The House is looking bad for Dems, the Senate is looking good.
How bad is the tv coverage so far? I know Harold Ford has said all kinds of crazy shit, but he doesn’t bother me anymore since mistermix’s excellent post. But Gergen, Bobo, Joe Scar, Carville/Matalin, Candy Crowley….I can’t even say it…Halperin. Is it please-shoot-me bad or global-extinction-event bad?
What’s the meme, liberal overreach, right-center nation, or some as-yet-unimagined (by me) horror?
C Nelson Reilly
Real Americans taking the country back
The Dangerman
Fucking abyssmal; MSNBC called the House at 6pm. There a likely some House races out west that could be lost because of that indiscretion.
And it wasn’t even a projection; they called it at Republicans 237 +/- 13 seats. Fuck, I could have predicted that before my first cup of coffee this morning. Report the news and report it responsibly, fuckers.
suzanne
CNN is so graphically overwhelming, it looks like Sarah Palin wrapped herself in the flag and then threw up all over my TV screen.
Spaghetti Lee
Seriously, I’m very confused. Is TPM just incredibly wrong about how these elections are going? They’ve got some Dems losing, yeah, but a bunch of vulnerables are winning. If the Reps do take the house, it will be by a few guys. None of this 60-70 seat crap people have been talking up.
jwb
Don’t know, not watching. But the commentariat here doesn’t seem to think the world—or even the Republic—is ending.
MikeJ
To my shame, I’ve actually voted for Ford, but in TN-9 the other option is usually Satan. Lesser evil is less evil.
Sentient Puddle
You missed Christine O’Donnell’s bizarre concession speech. Otherwise, I’m trying not to pay attention.
suzanne
And MSNBC keeps showing commercials for Bible Spice’s reality show. Seriously. This is like driving a long way to get shot.
srv
Somebody tell John that George Clinton is playing at Yoshi’s on the 19th & 20th (he said he was going in two week). Tickets will go very quickly, small venue.
http://www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco/jazzclub/artist/show/1595
Guster
Unimagined horror.
I think we’ve gotta dig deep. Something like, ‘Reagan’s Revenge’ or ‘The Rise of the (Wise) Confederacy.’
jeff
We can all reassure ourselves and ridicule the coming idiotic and unfounded pundit bullshit all we want. We have, nevertheless, lost a shitload of power–oh! you all laugh at the idea “we” had power! OK. Also, too, a bunch of teabagger morons are now officers of the highest levels of our nation.
Then again, I’m baking lasagna and finishing a glass of wine. My cat is safe. My daughter is somewhere safe, I guess, so I’m OK.
erlking
Fuck it. I watched Toy Story 3 with the kids, one of whom has a birthday today. I’ll sort through the horseshit tomorrow and find out that voters were seduced by raging Republican humility or whatever the fuck the CW is in the morning. ‘Night all.
MobiusKlein
New rules – when the GOP controls one house of Congress and not the Presidency, it’s a decisive message to America.
When the Democratic party controls all three, it’s merely a center right nation.
Joe Bauers
I dunno, I’m just leaving it on CNBC and hitting mute every time a Republican comes on the screen. And I’m drinking bourbon. So far I haven’t vomited.
slag
Sullivan is the reason BJ has slowed down to a crawl, isn’t he? Yet another reason to dislike that dude.
Chat Noir
@suzanne: LOL. I love your comments.
pattonbt
Its times like these I am glad I am overseas and in at a different time of the day (mid morning here). No TV coverage for me. But it seems are shaping up to be about where predicted but I do not see a “bloodbath” anywhere. The Senate looks fine, but a fine senate is still a hopeless clusterfuck in my opinion.
And an R house looks probably but not definite yet.
Its going to be an interesting couple of years coming up.
lamh32
I dont’ have the cables, so I’m getting all my election results online without the crazy punditry. I’m finding that I’m actually doing okay.
If I watched MSM, I’d probably be ready to slit my wrists!
BTW, I hear Deval Patrick wins in MA. Still waiting on IL and PA!
Asshole
Think “The Nationalists were the good guys during the Spanish Civil War.” That sounds about right, doesn’t it, national fucking media?
CJR
Here’s a recap as of now:
1) Rand Paul hasn’t ever heard the term “seniority.”
2) After showing a bunch of winner speeches, MSNBC showed O’Donnell’s concession. IN WHICH SHE LAID OUT HER DEMANDS to the guy who beat her ass.
2a) She seemed a couple of wine glasses in.
3) Oklahoma blocked sharia law. Phew.
Nerull
I’m watching it on BBC News. It’s not great, but it’s a hell of a lot better than any American network.
They mostly seem amused at how crazy we are. I’m pretty sure I saw one of the hosts facepalm at Rand Paul.
drew42
Question — What becomes of all the (pretty good) legislation passed by the House which the Senate has been sitting on?
Does the incoming House have the power to take it back, or (since there’s not going to be a single decent piece of new legislation out of the House until 2013) does the Senate now have two years to try and push this stuff through?
WaterGirl
Just got email from OFA, asking people to make calls to CA.
Here’s the link to make calls. Maybe if we all make a few, we can make a difference.
wenchacha
Dammit, Dan Maffei probably loses; same for State Rep David Coon.
As for bigger races with Dem losses, thanks all who think Republicans will turn this very slow growth period around for us. Most likely they will.
Spaghetti Lee
Hm, I guess I’m starting to come down to earth. Pennsylvania’s not looking quite as good as it did, although it’s certainly not the bloodbath some were predicting. Bob Etheridge might be the only NC Dem to go down, and he ain’t out of it yet. Sestak could win, Bennet could win…it’s looking better than I expected.
Chat Noir
@Joe Bauers: I’m watching MSNBC and essentially doing the same. Going to need a couple Advil to deal with this headache.
stuckinred
It probably won’t matter but Broun is getting killed in Athens
Candidates Votes
PAUL BROUN (I) 5,124
RUSSELL EDWARDS 9,282
PeakVT
I don’t know how anyone can stomach election-night coverage on TV.
Oscar Leroy
What a wasted opportunity, huh? If America is a third-world nation in 40 years (and at this rate, it likely will be) people will look back on these past two years and shake their heads.
Spaghetti Lee
In SD, there’s a third party candidate with about 6% of the vote. That’s why Sandlin looks like she’s gonna pull it out.
MikeJ
@Nerull: Jesus fuck I can’t stand BBC America. Matt Frei is as bad or worse than any American villager.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh32: I haven’t turned on the TV. I believe it is keeping my pulse and blood pressure near a normal range.
Asshole
If I lived in Kentucky, I’d be printing bumper stickers that said, “Don’t blame me, I voted against the curb stompers” right about now.
suzanne
@Chat Noir: Awwww, thanks. :)
I would be getting sloshed right now, but the fetus can’t hold her liquor. Lightweight.
morzer
Be fair. It is hard when your life consists of touring financial districts by helicopter and spontaneously setting up residences in all fifty states at once. No wonder the poor lamb is a little confused about reality.
Comrade Luke
Well Evan Bayh has weighed in.
Dems lost because…well, you know what comes next.
Martin
Giannoulias’ lead down to 6 points with 51% in. It’s going to be nip and tuck. Cook and Alexander are 70% in and are pretty much carrying Giannoulias single-handedly. DuPage isn’t in at all, and will probably decide this thing.
General Stuck
We are not a center-right nation
But we are headed toward being a center-fire nation
merrinc
@Sentient Puddle:
My husband finally muted Christine O’Donnell’s nonsensical blathering after I started shrieking at the tv.
DougJ, you’ve missed gems such as Tim Kaine (aka the Invisible DNC Chair) missing an opportunity to explain that giving Republicans all the tax cuts they want is not “compromise.” IOW, it’s idiocy as usual. Since my spouse insists on watching it, I am going to make good on my threat to put in the headphones and watch old epsiodes of ER.
salacious crumb
i mentioned this in another post but im glad to see right winger for israel’s policies Grayson lose.
Davis X. Machina
@drew42: Pending legislation dies. New Congress, House and Senate, in January.
Some Senators will be immediately seated — they’re filling vacancies — but new Reps don’t take their places till 4 January, IIRC.
matoko_chan
tole jah so tole jah so tole jah so
DEM STRONG IN COLORADO: Sen Michael Benent (D) up 54-41% with 24% of the vote in over GOP’s Ken Buck
change
What a night!
Can’t wait for January. I’m sure Darrell Issa is getting everything in order for the investigations to start…
Oh, and you’re either going to have to pass ALL the Bush tax cuts, or pass NONE of them.
Don’t pass any, and we’ll run against the “largest tax increase in history during a recession” in 2012.
And we’ll have millions and millions and millions in third party money…
suzanne
CNN just called the Senate race for McCain. The polls haven’t even closed yet. Why not just call the damn race last week and get the SCOOP?
Raw exit poll data has Brewer up in the AZ Governor’s race by 10 points. FUCK.
I need to go shower with bleach and steel wool. STILL… NOT… CLEAN…
nepat
Deval Patrick wins! I don’t have to move to Canada!
aliasofwestgate
Michigan’s now a lost cause. Total blood bath of Republicans aside from a few blue districts in the House. We now have a Rethug again for Governor. You’d think they’d have learned after Engler nearly destroyed the place in the 90s! WTF.
I need a drink. Make that several.
freelancer
Seriously? Patrick Murphy is a toss up? Motherfucker.
morzer
@CJR:
Demands? For what? A new broom, a guilt-free index finger and free meatballs for life?
Jorge
So far 4 of the 9 Rep picks ups in the House have come from Blue Dogs.
Is the lesson from tonight that being a hippie punching cultural conservative who runs as a Democrat just to get black votes is no longer a sustainable political strategy?
thomas Levenson
ELE.
The tv folks need to demonstrate that there coverage model (horserace, bullshit, funny hats) is in fact an appropriate view of reality. So election night coverage has to suck worse than a broadcast booth stuffed with Joe Morgan, Tim McCarver and Dennis Miller.
AKA the apocalypse.
junebug
Bill White concedes. Damn I thought that wouldn’t happen so early.
Sad day. Now we have a king. This is worse than I thought for the state. My only hope is my state rep hangs on.
Sad.
freelancer
@change:
Fiscally irresponsible corporate whore, what does it feel like to be a human pretzel?
morzer
@change:
C’mon, Pepsi, even by your standards this is weak and watery stuff. You really do need to throw in a few bwahahahas and some colorful imagery.
Davis X. Machina
@aliasofwestgate: That’s what comes of saving the auto industry….
PeakVT
@salacious crumb: Doesn’t matter. 98% of Congress is for the policies of Israel’s right wing. As with everything else, Grayson was just louder about where he stood.
lamh32
I asked this in the other thread, but what is going on in SC.
Joe “you lie” Wilson is down so far, and haley “big” lead is not so big?
matoko_chan
tole jah so tole jah tole jah so
Denver mayor John Hickenlooper had a healthy lead over former Congressman Tom Tancredo and businessman Dan Maes in initial election results Tuesday.
Hickenlooper had 57 percent of the vote to Tancredo’s 31 percent and Maes’ 10 percent.
Tancredo has surged in recent weeks thanks to defections from Maes.
Hickenlooper has led the race in most polls throughout the campaign but had been stuck below 50 percent.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed Tancredo Monday, saying he will fight for lower taxes and smaller government. Maes, a Colorado tea party favorite, told KHOW radio he couldn’t see where “the courage or integrity is” in Palin’s last-minute endorsement.
Colorado’s next governor will have to deal with an estimated $715 million shortfall next year. Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter, who decided in January not to run for re-election, outlined his proposed budget on Tuesday calling for cuts that will hurt smokers, students, state employees and people who use state parks. The proposed $19.1 billion budget goes to state budget-makers next week for hearings. The current budget is $18.2 billion.
Also at stake: Whether the Colorado Republican Party will be considered a minor party if Maes gets less than 10 percent of the vote. A minor party designation would hurt the state party’s fundraising and underscore its unraveling in 2010.
Read more: Hickenlooper ahead of Tancredo for Colorado governor – Boulder Daily Camera http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_16502314#ixzz14BHOu2i0
DailyCamera.com
LarsThorwald
@jwb:
I don’t think the world is ending, and I will tell you why. For most of our modern history, divided government has been the norm. And while the Republicans are fucking crazy, they are not in control of the entirety of Congress, and they aren’t going to be able to get away with the shit they pulled when they ran the entire puppet show in the 2000s.
And I don’t think this election can be read — at least now — as a Republican tidal wave or massive madate or whatever.
But you know what? The GOP is going to read it as such. And my hunch is that they overreach. Like Terry Schiavo-level overreach. Some of their folks will take this is a greenlight to do some really unpopular stuff that they will believe is popular. Because they have to. Because their base is now certifiably fucking insane. And they want the impossible: less government, lower deficits, but they will not like the cuts.
I think the next two years will allow Obama to do what he does the very best: highlight the weaknesses in the other side’s approach. If — IF — he takes from this a realization that the Congress has gotten less compromisey, not more. But the makings of a really incredible opportunity to display a choice for voters.
But the GOp has overpromised their base, and they may be able to fool their base again, but the rest of the country — independents most particularly — are going to see whether they can deliver.
As that douchenozzle Mike Pence said, it’s easy to throw grenades than catch them.
Well now they have to start catching. And they aren’t built for governance. And it shows.
wengler
Our government makes a hell of a lot of sense.
House Democrats get punished by a couple Senate Democrats blocking legislation(one of which goes down). Meanwhile Senate Democrats do relatively well.
And in the end, we will get government shutdown and impeachment of Obama. The return of the circus will probably help Obama get a second term, but the economy will continue to stagnate and the misery index will steadily increase.
thomas Levenson
Weird to check the Boston Globe’s live blog of the results and see my college roommate as the reporter. Haven’t seen Martin for years, but have a mini-reunion set up in two weeks. An ill wind….
Suffern ACE
@Comrade Luke: Bayh will be the primary challenger.
O.K. Evan. You’ve been in the Senate. You at the last minute before your primary, leaving your local party in disarray, to prove that what we want is…your deficit commission.
aliasofwestgate
@Davis X. Machina:
They had it in for Granholm from the start, i knew that. But egads. I know i live in and i also grew up in a heavily republican area of Michigan, but i didn’t think the rest of the state was that stupid. Looks like my optimism has been proven wrong.
I’m trying to hold out on some good news on the National front, at least.
Splitting Image
I’m still planning to wait and see. It’s very possible that the U.S. has just gone from having one of its best ever Speakers to one of its worst, but I still I’m still not seeing 1994. The Republicans don’t have a Gingrich in the bunch.
I still say 1982 headed for 1984.
Cacti
@Jorge:
If they’d have just been more like Alan Grayson, surely they’d have won the day.
Mako
I’m still overwhelmed by the Ricky Martin thing.
Spaghetti Lee
Pat Tiberi and Joe Wilson could still lose, by the way. They’re losing right now. Etheridge has pulled back into the lead.
Seriously people, cheer the fuck up. This isn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.
Mako
That “young guns” guy, the one with the hipster glasses, closeted gay yes?
Martha
@Omnes Omnibus: Me too. Cannot do it…I’m practically suicidal as it is. Frakkin Ron Johnson? Bite me.
Dennis SGMM
Oh, children, most of you weren’t around (Or at least politically aware) to see Richard M. Nixon elected in 1968. When that happened I understood that my nation had passed over into something else. That was when I understood that appealing to what was worst in America (By my lights) would always trump appealing to what was best.
That’s the way it is. America has become a fat baby that punishes when it doesn’t immediately gets what it wants.
Live it, or live with it.
Davis X. Machina
@aliasofwestgate:
My wild-ass guess: Democrat > Obama > colored people > Detroit > OMG! OMG! America> Detroit!!!11!
Real lizard-brain stuff — with the reality of the bailout not penetrating below the cerebrum, even with the talk of GM’s IPO…
Based on sample of 1 sister in law in Bloomfield Hills who has voted Democratic her whole life, till now.
Spaghetti Lee
Holy shit. How is Bobby Bright not losing? All the Dems I’d be fine with getting rid of are winning, and all the ones I’d like to keep are losing.
JD Rhoades
I’m writing tonight, so I’m just pausing every now and then to check actual numbers without listening to the pundits. Calmest election night I’ve had in years.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@stuckinred: Hell, yes, they know the bastard best. I’m living in South Carolina now, but I’m a native Georgian. Lived in Athens for years (UGA grad and undergrad) and Broun represents my hometown in that hopelessly gerrymandered district. Of course, the booger-eating white trash in the land of my birth went for him about 8:1, but there aren’t but about eight people left in that damn ghost town anyway, so I doubt their primitive enthusiasm will put him over the top.
lamh32
Seriously, can the Dems pull it out in SC?
Joe “you lie” Wilsonis STILL down, and Haley is only up 1% over Shaheen (50%-49%)
change
The entire margin you built up over the past four years has been eviscerated in one night.
MikeJ
@JD Rhoades: My mom told me that the next time I saw you online I should tell you how much she enjoyed your books she bought for her nook. So consider yourself told.
soonergrunt
@Chat Noir: SECONDED!
Suzanne is on fire tonight.
mclaren
The mainstream media are annoying but don’t have a significant impact on the actual goings-on in Washington D.C. It’s not like (for example) Petraeus will suddenly decide U.S. forces have to exit Afghanistan tomorrow if Bobo stops writing stupid shit and Matalin ends her crazed babbling.
As far as the political situation, it’s neither please-shoot-me bad nor global-extinction-level-event bad. I tend to suspect that the American people are now behaving like that roaring-drunk Texas sheriff who tore his clothes off and threw himself on a cactus. When people found him in the morning moaning and weeping, they gently pulled him off and asked him why the hell he’d done something that crazy.
“Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-yit,” the now-sober Texas sheriff said, “it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
The American people have decided that the Tea Party seems like a good idea. They’ve given themselves the political equivalent of a Drano enema, and boy will they regret it.
With any luck, this experience will teach the American people the permanently fatal folly of putting Republicans anywhere near the levers of power. You’d hope that the eight years of the drunk-driving C student and his torturer sidekick would already have proven that, but apparently the American people need a refresher course.
They’re going to get one, in spades.
Overall that’s probably a good thing. Maybe by 2012 the American people will be ready for a seriously progressive candidate.
morzer
@change:
No, no, Colorful language, not crudely mixed metaphors. C’mon, Pepsi, get with the program.
lamh32
I hear Michelle Bachmann has once again braved the lion den that is Chris Matthews.
anyone seeing what Twetty’s saying.
stuckinred
@Dennis SGMM: Ha, I sat in the barracks at Ft Lewis waiting to ship out and watching Chicago on the tube. The trickster flew in to Bien Hoa causing all kinds of crap for every swingin dick in III Corps!
gbear
Not watching any of this. I just got back from the used book/record store. Picked up the Pink Floyd ‘Echoes’ CD for nine bucks. I’m sure I’m missed something but I don’t care. I’ll find out tomorrow.
RaptorFence
@Comrade Luke:
Good thing Bayh’s retiring, he’s apparently not been paying much attention:
So much fail.
Ellie
Connolly is barely holding on here in VA-11 with nearly all precincts in. I bet it’ll be a recount.
What’s up with SC-gov? I’m stunned it’s this close. I guess an R after your name only goes so far to overcome the girl and brown thing.
Sentient Puddle
@lamh32: He asked her if she was hypnotized.
I thought that was worth a few points.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martha:It’s embarrassing.
mclaren
@Dennis SGMM:
Dennis, permit me to respectfully demur. If it were really true, the American people would’ve elected McCain and the snowbilly grifter.
The American people are more like puppy dogs that need their noses rubbed in it when they make a mess. Eventually the figure out it’s a bad idea. Takes a while. But it does happen.
morzer
@LarsThorwald:
Think what happens when their base realizes that all the excitement led to no discernible change. Next time around those motorized scooters aren’t going to bother coming out – and they may well give up on the Goopies for good. If they live that long.
Spaghetti Lee
@lamh32:
Michele Bachmann is only up by 7 points, with not many precincts in. I could take a GOP House if Bachmann and Wilson both lose.
matoko_chan
CNN: Raw data from Nevada: Reid 48% Angle 47% #NVSen
Camchuck
@aliasofwestgate:
Could have been a lot worse than Snyder, though.
asiangrrlMN
I don’t have the cables, either, so I’m mostly checking in on TPM, NYT, and here while writing (for NaNoWriMo). It’s much better for my blood pressure.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@stuckinred: No, it doesn’t look like it’s going to matter. He’s up about two to one with a little under half the precincts in the 10th reporting.
Never a profit [sic] in your own land, and all that.
Violet
@lamh32:
Tweety asked Bachmann if she was in a trance because no matter what question he asked her, she always gave the same answer. Heh. Tweety’s been hilarious during this election night.
lamh32
So CO stays Dem
1 down for the quitta form wasilla
is Haley possibly next???
J. Michael Neal
Michelle Bachmann just reduced the entire MSNBC desk to helpless giggling. Tweety asked if she was hypnotized.
morzer
@Ellie:
Haley’s problem is accusations of corruption, insider deals, and generally fraudulent behavior. The affairs didn’t help, but the financial corruption seems to have pushed the older GOPers away from her.
MikeJ
@matoko_chan: Raw returns don’t mean shit unless you know what precincts are in.
Even so, I’m happy with anything that shows Harry up.
JasonF
“Voters punish incumbent party for poor economy consistent with results of previous off-year elections”?
No, I’m just kidding. That’s the reality. The meme will be “Socialist Obama rejected by voters n center-right nation due to liberal overreach.”
JD Rhoades
@MikeJ:
Thanks, Mike! And thank her for me.
SiubhanDuinne
@stuckinred #27: Wow!! That’s a race I haven’t followed at all, I was so certain Broun would just stroll to re-election. And when did he change from R to I ? Will the Edwards lead hold, do you think? I don’t know a thing about him, but by definition he has to be better than Broun.
asiangrrlMN
FYWP! ::shakes fist at her WordPress overlords::
@Spaghetti Lee: Let her lose (by less than ten percent), oh I would be so so so happy!
Spaghetti Lee
In Minnesota, looks like Oberstar, Peterson and Walz are all hanging in there.
GregB
Ellie,
When I heard some SC die hard GOP-er saying that he wasn’t voting for Haley because “we already got enough rag-heads in office now” I knew she’d run into some poll station conversions.
-G
P.S. Chris Matthews is badgering Michelle Bachmann who looks like she’s dressed for the final scene of Sunset Boulevard.
Alien-Radio
@MobiusKlein:
These things are not unrelated.
General Stuck
@asiangrrlMN:
You can stream the cable shows here, if you want. MSNBC seems fairly sane, as I check in every so often
Seebach
I’m sorry, but MSNBC trying to get the Republicans to commit to not raising the debt ceiling, or to name a program they’re going to cut is fun.
NobodySpecial
I’m pretty much turning off the national thing, although I notice that few of the Dems are running 20 points down like the MSM was pretending they would be.
Half an hour ago, CBS was projecting a 50 seat swing in the house, and five minutes ago, that number mystically changed to 45. So I’ll wait until tomorrow to worry about it. I got spaghetti to make.
Spaghetti Lee
Oh, and Betty Sutton wins! Good for that, her opponent was especially nasty.
Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
“But you know what? The GOP is going to read it as such. And my hunch is that they overreach. Like Terry Schiavo-level overreach. Some of their folks will take this is a greenlight to do some really unpopular stuff that they will believe is popular. Because they have to. Because their base is now certifiably fucking insane. And they want the impossible: less government, lower deficits, but they will not like the cuts.”
It’s pretty bad. Citizens United eviscerated McCain-Feingold, and the money advantage will be even more prevalent in 2012.
Tax cuts for the rich from the House.
Investigations on everything imaginable to keep the red meat flowing to Fox.
Some symbolic cuts to conserative bugaboos like the NEA.
maye
@change: not you again. losing the House will only help Obama in 2012. get a clue. Go read a history book.
Lurker
@change:
So? Politicians come and go, but the Affordable Care Act lives on.
mclaren
The senate was the big worry. With the senate nowhere near Repub control, the House can vote articles of impeachment but they won’t go anywhere. That means we get two years of worthless idiotic investigations and stonewalling — but what else is new? We’ve just had 2 years of stonewalling already. The investigations will just make the Repubs look even more demented and more worthless than they already do.
At the end of the day, you can’t govern on slogans. You’ve got to actually accomplish something, or the people will vote your ass out. The Tea Partiers are already dogmeat. They have no plan, no agenda, no policy, nothing but subpoenas and empty speechifying.
They’re toast.
Chat Noir
@Seebach: Eric Cantor is a shithead of colossal degree. What a douche bag.
stuckinred
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s just in Athens, the district is so gerrymandered there is virtually no chance for him to lose.
J. Michael Neal
Now Cantor is talking and getting the same result. O’Donnell, Olbermann, Maddow, Robinson and Tweety are just openly laughing at every Republican that comes on.
lamh32
I hear the MSNBC crew are tag-teaming Cantor.
Anyone able to elaborate?
Suck It Up!
I’ve seen a couple of articles that asked why is Obama so calm with the coming slaughter? And I have to ask, “what the fuck is he supposed to be doing?”
Comrade Luke
@mclaren:
Yes We Can.
(that was too easy)
Spaghetti Lee
Upstate New York isn’t looking too good, though. NY-23 might stay Dem though, because Doug Hoffman is running again and fucking things up for the Republican.
Southern Beale
Jesus christ just had to stop watching NBC. Brian Williams interviewing Cantor, Michelle Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn … endless messaging about how this is a repudiation of the Obama presidency, “Obamacare” etc. Jesus they’re acting like they won the House, Senate and White House too.
Then I read on CNN that they GOP will probably pick up 50 seats. FIFTY seats. OK that’s about what we expected. Not the 70 or 80 we were told would be “worst case scenario.”
Meanwhile the mainstream media is spinning this as the “Republican tsunami.” 50 seats is less than what the Gingrich Revolution brought in.
So, I’m back to my resolution to ignore the media because they are full of shit.
freelancer
@General Stuck:
Thank you, Stuck.
Suck It Up!
@J. Michael Neal:
they must be laughing to keep themselves from crying or throwing things. For now, the GOP is having the last laugh…..right now.
lamh32
@Chat Noir:
I think that Cantor and the other Repub are slowly coming to the realization, that they are the ones who will need to have some ya know actual plans
No longer will the media (well most of them anyway) let them get away without offering something
They are now in the Hot Seat!
The only silver lining to the house “bloodbath”
mclaren
@Sock Puppet of the Great Satan:
Which Obama vetos. The Demos have the advantage here. All they have to do is make sure nothing happens, and the tax cuts for the rich expire on schedule.
The Democrats are spineless and vacillating, but they can always manage to do nothing if they try hard enough.
Violet
The MSNBC crew is really fun to watch. They’re trying to get Cantor to answer a question and he can’t/won’t. Moar of this pleze.
asiangrrlMN
@General Stuck: Nope. I do not want to watch. I shall pop open MSNBC’s website, though.
Spaghetti Lee
The Republican trying to unseat Dave Loebsack is named Marianette Miller-Meeks. I must admit that is a cool name. But Iowa’s looking alright. They said Braley was in trouble, but he’s winning so far.
Spaghetti Lee
Perlmutter’s winning. Isn’t he perpetually supposed to be on the edge of defeat?
Suffern ACE
@Suck It Up!: Running around and yelling, cause that’s what leaders do.
Martin
I hate to say it, but things look bleak for Giannoulias.
It looks like the GOP is going to double down on the obstruction. How Dems do in 2012 is going to come down entirely to how Obama uses his access to the media.
The GOP strategy is basically the kidnapper gambit. Do you pay them off (with votes) or do you let them kill the hostage (the economy)? Voters are paying them off, without fully realizing what the gambit is.
Dems need to get unified and simple on message in the next 2 years. They need the rhetorical equivalent to ‘we will not negotiate with terrorists’ and put forward in a way that doesn’t alienate moderates. It’s going to be interesting…
Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
What I mean is: we’re gonna get a shitload of subpoenas dragging Assistant Deputy Assistant Deputy Secretaries of XYZ agency, ‘cos trying to gin up Faux-gates about some
Obama official living on the same street as a Muslim is going to be a cheaper return than actually proposing an economic strategy.
Suck It Up!
@Spaghetti Lee:
Marianette=Marionette=puppet? hmmmm…..how fitting
J. Michael Neal
Looks like Nikki Haley wins.
Seebach
To summarize, the MSNBC crowd are asking 3 questions.
O’Donnell is on about the debt ceiling – will the GOP vote to raise the debt ceiling, and will that be letting the Tea Party down?
Olbermann and Maddow want to know what the GOP will cut to reduce the deficit. If the tax cuts are to be renewed, what gets cut?
Matthews is asking Bachmann if she plans to use subpoena power to investigate dems for being anti-American.
No answers from any GOP representative.
MikeJ
@Southern Beale:
They got 54 in ’94, and 8 in the Senate.
In ’98 it was D+5 in the house and +0 in the Senate.
J. Michael Neal
Oooh, more Norah O’Donnell.
mclaren
@Southern Beale:
Big whoop. 50 seats is at the lower end of what was expected. And it may wind up being even less than 50 seats. Maybe 45, 47.
That’s about par for a midterm swingback, which is standard for these kinds of elections after major gains by one party two years earlier. Fivethirtyeight was talking apocalyptic stuff about a possible 70 seats. Now, looks like that was just scare talk from Repub-biased pollsters to try to swing the election with gloom-and-doom crap.
This is nowhere near as bad for the Demos as the chattering classes inside the Beltway are making it out to be.
lamh32
@J. Michael Neal:
saw that damn
I’m still holding out hope for Joe “you lie” wilson
frosty
@lamh32: Me too. Much calmer getting the news via BJ comments than TV pundits who have to fill dead time by repeating the same BS over and over.
General Stuck
@freelancer:
welcome
@asiangrrlMN:
When I checked them earlier, it was the first time I watched any cable for months now after my crt teevee died. It is nice to know I can tune in for special events like the election, or national or world disaster, if they happen.
Martin
And Feingold is getting killed so far with 30% in. Wisconsin is a strange place, so I can’t suss out any trends there.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Southern Beale: Nate Silver’s saying 67-68 now.
greyjoy
I thought of everyone here at Balloon Juice when I filled in the circle for Tarryl Clark (Michele Bachmann’s opponent). I doubt Clark will win, but I did my best.
matoko_chan
AP:Hickenlooper called as a win.
Palin endorsed Tancredo. dumbass.
the red wave just had a beach break on Colorado.
:)
wengler
Anyone want to start a pool as to how long it takes for Republicans to shutdown government?
morzer
O’Donnell’s concession speech is a classic of truly bizarre proportions:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/christine-odonnells-concession-speech-weve-got-a-lot-of-food-weve-got-the-room-all-night/
Basically, defeat is victory and Coons should adopt the GOP crazypants agenda. Apparently Delaware has been changed forever.
Annie
Pennsylvania is driving me crazy. As a Pittsburgher, we always go Democratic as does Philly. We are close. Can’t control the crazy people in-between, which is extremely wingnut crazy.
J. Michael Neal
There goes Saint Russell.
Southern Beale
It’s hand the mic to the Republicans and let them spew whatever crazy shit they want without ever countering any of it with facts or, god forbid, questions.
The Hon. Chester A. Catherwood
@Dennis SGMM:
Sure, living in today’s modern world of The Future is a lot like having bees live in your head. But, as the young lady said :
I say, live it or live with it!
What does this mean ?
Well, for the straight poop, let’s go where I go every day: down six flights, and barely a strones thow from The Tomb of the Unregistered Voter, in the basement of the historic Old Grid Building …
“Hi, Charley!”
“Hello, Clyde.”
“Say, you’re just in time to check out this new Model Government. They say it explains everything …”
asiangrrlMN
@General Stuck: Yep. I will agree with you on that.
Bachmann is only up by 6.7% with only 17% reporting. Fingers crossed!
Spaghetti Lee
Looks like Joe Wilson’s gonna pull it off. He’s up by 10.
Violet
Fuck. They’re calling it for Johnson in WI. Feingold loses.
frosty
@Oscar Leroy: Past 30 years, more likely. That’s about when we decided that energy shortages weren’t an issue, income inequality wasn’t an issue, starting little wars to make us feel better wasn’t an issue (OK, gotta go back to the 1890s for that one), and unions, community, and government were evil.
frosty +3 and I gotta go get a refill
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Evolved Deep Southerner: Sorry, 63-65, something like that.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/live-blogging-election-night/#more-3235
debit
@Martin: It’s all the cheese.
lamh32
@Spaghetti Lee:
DAMN I was hoping for a Wilson loss.
@Violet:
too bad about Feingold
Spaghetti Lee
Dems hold both Maine seats.
Martin
@mclaren: Unless CA comes in big blue, it’s looking more like 70 from my view. I hope that’s wrong.
JCJ
What do you speak of? After voting for Feingold I came home and watched the Milwaukee Bucks totally suck against Portland. Now I’m watching Tottenham – Inter Milan. I don’t know who won, so keep it to yourselves.
wengler
So Ron Johnson just got called in Wisconsin. He’s going to conduct a public meeting in each one of Wisconsin’s counties once a year just like Feingold, right?
Oh nevermind. He’s just going to be an empty suit casting votes given to him by his corporate masters. Good going cheeseheads. While you are full of win perhaps you could take Brett Favre back.
J. Michael Neal
@lamh32: Where are you seeing Joe Wilson behind? TPM has him up ten points with 90% in.
And just called it for him.
Spaghetti Lee
I think I know why some Democrats get mad about third parties. I’d REALLY prefer that LeAlan Jones’s votes, nice a guy as he may be, were going to Giannoulias.
Davis X. Machina
@Spaghetti Lee: Wingnut governor most likely, however. The statehouse had better not turn over….
mai naem
Oh, man I turned off when I heard Cantor on MSNBC. Guess I’m gonna have to look for a clip of it somewhere.
MSNBC just called for Feingold. F@#k.
Dave C
I can’t decide whether I want to see Harry Reid win or lose. On the one hand, he’s a slimey, spinelesss hack of a politician, and I would kind of like to see Dick Durbin as the majority leader. On the other hand, Sharon Angle is completely fucking out of her gourd. Who should I be rooting for here?
Gian
message is mixed. Dems who won seats in +R by a lot disricts are losing them.
other Dems in close districts or states are losing seats with an angry set of motivated right wingers.
the lesson that will go unlearned to blue dog types – If you won a +R seat in a sweeping party win, govern and vote like you stole it, in 2-4 years the R majority in the district will take the seat back
you will not appease them, they assume you’ve voted in ways they hate even if you haven’t
but then I’ve just watched a wiggles and now a zaboomafoo – one for each kiddo – so I’ve not seen how craptacular the coverage is.
my basic read? +R seats return home, some national moentum brings some closer seats to the Rs
some Randian Racists get GOP wins
GregB
It looks like the Indie candidate in Maine may be one of the darkhorse wins.
It is probably a combo of GOP-ers bailing on asshole Lepage and Dems moving to the Indie.
Southern Beale
Bachmann-Clark race still up in the air. Brian Williams had Bachmann on about an hour ago to talk about what the House GOPers would be doing going forward. Interesting. She was interviewed and she might not even be part of the next Congress!
Suck It Up!
Just read that Alabama just elected its first black female to congress.
I’m also relieved that CO and MA are still sane. Especially happy that all of my peeps in Congress have been reelected. Not that they had any real challenge.
Hey lamh! I see you decided to rip the band aid off also.
dms
Come on. You know the meme. You’ve been delivering it for months. It’s the Firebaggers fault.
Spaghetti Lee
One trend I do seem to be noticing is that a lot of the truly repulsive Republican candidates are losing. Tom Ganley, Rich Iott, and Ilario Pantano have all lost. Fingers crossed that the same thing happens in the Senate.
Martin
Sestak only up by .2%, but he’s got some favorable counties still to report, so that looks not so bad. Giannoulias is down to 1.3%, and he’s effectively only carrying Cook County, and they’re reporting ahead of the rest of the state. Very iffy.
lamh32
@J. Michael Neal:
He was behind for much of the evening til more returns came in.
morzer
@Dave C:
Weak and malleable is infinitely preferable to sociopathic and inflexible.
MikeJ
@Dave C
Then you are a fucking moron.
greyjoy
Also, if the Tea Partiers were “toast” because of their complete absence of an agenda and their obvious nutbaggery, they would never have been taken seriously during the campaign cycle, much less elected to office. The fact that they WERE taken seriously and ARE winning office is evidence that apparently not everyone gives a rat’s ass about having our governing officials actually govern. Some just want to be king of the hill.
Omnes Omnibus
@wengler: Fuck you. Nothing personal, but I don’t really need that shit right now.
matoko_chan
Maes finished with 8%…. that is going to fuck with the republican party standing here in Colorado.
J. Michael Neal
It’s Border Battle weekend in three days (both the Wisconsin men’s and women’s hockey teams are here Friday and Saturday), and I am going to laugh at the Wisconsonites so hard.
Stoopid cheeseheads.
Mako
@Dennis SGMM:
Meh, you kids and your “Nixon”. Adlai Stevenson would have made everything better.
Mako
@Dennis SGMM:
Meh, you kids and your “Nixon”. Adlai Stevenson would have made everything better.
Southern Beale
We got Rand Paul and lost Russ Feingold.
I need to start dating a new country.
Amanda in the South Bay
In an era where every seat counts, I find myself pissed off with rage at…Martha Coakley. @Dave C:
Both. There is a chance Reid can pull out a win, but I don’t see how he’d have any support for remaining majority leader; he’s going to be damaged goods if he wins.
Of course, my knowledge of Senate procedure is nil, so I may be wrong on that.
Dave C
@MikeJ:
I’m not saying it’s rational to want Reid to lose–I just fucking hate the guy.
Spaghetti Lee
Sestak up by 5,000 votes, about 90% of the vote in.
Mike in NC
I’m sort of expecting a lot of deja vu.
1994 – Gingrich and the Radical Right = gridlocked gummint = Clinton coasts to pretty easy reelection against Dead Man Dole in 1996.
2010 – Boehner and the Tea Partiers = more gridlock = unemployment hits 20% in 2011 = Obama coasts to pretty easy reelection against Generic GOP Empty Suit in 2012.
Bonus points to whatever idiot pundit speculates about Boehner’s presidential aspirations tonight.
GregB
My state of NH is looking like a big bag of suck.
Martin
IL and PA senate both just flipped GOP. I’m guessing these don’t get settled until next year.
Texas Dem
Root for Angle. She’ll continue to be an embarrassment to the GOP and will infuriate Hispanic voters, thereby binding them further to the Dem coalition. Reid was a dreadful majority leader and his probable replacement, Chuckie Schumer, is 1000 times tougher, smarter, and more media friendly. Not much legislation is going to pass the Senate with only 51 or 52 Dems, so we’re talking about the ability to spin and counter-spin. Needless to say, Harry really sucks at that. So good riddance.
lamh32
Damn reports that Toomey has taken lead in PA
Cacti
@Dave C:
I think Reid will pull out a squeaker…
Simply because I’d kind of like him to lose and get replaced as majority leader by someone not from a red or purple state.
wengler
Don’t look now but it appears that Illinois is going to elect another empty suit to join Ron Johnson.
Michael D.
I hope the Democrats lose a few senate seats so THEY can finally be in charge.
New Yorker
Jesus, Doug, why are you subjecting yourself to the TV punditocracy? I said to myself that it’s as simple as 1) the party holding the White House always losing in the midterms, and 2) a bad economy bringing out the loonies. That’s all it is, and I don’t need a whole bunch of David Brooks clones explaining things to me. Instead, I watched “A Shot in the Dark” (needed something funny) and am now doing some job-related stuff that I didn’t get done earlier since I was doing things like thinking of good train songs.
frosty
@Dennis SGMM: This.
And then to see it again in 1972….
jwb
@LarsThorwald: I more or less agree. I’m a believer in the great dialectical wheel of history. The very economic forces that brought the Goopers whatever victory they gain tonight will also limit what they can do. And we’ll see how the captains of industry react when they get their tax cuts but their companies lose money hand over fist because they have no one to buy their products… We’re probably in for a world of hurt these next two years, but so long as we do not cross the crazy threshold tonight, it will balance out.
Davis X. Machina
@Texas Dem:
Bankster. The professional left will go ballistic. If you thought they hated Dodd, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Spaghetti Lee
Tarryl Clark’s getting closer…
And Iowa’s three Democrats are all winning in the House.
FreeAtLast
@Spaghetti Lee:
Too late for that. Rand Paul already won.
Amanda in the South Bay
Stupid lack of editing function.
My biggest fear is that a government shutdown will interfere with my Gi Bill payments. Which, honestly, would fit right in with the GOP’s pseudo “support the troops” bullshit.
lamh32
DAMNIT KIRK TAKES THE LEAD IN IL!!!!!
Spaghetti Lee
Kirk and Toomey did just jump ahead, but by tiny margins. Not over yet.
Southern Beale
Ruh-roh, Illinoise and PA senate races now showing GOP inching ahead.
What’s up with Alaska? Anyone?
morzer
@Spaghetti Lee:
It’s quite likely that the race will flip back and forth a few times.
Martin
@lamh32: Sestak is leading in Montgomery County and it’s only half in. If he holds that margin, he’ll probably squeak it out.
Giannoulias needs to find a big pocket of votes in Cook and DuPage (which is going strong for Kirk so far). Not looking good.
jwb
@Spaghetti Lee: Maybe those blue dogs aren’t so dumb after all?
J. Michael Neal
Gah! Huffington!
Listen, Arianna, if you want to tell us that Obama should have focused on the economy, tell us how. Bigger stimulus? What?
Edit: Ah, she says they shouldn’t have put tax cuts in the stimulus. How do you think he should have passed that? Hypnotize Susan Collins?
burnspbesq
@Joe Bauers:
It’s still early.
I normally vote in the morning, but I went about an hour ago (in central OC, the ancestral home of the John Birch Society). There were 25 people in line when I got there, and 25 people in line when I left. Poll worker said it has been that busy all day. Surprisingly large number of young people in line. Guess the marijuana proposition is driving turnout.
Suck It Up!
@Dave C:
Sorry, Harry Reid doesn’t deserve to get voted out. Especially when you put him up against his opponent, the GOP, and the blue dogs. Hate is a pretty strong word for a guy who’s votes are as reliable and consistent as sunrise.
FreeAtLast
@Spaghetti Lee:
Sorry to say I think they both can only go down from here on out.
MikeJ
@Southern Beale: Are the polls even closed yet? It’s 7:50 here on the west coast, and much of AK is an hour behind that.
Cacti
@Southern Beale:
Still voting I would imagine.
Amanda in the South Bay
@lamh32:
I suppose its grimly perverse and fucked up that Kirk lied about his military record. IOKIYAR. All he needs to do now is get caught with a 12 year old boy and cheat on his wife with a dominatrix, and he’ll hit the Republican trifecta.
Violet
@Southern Beale:
Aren’t the polls still open in Alaska?
Anya
I just put Arianna Huffington and her plastic smile on mute. God, I hate this. I hope Sestak, Bennett, Ried and Giannoloulias win. I cannot take all this gloating and all the stupid pundit talk.
Spaghetti Lee
@Mike in NC:
Can we do that without the 20% unemployment? You know, for the reason of caring about people’s lives?
WaterGirl
@Martin: Not sure I understand what you mean by that. Can you clarify?
Bob Loblaw
Hmm, what a complete shocker. I could have sworn that the polls were completely full of shit and a false narrative perpetrated by our dastardly corporate media. Also, something about cell phones.
Can we please just all admit that the economy, maybe, just maybe had something to do with this and it isn’t an omen of anything to come? Bad economy –> more nativist and racist electorate than usual (global phenomenon) –> great year for Republicans (local phenomenon). It really is that simple. And it tells us nothing about 2012, because we have no idea what the economy will look like in two years. Nothing good, in all likelihood, but Obama will be fine with his presidential year turnout machine and the shittiest bunch of GOP candidates in the history of this country clawing at each other to see who can be the prettiest darn teabagger at the fair.
Nothing about this night should surprise anybody who was thinking with their head and not their heart…
morzer
@Amanda in the South Bay:
He might just cut corners and find a 12 year old dominatrix.
John Bird
I am really hoping that Ellmers does not win in her race against Cordoba House but :/ doesn’t look good
Southern Beale
Rand Paul waxing all Aqua Buddha to Wolf Blitzer, “We are all interconnected, there are no rich, there are no middle class, there are no poor.”
Um, dude. I can show you some poor folks.
jwb
@morzer: I don’t know. The Goopers have been playing rope a dope with the anti-aborition league for decades, and they still turn out in droves.
Mike in NC
@Spaghetti Lee:
Psycho Pantano was running in my district, so I was very much interested in following that particular race. As a former Wall Street parasite and accused war criminal who got booted out of the Marine Corps, I’d have seriously considered moving had he been elected. Now he has to try to find a real job, which is a bitch when nobody wants to hire a coward, liar, and murderer.
Tomorrow I’ll have to resist taunting the teabagger assholes on my street who stuck Pantano signs on their lawns.
Spaghetti Lee
Looks bad for Etheridge, but he’s the only NC Dem to lose. Not bad for such a real Murrikan state.
Critz, Altmire, and Holden look alright so far in PA, but the Philly suburbs look like a royal flush for Republicans, except PA-13. Goodbye, Pat Murphy, goodbye, guy trying to replace Sestak.
jwb
@asiangrrlMN: I’m getting all my results here between fits of grading and drinking. That’s even better for my blood pressure.
Suck It Up!
@Texas Dem:
Chuck Schumer should not be trusted. I do not understand why the left likes this guy.
burnspbesq
@Jorge:
No. The lesson is that those districts are so conservative that even a Blue Dog can’t hold them in a bad year for democrats. A progressive couldn’t get elected even on the coattails of a presidential landslide.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amanda in the South Bay:FWIW I was in law school and getting GI Bill money during the 1990s shutdowns and I still got my payments. No guarantees that it would work that way this time though.
Bob Loblaw
@wengler:
Well, at least bloggers will have a genuine fucking enemy to rail against this time instead of nebulous “firebaggers.”
Note to the world: the Illinois Green Party are the actual fucking “firebaggers” tonight, not some single anonymous asshole on a blog comment section. Knock yourself out on this one, Cole. Naderites finally have company.
And yes, I realize Banker Boy Giannoulias is a tool. Isn’t democracy so much fun?
Spaghetti Lee
@Southern Beale:
Jesus, I just wanna strangle him. I fucking hate when Randtards act like they’re all transcendent.
jwb
@morzer: That and being brown and female. I haven’t noticed that financial scandals have hurt any other Gooper candidates tonight.
Suck It Up!
@Southern Beale:
JIGGA WHAT?!@??
Cacti
@Southern Beale:
The sad thing is, he probably really believes that shit.
Meanwhile, in the real world where there are middle class and poor…
If the median household income had grown at the same rate as executive compensation in the last 30 years, it would be around $200,000.
mai naem
@morzer: No, silly it has to be a boy not a girl. Also too, you forgot the tapping of the twinkle toes in a public bathroom to really fit into the Republican candidate model.
wengler
@ Bob Loblaw
I think the final turnout numbers will be the most telling. The first post-Citizens United election featured almost wall-to-wall commercials that were nearly 100 percent negative. This usually has a tendency to turn people off from voting for anybody.
Martin
@WaterGirl: They’re going to be close enough that both elections will be contested.
Mike in NC
@Spaghetti Lee:
I hear you, but the next round of Republican tax cuts for the rich will create approximately zero jobs. The hole Bush dug is extremely deep. I got laid off three times in three years. The last time it took 14 months to find full-time work. I don’t want to think about the next two years.
Original Lee
Watch for voting fraud stories for the rest of the week. A friend of mine who lives in Maryland got a robo-call from the Republicans in the late afternoon saying not to bother to vote because the race was already decided and the polls were closed. He has reported this call and had already voted, but it is disturbing.
jwb
@General Stuck: Why the hell would you want to stream cable election programming!!! Even when they’re sane, they’re not.
piratedan
@Suzanne – we knew that AZ Senate was a lost cause when a sock puppet got the nomination in a 4 way contest. He’s a converted Republicanw ho got money to run from Republican and McCain contributor parents to run as a CINO (candidate in name only).
Brewer and Pearce have AZ in a great scam at the moment. Both are in the pockets of the private prison industry, and you can guess where all those SB1070 arresties go….We’ll have to wait on the feds to arrest her to get a new governor (and we’re hoping that Dem Chris Deschene is that guy).
staying tuned to the congressional races down here, four very tight contests between assorted asshats and actual legislators…and I’m hedging my bets.
mr. whipple
@Mike in NC:
“Tom Ganley, Rich Iott, and Ilario Pantano have all lost.”
Ganley lost????
Spaghetti Lee
Paul Tonko wins pretty big. Was he supposed to be in danger?
John Bird
@Spaghetti Lee:
But Ellmers’s campaign has been creepy. Foxx creepy, Coble creepy. I’m not a big fan of Etheridge but that weird ‘mosque’ commercial means we’re in for another vocally bigoted Congressperson.
Martin
Ok, bitches. The grownups are showing up. CA, OR, WA all gonna start dropping some serious blue on this map.
danimal
@Cacti: It takes some good shit to believe this stuff. Which may be legal in my state in a couple of minutes.
Spaghetti Lee
@mr. whipple:
Yeah, pretty big too.
Violet
Polls close on the west coast. Early stuff looks good for the Dems.
frosty
@Annie: Sorry. Really. I’ve done my best for the last 4 elections here in South PA. We figure if we can keep the Rs to 65% the rest of yins can pull us out.
Dunno if we managed it this time.
Davis X. Machina
2012 Democratic primary season’s started. Just thought you should know…
Who are these silly people?
Texas Dem
Because he knows how to fight dirty. And that’s a skill Dems really need to learn if they’re going to survive the next two years.
jwb
@Sock Puppet of the Great Satan: It’s not yet clear how the money plays out in 2012. The Dems were caught flat footed this year, and off-year elections are not really their strong suit. I’m not optimistic, but I do think that if the Goopers fuck up, which I am fairly certain they will, they do not have a lock on the money in 2012.
General Stuck
I think what we are seeing is the next phase of our politics polarizing as part of the tertiary stage of realignment that began when the GOP opened it’s arms to disappointed southern racist dems after the civil rights laws of the 60’s was passed into law. Or, The Southern Strategy.
This regional polarization has been speeding up, largely thanks first to GWB, and his 50 plus one strategy of winning elections, and authoritarian style of governance devoid of good faith compromise. And now Obama, as the first black president, it speeds up some more, especially in the south and the border states to old Dixie. The economy is a big issue, but the elephant in the room is the 10th amendment elephant, that isn’t going anywher.
Maverick types like Feingold (and no Mccain is no maverick in the true sense) are going out of style and favor, for more doctrinaire candidates, led by the GOP and it’s current undead status, drifting in and out of delirium . But also dems lagging somewhat behind, but reacting to hard right governance when wingnuts hold some power.
Now, and after a couple more years of House wingnut crazy, in 2012, dems will pay more attention and be not as apathetic as this election. We are headed for nearly complete political and ideological lines drawn in the sand between the north and south, kind of like what happened once before.
MikeJ
@Martin: The big question in WA is initiatives. This year like every other, I’d be happy on the whole if every one of them went down. They’re a pox on democracy.
Amanda in the South Bay
Fuck, Benen is reporting Patrick Murphy is toast.
This really pisses me off
John Bird
@Southern Beale:
What he means is that we all have the ability to enter into free associations. Rich people freely hire, poor people freely work for scraps, rich people freely fire poor people and move all the money overseas. It’s America.
I’m not being sarcastic, really. He probably meant something close to that.
frosty
@asiangrrlMN: Rooting for Bachman losing by 10.0001%!!!!!
wengler
@ Bob Loblaw
There certainly was a lot of division in the left-leaning blogosphere over policy passed by the Democratic Congress.
I predict with a Republican House, FDL, GOS and everyone else will all be friends again. It was far more frustrating that things weren’t getting accomplished when the perception is that you had the power to do it.
Ultimately I guess we get to pretend again that the Democrats aren’t just the friendly face of corporate power.
WaterGirl
@Martin: That beats a loss, I guess. I really believed that we would keep the house and the senate, so if I get another couple of months to either get a late victory or come to terms with a republican senator… that works for me. I surely hope Quinn wins as governor. Any news on that front?
fasteddie9318
@Bob Loblaw:
It’s an omen of two years of bad governance and teatard conventional wisdom, but hopefully beyond that you’re right.
Spaghetti Lee
I’m surprised how many Southern Dems won. John Barrow won, Mike Ross and Bobby Bright are probably gonna win, NC stayed pretty blue. Lotta suburban districts lost, and lots of Rust Belt area districts lost, the latter of which just makes me sad.
General Stuck
@jwb:
moment of weakness on my part
burnspbesq
@wengler:
When does the current continuing resolution expire? That’s how long.
Southern Beale
No African Americans in U.S. Senate. But we still have a black president.
frosty
@Dave C: That’s like Yankees vs. Texas Rangers…. is there any way that they both can lose?
Dave C
Here’s hoping for some good news out of California…
mr. whipple
@Spaghetti Lee:
Awesome. RW scumbag. That makes my night.
Martin
@MikeJ: It’s easy to be a bit optimistic here. Yeah, losing the House is gonna suck, but CA might get a Democratic governor and a rollback of the 2/3 requirement for budgets. So long as Dems don’t lose their massive advantage in the legislature, CA might finally be getting on the better side of things.
Spaghetti Lee
Speaking of the South, if those morons Snyder and Berry stayed in office, we might have two more seats right now. Mike Ross is just cruisin’. Incumbency matters. This is just the way it’s done in parts of the South, I guess: no matter how conservative the place gets, some Reps just have their jobs until they die.
maye
no more meg.
lamh32
Jerry Brown called for Ca
Jebediah
I have been hoping that many of Snowgrifter’s endorsees would go down in flames, thereby besmirching and/or sullying her “brand.”
I am at work and anyway this place is all I can stomach right now – can anybody fill me in? Do I get my wish, or do I pack an extra-big bowl when I get home tomorrow morning?
MikeJ
Can I mention how bad google has fucked up their search results? Start typing in bachmann minnesota election results. Then highlight and cut “bachman” from that. Then paste it back in at the end of the search string.
Goddamn why can’t they leave a good algorithm in place?
wengler
It’s OK. Meg has another 150 million to spend next time around.
Spaghetti Lee
@wengler:
Yep. Everyone loves an enemy. @Southern Beale:
The Republicans elected Allen West and Tim Scott to the House. So they’ve got two black guys to 80 or whatever for the Democrats, but get ready for a tidal wave of stories about how the Republicans are now the progressive party on race.
lamh32
I waiting for news of kamala harris in CA.
I hear Karl Rove’s group were really gunning for her!
J.W. Hamner
Has the world ended yet? I’ve been practicing my post-apocalyptic scrounging by pocketing every tube of Super Glue I see. I tend to think that lip gloss will also be valuable in our Republican controlled dystopia.
John Bird
How about that NC constitutional amendment? Pretty LOL.
Convicted felons getting elected sheriff, a Serious Problem For Serious People.
James E. Powell
@General Stuck: \
I agree with everything except the idea that the Democrats will wake up. Unless and until they have a propaganda machine to match the Republicans, they will never convince anyone other than their base to vote for them. That they pretty much sat on their asses and let this debacle happen shows that they either do not know how to govern or they do not care whether they govern.
Spaghetti Lee
SHITBALLS. Toomey and Kirk just widened their leads.
Jules
@Spaghetti Lee:
Indeed.
I love Vic Snyder but really WTF? now we are going to have Rove’s little smug rat Timmy as the Rep. for the 2nd district.
Ugh….
Suck It Up!
So I’m already seeing one liberal blog calling for Howard Dean to primary Obama because it was Obama’s compromising that cost us the election. Also calling for Dean to take back the DNC. Howard Dean, the guy who gave us all those blue dogs the liberals hate. Howard Dean the guy who thinks we should take a second look at the Tea Party. Howard Dean the guy who said ‘why bother doing something good if most people are against it’.
My biggest fear this election is that not a single faction of the Dem party will have learned that we need to stick together. You see, that’s how you build a great message machine.
Davis X. Machina
@Spaghetti Lee: Isn’t West the war criminal? That’s enough to make you almost white….
Martin
@WaterGirl: Senate is going to be tight. Boxer, Inouye, and Wyden should be winners.
I still think PA and NV have a shot here. Not seeing it in IL. No clue about WA.
Anya
IL and PA, don’t look good.
Spaghetti Lee
@James E. Powell:
Look, incumbent parties lose when the economy’s bad, and incumbent parties lose after two years at the presidency. that’s just how it’s done. Yeah, I’m sure there’s some strategic failures you could point out, but it’s not like we were headed for a third straight year of congressional gains.
maye
@James E. Powell: honest to god, i can’t understand why they can’t do propaganda. they’re tone deaf on this issue.
J. Michael Neal
Bachmann wins. Fuck St. Cloud.
Violet
Crazy Bachmann reelected.
danimal
Californians: How long until the GOP recalls Governor-elect Brown?
I give it August 2011.
Southern Beale
Fox reports … YOU decide!!!
New Black Panther Spotted at Philadelphia Polling Place
An apparent member of the New Black Panther Party was spotted Tuesday standing outside the same Philadelphia polling station where voter intimidation was reported two years ago.
Monitors from the city government watchdog Committee of Seventy and other agencies have been keeping a close eye on the individual dressed in New Black Panther-style clothing, committee president Zack Stalberg told FoxNews.com.
He said the man, whom MyFoxPhilly tried to interview, has been there for several hours and is “not friendly,” but that he doesn’t appear to be causing a disturbance.
“He wasn’t friendly looking, but he was behaving himself,” he said.
MyFoxPhilly.com reported that the man, wearing a pin showing his party affiliation, a black hat, glasses and leather coat, was seen outside the polling place in north Philadelphia — the same polling place where in 2008 two members of the New Black Panther Party stood shaking a billy club and allegedly intimidating voters.
John Bird
Exit polls for PA Senate say:
Women: 55% Sestak, 45% Toomey
Men: 45% Sestak, 55% Toomey
J. Michael Neal
@Davis X. Machina: West is not only a war criminal, he has gang ties. Republican voters really will elect anyone.
freelancer
@J. Michael Neal:
with oxidized pitchforks.
Dave C
@danimal:
Don’t be ridiculous. The smart money says they’re printing out recall petitions at this very moment.
Spaghetti Lee
If the Dems split the remaining Senate seats the Senate is 52-48. 8 are still in play, and Inouye is definitely gonna win, Bennet looks like a winner, Boxer too, WA and AK who knows. I’d say 52 is worst case right about now. IL and PA could still go Dem, but it ain’t looking good.
As far as down the road goes, Illinois only elected Peter Fitzgerald to one term. It just isn’t a Republican state on balance. I gotta figure someone will be able to beat Kirk in 2016 should he win.
Suck It Up!
@Texas Dem:
yeah, just wait until he starts flinging mud at the left. You guys like an asshole until they aim their guns at you.
NobodySpecial
@Suck It Up!: Dean as DNC had a good track record of success, and most Dems agree we need a 50 state presence.
As far as a primary, primaries are how we move candidates left. Dean might not be the guy to do it, but we DO want to move candidates left.
jwb
@James E. Powell: I’m not sure the Dems having a good propaganda machine is exactly the right solution, however. If it becomes our lies versus their lies, I think we’re doomed. The Dems certainly need to figure out how to message better, however.
lamh32
Exit polls:
African Am voted for Alexi in IL 94% to 3%,
White voted for Kirk : 61% to 34%
maye
goodbye Carly.
Davis X. Machina
@Suck It Up!: There is a non-trivial portion of the Democratic/left/liberal/whatever-you-care-to-call-it side of the political spectrum that doesn’t, deep down inside, want to hold office, because power corrupts, governing requires compromise, and politics is dirty.
It’s discouraging riding to battle while 10% of your troops are hanging back doing reader’s-theater versions of Hamlet.
frosty
@Bob Loblaw: Good lord, I gotta agree. What’s the world coming to?
When the GOS diarists are looking at polls trending the wrong way, but talking about cell phone polling and the Dem’s GOTV overcoming it, I see losses on the way. I got sucked into the happythink a few elections ago, but not any more.
I’ll still work as hard as I can to counteract the trends, but I’m not going to get my hopes up unrealistically any more.
Southern Beale
Fuck men.
John Bird
One time, I saw this one left-winger say or do something.
wengler
“I think in response to this overwhelming GOP victory, Obama should go after teachers’ unions and public-sector pensions.”
Any pundit who uses that needs to credit me.
Spaghetti Lee
Mark Dayton is up by 11. I should know this, but how much are governors involved with redistricting? Hey, at least we won’t have to deal with Tim Pawlzzzzzz….
Belvoir
I’m just dying to know what Donna Brazile thinks. It’s as important to me as it is to Wolf Blitzer, as he sits her there with three heavy-hitter Republicans to voice mild ladylike disagreement as “balance”.
God, she’s useless except as a triple: black female Democrat, who loves to disapprove of Democrats, and must live in the CNN green room subsisting on the complimentary peanuts.
J. Michael Neal
@Southern Beale:
Please?
Southern Beale
And in glass half full land:
Feingold’s campaign manager George Aldrich told the crowd in Middleton that only 40 percent of the vote has been reported.
“Russ is down by 80,000 votes, but…up to 1.4 million votes haven’t been counted,” he told the crowd.
D.N. Nation
First Congresscritter to go after NPR as their first spending cut idea wins a soda.
J. Michael Neal
Oooh, Paladino’s concession speech. This could be entertaining. Maybe he’ll punch someone.
Davis X. Machina
@Southern Beale: But don’t tell your CO.
freelancer
God the only conservative I would prefer other than Palin against Obama would be Haley Barbour. Let that happen.
Southern Beale
@J. Michael Neal:
LOL.
I figured one of y’all would say that!
BR
@jwb:
They need to hire Aaron Sorkin. Sure, he writes fiction. But it’s damn good stuff – they should have just lifted the framing of issues from The West Wing.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Jesus. Roy Outsourcing Blunt speaking about the difficulties of workers and the need for private sector jobs. Vomiting right now.
shoutingattherain
KATU calls Wyden the winner in Oregon.
That was the easy one. The Gov race is close.
Mnemosyne
@danimal:
You’re too optimistic. They’ll start circulating the petitions tomorrow and have the recall circus back in town by February.
I really have to get off of here and go work on my NaNoWriMo.
Joseph Nobles
Evan Bayh is now on a TV explaining why it’s the liberals’ fault
he quit so late in the process and then didn’t spend one thin dime to help a Democrat get up to speed in Indianathe Democrats are losing like this.Suck It Up!
@NobodySpecial:
I know his track record. I’m not trashing his DNC record, but over the past 2 years I’ve seen the left wish for the ousting of the very people he got elected. So why oh why are they calling for him to become the DNC leader again? Why does he get a pass for saying and doing things that others in the party get slammed for?
J. Michael Neal
@Southern Beale: Happy to oblige.
freelancer
@J. Michael Neal:
OMFG Teleprompters!
Spaghetti Lee
@J. Michael Neal:
I’ll give ya 2:1 odds that he ain’t sober. And not the David Brooks kind of sober either.
JWL
Democrats invariably slave to placate republicans; republicans (sensibly) cater to their unhinged, knowing democrats invariably slave to placate their rank and file…
Spaghetti Lee
Is there some hard and fast rule on how close an election needs to be to call for a recount? Sestak’s down by 30,000 at the moment.
J. Michael Neal
Paladino was so bad they cut away after about a minute, during which he didn’t manage to complete a single sentence.
Southern Beale
Yeah well we tried that didn’t we and the fucking DNC establishment went to bat for their tried and true stalwarts like Blanche Fucking Lincoln who LOST.
So.
I’m sure tomorrow the conventional wisdom will be the Democrats weren’t conservative enough. And good luck excising that meme from the ether. Hell we’re already hearing it on the election night coverage.
maye
@BR: They need Aaron Sorkin, Don Draper and whole team of people who know how to sell stuff.
Suck It Up!
Until the Dems get a cable network, a string of radio stations, the liberal blogosphere and every single Dem in congress to repeat that message over and over and over without fail, it won’t happen.
JD Rhoades
@Mnemosyne:
Good luck!
Davis X. Machina
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: The need for private sector jobs is real — it’s just the idea of the private sector, oh, you know, producing any, for the foreseeable future that lives in between the cowbells and foghorns inside Mr. Blunt’s head.
It’s not what people don’t know that scares me — I’m a teacher. Ignorance feeds my children and pays my mortgage.
it’s what they know for sure that ain’t so that scares me.
jwb
@Spaghetti Lee: How redistricting is done depends on the state. In Texas we now have a precedent of being able to redistrict whenever anyone has the votes to do it. So whee!!!
lamh32
Damn, did I just hear they are calling the gov in FL for the GOP?
wengler
Yeah, recall Brown and elect Stallone.
The Dangerman
Fuck
The YankeesMeg WhitmanNobodySpecial
@Suck It Up!: Simply? Because he was successful. Success allows you the right to say stupid things in our society.
As to why he should be DNC leader? How about because Tim Kaine as DNC leader has been a disaster? Dean knows the job and is currently unemployed…can you think of a better candidate?
Suck It Up!
@Southern Beale:
Halter was not a progressive.
Comrade Luke
Looks like Jerry Brown got the winning bid on eBay…
D.N. Nation
Good news, everyone! Harry Reid’s rolling!
Linda Featheringill
@Jebediah:
Doesn’t look good right now. We’ll see what the West Coast does. Better have some sort of painkiller on hand.
morzer
@Spaghetti Lee:
I think the question is more how many minutes in the year is King Carl the chaotic evil anti-Paladin sober?
Sorry, old game geek reference.
MikeJ
@The Dangerman: INstead of a strike can’t we have an “and”?
J. Michael Neal
@The Dangerman:
Okay. I’m not that desperate.
mr. whipple
Yup. In other words, never.
freelancer
Jebus, I’m now reminded why I only watch Maddow’s TRMS podcast on iTunes the next morning. Chris Fucking Matthews went to the Tom Friedman school of metaphors. Ugh.
Martin
Holy shit, Art Robinson is leading! Low level nuclear waste for everyone!
NobodySpecial
@Suck It Up!:
Compared to Blanche, he was the flamingest of flaming lefties.
Amanda in the South Bay
@D.N. Nation:
Reid is enjoying himself on 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine?
gotta have some humor tonight.
MikeJ
@Linda Featheringill: Getting rid of state liquor stores looks like it’s losing in WA. I really didn’t care one way or the other, except 1) it’s an initiative so I’m against it and b) the wingers are for it.
The Dangerman
Fuck The Yankees and FUCK Meg Whitman (figuratively speaking)
I aim to please.
Darkrose
@The Dangerman:
I’d sooner chew off one of my own legs, thanks.
Any word yet on whether or not I’ll be able to legally get stoned and forget about this?
morzer
@The Dangerman:
Not with my ten foot pole dipped in latex.
Martin
Hey, Feingold is only down 6%. Making a much better showing of it now.
Rock
@wengler: I assure you that we will see a huge effort to default on public-sector pensions in the next few years. I expect Illinois to be on the cutting-edge of that. Good times.
jwb
@mr. whipple: I’d never say never. You never know when some doddering rich old Dem might decide to buy him- or herself a cable network as a retirement hobby.
Of course, it’s more likely that some rich old Gooper will take control of the Spanish language cable stations and turn them crazy as Fox News.
Sly
Meg Whitman just engaged in the most expensive act of public masturbation in human history… and didn’t even reach climax.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Southern Beale: Grayson lost even though he was liberal; Lincoln lost because she attempted to be a Republican when all her constituents wanted was someone with an R after their name. Everyone had better remember the quote about Grayson about a year ago where it was said that he was popular in his district even though he was liberal because he stood for what he believed in. And really, what about Feingold, and for that matter, Michigan? Gotta love that saving tens of thousands of jobs and entire industries costs you seats.
Hopefully it won’t take the Dems too long to figure out that it was the economy and not them, and they’ll remember 1984 (not the movie, the election).
matoko_chan
Fetal personhood again is an epic fail, 75 to 25 this time.
Teatards nevah learn.
Ed Permutter wins.
Colorado turns the Red Wave into bake.
i <3 my state.
Cali university precints have run out of ballots.
I say put legalize it on every ballot in 49 states in 2012.
J. Michael Neal
@Martin: The pressure is off now that they called the race for Johnson.
Spaghetti Lee
Ron Kind and John Dingell just pulled back ahead.
And how much a loser is Doug Hoffman? He’s cost the Republicans that seat like 3 times now.
Mike in NC
Marty O’Malley reelected governor in MD against ex-gov Bob Ehrlich. Fun fact: Ehrlich’s useless lieutenant governor was none other than the clown Michael Steele.
PeakVT
I can haz nu thred, plz?
morzer
@D.N. Nation:
You mean he fell over at the top of the hill and gravity did the rest?
General Stuck
Dems at least picked up a seat in LA, where Cao had been the gooper.
frosty
@General Stuck: You know, I see it too, but it looks more like Yugoslavia to me, where the tribes are all intermingled everywhere, down to the block level. Hell, down to the family level, with mixed marriages.
And if the crazy accelerates, we’re looking at “ethnic” cleansing, where the minorities are driven out of their homes becoming refugees. Maryland Republicans forced to PA. PA Democrats scrambling for their lives to get to MD. The Missouri-Kansas wars all over again.
The only alternative is learning to live together, ramping down the partisan divides, quieting the fear-mongers with the bullhorns, and building community among different interests. And unicorns.
frosty + 4
Martin
Toomey down by 130K votes in PA. He’s done – there aren’t enough votes left for him to win unless there’s a mistake in the count. Damn, I thought the votes were there.
BR
@matoko_chan:
Shit. Really? I hope they got more in time before students left out of frustration. Because those are votes we want.
The Dangerman
@Sly:
I wish she had spent her personal millions on something productive, like, ya know, creating a small business or something. She never had a chance at winning (not after Arnold and not by being a shitty candidate).
freelancer
I haven’t gotten in a fight since I was in 3rd grade, and I lost that one. But good Christ, I want 4 minutes in the ring against Chris Matthews. The man’s fee fees are writing checks he can’t cash. This election would be completely different if Obama has a different Chief of Staff? Fuck, I feel stabby. God I hate the media, especially “ours”.
Spaghetti Lee
Midwest ain’t totally a lost cause, btw: Iowa and Minnesota looking pretty good. Russ Carnahan and Gary Peters are also winning at the moment.
MJ
Have you all seen this 11:19 pm update from TPM’s live wire?
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/live/tpm-midterms-wire/
Feingold Not Conceding — Madison Votes Not Counted, Campaign Manager Says
Via the blog WisPolitics, Feingold is not conceding. “Russ is down by 80,000 votes, but…up to 1.4 million votes haven’t been counted,” his campaign manager, George Aldrich, said at Feingold HQ.
“[N]ot a single vote” from the liberal city of Madison has been counted yet.
“We are confident that this race is going to tighten, it is going to tighten quickly, and we may be in for a long night here,” he said.
Comrade Luke
Well, Washington voters just rejected an income tax, repeal a tax on candy and soda, and are close to handing over liquor sales to Costco, removing that extra tax revenue as well.
What could possibly go wrong?
Suck It Up!
@NobodySpecial:
Success allows you to say stupid things? Yeah right. You’re only allowed to say stupid things if you are a certified liberal. Howard Dean has been giving off signs that he is not the liberal hero the left makes him out to be and still they call for him to primary Obama.
And I will say this again. The left has been calling for the purging of the blue dogs since Obama took office (maybe longer?). Dean brought those blue dogs in. If it were someone else outside of the clique, the left would have been calling for their resignation. You guys make no sense. If you are so grateful to Dean for getting us the majority, STOP trying to push out the blue dogs.
You get my point? Maybe I’m not being clear enough.
CaseyL
Crap. Reid won in NV.
Yeah, yeah: Angle would have been a complete disaster; we’re glad she didn’t win, etc. etc.
But. SH*T. On a night where Feingold maybe/probably lost (he’s not conceding, so who knows) we wind up keeping the Lamest Majority Leader Ever?
Dammit.
freelancer
@Martin:
You mean Sestak? You gotta link?
Omnes Omnibus
Feingold’s campaign is saying no votes from Madison have been counted yet. Not conceding. Expecting a long night.
ETA: MJ got there first.
Face
Barb Boxer going to lose? Really?
lamh32
@Martin:
Do you mean Sestak?
frosty
@Martin: California is rolling back the 2/3 majority from Prop 13? Holy Cow, that would be big news. In all of my political junkitude, I didn’t even know it was on the ballot.
MikeJ
@Comrade Luke: A minute ago when I flipped over to KING for 20 seconds they said the liquor sales were losing.
I’ll continue to watch baseball movies on TCM. 8 Men Out up next.
Karen
@Mike in NC:
At least I can take the small comfort in knowing that Ehrlich lost.
Does anyone know if Hoyer lost?
SIA
@MJ: I was just looking for that. Good for Feingold. Hope he pulls out a miracle.
ETA I can not believe Boner is replacing the fabulous NANCY SMASH.
Davis X. Machina
@freelancer: He does. Toomey is up ca. 100,000 at TPM.
Martin
@matoko_chan:
What the fuck does that mean? There are 33 university cities in CA. The two in our county don’t use ballots but use machines.
Amanda in the South Bay
@frosty:
It would just apply to the legislature passing the budget, not tax increases. But still a good start.
The Dangerman
Boxer is projected to win.
19 (Cannibas) is losing (dammit).
Who’s calling Reid? I’m so tired of hearing about Angle, it’s worth it to get rid of that idiot for all time.
MikeJ
Sadly the Comedy Central coverage of the election doesn’t start until it’s allover with out here in the hinterlands. Anybody on the only coast that matters watch it?
J. Michael Neal
@frosty: It’s not the 2/3 majority needed to raise taxes, as I understand it. That stays.
Suck It Up!
@NobodySpecial:
Halter was not a progressive. period. He’s from Arkansas. He would have catered to Arkansas and the left would be left in shock, shock that he turned out to be no better than Lincoln.
Mnemosyne
@Face:
Not on this planet.
BR
@The Dangerman:
The only hope for prop 19 is that many of the bay area counties haven’t reported yet – at least from sfgate.com.
frosty
@James E. Powell: Hell, it doesn’t matter what they do. The Propaganda Machine Is All. Having watched voters for 11 hours today, I’ve come to the conclusion that fear of who-knows-what is driving them.
Once the Machine flips you from rational thinking to lizard-brain, there’s no chance of any other kind of persuasion making any headway at all.
Spaghetti Lee
Sestak just pulled a bit closer, and Feingold’s really making a game out of it. Maybe contesting it isn’t just a show.
J. Michael Neal
Boehner’s speaking style isn’t as entertaining as his skin color.
Texas Dem
Is Reid really going to win? It looks like he has a fairly decent lead with over 55 percent of the vote counted. No wonder Angle is crying about voter fraud. That must mean she knows she’s going to lose.
Mnemosyne
@frosty:
Contrary to what the Howard Jarvis Assholes were claiming, it does nothing about taxes. It just removes the requirement that we have a 2/3rds majority to pass a budget, which was the requirement that led to it taking over 100 days to pass a budget this year.
Mr Furious
@J. Michael Neal:
Screw it. She’s a non-factor in Congress, and the only reason anyone knows who she is, is the crazy bullshit she spews on FOX.
She’ll still be spewing the same bullshit, but stuck with a Rep’s salary and a day job instead of a Juan Williams / Palin TV contract.
You know deep down she wanted to lose and cash in…
catatonia
I know people around here don’t heart Matthews much — and with good reason — but he’s interviewing his pal Rendell now and talking about how the Chinese (and the French!) are kicking our butts by building 300 MPH (?) trains.
But that plays into what the Dems need to do. Sing that American exceptionalism lullaby that so many people in this nation seem to need to serenade them as they play out their destinies — but instead of defining that exceptionalism by kicking around some ready-made axis of evil, define it by taking the lead in green tech and building the goddurnest bridges and trains and infrastructure the world has ever seen. And that the federal government is the one to do it because that’s what represents the g/d USA and not the multinational — aw, hell, call ’em stateless — corporations that have assumed godhead status in the rhetoric of the Rand Pauls and John Boehners.
Seebach
Oh puke. Boner’s crying about how hard he lives American values. Fuck me with a spoon.
Martin
Aw, Boehner is crying.
freelancer
@Texas Dem:
It’s 2nd Amendment remedy time.
Davis X. Machina
@Texas Dem: If Reid comes out of Las Vegas in good shape, there isn’t enough Nevada left for Angle to pull it back. It’s even more lopsided than NY state.
Violet
Holy crap. Is Boehner CRYING on TV? Give me a break.
J. Michael Neal
Christ, Boehner, you’ve been a legislator for 30 years. Quit pretending you’re a small businessman.
MikeJ
@freelancer: I think you mean 21st.
Comrade Luke
The only thing more bugfuck insane than Angle is rooting for her to be Senator, and that’s coming from someone who loathes Reid.
Get a grip, people.
Darkrose
@J. Michael Neal:
No, but it allows the Legislature to pass state budgets with a simple majority. This is huge, because it means that we might end the annual budget hostage crisis.
Martin
Have a good feeling about Murray. She’s down by 7 but King county isn’t reporting any votes at all and most of the eastern counties are in.
Woo! Boxer projected! That’s how you get it done!
SIA
Has anyone heard anything about GA governor?
Anya
@Seebach: @Martin: That’s why I stoped watching cable. I was watching BBC live stream, when they started talking to Buchman and that’s when I had enough.
Texas Dem
According to Kos, “16% of Nevada electorate was Latino — the highest in NV history. Unless some of them were Asian.” Just a thought, but maybe it wasn’t such a great idea for Angle to piss all over Nevada Hispanics.
The Dangerman
Anyone have any numbers on what percentage of jobs come from true small businesses? I’m not talking about the Family owned McDonalds or other franchisee.
Hedges Ahead
Awesome; I haven’t seen Boehner break down in tears in days, no, weeks.
Comrade Kevin
@Mnemosyne: Where are the CA numbers coming from? The Secretary of State’s website keeled over and died approximately 30 seconds after the polls closed.
Actually, they’re not quite closed yet in San Mateo County, where they fucked up and didn’t print enough ballots.
J. Michael Neal
@Darkrose: How will it end that? There’s also a requirement that you balance that budget. How do you plan to write one that’s balanced with the tax requirement still in there?
It’ll be the same train wreck.
Martin
Looks good for Reid too, but I can’t tell how much of Clark Co. is in.
Comrade Luke
FUCK. Washington’s initiative calling for a 2/3 majority to raise taxes is winning.
sven
Democrats hold the executive branch and almost certainly the Senate. Will someone please tell the MSM that we don’t literally have to implement the Republican agenda.
Face
So when does the GOP start impeachment hearings? Tonite or tomorrow? Will they bother to wait for Congress to start up in January?
frosty
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Is it a private sector job if you’re an engineering consultant and all your clients are state, local, and federal agencies? Because, you know, the real estate and development markets are dead dead deadski.
How about if you’re a DOD contractor? ‘Cause households don’t seem to be buying a lot of stuff lately.
Inquiring minds want to know.
Keith G
John Boehner the second female speaker of the house.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Comrade Kevin:
Jeebus, I’m glad I made the switch from wine to diet pop tonight. Its gonna be a long night of waiting to know if its gonna be brownie time tomorrow.
Martin
Damn. I like Bowen, but ya gotta keep your websites working! I vote for competent people – you’re letting me down, dear!
burnspbesq
@J. Michael Neal:
Maybe not, but are you that drunk?
Michael D.
@Violet: Yes, he is crying. But notice he didn’t wear his orange make-up tonight? He didn’t want it to drip.
Crying? Planned. Beck was his coach.
Jewish Steel
Congratulations to the Illinois Green Party for your new Senator, Mark Kirk.
frosty
Oh, fuck me. TPM is saying PA just elected the Wall Street trader instead of the Admiral.
frosty +4 and switching to bourbon
Anya
Looks like my Massachusetts is kicking ass. Dems took all the congress races and all the statewide races.
Linda Binda
@SIA:
There’s no way Deal could lose in a Republican state in a Republican year, I guess. :( He’s way up by 54+%
http://www.wsbtv.com/election-results/25594477/detail.html
Get ready to call him “Gov. Deal.” :/
The Dangerman
@Comrade Luke:
Welcome to Hell (Californian here)
Suck It Up!
I tell you what. Not sad to see evan byah go, not sad to see lincoln go, very sad that pelosi is no longer speaker. very happy that reid is staying.
Mike in NC
@J. Michael Neal:
How soon before he shows up drunk before a microphone?
Orange Boehner has a serious problem with the bottle.
Martin
@Comrade Luke: Next thing you guys are going to be electing action figures to governor.
BR
@Martin:
Not her fault – there’s no way the SoS’s website would be equipped for that load. (And the only way to make it handle the load is to outsource the website, which is effectively what the news media’s websites are anyway…)
Comrade Luke
@Martin: If that passes it’s a disaster.
Fucking Tim Eymann.
Spaghetti Lee
@Jewish Steel:
To be fair, there was a libertarian in the race who peeled away about an equal amount of votes from Kirk. Besides, what are you really going to do about it? Ban third parties from running?
Mnemosyne
@Comrade Kevin:
I’ve been getting them from the LA Times website, but I have to sign off now and do my next installment for NaNoWriMo. I flipped a coin and now I have to write the next section from the perspective of the other character. Hopefully I can get 1600 words out of it.
sven
@The Dangerman: People often claim that small businesses create 70-80% of all new jobs. The range of estimates varies according to how ‘small’ business is defined and how many of these jobs are defined as temporary. In truth it is a pretty misleading statistic because virtually the same number of small business jobs are lost in a given year. Small businesses have enormous annual variation so the net-effect is actually much smaller. If small businesses really provided the vast majority of new jobs it would not be long before virtually everyone was working for a small business!
Martin
@BR: Why not? Redundancy and load balancing aren’t exactly rocket science. Call Apple and Google and ask for some guidance. Sheesh. They aren’t too good to ask the UCs for assistance.
Darkrose
@J. Michael Neal:
Every year, when the budget comes up for a vote, the Republican minority votes no, regardless of what the actual budget contains. Then we get several months of the Dems desperately trying to convince enough Republicans to vote with them to give them the 2/3 majority.
It’s certainly not going to fix the state’s problems, but it’s a step in the right direction.
The Dangerman
I’m not buying it. Like you say, it’s in the definition, but … no way.
Seems to me, at this stage of sobriety, is that the big news is that the majority of the high profile tea partiers are going down to defeat (assuming Reid holds on).
NR
@Jewish Steel:
I think you mean “Congratulations to the national Democratic Party for losing Barack Obama’s Senate seat to a Republican.”
MikeJ
@Comrade Luke:
In two years the lege can overturn anything passed by initative. Thank god.
frosty
@J. Michael Neal: So California keeps sliding to Mississippi status then. Sorry to hear it. Prop 13 was one of the reasons I packed the U-Haul in 1979.
Kryptik
Washington just apparently became the new live test monkey for anti-tax hype.
2/3s supermajority to pass any new taxes, not even bothering with a piddly state income tax for wealthier residents, wiping out sales tax for many items…yeaaaah, fuuun.
frosty
@Mnemosyne: Sorry, I got cornfused. I thought it was 2/3 to raise taxes. It’s even sadder if Cali can’t get 2/3 to even pass a budget, isn’t it?
frosty
@catatonia: My guess is 300 kph = 180 mph. 300 mph would be a loser both economically and in energy efficiency. Plus, really hard to maintain the track to ensure a smooth safe ride at that speed.
J. Michael Neal
@Darkrose:
No offense, but you didn’t answer my question. Given that the budget must be balanced, how do you plan to pass one with the 2/3 requirement on tax increases still in place? It doesn’t make your system less dysfunctional. It just changes the choke point.
Martin
@frosty: No, prop 25 will help quite a bit if it passes. At least it means that if the Dems reallocate money from prisons to other parts of the state that the GOP can’t block it. Yeah, raising taxes is still hard, but passing a budget will be a lot easier.
Bit by bit. It was passing by about 15% when I last saw at the SOS website.
Martin
@J. Michael Neal: No, it eliminates a choke point. Now there are two – one on taxes and one on spending allocation. This eliminates the chokepoint on spending.
hamletta
If you were from Tennessee, you would love you some Harry Reid. He was awesome as Minority Leader against poor Bill Frist, one of the GOP’s “New Faces!” (Thanks to Loretta Lynn’s plastic surgeon, Dr. “Mommy, Mommy, My Ponytail’s Too Tight!”)
He used to make Frist step on his dick about once a week. It was awesome.
Plus, his life story is like something written by Steinbeck. Google the Esquire profile.
RalfW
Nate’s saying 52-48 in the Senate, which means the preening of Joe Leiberman will move from insufferable to entirely hellish.
suzanne
GOD. Brewer beat Goddard. VOMIT. Arizona: Where being a racist idiot is the most vital qualification for the state’s highest office.
And Mitchell’s down seven points.
Seriously. Those Second Amendment remedies sound pretty good right now.
sven
@The Dangerman: It is accurate but doesn’t mean what it sounds like. Here is an easy example:
Imagine 100,000 people employed by Verizon vs. 100,000 people employed at 10,000 restaurants.
If Verizon has a good year and grows by 5% we get 5000 ‘new’ jobs.
Now Imagine the restaurants. Every year lots of new restaurants open and old restaurants fail; lets call it 20%. If 2,000 new restaurants open that is 20,000 jobs created. But 20% also fail so that is 20,000 old jobs lost. The net is no new zero new jobs.
The entire contribution to total employment comes from Verizon but as reported small businesses ‘created’ (20,000/25,000=) 80% of ‘new’ employment.
When you hear this statistic quoted, you know the speaker either has an agenda or just doesn’t understand what he is saying…
lafcolleen
@NR: That’s just ridiculous. Our sitting Democratic Gov was impeached and went to trial this summer and is being retried in April. Our budget crisis caught up his successor. And Gov. Quinn was tainted by association with Blago – although they were never political allies. then there was the clusterfuck of epic dimensions when – after his arrest, but before his impeachment – Blago nominated Roland Burris to fill Obama’s senate seat. The blowback was so bad that Burris bowed out of the race & lost out on his bid to block a special election. Bill Clinton & the Obamas were here to campaign for Giannoulis – who was caught up in a family owned bank failure here in Illinois. Mark Kirk is a sitting U.S. Representative from the north/Nw suburbs which has a reputation for electing “reasonable” repulicans. Many things factored into the loss of the Illinois senate seat, but I cannot blame the national democratic party.
Cacti
@Comrade Luke:
Sometimes I lose my head. Reid is obviously better than Angle.
I just hope he gets shitcanned as majority leader. We need a fighter like Schumer or Durbin to deal with a freshly emboldened GOP.
Cacti
Well, at least Arizonans appear to have enough sense to vote down prop 109…
Which would make hunting and fishing into constitutional rights.
sven
@Cacti: Steny Hoyer in the house? Yuck! Is there ANY chance we can convince Pelosi to stay?
Zuzu's Petals
I have a friend who volunteers as one of the election counters at the CNN studio. I kept watching to see if I could spot him in the background, but finally just couldn’t take anymore Wolf/Anderson etc.
I only seem to be able to watch the Stewart/Colbert coverage.
Zuzu's Petals
@frosty:
No, Prop 13 requires a 2/3 majority of local voters to approve local taxes. Nothing to do with the legislature’s vote requirements.
While I support the idea of a providing for a majority budget vote, I think Prop 25 is an incredibly stupid measure. Its “the bastards don’t get paid until they pass a budget” provision gives your legislator a direct financial interest in a bill. Rather than fighting a crappy budget, he or she will consider the fact that the mortgage payment is coming up and go ahead and give it a yea vote.
Just my opinion.
Cacti
Harry Reid wins.
joel hanes
@suzanne:
Arizona: Where being a racist idiot is the most vital qualification for the state’s highest office.
You should be reading Rogue Columnist by Jon Talton.
Imagine if Our Boy John Cole had been a Real Journalist before his conversion experience. And a good one.
Talton’s prose is wonderful; his insight and connection to place makes him essential. This is why the internet was invented.
Zuzu's Petals
@Zuzu’s Petals:
Dang dang dang. Edit didn’t go through, sorry. Of course Prop 13 also has to do with legislature’s vote on taxes. It’s just not affected by Prop 25.
Duh is me.
Darkrose
@J. Michael Neal:
What Martin said, pretty much. They always manage to pass something that’s balanced on paper, usually by hiking fees, which aren’t considered taxes. Now, if Prop 26 passes, creating a 2/3 requirement for fee increases, we really are hosed.
Darkrose
@Martin: How’d you manage to get to the SoS website? It’s been down every time I’ve tried.
Zuzu's Petals
What’s the deal with Colorado? I thought it was called for Bennett, but last I looked it was pink on the map.
Whaaa… ?
NobodySpecial
@Suck It Up!: Only point I see from you is the one on top of your head.