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.

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

WE ARE WINNING.

At this moment: Obama wins NH, VT, MA, CT, NJ, DE, MD, DC, PA, and IL.

McLame: AL, GA, SC, TN, KY and OK.

Electoral: 103 Obama, 58 McCain.

This is not just a rout, so far: it’s a reckoning. It is a fucking earthquake.

Hagan won NC. Buh-bye, Liddy!

It’s hard to try to focus on regular ol’ political fuckery in the midst of this, but I’ll do my best, here.

Our first task: when Lieberman comes up for reelection, his ass has to go:

With the possibility that Democrats might soon gain a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has been openly flirting with thoughts of voting with his conservative colleagues. Last week, ThinkProgress noted that prominent conservatives like Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) said he would welcome Lieberman “with open arms.”

Today, in an interview with right-wing radio host Glenn Beck, Lieberman made clear that he firmly opposes Democrats gaining 60 seats in the Senate, saying that the survival of the country is in doubt if Democrats break the filibuster threshold:

BECK: But do you agree that Senator Hatch said to me that if we don’t at least have the firewall of the filibuster in the Senate that in many ways America will not survive?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I hope it’s not like that, but I fear.

Lieberman also hinted that next session, he would be supportive of conservative efforts to filibuster progressive legislation.

He’s a dead man in the Democratic caucus. I hope that little shit gets so marginalized he can’t see power on a clear day from a height.

Sarah Palin’s already seen the writing on the wall, and is trying to write some of her own graffitti:

CNN reports on Sarah Palin, fielding a few questions from reporters this morning in Alaska, including one about what kind of role she envisions for herself in national politics if McCain comes up short today. The traditional answer is for a candidate to emphasize how focused he or she is on the current election, not the next one.

Palin, however, “did not hesitate” to speculate about a future that might not include the vice presidency. Indeed, she seems to have given this some thought.

“You know, if there is a role in national politics it won’t be so much partisan,” she said. “My efforts have always been here in the state of Alaska to get everybody to unite and work together and progress this state.”

“It would certainly be a uniter type of role,” she added.

Hmm. “Uniter, not a divider,” eh? I think we’ve heard that tune before, and we’re not singing it again.

McCain should’ve given her a dagger when he selected her. I hope he doesn’t turn his back tonight.

She’s remarkably shy about sharing her support for certain convicted felons in the Senate:

Sarah Palin, asked a few moments ago in Wasilla, Alaska who she voted for in her state’s Senate race, said:

I am also exercising my right to privacy and I don’t have to tell anybody who I vote for. Nobody does, and that’s really cool about America also.

Funny. She used to love proclaiming her support for Ted Stevens. Now she’s hiding. Wonder why that is?

Sen. Orrin Hatch has a hard time understanding what other countries actually think:

I have no idea what Orrin Hatch is talking about.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Monday that the United States will “lose a lot of stature throughout the world” if Barack Obama is elected president.

Looking forward to a potential Obama administration in an interview with CNN, Hatch said, “…We’re going to lose a lot of stature throughout the world because we have somebody who, though eloquent and a very nice person, who I like, who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Now, I don’t usually look to Orrin Hatch for insightful political analysis, but this is especially odd. The Washington Times reported this morning that “more than 4,000 foreign journalists have been granted credentials to cover the campaign finale,” because the “whole planet is obsessed with the U.S. presidential election.” Do you suppose they’re all captivated by John McCain?

We also know this: “Gallup Polls conducted in 73 countries from May to October 2008 reveal widespread international support for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama over Republican Sen. John McCain in the U.S. presidential election.”

The entire world, outside of al Qaeda, is begging us not to subject them to another four years of Bush/McCain buggering. Hatch has it exactly backwards: it’s a McCain win that will make America “lose a lot of stature.”

That’s Cons, for you: if they say “up,” you can be sure the correct direction is “down.”

And now they’r
e worried about voting machine fuckery. Heh:

Is the GOP now laying the groundwork for claims of computerized voter fraud?

The computer forensics company Forensicon just sent out the following press release:

Republican National Committee Prepares for Computerized Voting Fraud Legal Battle CHICAGO, IL–(Marketwire – November 4, 2008) – Forensicon, Inc., a Chicago-based computer forensics company, was contacted last Thursday by a security firm lining up vendors to assist the Republican National Committee with consulting related to potential allegations of computerized voter fraud. It has been widely reported that electronic voting machines in many states are vulnerable to hacking by anyone with the right equipment and a few minutes’ access to the voting machine.

Yesterday, noted Chicago resident Oprah Winfrey attempted to cast her vote for her candidate, but the vote failed to register correctly.

It has been widely reported that electronic voting machines in many states are vulnerable to hacking by anyone with the right equipment and a few minutes’ access to the voting machine with a handheld computing device. The lack of printed voting receipts in many of these systems leaves the election ballots in many areas vulnerable to rampant fraud and abuse.

“If the election returns vary significantly from the polled numbers in any precincts that proves crucial to the election outcome, I expect that a legal struggle over the validity of the election results will ensue,” said Forensicon’s President, Lee Neubecker.

You know something? Based on the exit polls, I think they’re going to want to walk that one back in a hurry.

See you at the victory party, my darlings.