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RedditWhile Bill Bennett is on CNN spinning like a loose top--arguing that tonight represents the end of a liberal "Democrat" party… don't tell that to the voters of Ohio. To them, Sherrod Brown is the face of the new Democratic Party, and he won with an antiwar, populist, fair trade, pro-choice, pro-gay rights message – and he did it in formerly Bush country too.
As John Nichols wrote in a recent Nation cover story, "If Democrats want to win statewide races, Brown says, they must reconnect with voters who live in places that have been off the party's map for the past few election cycles."
And that's exactly what Brown did. He met with regular, hard-working folks throughout the state who are struggling just to make ends meet – people anxious about ravaged pensions, mounting personal debt, job loss.....
And Nichol's points out that "Brown's no ‘back to the future' populist…. Brown's ‘we need to make Ohio the Silicon Valley of alternative energy' pitch has resonated with CEOs who don't typically talk up Democrats."
Brown is a decent and smart man who will play an important role in the Senate. For progressives who continue to miss the voice and presence of the late Paul Wellstone, there is reason for hope once again tonight. No matter how the Bennett's of the world spin it.
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Katrina vanden Heuvel
Thoughts on politics, current affairs, riffs and reflections on what’s in the news and what’s not--but should be.
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Where are all the conservatives tonight? Hehehe.
Posted by ILOVEPHYSICS at 11/07/2006 @ 11:52pm
Congrats to the libs tonite and the repubs have themselves to blame. It will be an intetesting 2 years...my taxes will SURELY increase and so will terrorism, especially here at home, so I have already talked to my accountant and lawyer...gotta keep my hard worked for earnings away from the Pelosi spending wagon ....hang on boys, it is going to be a bumpy ride...I hope you will enjoy the health care package coming ..line up post office style..and impeachment or endless investigations may save us from the likes of Rangel, Hastings, et al..
Hman. I owe you a night of drinks and dinner and am looking forward to paying it off....and then ..underground for me..:)
Posted by john maasch at 11/08/2006 @ 12:00am
Posted by LVLIBERTY1 11/07/2006 @ 11:39am:
This year has demonstrated that real strength of conviction in doing the right thing is met with the purest form of hate that is as old as mankind itself. Evil hates good and it is now apparent that it has permeated even those who marginally hate.
Evil hates good?
One of the "good" guys, a republican from PA, cheated on his wife and beat his mistress (Sherwood).
He lost.
Another likes to have gay sex with congressional pages (Foley).
Still another prefers money laundering (DeLay).
Yet another of LL's "ethical" heroes prefers influence peddlling and is in jail for it (Cunningham).
Tell us, again, LL, about your good, ethical heroes - We could use a laugh!
You got one thing right, LL: Evil is now apparent. But you forgot to mention that it is in the GOP.
I would list all the scum in your party, but I don't like to make 10.000 word posts.
Posted by ILOVEPHYSICS at 11/08/2006 @ 12:04am
gotta keep my hard worked for earnings away from the Pelosi spending wagon ....
Posted by JOHN MAASCH 11/08/2006 @ 12:00am
JOHN, you gotta be kidding me, man! The Pelosi spending wagon????
Surely she can never compare to Dubya for spending money.
I'll bet you 10 cases of Belgian ale on that.
Posted by ILOVEPHYSICS at 11/08/2006 @ 12:06am
so maasch, you think that the chimp will be as big a pussy with that veto when he faces off against Pelosi eh?
why did you vote for him again.... twice
Posted by Will C. at 11/08/2006 @ 12:11am
I think he will finally find the veto pen,....he will need it...This should finish off any more of the Bush family from high office as they have a history of leaving a loss in their final years....now if we can get the same effect from the Clintons...Jeb is finished, so hopefully Hillary can follow suit.
Congrats to the dems, and to the repubs...it was brough upon you by yourselves.....I, myself, have aready taken steps to reorganize my self and will be disappearing from the blog and watch the next 2 years unfold from the side lines. It will be intetesting to see if the Repubs learn anything and if the dems hang themselves with the rope they have been given..enjoy your victory, although, I don't expect to see much on the progressive front....
Posted by john maasch at 11/08/2006 @ 12:24am
MAASCH, you are going into hiding from the blogosphere? I didn't expect you to take defeat so hard. Is that it, then? The only reason you were here is that your side won the last election? Don't be a sore loser!!!
Posted by ILOVEPHYSICS at 11/08/2006 @ 12:27am
I think he will finally find the veto pen,....he will need it..
Posted by JOHN MAASCH 11/08/2006 @ 12:24am
well maasch, if you think that's true then either you don't know how our government works or your rants about the pelosi spending wagon are delusional
Posted by Will C. at 11/08/2006 @ 12:29am
The big difference from '02 and '04? Two reasons. For one, the public at large finally wised up to what a bunch of shitbirds the Bush admin is.
Secondly, Dems campaigned with spines this time, instead of cowering like eunuchs...
Posted by ILOVEPHYSICS at 11/08/2006 @ 12:30am
I am disappearing to reorganize my work and focus on family as well. It has been fun here and I will keep reading every now and then...maybe even blow a shit ball in here for Bloppy just for grins...I am not a sore loser, my party will never win, the Libertarian, and neither will the Proigressives..but I have a few large projects in the works and they need to be pushed over the edge before the next year changes. I am sure my taxes will rise so I must prepare a little earlier..:).
Enjoy the next 2 years, as your boys now have the ball....BTW, what were they going to do once in charge? Never did get that part...
Posted by john maasch at 11/08/2006 @ 12:36am
Well, at least MAASCH and LVLIBERTY1 showed up for the election eve screening of Dawn of the Republican Dead.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha ... hunh, hunh .. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Where's NACL to rub the salt in?
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Posted by fromredbird at 11/08/2006 @ 12:36am
Clearly an anti-incumbent vote. Much like in '94.
Dems didn't so much as win, as Republicans did everything they could to lose.
Get out the brooms.
Posted by Zeddmen at 11/08/2006 @ 12:37am
Posted by LVLIBERTY1 11/07/2006 @ 11:39am:
This year has demonstrated that real strength of conviction in doing the right thing is met with the purest form of hate that is as old as mankind itself. Evil hates good and it is now apparent that it has permeated even those who marginally hate.
Get back in the corner, Quasimodo. And stop gurgling.
Posted by fromredbird at 11/08/2006 @ 12:38am
"your rants about the pelosi spending wagon are delusional "
I will leave the rants to you...Enjoy Will, according to your posts the second coming has arrived, enjoy your heaven...
Keep up the saw dust work...again, enjoy.
Posted by john maasch at 11/08/2006 @ 12:38am
The two-party pendulum has swung the other way.
Posted by Zeddmen at 11/08/2006 @ 12:41am
I will leave the rants to you...Enjoy Will, according to your posts the second coming has arrived, enjoy your heaven...
Keep up the saw dust work...again, enjoy.
Posted by JOHN MAASCH 11/08/2006 @ 12:38a
I don't beleive in the second coming maasch. My posts can not reflect that.
Posted by Will C. at 11/08/2006 @ 12:43am
I will leave the rants to you...Enjoy Will, according to your posts the second coming has arrived, enjoy your heaven...
Keep up the saw dust work...again, enjoy.
Posted by JOHN MAASCH 11/08/2006 @ 12:38am
Yeah, Will, you sore WINNER.
Posted by fromredbird at 11/08/2006 @ 12:52am
Posted by FROMREDBIRD 11/08/2006 @ 12:52am
You know what the funniest memory I have about the last election was?
A week or so afterward a guy wrote a letter to the editor to the seattle times saying that if we liberals expected to win elections in the future, we'd be advised to become more like republicans.
Posted by Will C. at 11/08/2006 @ 12:58am
that one still makes me laugh
Posted by Will C. at 11/08/2006 @ 12:58am
Zeddmen wrote: "Clearly an anti-incumbent vote. Much like in '94. Dems didn't so much as win, as Republicans did everything they could to lose. Get out the brooms."
I concur. The country is no where near as radical or eccentric as the righties and lefties who post on these threads.
When the party in power tries to push too much, the electorate pushes back.
It will be interesting to see GWB speak tomorrow.
Posted by urmygyro at 11/08/2006 @ 01:13am
You know what the funniest memory I have about the last election was?
A week or so afterward a guy wrote a letter to the editor to the seattle times saying that if we liberals expected to win elections in the future, we'd be advised to become more like republicans.
Posted by WILL C. 11/08/2006 @ 12:58am
Was it signed John Maasch?
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Posted by fromredbird at 11/08/2006 @ 01:20am
Uh, Ms vanden Heuvel....
Did Sherrod's vote FOR the "torture bill" just...slip your mind?!?!?
Posted by Mask at 11/08/2006 @ 07:25am
Why respond to JOHN MAASCH? What are you responding to anyway, platitudes, generalities? Come on. Pat him on the head and move on with your adult conversations. His brain is obviously too partisan and ideologically rigid to be rational.
I also always laugh when I hear "centrists" like URMYGYRO. If I criticize "free trade" I'm a radical, the pragmatic thing is to let corporations rip everyone off and then offer skill training for the left over workers who won't find work in their new capital-less neighborhoods. Good luck in your service industry job. If I back universal healthcare I'm a socialist, the pragmatic thing to do is to have the same structure in place (where you pay, at least, twice as much as citizens in other countries with universal healthcare systems) along with a small tax credit or something. Barf! It's ok to think rationally, outside of your centrist dogmatism.
Posted by SalsaVerde at 11/09/2006 @ 7:31pm