Odds & Sods on Wednesday morning
- Jim Webb, retired Marine, former Republican, former Reagan administration official, and Senator-elect from Virginia:
The politics of the Karl Rove era were designed to distract and divide the very people who would ordinarily be rebelling against the deterioration of their way of life. Working Americans have been repeatedly seduced at the polls by emotional issues such as the predictable mantra of "God, guns, gays, abortion and the flag" while their way of life shifted ineluctably beneath their feet. But this election cycle showed an electorate that intends to hold government leaders accountable for allowing every American a fair opportunity to succeed.
P.S. Webb has been tapped to sit on three Senate committees: Armed Services, Foreign Relations, and Veterans Affairs. - During the Senate campaign in Montana, incumbent Republican Sen. Conrad Burns spouted the predictable GOP talking point in reference to his opponent Democrat John Tester: "He wants to weaken the Patriot Act." Tester's response? "I don't want to weaken the Patriot Act, I want to repeal it. What it does, it takes away your freedom ... and when you take away our freedoms, the terrorists have won." Boo-yah! It's all about the Constitution, baby.
- The Republicans' percentage of the Latino vote plummeted from 44 to 29 percent in this last election, no doubt because the Republicans demonstrated a real hostility to Latinos in their immigration policy. And it was a double-whammy: Frank Luntz points out that the #1 reason Republican voters went with the Democrats (he calls them the "Republican Rejecters") was because of "illegal immigration." In response, the RNC picks (Cuban-born) Sen. Mel Martinez as the new party chairman. Hunh? Martinez favors liberalizing immigration laws.. But never mind! He's not really in charge -- turns out Mike Duncan is really running the show. So, instead of being all things to all people, the party now looks like it stands for nothing at all. Right-wingers are, predictably, mad, calling it "another Harriet Miers moment." Ouch. Meanwhile, Latino voters have moved on to something -- anything! -- else in their minds. It may be another generation before the Republicans recover from this debacle.
- And speaking of Frank Luntz: "The mood of this country has changed since 2004, and because of it, some have already written off Republican chances for recapturing the House and Senate in 2008. The question Americans will be asking is whether Republicans learned anything from this election. The answers will determine the future of the GOP: that of a phoenix or a pariah."
Lesson #1: "I was wrong." Those three simple words never came from the lips of any Republican anywhere, and it is one reason so many Republicans were defeated. Voters saw hubris instead of humility, and voting against the GOP was the only way they could send a message of rebuke.
- Those of you still trying to figure out how Ned Lamont lost in Connecticut should read this and this. As for me, it's clear that Connecticut has supported Independents before so Joe Lieberman's re-election is nothing new. And he won't be the only Senator who swings both ways when it comes right down to it; I live in Louisiana where one of my Senators is Mary Landrieu -- The End. And Joe is hardly the first Senator to think that it's all about him and only him. Lastly, I don't think Harry Reid will do anything to cause Joe to jump officially to the other side. So I expect Joe to continue to be an unreliable Democratic vote in the Senate and (worse) to continue to sanctimoniously lecture me about bipartisanship.
- The Saudis are building a $12 billion fence -- to keep Iraqis out.
- Tom DeLay is blogging. Oy.
- Weird headline at The Note: "Gallup poll on pressure facing Dems." But the article says that 61 percent of those surveyed want Democrats to have more influence than President Bush on the direction of the nation. Gosh, if I'm a Democrat, that's not pressure -- that's a mandate!
- And no post entitled "Odds & Sods" would be complete without a quote from Pete Townsend:
QUESTION: What would you tell the Pete Townshend of 40 years ago? What would he say to you today?
Great answer.PETE:... I think in my letter to young Pete I told myself that I shouldn't worry. There would be no nuclear holocaust. The planet would not become so polluted that we would all have to live in suits like they do in "Dune." I think young Pete told this old fart to mind my own business...
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