08 November 2006

Good Afternoon!


I just heard that Rumsfeld was fired.

So I'll spend a little time elated.

Well played, all.

posted by Unknown @ 11:06 AM   6 comments

6 Comments:

At 08 November, 2006 11:50, Blogger Unknown said...

And it just gets better: now they're calling MT for Tester.

Never felt so good to be from Montana!

 
At 08 November, 2006 12:32, Blogger Christopher said...

Here, from Tapped, is a better explanation of my feelings about this conservative class of Dems:

GO AHEAD, CALL THEM CONSERVATIVE DEMS. WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

Unlike Tom Schaller, I have to admit, I wasn’t bothered at all by the spin that the Democrats won because they embraced a lot of candidates with conservative views and backgrounds. Now Tom’s a political scientist, so he has to be concerned with empirical truth and all that stuff (didn’t Karl Rove get rid of that?), and as a matter of truth, he and the legendary political researcher Dennis Yedwab are of course right: the bulk of the Democratic majority came from Northeast, Midwest and Mountain seats where the winners were not conservative.

So the spin that the Democrats won because they moved in a more conservative direction is inaccurate. But so what? Consider the alternative spin, which is that Democrats are a bunch of extreme liberals, who will be as far out of touch as the Republicans and who will be destroyed in 2008? I’d rather have a party that’s fairly liberal but has a reputation or image as moderate than one that’s really moderate and over-cautious but has a reputation for being extremely liberal, which was the situation through much of the 19990s. The more sophisticated version of the spin, of course, is that the Democratic leadership is a bunch of liberal freaks, and the newly elected Heath Shulers et al won’t get along with them. But that’s not a real issue unless they actually don’t get along, and the Democratic Party has handled much wider disparities of opinion in the past.

The Republicans might get some satisfaction out of claiming that these new Dems are more conservative, but what do they gain from that? The fact is that they are Dems for a reason, and the reason is not the old "Daddy was a Dem, Grandpappy was a Dem" of the past, but the simple fact that even fairly conservative people cannot tolerate what the Republican Party has become. That's their shame, not something for them to brag about!

The fact is that the Democratic Party has been a centrist, moderate party for some time, in the sense that on balance the party’s governors, legislators and policy agenda fully represent the center of public opinion. (As shown, for example, by the fact that the viewpoint of independents was very much in line with that of Democrats.) But it was a damaged brand; it needed a remake of its image. This is a chance to do it, by showing that the party has in fact incorporated the center. Highly visible veterans, openly religious candidates, and social conservatives like Casey send a cultural signal, not an ideological one, a signal that this is a party you can be comfortable in. Sometimes you need to seem like you have changed just to make people understand what’s been going on all along.

The underlying story of this election, and one that the press will eventually understand, is that there are now two parties in this country: A constructive majority party of the center-left on one side, and on the other, a regionally based faction of the far-right party, now stripped of its last moderates, a remnant that is probably the most ideologically extreme minority party since the New Deal. The "conservative Dems" spin, even if wrong, helps move this understanding forward, and that's fine.

We now return you to the regular reality-based programming.

 
At 08 November, 2006 14:18, Blogger a*merrica said...

Moderate, Conservative, Liberal Dems... For the time being I'm going to focus on Rummy's exit strategy, hehe. Is it bad to equate this to Christmas coming early? I'm just so darn happy!

Also, proud to have voted in Montana (^-^)v

 
At 08 November, 2006 14:22, Blogger Unknown said...

That Tapped column seems exactly right to me, especially the claim that "the Democratic Party has been a centrist, moderate party for some time."

I suppose the real source of my hangover is that I'd forgotten (in all the pre- and post-election glee) that I have "for some time" found myself to the left of the Democratic Party.
To put it another way: I recall thinking back in 2000 that, as I put it in the 1am post, the two major parties weren't as different from one another as I'd like.

So not different as to make me indifferent to these results? Absolutely not. A change for the better, no doubt about it.
My real gripe, then, isn't with these "new conservative Democrats"; I just wish there were a few more Bernie Sanders' out there.

But again, as I've said--and as my MT-voting sister (well done, Merrica!) seconds,--this election is good news all around.

 
At 09 November, 2006 10:16, Blogger Unknown said...

More good news today: Allen is expected to concede at 3pm Eastern.

Perhaps you're right, Chris: this does seem like a sea change; for the duration of the week, I promise to remain elated about this change for the better.

 
At 01 December, 2006 03:40, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, here's the China perspective. They don't like the Republicans because of all the war, but they like the free trade. They don't like the Democrats because the Democrats don't like free trade anymore. China doesn't like anyone. I guess they're libertarians over here.

 

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07 November 2006

Good Morning?



Here's a screen-capture from cnn.com taken at about 1:00am (CST):

does this result hold?
Do the Dems take Montana and Missouri?
Will Webb survive a seemingly inevitable recount?

And if so, what direction for this new Democratic Congress?
Both houses--seems quite possible right now, though much precinct reporting (and probably much legislating) remains outstanding. . . .

How did it happen?
Was it Iraq?
Perhaps "frustration and unease"?

Or, on a less jubilant note, was it that the Dems ran candidates opposed to abortion rights, in favor of the war in Iraq, and not really all that different in the end than those whom they replace?

(Someone's got to be disappointed by this (apparent) sweep; might as well be me.)

posted by Unknown @ 11:03 PM   5 comments

5 Comments:

At 07 November, 2006 23:32, Blogger Unknown said...

Ah, one more down: they're now calling Missouri for McCaskill.

Huzzah!

Misgivings aside, I much prefer this 110th Congress to its predecessor.

 
At 08 November, 2006 05:21, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It will definitely be a conservative freshman class of Democrats, not ideal "in a perfect world of Yancies."

Still, it's nice to see some right-wing sacred cows go down in flames: Santorum, Katherine Harris, Ken Blackwell, Phill Kline, Jim Ryun, Pres. Bush, and the Maestro himself, Karl Rove.

 
At 08 November, 2006 08:56, Blogger Christopher said...

That was a good night.

These new conservative Dems just prove the point that the Democractic party is the liberal and conservative party.
The Republicans are just wing-nuts.

There was a lot of pipe dreaming on msnbc last night, with Dick Armey, Joe Scarbrough, and Pat Buchanan noting how conservative these Dems are and how that means the country is getting more conservative.

Let's look at Webb. He was a Republican until Iraq and Katrina shamed him into switching. Heath Shuler was technically independent, but the Republicans have been trying to get him to run for years - now he's a Dem. Wes Clark was a Republican until the 90's - and I'd bet the veterans and military culture as a whole starts tilting Democratic.

Did the Dems just get conservative? Or did the Republican party not only lose Congress but also most of their moderates in the party? I mean, they are shut out of the Northeast as much as Dems have been shut out of the South.

They are becoming a regional party.

Also, brilliant move on Webb to declare victory. The heat is on Allen. He's got every right to recount away, but he has a hill to climb. I knew Allen was in trouble when he came out in measure tones and talked of the importance of the process. Allen's not a process guy and he's not prone to understatement, so I figured he knew he was in trouble.

Webb came out and sounded like his usual stiff self, then came to life: "I want to say that I appreciate what Senator Allen said not long ago, we all need to respect the process . . . but I also would like to say that the votes are in, and we won!"

Another funny moment was when Chris Matthews was critizing Hillary's behavior at her victory speech. She and President Clinton were clapping rhythmically onstage. As best as I can recall, Matthews said "Why is she up there clapping for herself? That looks so weird! So Chinese!"

Keith Olbermann, who was sharing a desk with Matthews, broke into a giggling fit. It was an odd comment, but the image was a little strange.

 
At 08 November, 2006 09:05, Blogger Unknown said...

Well, if a party with almost no moderates has 49 (let's hope) seats in the Senate and, what, like 195 seats in the House, then I'm hard-pressed to be elated about that.

(Again, I of course prefer this to the 109th Congress, but whether the country's more conservative or the Republicans have lost their moderates but continue to get nearly as many votes as the moderates-cum-Democrates, I'm bound to feel down.)

I agree, by the by, on Webb--great move; having the lead going into the recount sure puts him (and Tester, as I understand it) in a good spot.

 
At 08 November, 2006 09:16, Blogger Christopher said...

Oh, and the tighter and more legalistic the Virginia race becomes, the more of a problem it is for Allen.

The FBI is already investigating charges of voter suppression in Virginia. He needed to win convincingly and move on. The more time we have to suss out the vote via recount, the more time we have to pay attention to that investigation.

You should feel elated, Yancy. The Dems finally won an election after three hearbreakers in 6 yrs - '00, '02, '04.

We got the House, we're ahead in the Senate, so far we're beating the projections. There's really very little to be disapointed with from last night. Maybe there are larger trends to be concerned with, but apart from Tennessee and a some right wing ballot measures, last night was a big V.

 

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