I think it's interesting though how we talk about the 1 GOP member that crossed, but 39 on the democratic side that didn't. It's interesting because I believe it points to the dynamics of the Democratic party and why it is the better of the two.

While some may vilify those 39, we only wish that those types of people existed in the GOP. Crossing party lines shows that they have some sense other than party loyalty. We do not live in a parliamentary society so at the end of the day, the party has less sway over you than it would in Britain or elsewhere. This to me is something I think all of us are forgetting. We don't vote for party in this country, we vote for person. That is reflected by party membership on both sides. There are more people who say they are "independent" than either side and I think that is something that should be recognized.

So while some people want to print the names of these 39 Democrats on every internet site out there to make sure they "pay" for bucking the party, we turn right around and utter the same remarks to the GOP who do not think outside their party line and when 1 person, ONE, breaks ranks, it makes major news.

We should be happy that we are the party that allows difference of opinions and where moderates can be part of the democratic process. You certainly cannot get that from the Right. We got the votes, those dems did what they thought was best for their constituents. That's what should be important here.

As soon as I saw the guys name I knew someone would be talking about how we shouldn't have Muslim's in the military or what have you.

It's sad the right is so predictable.

Of course Salon isn't anywhere near RedState but I think there should be a little bit of self reflection here. Liberals go to liberal sites, conservatives to theirs.

While I'd love to believe that Salon was much more balanced (as it was in the past) I realize that what I'm reading has a liberal slant to it. I check NY Times, CNN, MSNBC, WSJ, Salon, Politico, NPR, and Fox News daily but I would be lying if I suggested that my "wider area of knowledge" was balanced. It clearly has a left slant to it. The important thing is realizing that and acknowledging it. Bachmann doesn't, but we on the other side should.

I don't know about others, but I'm not ignoring what happened in NJ and VA.

The problem there though is local parties and their in ability not to field a good candidate in Deeds nor was Corzine a good candidate. We just got beat by better campaigns and candidates. There shouldn't be much reading into that election because absent NY-23, I think the reaction would have been the same.

The key point here is that with good candidates, NJ and VA should tell democrats that being more moderate is likely to get you more votes from independents - not to go more left. The right doesn't seem to understand that yet nationally if you listen to their talking heads. In fact it's exactly the opposite strategy employed by the right in NY-23.

The reason the NY-23 race is so interesting/funny is that the right-wing media stars of Palin, Limbaugh, Pawlenty, Bachmann and Beck all endorsed a local race and championed it as the future of things to come - then LOST. Now all we see is that they cannot accept reality and spin away what they know was a huge screw up on their part. It won't affect them the slightest, but it's just another thing to hold up when they do this crap again. Maybe, just maybe, we can succeed in convincing normal people, by showing their ineptness in politics, to shut them up or make them irrelevant in any debate.

...because they create that idea out of thin air. It's no different than anyone who starts out saying "Americans want...". They want what you are thinking? They want the things that support the same opinion you do? How Convenient for you!

It's typical BS no matter who says it. If you say something like, the facts show that Americans care about X, Y, and Z and then back it up with polling or other data, then you can get somewhere. But that's not what any of the people like Beck do. They believe in everything they think.

I'd like someone to hang on to this and shove it in his face in 2010 when we don't dwarf anything. Wonder how he'll spin that off. But then again, we Americans have such short attention spans anyway it's not going to matter.

Although he blames democrats for setting up the race so they could win since this district is a moderate conservative district. This is a sign of things to come though, etc.

Interesting, a hard core conservative loses in a moderate conservative district...and you think this is how you should set up the rest of the races in the country?

Good luck with that.