Reid wins
Just heard it on Fox; can’t find a decent link as yet.
This is bad news. He retains his seat, and probably the Majority Leader position, too.
Chuck Schumer may be sad about it, though. No Majority Leader spot for him.
Other random good news:
The margin of Rubio’s victory. Rubio gets it:
We make a great mistake if we believe that tonight these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican party,” Rubio told supporters at a rally, referring to his and other GOP wins around the country. “What they are is a second chance, a second chance for Republicans to be what they said they were going to be not so long ago.”
Kirk in Illinois. An especially sweet pickup.
Buck of Colorado, who was behind a little while ago, seems to have pulled ahead.
Allen West is a good one. Rubio is a good one. In the other races, the after-action analysis is going to be all about:
Would we rather have a RINO, who would vote with the democrats instead of a defeated “Tea Party” upstart?
Who gives a Leaping Grand Shitè (little ballet lingo there….)
Except for Reid winning a good night for the country.
If the Republicans can’t control the Senate, I just about as soon see Reid win. I just couldn’t stomach Schumer as majority leader.
A DINO may have gotten elected in West Va…so that’s not TOO bad.
Grayson lost…that’s good.
The Republicans won BIG in the House. (If this were the UK, we’d now have a new prime minister.)
We won a LOT of governors’ races and are taking a lot of state legislations…that’s VERY good long term.
A lot of Democrat senior representatives were taken out…that’s good.
We picked up a lot of Senate seats…that’s good.
All in all, a great night for Republicans.
Oh yeah…have you noticed how gorgeous the Republicans’ wives are? Sorry to mention that…but it’s true.
He was unassailable by anyone to the right of Obama and Karl Marx.
He is the union-machine candidate and with the dirtiness of Las Vegas and out-of-state power brokers, there was never any chance.
The huge amounts of income spent in Las Vegas must benefit the union bosses and not the low-skilled workers. Cockroaches cannot stand the bright light so they spent millions and twisted arms to defeat the flashlight. Harry bends over when the unions and thugs command it. It’s worth a lot of money to them.
So, I guess the commenter who noted that people were calling California too early was on to something.
Fiorina has apparently refused to concede. It is a bit bizarre – the race is at 3% lead for Boxer with around 35% of precincts counted. Maybe I don’t know enough about the way California works, even though I live here (I don’t vote here).
We shall see.
Finally, Colorado is razor-thin, with Buck leading by 1% – this is clearly not likely to be decided tonight.
Washington is razor-thin, with Murray up by around 2%. Don’t know about this one.
With the 56-seat increase in the House, we’ve already done better than 1994, which is … eggggselent.
Now watch the Pravda Media spin tonight as a “win” for Dirty Harry Reid because he “didn’t lose the Senate.” And whatever happens, they’ll say it was “better than expected” for the Democrats. They’ll also dwell lovingly on O’Donnell and Angle’s defeats, with utterly minimal reportage on any Dim losses.
Et cetera.
Also, there are over 30 seats in the House still in play. I do hope we top 60; the more we win, the more we put the fear of God into ’em.
Reid retaining his seat is probably the best thing that could have happened for Republicans as they prepare for 2012. Nothing like having a prime example of what you are opposing as a target.
Schumer is way too slick for his own good. Chuck would have had a media honeymoon for a while and would have used it to good advantage. Not so with old Harry.
Nevada- you deserve every job loss you get. Harry Reid will win his final election in Hell. Good Luck with that one Harry!
Nev’s Sharon Angle has lost by a definitive margin, CA Senate hopeful, Carli Fiorina, was crushed, Wash State D Rossi will probably be edged out, so too Colorado’s Ken Buck.
Despite enormous gains in the House without at least 48 seats in the Senate the GOP has no hope of assembling a majority w/ conservative Dems WV Sen Joe Manchin and NE Sen Ben Nelson.
I’m calling it 53/47. The Senate appears to be firmly still in the Blue.
I got my Christmas wish list. The end of that fat acerbic putz Alan Grayson, but mostly a Republican House – capable of ordering Eric Holder to stand on the carpet.
Really wish Boxer had lost – she has no respect for the armed servicemen who have put themselves in harms way so that we can have these elections.
A very good point. And, when you juxtapose two very good new ‘tea party’ Senators, Rubio and Paul Reid’s discrepancies become all the more obvious.
…and my Congressman, Barney Frank, is back.
Damn.
Sorry, but with all the good news from around the country, it’s hard for me not to dwell a little on this. I really hoped we’d seen the last of him.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
One of the exit poll results should give us pause. IIRC about 38% of voters want the government to do more. Given that young people and minorities did not have a big turn out, we are on the edge of disaster.
Colorado struck down HCR exemption, though. I think we’re officially living in a blue state.
The Republican leadership in the Senate looks prescient in its decision not to punish Lisa Murkowski when she decided to run as a write in candidate. That may have saved a Republican caucus seat. Conversely, the Tea Party folks appear to have overstepped in Delaware, Nevada, and Alaska. Politics is the art of the possible sometimes. While the lost cause can be emotionally fulfilling at times, it still leads to a loss.
I worry about pendulum swing among independents. The impression that Republicans now control everything, though it is based on the wailing and gnashing of pundits who believe a 60-40 Democrat advantage is the natural order of things, will be used to blame Republicans when Democratic policies fail. (Daniel, see the Boston.com interviews where people perceived Barney Frank as one of the few who were trying to help us out of this mess.)
So step two is to remove Reid’s majority, and keep focus on him until that happens. In the blogoshere, we tend to think the war of ideas with liberals is the central conflict, and direct our energies in that direction. But the Democratic coalition has other large sectors, notably union money and African-American votes. The former just gave Reid his Senate seat back.
We need to make dents in other parts of the coalition. And all the while, we need to keep Republicans accountable with their spending as well. Republican earmarks should be considered more odious than Democratic version.
Las Vegas radio host on Harry Reid’s re-election: “It’s tough to kill a cockroach.”
Angle ran a mediocre campaign, and Reid had big support from the casinos the unions, especially SEIU which, coincidentally, was in charge of maintaining the voting machines.
I don’t think this is so bad. It’s a step-by-step process of building a lasting conservative majority.
I am not sure that I would want a Congress in full control by Republicans when our country hits economic, financial and international relations walls over the next two years. Obama created this mess, let him take full credit for it.
On to 2012!
Ten bucks with twelve points each says that they are going to contest the votes and such around Reid on some level.
Assistant Village Idiot – those are wise words. Your point in the first paragraph is exactly what I worry about. There’s lots of political science data that shows that people tend to do one of two things: 1) Confuse the President’s party with the party that controls Congress; 2) Confuse a big surge into the majority of one party in one house with the obtaining of a majority in the other house. 2) now comes into play, and you are spot on in noting that the Democrats will do everything they can to expand on the sense that Republicans now control everything (they’ve been doing that for the last two years!).
The difference now is that people are more likely to believe them.
Paragraph 2 is also dead-on. We need to combine our re-districting efforts with the visible appeal of fresh blood like Rubio and West, and Tim Scott and others, to neutralize some of the more pernicious narratives about Republicans the left promotes. And we must give as good as we get: no opportunity to point to SEIU et al. and their linkage to Democratic pols should be missed. Connecting that narrative to economic misery in an easily understandable account of our current plight is essential.
Finally, your third paragraph requires only one word: Yup.
I’m still extremely grumpy about California. I always believed the majority faction dilemma in theory, but I never quite understood how inane and, well, frankly insane it would look in practice. It’s almost impossible to believe this really happened – all I can do is sit here dumbfounded and repeat, “Jerry Brown? JERRY BROWN?!?!”
Madness. Complete, crystalline, 100% madness.
I think the lesson to be drawn is that no matter how strong and superior our message we still must contend with the GOTV efforts of the Democrats, their union jackboots, corrupt leftist poll workers and such. We won big in most areas of the country but deep Blue pits like New York (where my man Padavan was upset), California, and Massachusetts are too corrupt and unbalanced to win. I don’t know what this will mean for the country for ’12.
The untold story are the GOP pickups in the governorships and state legislatures. Here in MI the House and Gov. flipped to the GOP, and the like happened all over the country. When redistricting occurs per the 2010 census, look for even more GOP success in 2012. Beverly’s right. I just heard a ABC radio spot that emphasized the points she raised without mentioning the House flip or state successes. Watch for the media to go into overdrive about the GOP being the party of no.
How can anyone stand to live in states, cities, and districts that keep re-electing depraved scum like Frank, Reid, Boxer, and Brown? You get up in the morning and you see from the voting results that your your state, your city, your community, your neighbors, and probably some of your friends have done it again. Have they no shame?
As with alcoholics sometimes states need to hit bottom before they see the need for reform. California and New York haven’t collapsed yet. Michigan, on the other hand, elected a Republican governor.
A friend of mine used to ask why winos kept their bottle in a brown paper bag. He said they didn’t want to know when the end was coming.
The deep blue states need a little more pain.
Democrat Jenny Oropeza WINS!!!!!
Another example of how the left is more informed and knowledgeable…
You realize it takes a MAJORITY of people voting with absolutely no regard to any reality?
whats the problem?
Jenny is dead…
[she died within 10 days of the election]
A week after her death, Democrats sent out mailers to residents, calling for voters to still reelect Oropeza.
At least we’re rid of Nancy Pelosi. That’s kind of like the moment in the Wizard of Oz when the house falls on the wicked witch.
Look at the House election results map ( http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/results/house ). In this country, there is a HUGE political and cultural divide between urban areas and rural areas.
I’m ALWAYS grumpy about CA, MA, and NY. Sometimes, I wish there was a way in the Constitution to EXPEL states from the Union.
But still…a good night for Republicans and conservatives.
Just want to add my little all to the many good comments pointing out the silver lining to not taking the Senate. A summing up.
There are many positive aspects to Harry Reid being seen as the poster boy of the Dems.
It will be more difficult for the White House flunkies and the press flunkies (but I repeat myself) to blame the Republicans for every failure.
Let the Republicans earn the right to the Senate. The House should be considered probationary.
I am in NY and I feel like I’ve been pounding water. Shumer – in, Cuomo – in, all those lying bastards are in.
Caught a sight of Shumer yesterday proclaiming “we will continue fight for the middle class!” How didn’t he choke?
On the other hand, on a local level, my candidate Grimm defeated McMahon(D) in 13 district for House of Reps in the State, and Nicole Malliotakis won the Assemblywoman seat from a Dem placeholder.
Oh, btw, I’ll second that commenter (it seems I can’t find his comment in previous threads now), about “racist” Tea Partiers winning everywhere – Alan West, M. Rubio &&&. I’ll add to that Nicole Malliotakis:
“[NM] becomes the first person of Hispanic descent to be elected on the [Staten] Island — her father is from Greece, her mother a Cuban exile of the Castro dictatorship — and, at 29 years old, the youngest elected borough official. But she said that had nothing to do with voters’ choices at the polls yesterday.
“Like many of you, I started off this campaign as an unhappy constituent,” she said in her speech. “We’re tired of the reckless spending. We’re tired of the overtaxing. We’re tired of the lack of accountability and we’re tired of the one-party rule. This is our victory.” Source.
Tatyana: my sympathies.
Byron York tells the story if ever so politely:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Nevada-voters-dont-want-Harry-Reid-re-elect-him-anyway-106597858.html
Personally, I think Reid is the Crooked man who walked a crooked mile and all of Nevada is complicit. I hope their unemployment rate doubles. What will their unions do for them then. And as for Harry, the FBI carried away the wrong man all those years ago. At the very least they should have taken them both. THe only real lesson there was don’t under-bribe Harry Reid. Or does anyone think he became a millionaire honestly.
Here is some info on Nevada and Reid:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2620339/posts