Thursday, November 09, 2006

Well, I'll be. The critter went and done it.

(said in Yosemite Sam voice)

Webb won. The Dems are now in the House and in the Senate, ladies and germs.

okay, now I'm smiling.

And if that's not enough:


In Statehouses, too, Democrats Post Sizeable Gains

Democratic gains in Congress and governorships were matched on Tuesday by a surge involving state legislatures, where more than 275 seats and nine chambers switched from Republican to Democratic hands.

The victories, combined with the six new Democratic governors, have given the Democrats one-party government in 15 states, including New Hampshire for the first time since 1874, and Colorado for the first time since 1960.

No party has totally controlled as many as 15 states since the Republicans achieved that level after the 1994 election.

What is equally remarkable, said Tim Storey, a senior fellow at the National Conference of State Legislatures, is that the gains occurred across the country, even in the South, where Democrats had lost ground in every statehouse election since 1982...

Twenty-four states are now split, and one, Nebraska, has a nonpartisan legislature.

Control of state capitols has effects far beyond local laws. The parties running the statehouses will control redistricting for the 2010 Census and can groom rising politicians for national office.

Political analysts said an equally important nuance was how the shift played out state by state for the Democrats. The party added five governors — in Arkansas, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio — from seats held by Republicans who had chosen not to run or were barred by term limits.

Democrats picked up a sixth seat in Maryland, where Mayor Martin O’Malley of Baltimore edged out Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

That shifted the advantage in governors to Democrats for the first time since 1994. The Democrats now control 28 governors’ seats to the Republicans’ 22. Before Election Day, those numbers were reversed....


I'm particularly interested in the shift in Colorado, considering that CO Springs has been the base for scary as shit theoconnery for a good while.

Dick Armey has a morose little article about how they were routed in the WSJ, which i'm not gonna bother to link to; ditto George Will, bless his dour little bowtie'd heart.

finally, loving Frank Rich, once again:

Of all the bits of conventional wisdom that died with this week’s election results — all politics is local; Congressional corruption will affect only a few races; gerrymandering will limit G.O.P. losses — the biggest is the Beltway deification of Karl Rove. Don’t expect to hear anyone emote again any time too soon about how he is a genius, infallible, reinventing American politics, on his way to establishing a permanent Republic majority, etc., etc. In 2006 Rove revealed himself to be a one-trick pony. Rather than adjust to the reality visible everywhere (including in every poll), he refought the political wars of 2002 and 2004, doggedly insisting that his party embrace Iraq, play the fear card and constantly slur the opposition as cut-and-run Defeatocrat traitors. Not even the parade of conservative Republican candidates cutting-and-running from his strategy in the last throes of the campaign could deter him or the president from staying the course. The self-immolation of the campaign strategy was nothing if not a replay (albeit with only political casualties, not real ones) of the botched strategy in Iraq...

1 comment:

Alon Levy said...

Any bets on how long before the Democrats prove beyond any reasonable doubt that they are going to sell out the entire agenda for fear of losing in 2008?