Democrats Take Control of the Senate

pitu

it's official - both houses of congress to the dems
yow!

alafairnadia

zomg
zomg
zomg
zomg

escap

Did anyone see the article in the NYT about how many influential federal positions are now filled by New York pols? The first time in a long time that NY is well represented in Washington. Now that's something I can get excited about!!

carnivore

I posted this in the VOTE thread, but I've got to repeat it here:

So once Pelosi is sworn in as Speaker, if Bush and Cheney are both dead or incapacitated, she becomes President! :shock:

I'd say she's got a better shot than Hillary right now. :twisted:

Now we've just got to figure out how to get Bush and Cheney to go hunting together...

dailyheights

Subject: Why would Rove allow this to happen?

How could Karl Rove let something like this happen? Would he let this happen?

Isn't he the master of "all politics is local"? Didn't he snap at Robert Siegel on NPR and say "I'm entitled to THE math", which was at least narrowly interpreted as a hint at some nefarious plan to throw the election?

Is it too early to float the conspiracy theory that it was to the BENEFIT of the Republican party to allow the 2nd most resented female Democrat in America to preside over high office? What could possibly be more galvanizing... besides Hillary herself?

And in line with that: where are all the "voting irregularities" we saw in 2004? Back then, was "too many irregularities to be a coincidence"; now, in 2006, all those thousands of watchdogs seem conspicuously quiet; not much to report beyond standard claims of voter intimidation.

escap

Actually, the credit markets are predicting a high probability of recession over the next two years. The current 4.4% unemployment rate is sure to rise, possibly steeply. Brace yourselves for Republicans in 2008 talking about how much weaker the economy has gotten and how many jobs have been lost since the dems took over. Expect yourselves to feel disgusted and angry as they do so. Perhaps there is a Rove conspiracy after all....

sweet tea

Subject: Re: Why would Rove allow this to happen?

dailyheights wrote:

Is it too early to float the conspiracy theory that it was to the BENEFIT of the Republican party to allow the 2nd most resented female Democrat in America to preside over high office?

any woman with that kind of power is going to be held up as a target for resentment. i don't think it matters whether the speaker is nancy pelosi or bea arthur for her to attract resentment.

armchair_warrior

in the bigger picture, wouldnt change a thing. still be a big freaking government waste tons of money.

green party one day will rule!!!

iowagirl

Actually, there are some voting irregularities. My favorite is in Katherine Harris' former Congressional district in Florida. This district uses "black box" (unverifiable) voting machines. Somehow 13,000 votes in the Congressional race weren't registered, even though votes for the other offices were. So 13,000 voters could cast their votes for school board, but not Congressional representative. Naturally, the Republican "won" by a couple hundred votes. Last I checked, they were still trying to figure out what to do. The Republicans were seriously saying that 13,000 people had decided not to vote for Representative. In Cruella DeVil's district. Uh huh.

I don't know about you, but I just can't wait for the first 100 hours. Pollyanna, that's me.

sweet tea

armchair_warrior wrote: in the bigger picture, wouldnt change a thing. still be a big freaking government waste tons of money.

green party one day will rule!!!

a funny combination of sentiments. i mean, nothing against the greens, but they're not exactly the party of small government....

also, i'm not sure whether it's "big picture" or not, but i DO see a difference between republicans and democrats. much to the irritation of my lingering nader-ite buddies.

iowagirl

Re: the voting irregularities I mentioned above, here's the post from DailyKos today. And it was 18,000, not 13,000, votes that were missing.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/14/142242/76

FL-13: Jennings wins on merits, gets screwed by machines
by kos
Tue Nov 14, 2006 at 11:22:42 AM PST

It's ugly.

Lawyers for Democratic House candidate Christine Jennings threw down the gauntlet yesterday, asking a state court to secure electronic voting machines and data used in the election.

The move would preserve the equipment in Florida's Sarasota County for scrutiny by Jennings' legal team. A hearing on the suit is scheduled for this afternoon.

It's just the first step of what is likely to be a litigious aftermath to a close and ugly election (thanks in part to the NRCC's rampant robo calling in the district). The state began a recount and audit of the election yesterday. Once the audit and second recount is completed and the results certified on November 20th, the Jennings campaign has ten days to contest the results of the election if they still show Jennings down. Before the recounting began, she was down 386 votes.

The fight will center around the district's Sarasota County, where the electronic machines did not register a vote in the Congressional race for 18,000 voters (13%) -- what's called an "undervote." That's compared to only 2.53% of voters who did not vote in the race via absentee ballots.

A study by the local paper, The Herald Tribune, found that one in three of Sarasota election officials "had general complaints from voters about having trouble getting votes to record" on the electronic machines for the Congressional race. Since 53% of voters in Sarasota County picked Jennings over the Republican Vern Buchanan, those missed votes would likely have put Jennings in front.

There is a fund set up by the Jennings campaign to pay for the recount.