2006 Election News, 2006 Election Pictures

Bwahahahaha. Same old, same old.

Federal authorities are examining whether Michael S. Steele, the newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, violated any laws in his handling of money raised for his 2006 Senate race and an earlier campaign.

The inquiry, which in recent days led federal agents to approach Steele’s sister, stems from accusations last year by the finance chairman for Steele’s failed Senate bid. Among the allegations was that Steele paid a defunct company run by his sister for campaign services that were never performed.

But remember he likes puppies.

The part I like is where they show how they tinted the ad to make it more boogedy-scaaaaary.

Why does Sen. Clinton insist on this silly defense of her Iraq War vote? It keeps giving Sen. Obama ammo to negate his perceived lack of experience on foreign policy. So far, it’s the best response of the debate. She keeps saying they voted the same on the war, but she voted to drive us into the ditch.

Jonah “Liberals Are Fascists Because I Said So” Goldberg writing in the National Review (a publication who opposed Martin Luther King):

Michael Steele is a rising star in the GOP in part because people hope he can persuade more blacks that Republican policies are in black America’s interests and explain to Republicans that there are ways to reach out to blacks without compromising conservative principles.

Michael Steele was the GOP’s great black hope in Maryland, shoved into the office of Lieutenant Governor by holding on to Bob Ehrlich’s jacket straps, and then propped up as the uber candidate for senate who would bamboozle Maryland’s black voters into voting for him with commercials in which he pretended to be independent and with campaign signs that sold him as a Democrat. Conservatives thought it was the one Democratic-leaning race in 2006 they just might win, because the polls were “tied”.

Michael Steele went on to lose the election by double digits.

This is what it takes to be a “rising star” in conservative circles if you’re a black man.

Ex-Senator (thank God!) George Allen has jumped aboard the Grandpa Fred Thompson express. Maybe they’ll exchange cornpone stories about the war of northern aggression!

In further proof that this November’s elections were no fluke, the Democratic majority in the House has increased by one as of last night.

Adding another victory to the Democrats’ sizable scoops this season, former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez reclaimed a seat in the House with his runoff victory against incumbent Henry Bonilla, who had served seven terms. The vote was 54 percent to 46 percent.

Democrats beat Republicans, even in Texas.

Both Newsweek and Time have covers about the midterms this week. They are amazingly lame, when you consider the work they’ve done in the past when the GOP won.

After the 2004 election, many Democrats heard "moral values" stated as the reason why John Kerry lost to George Bush and it began a long process of hand-wringing and tooth gnashing as to why the so-called "values voters" didn’t go our way. After the dust settled, however, it began to look more and more that the reason Kerry lost was because on the most important issue – national security – he looked weak and while Bush may not have had all the answers, he was solid. Independent voters, not the base, swung the election to Bush because they preferred something solid they didn’t love over something squishy they might have liked otherwise.

The GOP is apparently making a similarly hasty miscalculation as a result of their losses. Conservative blogs are filled with chatter about a supposedly conservative electorate that shifted the balance of power because they were concerned about federal spending. Nonsense.

The electorate turned out the GOP because it had lost control of the government. Out-and-out bribery, covering up for perverts, a war gone wild, and a botched response to a disaster of unprecedented proportions. People don’t want a bloated government, but they don’t want one that is paralyzed by a hurricane and a bunch of thugs in the middle east (the same military that destroyed the axis is bogged down in Iraq because of a failure to plan – unbelievable).

The right has put a silly bumper sticker on all this and say people want "smaller government" but they want one that’s smarter, not smaller. They want the government to govern, whereas the Republican apparatus is built to win campaigns. A friend recently echoed Harry Reid’s sentiments to me – we have a lot of work to do. This is the progressive/Democratic assessment of what this election means. Yes, winning in 2008 is important but we have a lot of valuable government functions to repair after the GOP just absolutely trashed the place.

So what is the true message of Election 2006?

It’s good government, stupid.

For the first time ever in my life I truly know the sensation people have referred to when they have said “is it all a dream”? Numerous times in the last 48+ hours I’ve looked at a television screen or seen the front page of a newspaper and wondered “am I dreaming?” I really hope I’m not, but if I am I don’t want to wake up.

There’s an idea out there that you’re supposed to be gracious and sporting to your defeated opponent.

Not here.

My entire adult life (1995-present) the GOP has controlled at least one branch of the congress and pissed all over our nation in the process. I am going to enjoy this until the cows come home.

Sooo…

Hugh Hewitt:

The lefty blogs are like lead pipes, poisoning the information they serve up to the Democrats. Just this morning Kos was touting the Democratic candidate running against J.D. Hayworth in Arizona’s 5th. I hope that the KosKids run off and contribute a bunch of their limited resources to a doomed candidate, just as they did in California’s 50th.

In the Arizona 5th, Democrat Harry Mitchell has defeated Republican JD Hayworth by a safe 5%.

Feel the leadmentum.