When the WaPo’s Chris Cillizza first reported on Wednesday night that Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R), who lost his Senate race by 10 points on Tuesday, is “mulling a bid for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee,” I honestly thought it was a joke. In its editorial on his Senate race, the WaPo […]
Howard Dean made some risky moves over the last two years, but after the election results were in, he looked pretty smart. As Joe Conason noted in Salon today, the DNC chairman is “enjoying vindication.” As well he should. Though I’ve been hard on Dean on occasion, his strategy helped the party in the short […]
I have to say, for a group of folks who just got their hats handed to them, the gang at Grover Norquist’s Wednesday meeting sound quite content. Awaking to the dismal reality of widespread defeat, more than 100 of the conservative movement’s most ardent leaders gathered as they have every Wednesday for more than a […]
The notion of a simmering schism between the Republican Party’s libertarian and Christian conservative wings isn’t exactly new. These two have never really gotten along, or even been on the same page, but they’ve trudged along under the GOP’s “big tent.” In the wake of this week’s election results, however, the fissures are becoming more […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * The election was three days ago, but it’s worth noting that there are still 11 races that remain undecided. Taegan Goddard offers a helpful list: CT-2, FL-13, GA-12, NC-8, NM-1, OH-2, OH-15, […]
The WaPo had an interesting item today about voters replacing some of the few remaining Republican moderates in Congress with Democrats. Tuesday’s electoral upheaval wiped out many of the few remaining Republican moderates in Congress, further cementing the geographic partitioning of the House and potentially widening the ideological divisions that have contributed to partisanship and […]
After months in which the conventional wisdom suggested that [tag]corruption[/tag], as a political issue, lacked salience and would do little to help Democrats, Election Day proved otherwise. Not only was the issue important to voters, many of the incumbents tarnished most by scandal found themselves unemployed this week. Some conservatives clearly get this. National Review’s […]
The fact the conservative voices have dominated the Sunday-morning public affairs shows in recent years is well-documented. Some have suggested that shows like Meet the Press simply go where the action is — if Republicans have power, than it’s Republicans who’ll get the invitations. Since the GOP has been the majority party in recent years, […]
Everyone seemed quite polite yesterday when the president had a nice Oval Office chat with Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi. “Bi-partisan” was the buzz-word of the day, and both congressional Dems and the White House seemed to appreciate the inconvenient reality that they’ll each need the other side to accomplish anything. For Bush, who is unaccustomed to […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * In Virginia this afternoon, Sen. George Allen (R) officially conceded his race to Sen.-elect Jim Webb (D). * A couple of hours prior, in Montana, Sen. Conrad Burns (R) conceded his race to Sen.-elect Jon Tester (D). Taken together, the Dems went +6 for the cycle and officially claimed […]