Irony

Dead.

The End of Cheneyism

TPM.

Rats Jumping Ship

Reuters:

Roy Blunt, the Republican whip in the House of Representatives, will announce on Thursday he will not seek another term in leadership after his party's blowout election losses, Republican sources said.

Blunt will be the second senior Republican not seeking another term in leadership after Adam Putnam of Florida said on Tuesday that he would not seek re-election to his third-ranking job of Republican conference chairman.

I think Cantor is gunning for Blunt's job. Let him have it.

The Republican party has a lot of soul searching to do before it can be nationally viable again. Fortunately for us, I don't know what it can do. The party is disintegrating into civil war between the corporate-, theo- and neo-cons, as well as a large part of the base that won't take anything less than all three together (let's call this the National Review wing of the party), a philosophy that was hardly two days ago soundly rejected in the election.

The biggest mistake they can make is to enshrine themselves even further in their cocoon and claim that it's because they weren't Republican or conservative enough that they lost, which is what the National Review wing of the party is claiming. If they continue to cling to this and nominate a similar candidate in 2012 they will consign themselves to the wilderness for a very long time.

At Last

We won!

Couple senate races still up in there. More to come...

His Shrillness:

Last night wasn’t just a victory for tolerance; it wasn’t just a mandate for progressive change; it was also, I hope, the end of the monster years.

What I mean by that is that for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people.

And in our national discourse, we pretended that these monsters were reasonable, respectable people. To point out that the monsters were, in fact, monsters, was “shrill.”

Four years ago it seemed as if the monsters would dominate American politics for a long time to come. But for now, at least, they’ve been banished to the wilderness.

The Republican Communications Triangle

h/t DKos.

Terrorism

Domestic Republican party-style:

Today, the Obama campaign office in South Philadelphia was the target of a mailed threat that also contained a white powder. It was found by a volunteer opening the mail and resulted in a full scale hazmat and police response. The office was evacuated and containment and testing instituted to find out what the substance was.

Fortunately, the powder turned out to be sugar and all staff and volunteers are fine. Since the letter was actually sent through the mail, the matter is now a federal investigation, as it rightly should be.

Barack Obama, well-known terrorist-at-large, hates America.

Don't Sit This One Out

Sullivan:

This is not an election you can sit out. This is an election where we all have to take a stand, including the press. Too much is in peril for a false neutrality.

Remember to vote!

Broder's World

Broder writes about the VP debate. Fallows calls him out:

Such an assessment can be true only if you have decided to assess debate performance on one factor alone, perky self-assurance, and to assign no weight whatsoever to such items as logic, responsiveness to questions, clarity in explaining views, factual knowledge, sentence by sentence coherence, and so on.

Keep on chugging, good old bipartisanship! WHOO!!!

McCain's Healthcare Policy

I eatz it.

VP Debate Thoughts

Tactical victory for Biden, strategic draw.