I can think of no other word than “disaster.” I honestly do not want to get into extensive analysis tonight of what happened, what went wrong. I think it came down to Iraq.
However, the losses have been terrible. We lost the Senate and the House. It may take us a generation to once again to win majorities such as those we had from 2004 through 2006.
Today the party must start to rebuild. And that means conservatives cannot and must not run around screaming that it was RINO Republicans.
I have long argued that we were the governing party and had to act as such to earn the confidence of the American people. We have lost their confidence. We must regain it.
Unfortunately, winning the confidence of the American people is at odds with doing the right thing, which most of our fellow citizens are too short-sighted or too stupid to see IS right… what a heartbreaking job it must be to try to run this country.
“Bottom Line: I see no net change in the United States Senate.”
I kind of stopped listening to you when you said that.
Now we get to see what kind of “balls” people like jp2 have.
I’m sickened by the results. Our country is going to hell. Tax increases, economy collapse, moral sewer… here we come. My skin is crawling.
Wow. This is tough. The next two years may not be pretty.
jp2
We may not yet know how the Dems will govern, but we do know two things, for certain, that Dems can do perfectly:
Whine
Gloat
Lest anyone lose sight of what happened, here – a lot of the democrats that won are very conservative democrats. Liberals still took a hit, tonight, no matter how you slice it.
Amy: I can empathize.
yo: According to this short post and thread, neo-cons are actually pretty good at whining.(notice I said “whine” and not “win”)
And after the previous election, I can attest that the people at Wizbang can also gloat.
So – we even?
You can lay the blame for this at the feet of Michelle Malkin and those who like her who took a spoiled brat attitude about immigration. Get ready for a draft as Rangel and Murtha promised. Get your Korans ready. We just elected the Party of Terrorism and Appeasement. Get ready for the sliming of our military, which has already begun with Kerry and Murtha. Get ready for a party run by a woman who thinks we need San Francisco values and “trans-decent” people to defend us. Forget about ever seeimg another decent judge. Forget about defending against Iran. Carter is down in Central America hugging Communist Sandinista Carter, so get ready for Chavez and Castro and that whole crowd. This is more than a disaster.
Don’t worry about it. The democrats are incapable of running and protecting the country and the people will see that in the next two years, that is the ones who survive. It will be fun watching the death and destruction.
Of course i’m in a somewhat uniquie position. I’ve got mine and the hell with everyone else, and i’m not scared to watch thousands of people get killed. That’s just my attitude from 22 years in the military and watching people kill themselves with drugs and kill others over drugs. I’ll just sit back and watch the cities destroy themselves by allowing the terrorists like the drug dealers to roam free. Between them you are in deep doo doo. How about that.
Right now there is more death and destruction in Miami, Fl (and several other cities in America) than there is in Bagdad, and it’s getting worse every day. The news hasn’t told you about that have they? Too busy lying about Iraq. You are about to get a hard lesson in life and the dimwits that will be in office will have no idea what to do.
If you are in the military, get out. If you are thinking of joining any branch, don’t. The democrats as usual will put you in a combat situation and leave you stranded to die. They’ve did it before and they’ll do it again.
Not even by a long shot.
“notice I said ‘whine’ and not ‘win'”
That’s exactly my point. All of a sudden the Dems have a history of electoral victory?
obviously, this was a big win for the party, but like I said, the ideals of liberalism still took a hit to the crotch. And, in my book, that’s still a victory for the ideals of the GOP.
Heath Schuler is not exactly Mr. Pro-Choice, or Pro-Gun Control.
Like it or not, the DNC only won by going right, and in some instances hard right.
As for the previous election, sure there was some gloating, but the Dems asked for it with their snootiness and for nominating a complete and utter tool.
Now, it’s time to put up or shut up. If the Dems can shore up the borders and defend this nation from a threat they’ve continually denied existed, then we’re even.
“Right now there is more death and destruction in Miami, Fl (and several other cities in America) than there is in Bagdad”
I’m predicting a rough hangover tomorrow…
So wrong it’s almost offensive – 21 people were killed by mortar fire in Baghdad. Don’t mix anger + losing + booze.
“21 people were killed by mortar fire in Baghdad”
See? A prime example of Dems not recognizing the threat, or having a clue about Iraq – it was widely reported to have been a suicide bomber, not a mortar attack.
By the way … let’s all get used to seeing an uptick in terrorist attacks around the world. Maybe not in the US (yet), but those numbers will go up.
And, as for my opinion of Grandma Botox:
Cave
Under
Pelosi
Tomorrow
dammit!
jp2 was right .. no booze.
Cave
Under
Nancy
Tomorrow
(it’s much more effective and offensive if I take my head out of my ass)
Well, it is well within the average postwar range for a 6th-year midterm of 31.5 seats in the House and eight in the Senate lost. It’s not good for Republicans, by any stretch of imagination.
I used a chess analogy over in a Wizbang Politics thread, and another seems appropriate here.
The advice I give to young and improving players is to find people who can beat them. You don’t learn anything from winning, you just get a little ego boost. When you are beaten by a stronger player, you have the opportunity to learn from your mistakes, and that is how a player gets better. You learn from losing.
Now it is the GOP’s chance to learn. We lost, in the end, not only because of public dissatisfaction with Iraq. We squandered the confidence of the public that we would govern in a certain responsible way. The spending spree over the last few terms has belied our every bedrock principle. Our Congress was seen as cynical opportunists who spouted conservative rhetoric to gain power, and then exercised power pretty much the same way Democrats had for 40 years. The only difference was we forced the lobbyists to hire our people and give us a bigger share of the contributions.
Many or most of the new Democrats elected ran as moderates or conservatives. They are not beholden to the moonbat left on Iraq, and may function as a resurgent “Blue Dog Caucus” on national security and tax issues. We shall see. We have to try to work with them to forge responsible compromises – in the minority, there is no choice about that now.
Professor Schmieg, I believe her name is, commented here some time ago that a new Democratic Congress would actually be more conservative than the current Republican one. Many moderate Republicans have gone down – Johnson, Weldon, Gerlach, Shaw, Northrup. And the Democrats who are coming in are, by and large, far more conservative than the average Democrat already there.
The problem is the leadership of the Democrats, and their incoming committee chairmen, are far to the left of the mainstream. Will they moderate to accommodate their junior members, or hold to their basic principles? I suspect the latter, which forms the basis for either forcing the new Democrats into a choice, or defeating them in 2008.
“the ideals of liberalism still took a hit to the crotch.”
Two words: Speaker Pelosi.
It goes along with the cliche…everything is good for Republicans. You lose a ton of seats and it’s still a “victory”? Fascinating.
jp2,
stop being a douche. The victory is in what Jim stated much better than I. The Dems won tonight by having very conservative democrats take over Rep seats. The far-left liberals didn’t win anything. If anything, they lost respect because the candidates who did win tonight don’t agree with with the likes of Pelosi.
I would find you hard pressed to call Heath Schuler a liberal.
Pelosi is a flash in the pan as far as leadership is concerned. The “Blue Dog”s will keep her in check. She’s a figurehead, now, nothing more.
Oh, and hey .. since the Dems seem to be in control, can we now see that plan of theirs to get Osama?
Oh, and here are two words to back me up even further:
Ned Lamont.
“it was widely reported to have been a suicide bomber, not a mortar attack”
Really? The AP, Forbes, Fox News disagree. Anyways, pretty petty.
They also found 15 tortured bodies, Scrap.
Why then do you sound so angry if you won? No need to get chippy. Let’s celebrate!
Don’t worry though – the Dem rule won’t last long. In the next two elections they will be out. Republicans are too good at what they do. (That does not include running the country)
Oh, give me a break. For months (years?) now, you’ve painted the left in one swoop as a bunch of moonbats. There wasn’t one inkling of acknowledgement that there was any moderation or conservative voice anywhere in the Democratic party. And now, licking your wounds, you suddenly have the epiphany that gee, the new left is not so bad after all!
At least if you’re going to predict the demise of the country starting tomorrow, have the integrity to stick to your convictions.
Actually 5 WERE killed and 25 injured due to a mortar attack.
HOWEVER, in the second blast today, 17 killed, 20 injured in a blast which the BBC says could have been either, but a few other sources (Australia/China) say were from a suicide bomber.
So, we’re both right, and we’re both wrong.
Well, it is well within the average postwar range for a 6th-year midterm of 31.5 seats in the House and eight in the Senate lost.
C’mon, the Republicans are well above average. After all, you achieved something never before known in the history of America. Never before has one party failed to pick up even a single seat from the opposition in the House. Give yourselves a pat on the back!
I think it came down to Iraq.
Gee… ya think?!
Ha. Let’s agree to agree that the liberal/conservative (whatever you prefer) media is wrong.
“And now, licking your wounds, you suddenly have the epiphany that gee, the new left is not so bad after all!”
Wow … do you guys only parse out the bits that you like? I mean, if you can’t take somethign out of context, why take it all, right?
What has been said was that a lot of the dems who were elected, tonight, are NEW ones. The old guard, as it were, are almost definitely moonbatish. And your new leader is most certainly a friggin’ nutjob.
I don’t see anyone swaying from their convictions. If anything, I see more effort here to find hope in the new folk. Which is sure a hell of a lot more than the Dems have done when given the same situation.
We need that hope, cuz if given to the whims of pelosi, murtha, conyers, rangel and their ilk, we’re certainly doomed.
And, I can betcha’ there’s a par-tay goin’ on in a remote cave in Pakistan as well up and down the Gaza strip and in Lebonan, right now.
“And now, licking your wounds, you suddenly have the epiphany that gee, the new left is not so bad after all!”
Now, now .. the reps can’t take all of the credit. I mean they couldn’t cough up one so badly without a little help from the dems – continually misleading the public about the state of the war, and a lot their obstructionism and generally gnawing at the moral fiber of a nation at war … not to mention their hypocrisy when dealing with congressional scandal.
An electoral loss is a loss (which is not a deviation from my claim of an ideological victory of sorts), nonetheless, but don’t sell the left short.
I meant the above quote to be:
Give yourselves a pat on the back!
That’s it .. I’m done. Night all, sorry ’bout the typos
I was not so recently banned from Wizbang for spreading my not so positive views on some of your website. I wasn’t to pleasant with my views, but it was no worse than the people writing as unruly replies as I have. As Mya Angelou said. it matters who has a pulse on this nation, and it’s a real feeling, and not a naturalistic, national born belief, it’s just as real, and more prevalent. So with my unduly respects, I want to pass the laurel leaf and admit that you got the dumbest republican ever as the Terminator reelected, but the rest was pure butter for us baby I’m not going to lie and say that after I was mistakenly or maybe over easily taken for overboard, that I had some kind of coherence in retrospect, and that I didn’t check out all of myspaceblog, wizbangblog, and tv when they take their lovely time to update it. I never really hated on the idea of you guys, just the execution, because if you believe we’re bad, but use the same tactics, that I like to believe we learned from you guys, but who knows,who’s going to end up the real enemy. Why not try to tie us really together instead of stripping us dyanamically apart? I’ve respected many a Republican in my day, but even I would be belittling their name by accusing all republicans as scum. I’n sure there’s a Bill Clinton or Obama retrospective to be had in there. I dare you to put that on Wizbang Blog my friend, from your ever God loving neighbor, Whocares
>>>You can lay the blame for this at the feet of Michelle Malkin and those who like her who took a spoiled brat attitude about immigration.
Sara – Learn what law-abiding foreign nationals do (and pay) in order to emigrate from their native countries to the U.S., before you make any more ignorant comments. It’s a lack of knowledge about the immigration issue that has enabled the Democrats to spin “illegal aliens” into “immigrants”. Or are you a corporate Republican that benefits from cheap illegal labor?
If anything, I see more effort here to find hope in the new folk.
Oh, thanks for clarifying that nuance. Please educate me and point me to the post prior to tonight where that bit of wisdom was first espoused.
So with my unduly respects, I want to pass the laurel leaf and admit that you got the dumbest republican ever as the Terminator reelected, but the rest was pure butter for us baby I’m not going to lie and say that after I was mistakenly or maybe over easily taken for overboard, that I had some kind of coherence in retrospect, and that I didn’t check out all of myspaceblog, wizbangblog, and tv when they take their lovely time to update it.
For extra credit, diagram the above sentence.
It is scant consolation for the loss of Congress, but I recall H.L. Mencken’s observation that “No one ever went broke by underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
Is that idiot spamming the board with the same extended comment?
I NEVER said anything nice about the “new left,” the “old left,” or any moonbat moron. I did say several winning Democratic candidates ran as conservatives or moderate conservatives, far to the right of the Dean/Pelosi wing of the party.
Sheesh! The remedial English classes don’t work like they used to, do they?
continually misleading the public about the state of the war
Yes, if only the Pentagon would have stopped issuing those factual reports about how bad things were. Didn’t they know that Democrats could read?
and a lot their obstructionism
Yes, all those things the Democrats obstructed by being in the minority, having their votes consistently overruled by Republicans. Here’s a news flash: the American people want Bush obstructed!
Sheesh! The remedial English classes don’t work like they used to, do they?
Says the guy who read the Iraq papers as saying Saddam was a year away from a nuke in 2002. Sheesh!
junglmutt, I’m a citizen who lives on the border and understands the illegal alian problem very very well. I understand that it is a problem that needs a multi-faceted solution and that the fence is a dumb idea when money is tight and that money could be better spent on ways to really police the border. I can sit in my bedroom and watch illegals coming over the mountain trails that no fence can reach. As long as we kowtow to the illegals by requiring employees to be bilingual or they don’t get hired, as long as we allow free health care to illegals at the expense of citizens, as long as we have no employer sanctions, we have no workable solutions. I could go on and on, but you do not soumd like you understand the problem at all, so what good would it do.
The terror masterbators are whining after all that effort of waging war with other people’s lives while hiding behind a blog. WAH!!! Stop whining and cowboy up pussies! It is the will of the American people! Dems hold the House for 40 years, Repubs take it over and f**k it up in 12 years. PAAAA-thetic ain’t it! Ya losers even loss the Senate! Know what the means? Hmmmm? UNBLOCKED SUBPOENA POWER!!!!! Here comes the impeachment boys! Democrats will do exactly what the Republicans did to Clinton after 1994 but with one major difference, no Kenneth Starr spending $50 million on convicting using the main-stream media. This shit will be done right! Look for the parade of whistle-blowers folks! They now have protection! No need to leak to the NYT! Just come on up and testify!The Republicans have stalled and buried nine (thats 9) investigations into illegal and unethical behavior with this administration. If you forgot what those investigations were, you’ll soon be reminded after 1/2007.
Isn’t it a great day to be an American? Now we can go after Bin Laden and stop Bush from giving him a free pass and amnesty. We can go after the rest of the Al Qaeda too instead of fabricating terror videos for them for political purposes (The Stakes). Speaking of moral sewer, the Dems will forget all the rampant and disgusting homo-pedophilia with you Repubs but the corruption has got to go. We’d ask Jefferson to loan you the $90,000 in his freezer but most of the Republicans made that much in a minute with Abramoff and have that much invested in watches alone. Maybe Cunningham can sell one of his Rolls Royces or maybe Tom DeLay’s daughter can give up one of her homes. God will provide!
WHO’S GODLESS NOW?!?!?!? It is the will of the American people!
Think you’ll learn? You should’ve learned in 1994 when the same thing happened to the Democrats but NOOOOOOOOO……you’re obviously beneath that level of intelligence. Darwin was wrong!
Peace out! We’ll see whats left of you come 2008 after all the trials, committee hearings and subsequent impeachments.
We’ve only just begun. After all, it is the will of the American people!
I wouldn’t be too worried about a Democratic Congress, or Senate for that matter. I’m upset yes. But perhaps the President will break out his big ass red veto pen more than 1 time.
I highly doubt the Congress, or Senate will get the 2/3rds majority vote needed to overturn the veto’s.
Anyways. Still not happy with the way things have turned. But I’m not all that worried. I hope the Democrats learn to like that term… Veto. Get used to it.
Oh yes. all you “Impeachment” nuts. Good luck with that, I suggest that you read up on what’s needed to impeach, and then convict a sitting president.
If you think that the Republicans will still be around in 20 years, you are a fool. In 20 years, there will be another 20 million illegal immigrants and there children in the US. The demographic groups that overwhelmingly vote Democratic are growing.
Do you really think that the Republicans can do anything do become viable in New York, California, Mass, etc. Look at Maryalnd. There is no way a Republican can ever hope to win state wide office in Maryland. The same goes for Illinois and New Jersey. It will be the same in Ohio.
There real question will be what will the US look like with one party rule.
The Impeachment Process in a Nutshell:
1. The House Judiciary Committee deliberates over whether to initiate an impeachment inquiry.
2. The Judiciary Committee adopts a resolution seeking authority from the entire House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry. Before voting, the House debates and considers the resolution. Approval requires a majority vote.
3. The Judiciary Committee conducts an impeachment inquiry, possibly through public hearings. At the conclusion of the inquiry, articles of impeachment are prepared. They must be approved by a majority of the Committee.
4. The House of Representatives considers and debates the articles of impeachment. A majority vote of the entire House is required to pass each article. Once an article is approved, the President is, technically speaking, “impeached” — that is subject to trial in the Senate.
5. The Senate holds trial on the articles of impeachment approved by the House. The Senate sits as a jury while the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial.
6. At the conclusion of the trial, the Senate votes on whether to remove the President from office. A two-thirds vote by the Members present in the Senate is required for removal.
7. If the President is removed, the Vice-President assumes the Presidency under the chain of succession established by Amendment XXV.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/background/impeach/impeach.htm
I figured I’d put that up for ya’ll so you could see for yourself exactly what is involved.
Then look at the balance of power in the House and Senate. You tell me if you think the Senate will vote 2/3rds Majority to convict? I don’t.
Want to stop impeachment talk? Dick Cheney resigns, nominate Newt Gingrich as vp. Impeach away assholes.
Funny how it came down to Iraq, but the Dems have NO PLAN for Iraq. We will not see a pullout as some would wish. My prediction is MORE troops in harms way, in their attempt to seem ‘tough on terror’.
So- What’s the plan, Nan?
I don’t know what’s more disturbing:
Voting for change even though you have no idea what that change will bring…
That 60% of Americans don’t give a damn…
Speaker Pelosi?
Kennedy with 69%- what is with those massholes?
jp2, I’m sure you can empathize. I was laying in bed this morning thinking I must feel now like dems felt when Bush was re-elected. At least libs could run to Canada. Where can a conservative Christian go? It’s bad enough that before, my opinions were generally ridiculed and mocked. Now I honestly feel like my gov’t does not and will not represent me, and that my thoughts will not even be listened to. It’s a sick and scary feeling.
In 1994 a losing James Carville said, “A [political] party has to stand for something.”
This year the Democrats did and the Republicans didn’t.
I agree with Gingrich that the way to confront the scandals in Washington was for the GOP to put forward an agenda and tell the voters, “We’re sorry for the scandals, we’ve taken appropriate action so it won’t happen again, and if you return us to Congress, here’s what you’ll get.” They didn’t put forward any agenda other than “Stay the Course”, and that was rejected. If the GOP had offered people a positive agenda for change (e.g. Gingrich’s book) they probably won’t be in the mess.
The Democrats agenda (“A New Direction”) is a joke on domestic policy, but it has one clear change in direction that the American people agree with 100%: get out Iraq. That decided the election, that’s what the people want, and that’s what I expect the Dhimmicrats to work on.
The American people have spoken: they are tired, and they want our soldiers home.
There is a lot of nonsense about fighting in Afghanistan. Terrorism is a global struggle against Western ideals. For the Democrats to say that they will fight it in Afghanistan is like saying firemen will only fight a house fire in the kitchen because the fire started in the kitchen – before is spread everywhere else. Stupid. Furthermore, the Dhimmicrats are not smart enough to know that now that as they’ve been showing weakness for the last months, the enemy is getting more confident, and the situation is worse. After this election, the situation in Afghanistan is going to get very, very bad.
(See worldnetdaily.com /news/article.asp ?ARTICLE_ID=52747 : “The terrorists told WorldNetDaily an electoral win for the Democrats would prove to them Americans are ‘tired.'”)
‘Where can a conservative Christian go?”
Stay right where you are; just live YOUR life by YOUR principles and don’t expect your government to represent your religious beliefs. That’s not what government does. How tolerant are you of the beliefs of others? Can’t we all just get along?
Now that you’ve firmly attached a bulls-eye to Pelosi’ back y’all can froth and flail to your heart’s content, but it won’t make much difference. She’s in charge for at least two years and it pleases me to realize how big a burr that is under the saddles of the more misogynistic troglodytes on this site.
VERY well said, groucho.
amn! It took old “pucker puss” (lee lee) along time to chime in. Well one good thing came out of the it–OBL should be in hand by next week. Nancey Strechface should see to it.
groucho and Lee:
What about the “misogynistic troglodytes” in the radical Muslim world? They are doing REAL damage, and the Democrats gave them a huge win:
I seem to recall a couple of years ago that Kerry supporters were being mocked for supposedly thinking the American people didn’t understand the issues. How elitist! Now that the shoe’s on the other foot, I’m not surprised to hear the same thing from Republicans. When the electorate overwhelmingly rejects your side, it’s kind of a natural reaction to think they blew it.
Chris:
Senator Kerry’s supporters earned the reputation of “talking down to voters” mostly because of the way that they lost patience with voters who didn’t believe every word. The way they campaigned (at least what I observed and what others wrote about) was really pretty bad.
I haven’t talked to a single GOP supporter who is saying the electorate didn’t understand. Many are pointing to the party’s positions (or lack of a reform agenda), and many point to the way that the Democrats stayed on message by not talking about much of anything other than getting out of Iraq.
Most conservatives and independents (e.g. myself) doesn’t agree with the decision, but we understand the electorate’s fatigue. The Democrats and their cheerleaders in the MSM have done a good job in turning this into another Vietnam. Like Vietnam, we will have won all the battles and lost the war. That’s bad enough, but what is disappointing is that the US and the West have been tested, and it looks as though we failed. Bin Laden and company have read the American and Western will, and they have come to the conclusion that we can’t beat them. They may be right.
(Al-Zawahiri, 12/7/05)