Also, not to downplay the Dem's success and the Repub's failures, it's important to note that these changes happen cyclically. No party seems to last more than 12 years in power; the public tends to like change every dozen years or so.

Plus, the Dems ran mostly conservative candidates (conservative Dems) that this time around didn't push hot-button ultra-liberal issues like gay marriage.

Also, Bush is probably in some ways pleased b/c many of the Repubs didn't get along with him anyway, and now the Dems are the ones who will be in power (and will be somewhat on the defensive) come 2008.

My congressman was bounced to the curb last night, despite being a "celebrity" and having his "celebrity" pals campaign for him (insert Jim Ryun and W and Cheney, respectively). Ryun had always been a cypher in congress, hiding behind his sanctimony and doing nothing to distinguish himself. He took his constituency for granted. and he lost because there was a grassroots effort (not a celebrity to be found) to elect someone accountable (Nancy Boyda). That was the message: accountability.

Howard Dean is the first DNC chair to work Kansas in probably 50 yrs, and Kathleen Sebelius (who should be in line for anything ahead of Hillary Clinton) has worked hard to convince moderate republicans to re-affiliate. They've done wonders, but: this is a populist movement here, and has nothing to do w/wanting to emulate Power Corridor Liberals. The Democratic Party is benefitting now, but they should expect to be held accountable as well.

... from the neighborhood right-winger. Given that Casey is an anti-abortion, pro-gun, Catholic-informed conservative and James Webb a bona-fide right-winger of the Pat Buchanan blood-and-soil school, isn't anybody the least bit concerned that the progressive party has come to power on the juice of a bunch of guys you'd savage if they had R's next to their names? (And did, in fact, savage, when Webb had an R next to his name?) Just wondering.

This is very heartening to see, even though it was largely driven by disapproval of Bush's manhandling of Iraq and the economy, as many people have stated, and not by a heartfelt endorsement of Democrat alternatives. Nevertheless, better than a kick in the head, especially as your good neighbours to the North recently suffered a conservative victory in our last election, and a prime minister determined to be Bush's bitch.

In 1993 we enjoyed a federal election of spectacular change. The recently-departed Conservative prime minister, Brian Mulroney, had so throughly destroyed public faith in his party that they went from 169 (of 295) seats in the Commons to 2. That's not a typo, it's the single digit "two."

Wouldn't it be nice if Tuesday's results were just the beginning of a similar shift in which

the US electorate, by 2008, completed the punishment of the GOP for the criminal incompetence of Bush and his flying monkeys? I know it's too much to hope for, though... And at least not every asshat whim of Dubya's will be automatically the law anymore. He'll actually have to work with Congress, instead of just giving it dictation.

Anyway, good to see Karl Rove's dream of a "permanent Republican majority" headed the way of the

thousand-year Riech.

Of the many reasons to smile today, I think this is one of the best. Consider soon-to-be EX Senator Rick Santorum:

...long after his death,

...long after no one remembers who he was,

...long after all his ignorance and bigotry and pettiness and crulety has been reduced to less than a mere footnote of history,

...long after his decendants have all changed their names out of shame or embarrasment,

...indeed, long after the word's origin as a family name has been forgotten,

"Santorum" will still be in common usage throughout the world as a word meaning "The frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex."

Continue Spreading Santorum!!!

http://www.santorum.com/

I'm going to give you guys a clue, as a card-carrying member of the state that sent the precident last night.

It's NOT Iraq. It IS the economy stupid, or better put, it's the (lack of) jobs stupid. Southern Indiana, and the midwest, is like a fleet of sinking ships.

If the Dems are smart, they'll do all they can to deliver for these people. Otherwise expect the religious right to get their guys to the polls in 2006 and regular people won't show up, as was the case up to now.

How does Mr. Shapiro write what purports to be a wrapup of this election without even mentioning Dr. Dean? Most of Rahm and Chuck's handpicked, super duper, new dems (Ford and Duckworth, for example) LOST last night! The dlc two openly scoffed at the 50-state strategy, a strategy that got us seats in red districts our centrist geniuses wouldn't even set foot in... until it was clear that we might win them.

Fifty states and a populist message... that's how we won!

Ken,

You commented that the NYT said that the greatest danger facing America is Muslim "extremism" (really, just Muslim fidelity.) Do you have a reference for this? It is very good news on a very good day.

First a sigh of relief and a toast to the hard work and smart contributions, monetary and otherwise.

The overwhelming significance of these victories is, first of all, in the evident basic integrity of our democratic institutions. Their continued viability was in doubt and thank goodness, they appear to have survived for the time being, the Republican/Corporate attempts to drown them in the bath tub.

To me, the lessons to be drawn from the results do not revolve so directly around specific issues or policies. The lessons are really much more general. What we have witnessed is the result of the Republican obsession with winning elections while completely abdicating any responsibility for competent governance. Sooner or later, as dull and uninformed as we may be collectively, we eventually pick up on the fact that the people running the country have no idea what they are doing. They pretty much thought they had done all the hard work once they had won the 2004 election.

The good news for Democrats, progressives and us diehard liberals, is that it will be impossible for George Bush or Karl Rove to fix their problems in the next two years. They have appointed the most deeply partisan and broadly incompetent individuals throughout the executive branch. It is inconceivable that they will demand resignations beyond Donald Rumsfeld. The rest of this team of incompetents will remain in power, doing and saying the same kind of stupid things they have for the last two years. Winston Churchill, George Patton and Mahatma Gandhi working together wouldn't be able to fix Iraq. And there isn't even anyone qualified to stand in their shadows operating in American politics, in either party, right now.

In 2008, the Republican Party and its candidates will live or die by the situation that the American people sense in Iraq and Louisiana. Events and trends point strongly toward a recession in 2007. Bad news for home owners, the housing price bubble that just barely managed to hold up until October, is looking like a big POP! in the coming months. Consumer confidence and spending are headed for the toilet. Immigration and job outsourcing will be much more potent issues in the face of a recession than they are even today. These are all circumstances that Republicans will find very difficult to blame on the newly elected Congress, though they will inevitably try.

The decisive point is that to succeed in blaming anyone other than themselves, the Republicans will have to reestablish their credibility. The circumstances and the incompetence of their appointed office holders will stop their efforts, dead in the water.

Strategic political advantage for progressives and centrists has been a long time coming. The established track record of competence in government enjoyed by Democrats after the Clinton years was the real foundation of the victory this year. Competence, from the perspective of most Americans, has been a long time gone.