Court. The fact that he’s a raging egomaniac, even by the standards of the US Senate, wouldn’t be such a big problem.
Hoya
I just cant imagine this motley unholy GOP/Tea Alliance survives until the ’11 elections.
When Obama vetoes and keeps sending back bills, they’ll lose it.
AB
well, Johnson just ran a really smart campaign from the start and followed the Angle strategy of not having policy proposals. Not like it matters, because people just vote party line anyway in the Senate/House. 2 years of Gridlock go.
freelancer
@Mr Furious:
Agreed. But is it doable with this new paradigm?
MikeJ
@freelancer: Malkin hed, “Did Harrah’s Casino Pressure Employees to Vote for Reid?”
That would be so much worse than mickey d’s putting voting suggestions in pay envelopes, or safeway in WA putting up signs telling people to vote for liquor sales in grocerys.
Ailuridae
@Amanda in the South Bay:
OK, but which of those jobs is he qualified for above and beyond another person looking for patronage? Feingold broke ranks time and time again with the administration. In the sense of intellectual consistency I am not really interested in Blanche Lincoln serving in the administration either.
Oh and fuck this nonsense about appointing Colin Powell as the next Chief of Staff. That’s a hard fucking job and he’s unqualified. Just because pundit America doesn’t viscerally hate exactly two black Americans doesn’t mean they need to work together.
Spaghetti Lee
Reid’s looking good and Murray’s moved ahead. If the Dems lose IL and AK, they’ve still got 53 seats in the Senate. -6 ain’t exactly political revolution, but you won’t hear that in the press.
MikeJ
@Hoya:
And they will claim that they gave Dems everything they asked for and now we (the Dems) refuse to compromise at all. And the press will report it unquestioningly.
John PM
Feingold was a progressive icon and is getting his ass handed to him. Clearly Obama has not been progressive enough. If only Obama had used the bully pulpit.
cursorial
I donated to Feingold, but as a Wisconsin voter, feel pretty guilty about not doing more to actively support his campaign. I didn’t always agree with his votes, but having 100 – hell, 10 – senators with his integrity would go a long way to improving the institution.
Just got home from the bar, having demonstrated exceptional moderation under the circumstances, only to have to listen to Boehner break down in tears during his speech. Jesus. Am now going to channel a little John Paul Jones and declare that I have not yet begun to drink.
Face
I cant believe Wisconsin could be so obtuse. They’re normally a rather enviro-friendly, progressive state. I guess I can now start calling them Pissconsin again.
Signed,
FIB
Amanda in the South Bay
@Ailuridae:
Thats the point, so many cabinet secretaries get their jobs because of patronage, without any real expertise.
RE-Colin Powell-Fuck, i never recommended that. What a massively stupid idea.
freelancer
@John PM:
Wow, but are you late to that joke.
Spaghetti Lee
AGH! I didn’t mean to!
shoutingattherain
Very VERY close, up and down all night in the OR GOV race:
John Kitzhaber 433,942 49%
Chris Dudley 432,294 49%
monkeyboy
I am saddened that Pat Toomey won the Sen in Pa.
He is from the “club for growth” teatard related faction where their logo features a stylized erect penis.
Here in PA I experienced no GOTV harassment and I guess there were too many angry old white men with erectile dysfunction that he ensorceled.
J.W. Hamner
Voted against the Patriot Act; Twice. Thus a hero in my book. Very sad to see him go.
Spaghetti Lee
Also, whoever said Dan Maffei was gonna lose, he’s pulled ahead.
Violet
@Spaghetti Lee:
Can you edit it? Or request deletion?
BR
@J.W. Hamner:
The fact that that sentence makes perfect sense is a reminder of how Orwellian GOPers’ language has gotten in recent years.
beltane
@freelancer: It’s called the Womanly Art of Right Wing Bloviating.
Sadaam Hussein was known for bawling as his victims would be taken out a shot.
valdivia
I can’t believe we lost the gov race in Ohio. That one makes me very very sad and worried about 2012
Spaghetti Lee
Giffords and Grijalva both winning at the moment: Kirpatrick and Mitchell are losing.
Spaghetti Lee
@valdivia:
I think a lot of the Midwestern losses are freefloating economic angst, which the Republicans won’t do anything to solve. And it was only 49-46 or something like that.
Anya
@valdivia: Nooooooooooooooooo
MaximusNYC
NBC says Fiorina beat Boxer? Yikes.
beltane
@valdivia: If Ohioans wanted to be put out of their misery, Kasich is the man to do it. Electing him is like shutting of their life support.
I’m afraid schadenfreude will be one our few remaining pleasures in the upcoming years.
J. Michael Neal
Woo hoo! Paladino threatened to use his baseball bat on Andrew Cuomo! MSNBC has highlights!
CaseyL
Feingold just conceded.
Dave C
Feingold has conceded. Fuck.
sirpointyhead
So is this the teabaggers’ high-water mark?
Ailuridae
@Amanda in the South Bay:
And how many of them have openly fucked the sitting administraton.
Look, if the O’Malley administration in ’16 wants to appoint Saint Russ to be the Solicitor General i give a fuck.
But he’s slogged this administration for two years. He’s not particularly qualified for shit in the administration he would be willing to take. So, yeah, fuck him.
If he runs to replace Kohl I will donate as well as if he runs again for this seat. But he’s an opportunistic asshole and against a sitting president of his own party.
Spaghetti Lee
In reference to the “new” Crazification factor, turns out O’Donnell ended up with 40.04% of the vote. You guys are good.
Oh, and Inouye was declared victor just now. (Huge surprise, I know). The Dems can have no fewer than 50 seats and Joe Biden to break ties.
Comrade Kevin
@MaximusNYC: If they said that, they’re dead wrong.
Violet
@MaximusNYC:
No, Boxer won.
FreeAtLast
@J. Michael Neal:
Plus, his being an ex-member of The Club should make his confirmation go smoothly.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Ailuridae:
Oh heck, I don’t really give a shit about Feingold one way or another, and I agree its better to have actual qualified people hold positions like cabinet secretaries, rather than fucking politicians. I just guess the bar is so low these days that I don’t see it as a bfd, honestly.
dms
@Quiddity: Exactly. That’s the Balloon Juice response to everything.
Admiral_Komack
“My only hope is that Feingold goes on to either serve in the Obama administration (…)”
Why?
He won’t support the President.
I don’t want Saint Russ anywhere near the Obama Administration.
Paula
Ugh. Cue the whining why don’t you. The guy got outspent like a mofo.
(The worst American economic disaster since the Depression rolling along and the fucking Dummycrats will probably keep the Senate, which is a sight better than Greatest Recent Hero Bill Clinton managed to do.
And apparently a good part of the country couldn’t give a shit about the Tea Party. Bigger news, IMO.
Overall, not great. But what I said somewhere in here is that it wouldn’t be the insane bloodbath that people were predicting. It wasn’t. I predict gridlock for another 2 years. But @ least Republicans will now have a nominal share of whatever blame is coming.)
Spaghetti Lee
@MaximusNYC:
TPM’s had the race called for Boxer for a while now. Don’t know what NBC is doing.
jwb
@Hoya: What do you mean? The teabaggers are already part of the GOP. So there’s nothing really to do except stamp down the few unruly ones who believed the rhetoric. Rush and Fox & co. will take care of some of it; Beck and Palin the rest; and pretty soon we’ll be hearing about nothing except tax cuts, cutting social security and medicare, not funding health care reform and, if necessary, impeachment. My guess: by next summer the teatards will cease to exist as a separate political entity.
Origuy
Has no one mentioned what TBogg said?
freelancer
Americans for Performing a Tracheotomy on Luke Russert.
I’m forming a new Party, who’s in?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@MaximusNYC: Nope, they’re projecting Boxer as the winner.
FreeAtLast
Bummer. John Hall, NY-19 just lost. I did telephoning GOTV for him today and had a bad feeling about the tone in the voices on the other end of the line.
Omnes Omnibus
@Face: Enjoy Senator Kirk. Feingold’s race is not yet finished. The Bears still suck, also too.
MaximusNYC
I guess I misheard, or rather, I was going by Brian Williams’ verbal diarrhea without looking at the screen. He was reading off a list of Senate wins, and for some reason mentioned Fiorina in a way that made it sound like she won.
Can’t believe the demon sheep didn’t work!
Spaghetti Lee
Dan Lungren is only up by 4 right now.
Long-term, how much longer do you think Orange County can stay so Republican, with all the immigrants they’ve got coming in?
Amanda in the South Bay
Good news. Newsom is leading in the Lt. Gov race. I fucking hate Abel Maldonaldo.
Paula
@Origuy:
Gawd, you’re gonna restart the juicebagger/firebagger war.
The whole thing seems idiosyncratic. A Dem won in WV for shooting a gun and came damn close in KY with aqua buddha, but Russ Feingold falls after years of service.
???????
Kryptik
@jwb:
You live in a much more optimistic world than I do. I can’t see anything but constant screeches of “FUCK YOU FUCKING LIBERALS!” from everyone down to at least a 1/3 of the standing Dems in Congress, with the rest scratching their chins wondering ‘Gee, maybe we are too liberal’.
morzer
@freelancer:
I might have to demand that a no anesthetic clause be part of the platform.
Kindly step into my smoke-filled room.
Spaghetti Lee
@jwb:
That’s what teatards were all about in the first place. Cut off my nose to spite a Black guy’s face.
What will be hammered out are the vague glimmers of social libertarianism. You won’t hear a word about Rand Paul being anti-war from now on, I guarantee it.
Davis X. Machina
@FreeAtLast: Upstate is tough — really bad economy, even before the recession, trending older as people move away in search of jobs… and the big manufacturing cities like Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica — Dem strongholds — hollowing out.
Like PA away from the two big cities, it’s becoming more Appalachian as it shrinks.
D.N. Nation
Silver calls the Senate for Democrats.
Bob Loblaw
@Ailuridae:
You’re letting your whiny Obotism show through, and it’s borderline pathetic. This is the administration that hired Ken Salazar and desperately wanted Daschle to boot, so let’s not start talking about how high their hiring standards are.
angry cheesehead
Living here in Wisconsin I am stunned at the shear stupidity of my fellow cheeseheads. I am also pissed as hell. Russ was the only Senator you could actually respect. Now we get the retard Johnson, and Walker for Gov. What a fucked up state.
I hope Russ takes Kohl’s seat in 2012. In the meantime it won’t be gridlock for 2 years–the republican fuckers are going to actively harm the country. Gridlock means stasis–these bugfuck crazy people are going to do damage.
morzer
@MaximusNYC:
Fiorina won an O’Donnell victory. Presumably Boxer isn’t going to waste much time on the red-eyed sheep’s list of demands.
some other guy
Kohl will probably retire soon. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Russ running again in a couple years.
Comrade Luke
@Spaghetti Lee:
Loved him in Rocky IV.
D.N. Nation
Have to win two out of NV, WA, and CO to Nelson/Droopy-proof the majority.
Dannie22
Damn Ohio is all I can say!
Comrade Kevin
@Amanda in the South Bay: Kamala Harris is losing, though, ugh. That guy Cooley is a slug.
jwb
@Spaghetti Lee: The only problem is that it’s not clear where that free floating anxiety lights in 2012. With the Dems apparently holding on in the Senate, the anger could—and if the media has any say in the matter likely will—continue to be directed toward the Dems. As things are turning out, I don’t really see the Goopers changing course much from their strategy the past two years, though they are now obligated to pass a budget so they won’t be able to entirely duck responsibility. But I now see unemployment getting worse rather than better over the next two years, as the state and local governments are going to start bleeding jobs starting early next year. Really the only hope of not having an economic clusterfuck in 2011 now is that our corporate overlords decide the economic cost is too high and they force the Goopers to deal. I’d put the odds at less than fifty-fifty. Mark my words: next August is going to be very interesting, and, no, you really don’t want to live in interesting times.
wengler
Don’t file this under ‘This is good news…for John McCain’, but Obama is really set up well for 2012. He’ll have a unified party set up against a common enemy losing the demographics war a little more every day.
In bad news for everyone else the economy is still going to suck and the Republicans will do their best Hoover impression while the American people starve. But good Republicans know that as long as the brown man is starving more then everything’s good.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Comrade Kevin:
I think she faces the hurdle of being from San Francisco, alas.
Wile E. Quixote
@Davis X. Machina:
If I lived in the NYC area I’d be working hard to secede from the rest of New York state. The only thing that’s keeping upstate NY alive is tax revenues from NYC. Take those away and it’s Mississippi with a chillier climate.
Christin
Shrug. America gets the government it deserves. I no longer care or get upset. I canvass, donate, work my butt off non stop. I enjoy it. So when i say i no longer care i mean i don’t give a rat’s ass about the people who are going to get hosed by this .It killed and depressed me and made my cry for since 2000. I can’t survive like that – so the hell with them. I’ve learned to accept it is, what it is. So congrats WI. And congrats America. Wheeeee!!!
I guess i’m too happy about some local wins here in Jersey to cry. And no way could President O win 2012 with not losing congress, period.
So whatever.
And Russ, who lost huge in WI, who made it a point to give non stop grief to O? Get a job in the admin? Oh god please.
Davis X. Machina
@jwb:
Watch the FOMC. The voters may have spoken, but the mandarins speak last.
Ailuridae
@Bob Loblaw:
No actually, I’m not. I understand that unqualified people will take cabinet posts. But given that there is a never ending amount of unqualified people why suggest to include some like Feingold who is almost certainly unqualified and not a loyalist. It really is no different from someone suggesting appointing Blanche Lincoln Ag Secretary (as some have).
Can you try harder? Because your current level of try and skill is a pretty awful fail.
frosty
@Origuy: Jeez, that’s perfect. Thanks. I’m getting there, one election at a time.
J. Michael Neal
Tweety is throwing back all the good will he earned by laughing at Michelle Bachman.
Comrade Kevin
@Amanda in the South Bay: Well, so is Newsom. But then, Abel Maldonado is from Santa Maria, not LA.
Ailuridae
@Wile E. Quixote:
That and the fact that NYC doesn’t pay market rates for their water or electricity or heat.
Bob Loblaw
Oh man, if Colorado ends up going to Buck (and AK and WA both play out the way the polls say they would), I’m going to laugh so hard. A 52-48 D majority.
Sharon Angle and Witchy O’Donnell saved the Senate. What a delightful clusterfuck to end the night.
danimal
@Amanda in the South Bay: Really? I have the opposite take. Gavin Newsom gives me the creeps more than any other politician this side of John Edwards. At least Maldonado voted for a state budget, pissing off the GOP cavemen.
That was my token vote for a Republican for the
yeardecade.jwb
@Kryptik: They only hate us because we won’t agree that tax cuts are the solution to every problem.
FlipYrWhig
On the bright side, eventually all these old people will be dead. And the world will be a much better place for it.
Comrade Kevin
@danimal: Maldonado only voted for that budget in exchange for the Governator handing the interim Lieutenant Governor’s job to him, so he’d have a leg up in the election.
I voted for Newsom, but I really didn’t particularly enjoy it, even if he did go to my alma mater.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Comrade Kevin:
True, but he has that fucked up gerrymandered district that stretches all the way to Los Fucking Gatos.
RalfW
I think Feingold should move to Canada, establish citizenship, and run for office up there where rational leadership is (mostly, at least) still appreciated. I’d pretend-seriously consider following him.
Amanda in the South Bay
@danimal:
Yeah, but as Kevin said, he had to be bribed to vote on it.
I agree about Newsom, but maybe we’ll have a genuine progressive as mayor in the city rather than someone from the Di Fi segment of the SF Democratic Party.
Kryptik
@jwb:
Oh, and we hate America and want Bin Laden to erect a giant golden shit on the ashes of Ground Zero, don’t forget that. Or the streamlining of the effort to make Spanish the official language, can’t forget that either. Oh, and the guillotines for the rich! I can’t believe we forgot to mention that dastardly plot of ours they foiled!
Just how fucking delusional they’ve managed to make the American electorate would be hysterical if it weren’t so fucking scary. And we’re gonna pay for it for at least the next two years. And unlike some, I’m not writing 2012 down as a sure get, considering how much fucking crazy they managed to get mainstreamed already. Imagine how much they can get accepted with actual fucking power.
FreeAtLast
@Ailuridae:
Have you ever paid a Con-Ed bill? It is way above what most other utilities charge
J. Michael Neal
The GOP House deputy whip was interviewed. He insisted that everyone would be able to get along and get stuff done. When asked where he saw room for a compromise with Democrats, he said they could compromise on agreeing on no tax increases.
danimal
@Comrade Kevin: Well, I really don’t want to see Newsom in the Governor’s office, which was more of a factor for me than anything else.
If current trends continue, maybe the abomination of the 2/3 budget requirement is history. Probably the most important initiative in CA this year.
MaximusNYC
NBC breathlessly reporting what Palin is twittering to Obama tonight. Time to turn off NBC.
I’d still like to know whether Reid will pull it out, and whether a Dem can take the state house of FL, where I grew up… but I ain’t gonna stay up all night.
Bob Loblaw
@Ailuridae:
This sentence is abject lunacy that completely ignores over 200 years of cabinet tradition.
I don’t know when exactly you think apolitical technocrats started dominating the appointments, but here on planet earth, politicians have been getting these jobs since the fucking founding. There is no conceivable case for saying Feingold is unqualified for a cabinet position when Ken Salazar runs the Interior Department, Gary Locke runs Commerce, and Leon Fucking Panetta was put in charge of the CIA.
If you want to make the case on party loyalty, fine. But stop slagging a three-term Senator because he hurt your feelings on financial reform. You wouldn’t be saying this nonsense about Pat Leahy.
Davis X. Machina
It’s a sign of how trendless and stochastic this whole election has been that a Democrat has been returned, apparently, to a sixth term in arguably the reddest state in the Union.
sirpointyhead
Reid held off Angle. Holy shit.
J. Michael Neal
Harry Reid wins. Thanks, Sharon!
Amanda in the South Bay
@Davis X. Machina:
Well, to be fair doesn’t he represent SLC, which is quite liberal, even by Utah standards?
RalfW
Chris Geidner reminds us
twitstwitterers that Feingold was 1 of only 7 remaining Senators who voted NO on DOMA. Add that to Patriot Act clarity. Even the saintly Paul Wellstone got the DOMA vote wrong.Calliope Jane
@Comrade Kevin: Maldonado’s from Santa Maria? Damn. /useless comment
wengler
I think Reid’s victory just made Lieberman cry a little bit.
Holy Joe was looking to be the most important person in America for a couple hours there.
FreeAtLast
Boy, I wonder what the conversation will be like in the cloakroom between McCain an Reid. Didn’t JM make a really obnoxious comment recently about Harry moving from the DC Ritz-Carleton back to Searchlight,NV?
Cain
@D.N. Nation:
Big deal, the blue dogs in teh senate will just pass whatever republicans want.
cain
wengler
I’m not going to get into the firebagger/Obot wars, but Obama made a major mistake when he personally chose Giannoulias to run in the general. Quinn was a much more damaged pol and it looks likely that he will be able to retain the governor’s office.
Never run a guy whose family’s bank just failed in an era where people fucking hate banks. Thank you Obama for giving us 6 years of Mark Kirk.
Cain
wow.. republicans have the house.. just wow.
Well, it’s going to be a fun couple of years.
cain
FreeAtLast
Wow! Bennet just lost his lead by a lot in CO. Must have started counting all the holy rollers from Colorado Springs.
Cain
I guess are “conservative” friends will be drinking our tears for awhile. As someone else said, we survived (barely) the Republican wave for the past 10 years, I suppose we can do it again…
cain
Ailuridae
@FreeAtLast:
No offense to any down staters but if they are going to play the üpstate NY is el savador crowd I would point out that barring financial compensation your electricity, heat and water would he many times more expensive than they are. Which I did and you are pouting about.
I don’t live in upstate, but I grew up there. If Upstate sold all of those natural goods on an open market it wouldn’t be as poor. Now NYS would be worse off of course, but you all seem to be advocating splitting the state up,
Ailuridae
@Bob Loblaw:
Are you this stupid? I didn’t state bring unqualified was a reason not to consider someone for a cabinet appointment. I have no concern about that. But if you have to pick from the pool of unqualified and disloyal (Feingold) and the unqualified and loyal that’s an easy choice.
Feingold fucked the administration time and time again. It owes him nothing. He grandstanded and he lost. Again, I will support him if he runs again for either WI Senate seat.
But there is absolutely no functional difference between appointing Feingold or Lincoln into a position that they don’t deserve in the cabinet. And I would never suggest either,
Ailuridae
@Bob Loblaw:
How can you possibly quote that, in that way, in good faith?
Comrade Kevin
@Calliope Jane: He sure is. Santa Maria, the worst place on the Central Coast.
Comrade Kevin
@Ailuridae: Bla Bla-Bla has a habit of doing stuff like that.
mclaren
Dare I suggest it? Both Grayson and Feingold are Jewish. So in addition to “center white nation” (lynch them niggas!) perhaps we’re getting a touch of “string up them kikes too, boys!” in this election.
Gays are next. Watch out, Barney Frank…
RalfW
Minnesota seems to be collapsing. Rumblings of both the MN House and Senate going GOP. Word is the WI lege is swinging heavily right too.
The midwest is turning craptastic.
Comrade Kevin
“Calvinists 4 Conservatism”. Is that a joke site? It sure looks like it, from the brief excerpt in that trackback.
Ailuridae
@Comrade Kevin:
Yes, but it is rather complicated snark in really small type.
I mention this as I have sent them countless emails asking for a better background and larger type to read it on.
Admiral_Komack
@J. Michael Neal:
She should have manned-up.
mclaren
@wengler:
Except for that little 10.8% unemployment thing. Or maybe by 2011 it’ll be 12.4% unemployment.
Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but every presidential election since WW II has basically been a referendum on the state of the economy. If the economy’s doing well (or at least doing better), the incumbent gets re-elected president. If the economy’s tanking, the incumbent gets hosed.
California currently circles the drain and the suction’s pulling it down, economically speaking. That’s the one to watch. If California bellies up and defaults and goes bust-o, boy, that’s the seventh largest economy on earth. Watch the people in the Golden State drag the rest of America down with ’em.
Nick
If only he had supported a robust public option
Mayur
By “he” you mean the president, I take it Nick?
If he had supported the public option, we might have had a public option, Nick you dumbass.
Jeebus; if anything, this election really shows up your fucking cowardice for what it is: Useless. Pain causes people to do stupid things; better that the Dems should have fought for what they could get done than that they “keep their powder dry” or some nonsense long enough that people kick them out in frustration for not having helped them.
If you want to say that the votes weren’t there for a public option, fine. That’s a legit argument. But for godsakes don’t try to claim that a better and faster HCR program, a stronger stimulus, or better protection for mortgagors wouldn’t have made a difference, because it damn sure would have. That’s the entire stupidity of the fucking Blue Dogs; they support halfway measures even though in so many cases, those measures are politically dangerous for them.
Rebecca
@Paula:
True. When I visited my Mom over the summer, the Republican guy’s commercials outnumber Feingold’s by, like, at least 2 to 1.
Donald
@Ailuridae: grandstanding? Are you serious? Is that what they call “having a basic principle or two” in your world?
American voters like people with guts who say decisive things. I don’t buy for a second that Feingold’s loss proves that Obama couldn’t have been firmer or more progressive. It would have helped if he and the Dems had actually fought. As it is, they get tarred as extreme liberals anyway, but don’t get any of the benefits that come from taking a stand.