Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Six:

The Oregonian reports that State Rep. Jeff Merkley, the Speaker of the state house of representatives, has defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Gordon Smith. Democrats have now picked up six Senate seats, including knocking off three Republican incumbents.

Our mandate's growing. We'll have to put it to good use. That means the Smack-o-Matic must come off of its drunken binge of pure bliss and resume its work.

The first thing we must do is ensure that Sarah Palin is finished. She's a dangerous piece of shit who can't ever be allowed to come within shouting distance of power again. See what she inspires in her audience:

During the campaign the frenzied crowds at Sarah Palin rallies did seem indicative of something frightening in the air, and it turns out that there was a reason to conclude this, Newsweek reports:

The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that many crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle asked a top campaign aide.

Newsweek also reports that Palin launched an attack on William Ayers before the campaign had finalized their plans.

Someone that eager to inspire hate, violence and racism must not be allowed to run in 2012.
Let's ensure her career stops here.

Looks to me like some folks in the other camp are having the same idea:

[McCain campaign strategist Steve] Schmidt went so far last night as to “veto” Palin’s request to offer a few words to the crowd after McCain conceded the election. Politco’s Mike Allen reports on a forthcoming Newsweek article, “Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.”

That could have something to do with the insane rhetoric, and a lot to do with the fact that she's one of those types who takes personal advantage of every situation:

There's plenty of time for the Republican recriminations to get completely out of hand, but in the meantime, would you believe McCain campaign aides are still fighting over Sarah Palin's wardrobe?

NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family -- clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards.

The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband.
Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies
looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

That should be interesting.

The Republicon party is trying to dig itself out from under the landslide. Despite what voters told them last night, they still think they can use neo-theo-con shovels to do it:

Jonathan Martin reports that a group of far-right heavy-hitters, including Grover Norquist and Tony Perkins, will meet tomorrow at Brent Bozell's weekend home to plot strategy. It's a safe bet that encouraging the Republican Party to moderate its image and embrace a more mainstream agenda will not be on the to-do list.

What bears watching, though, is how the party responds to the demands. In reality, Republicans ended up in this mess by following the dictates of the right-wing base. But to hear the party's activists tell it, Republicans ended up in this mess by not following the dictates of the right-wing base enough.

Some party leaders seem to be getting antsy.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Ensign (Nev.) argued that Senate Republicans need to "re-establish what the Republican Party is all about … [and] get back to this big tent Republican Party" that is united on fiscal conservatism. Although Ensign was not ready to call for a break from socially conservative ideologies, he said issues such as abortion or gay rights should not be at the core of the party.

"I think we lost our way on our fundamentals" in recent years, Ensign said, adding that "those are the issue that we can disagree on as a party."

It's the kind of quote that will make far-right activists apoplectic.

Chances are, the next big fight will be over the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. Rumor has it that South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson not only wants the job, but is considered a leading contender.

Dawson, of course, recently insisted that "moderating our party is what caused us to lose power" in 2006, and he intends to resist any attempts to make the party more mainstream.

Be watching for the batshit insane faction to take over the party, and be ready to vote them down in 2010. Start working on your conservative relatives, friends, and acquaintences now and don't stop until they understand that a vote for Republicons with this bunch is power is a vote for self-destruction.

And watch out for the fuckers who'll try to re-write history:

Campbell Brown asks John King, "For those people who have been worried about the possibility of one party controlling Congress and the White House, the last president to do that, of course, was..." King responds, "Ah, that was Bill Clinton."

Brown interrupts to correct King's error. "Jimmy Carter!" Brown said. "Bill Clinton had Democrats in the House and in the Senate?" King replied, "Very briefly." Brown added, "Didn't go so well." King agreed, adding, "No, it didn't."

Putting aside the successes of the first fourth of Bill Clinton's presidency, it's not at all comforting that Campbell Brown and
John King seem to have forgotten that the current president worked with a Congress led by his own party just two years ago. And that didn't "go so well."

They'll want to forget the Bush disaster. And they'll want us to believe we don't have a mandate:

Despite resounding progressive victories last night, conservative pundits continue to repeat the myth of a conservative country. Right-wing pundit Robert Novak climbed aboard the bandwagon, writing today that neither the large Democratic gains nor Obama’s sweeping popular and electoral vote margins were proof of a mandate:

The first Democratic Electoral College landslide in decades did not result in a tight race for control of Congress. […]

[Obama] may have opened the door to enactment of the long-deferred liberal agenda, but he neither received a broad mandate from the public nor the needed large congressional majorities.

Novak dismissed Democratic congressional gains, noting that they “fell several votes short of the 60-vote filibuster-proof Senate.” However, in 2004 — as President Bush crowed about his “political capital” — Novak didn’t hesitate to agree that Bush’s comparatively narrow victory was proof of a conservative mandate, in a CNN interview just days after the election...

This is the kind of bullshit we can expect to hear endlessly over the next four years. They're going to be trying everything they can to hamstring Obama, neuter the progressive agenda, and cling to power.

We can't let them.

We have a shit-ton of work to do in order to ensure this victory isn't a hollow one. Roll up your sleeves, my darlings. It's gonna be a long two years.