K-Lo (who, if Gavin’s still up, would do to have an exploded cigar photoshopped into that photo of hers*) says:
Not About Individuals [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
One thing seems clear: Santorum, Steele, seemingly Talent … angry Santorum haters aside, in many ways this wasn’t about individuals — certainly not in these instances. This was a throw-the-bums (re “Republican�) -out election — even if the guy I am voting for is not a bum.
Umm, not quite. Neither is this near-sweep neatly explained, as George Will among others tonight attempted, as a mere cyclical phenomenon. Nor is it explained by an “anti-corruption” wave, at least in the typical sense: William Jefferson and Bob Menendez both appear to have won their races. People aren’t giving a shit about chickenfeed corruption; rather, they are radically addressing the systemic corruption that is Bush-at-war.
No, what this election is about is telling George Bush, “Fuck you and everything you stand for, you rotten fuck-up.”
This is the beginning of the end of Bushism. The near-end of “rollback” as an ideology. The end of blowing up countries for the sheer thrill of it. Republicans weep tonight not for their actual losses but because they know they’ll not have a blank check again for perhaps a generation; and while they can take pride in the fact that they’ve destroyed 800 years of common law and made the entire world hate our fucking guts, many of them will regret it that they weren’t able to torture all Muslims just as many others among them will bemoan their failure to destroy social security. They did a hell of a lot of damage, but they’ll always believe that they were cheated out of doing more.
So, gloat over them. Laugh at their weeping. Try to resist, however, lapping up the sweet sorrow of their salty tears — delicious, no doubt, but poison. Anyway, we don’t exist to allow them to be a ‘loyal opposition”; instead, it’s our solemn duty to send them the way of the dodo. Some of them know what’s coming:
My guess is that any high ranking official at DOD who was around in 2003 is going to be spending most of the time getting ready for hearings, investigations, maybe worse. The more recent appointees at the top four or so levels may avoid the worst of it, though they too will be kept busy. But those on hand for the Iraq invasion are going to be facing non-stop Congressional interrogations. I suppose we’ll see an exodus from the Building shortly.
Let’s hope so.
Bonus Crackpot Watch: Larry Kudlow assumes the new Congress will be stupid enough to give reactionaries exactly what they want. Later on, his sore loser-ness comes out, predicts world financial meltdown because, you know, everyone in Asia likes Bush’s hawkishness which will be checked by the evil new Congress waaaaaaaah waaaah WATB.
*For her role as idiotic Santorum enthusiast, of course. And yes, double entendre intended.
