George Gets His Nancy

Every successful President, it seems, needs to have one person in their tight inner circle that protects them from opportunistic or downright awful advice. Lincoln had his "team of rivals," a cabinet filled with highly accomplished men that brought disagreement and discussion directly to Abe's ear. Kennedy had his brother Bobby. FDR had Eleanor. Truman had Dean Acheson. Nixon had, well, no one and that's the point. We all know that Ronald Reagan had his Nancy, a strong-willed protectorate who pushed away sycophants like Don Regan and brought in sensible folks like Howard Baker to keep Ronnie on track.

Up until this point, President George W. Bush has not had his Nancy. Certainly Dick Cheney has not looked out for the President's interest, instead feeding him false evidence and tin-ear rhetoric that has led to an unsustainable war and countless pieces of buckshot in America's face. Rumsfeld just piled on with more of the same. Condi Rice may be a great jogging partner but clearly she has consistently failed to stand up to anyone in the administration on Bush's behalf or even direct Bush towards non-Cheney supplied facts that would influence more balanced decisions. Bob Woodward writes in State of Denial that Laura Bush and Andy Card pushed the President to dump Rummy, to no avail. The librarian makes her case to W. in the softest of tones, and gets drowned out by the Neocons. Even Laura, the one who reads the papers, is unable to protect easily sold W. from policies wrapped in pretty words that contain obvious, explosive results.

Now Nancy Pelosi is poised to become the first female Speaker of the House, and with her power and pragmatism she has the potential to provide Bush with a Nancy of his own. President Bush's decision to fire Rumsfeld may be reactionary, but in these desperate times the ends matter more than the means. With this first step, a foundation for more change has been cast. With Cheney sidelined and Condi empowered by her pal Gates, Pelosi might become a new voice of reason at the table, one Bush must listen to and consider. Pelosi's voice comes from a soul who hasn't sipped any of the Kool Aid, and who has governance of the entire nation at heart, not just the Red half.

The first Nancy, Ms. Reagan, wore elaborate clothes and fretted over the stars. Here's to hoping the new Nancy, in her smart suits and assertive tone, can bring President Bush back to earth where he belongs. The whole nation, Red and Blue, should wish her well.

Update (11/10 @ 444pm PST): I posted this piece on Daily Kos and the majority of responses were viscerally against the metaphor of Pelosi to Bush as Nancy to Ronnie. I'll admit the metaphor is weak and perhaps too cute by half, but some responses took the metaphor one step further and improved it--W. loves to surround himself with women... the question is, will he actually listen to the one who can feed him a dose of reality, Nancy Pelosi? I'm not sure if he's desperate enough when it comes to his legacy to cooperate. What do you think? We'll find out soon enough.

Supreme Relief

By the end of the day the nation may hear two concession speeches, one from Allen and one from Burns. If this happens, then the Supreme Court will officially be protected for two years from any future Scalitos. Free black robes for everyone.

2008: As Allen loses, will Hillary Spare Us?

Weeks ago, there were rumors on the internets that Harry Reid met with Hillary Clinton a while back and promised her that if Democrats took a majority in the Senate this election cycle, Reid would relinquish the Majority Leader spot to Clinton in 2008 in return for her decision to forgo any presidential ambitions. Perhaps the Midterm gifts will keep on giving-- we got rid of Senator Man-on-Dog, Senator Kharmacaca, Senator No-Talent and even Senator Foot-in-Mouth Burns and now we may also get rid of Hillary as a presidential candidate. If this is the case, then Virginia is definitely for lovers. Me love Virginia.

Per the AP this morning, Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack has now created a presidential campaign committee to explore his 2008 opportunities. As much as a common-sense Iowan would be a welcome sight in the White House, I have never viewed Vilsack as the man of the hour. I guess we will see if he can raise enough funds to keep the train moving, but I would suspect that if Tom Harkin couldn't make it happen, then Vilsack will have a hard time. Perhaps he has the VP slot in mind.

Watching McCaint make the rounds on cable news recently, it is hard not to want to reach through the television and take the man's pulse. He's 70 years old and darn he looks it. Bob Dole was 73 when he took on President Clinton in 1996, so I suppose it isn't out of the question. But would I think now that 2008 is in sight, Mitt Romney and other GOP hopefuls will begin their whisper campaigns questioning McCaint's age and health. I'll never get why everyone loves McCaint.

It still makes little sense to me how Arnold Schwarzenegger got re-elected so handily, but I guess it might bode well for someone like Barack Obama in 2008. Americans love their charismatic superstars, no matter how thin their resumes. I think Obama is the one to watch within the next few weeks. I suspect he'll run, but I also suspect Harold Ford, Jr.'s experience in the Tennessee Senate race is giving him and his family pause. That's a tough call. I hope he runs.

Election Scraps

Apparently watching Chris Matthews quack and shout for a prolonged period of time gives you writers block. Who knew. While I sense lengthy prose on the horizon, it ain't happening today.

Jim Leach did lose his seat in Iowa, after 30 years in Congress. The wave was high enough to carry him away. Unfortunately the wave failed to sweep away much more deserving candidates like Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado, Michelle Bachmann in Minnesota or Peter Roskam in Illinois. I'd trade any of those punks for Leach. Even Brian Williams was shocked when Chris Matthews relayed the news of his loss, "The guy with the crew cut sweaters!" Williams lamented. I guess this leaves Connecticut's Christopher Shays to uphold the crew cut sweater tradition.

Amazing that the Webb-Allen race will become the one with a prolonged results process. On many trips to Iowa, Senator Allen complained about how the Senate was boring and how he wished he had been born in Iowa (perhaps he's confused and thinks Iowa was in the Confederacy). Everyone knew Allen wanted to be President. But now he gets to spend several more days fighting for a job he didn't even really want. What did I see someone call that on Daily Kos? Oh right, Kharmacaca.

I just loved the tone and substance of Harold Ford's concession speech, and I'm not one to swoon over Jesus-dropping in campaign speeches. He's the real article and obviously a public servant above all else. He'll be back.

Angelides couldn't even scratch 40% in California. I voted in the lobby of a "Mailboxes, Etc." type store at 630pm PST. There was a line, and most of the voters ahead of me in line didn't seem to have made up their minds entirely before stepping into their plastic voting squares (which I always look like they were made by Fisher Price. I guess it puts a new spin on saying, "Let's play House.") In a state with so many complicated Propositions, I think it behooves a voter to plan ahead. Either read them and decide ahead of time or vote "No" on them. That's my stance. I voted NO for all of them except the clean water and renewable energy proposals, and I'm pretty sure those both failed. Of course they did. At least my Congressman, Henry Waxman is up for a chairmanship. And hey-- evil GOP figure McClintock lost for Lt. Gov. Phew.

CNN had an amazing results & tallying system on its website. Once able to "borrow" a wireless signal from the neighborhood, I was checking this site all evening an no others. I specifically loved the county-by-county voting info and the party color-coding for each county. One thing the networks really dropped the ball on was telling the viewers which counties and votes remained uncounted once races became too close to call. For a good hour I was crying in my wine glass about Claire McCaskill until I figured out St. Louis and surrounding urban areas were not counted yet. Perhaps if Chris Matthews and Olbermann weren't trying so hard to outdo one another with cutesy barbs and puns they could have shared some numbers. It was an alpha dogpen in that studio, and added extra drama to an already exciting night. Don't get me started on Bob Shrum. Or Nora O'Donnell, who looked dressed for the role of Miss Adelaide in Guys in Dolls. Is she a journalist? I wonder.

Despite my fears about voting machines and tabulating, by the time I hit the sack at 2am only 2 senate races were undecided. Not bad at all. What a country.

Rumsfeld Out

Wow, first Claire McCaskill, then Jon Tester and now this...

Happiest Wednesday Ever?

Someone where I work just shouted from their office, "Things are looking up!"

Indeed.

More thoughts soon.

Drudge Can't Breathe

Matt Drudge has taken the time today to note country music mega-star Faith Hill's over-the-top reaction to losing a CMA award last evening (if you haven't seen this, you must, it's pretty funny and has kept me smiling all morning). What Drudge hasn't noted, however, is the pretty obvious reality that Hill was joking. Like veteran John Kerry slamming the troops, to anyone daring to employ reason it seems self-evident that Hill wouldn't be such a diva while obviously on camera. I guess if you can't get a joke, you can't get a joke. Poor guy.

House Watch: Iowa District 2

All of the prognosticators like to get hot and bothered over the anticipated House races in Indiana, Kentucky and Connecticut as bellwethers for the height of any Democratic wave. I'd like to toss this race into the mix as well. Jim Leach was my Congressman when I was a little boy (I remember obsessing over a tiny "Jim Leach for Congress" button my sister had on her bulletin board-- to her credit she eventually gave it to me...). Later on in life, when I worked at the local country club during law school I served Leach and his family dinner on several occasions. He's a smart, good man in the wrong party. If after allowing him over 25 years in Congress this recently-redrawn district finally votes Leach out of office, we'll know "the wave" is a big one...

Sounds Like a Party

This little line from today's ABC News "The Note" made my election day so far..."Senatorial candidate Michael Steele (R-MD) holds an Election Night celebration at 9:00 pm ET at the Comfort Inn in Bowie, MD."

Enjoy your voting experience today, and don't get supressed.

Identification Nation

The New York Times front page this morning featured a disturbing story on the intense jump in misleading robo-calls being made to voters across the nation, smearing Democratic candidates and in many instances outright lying about candidates' views. Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos have begun the fight to expose these operations and are attempting to get the cable news networks to recognize the problem and label it a GOP-only tactic (which it is). Stories like this make me even more sick, because active voter suppression is never good for any of us. For the self-described party of values I think it's obvious the Republicans value power above all else. This is just another reason to stand in line tomorrow to vote, not matter how long it takes and whatever the cost.

Update: I thought the story of the Indiana Congresswoman being told her congressional ID was insufficient in today's New York Times story was the extremity of insanity but apparently it can and does get even worse (and more ironic).

The CMA-Effect

Please note that the Country Music Association's annual award show is airing tonight on that network of political self-doubt, ABC (evidence: that crappy, fictional 9/11 movie they made written by Rush Limbaugh's buddy vs. Calista Flockhart's mealy-mouthed, traditional family-loving character Kitty on Brothers & Sisters vs. anything that comes out of self-obsessed, preening Mark Halperin's mouth). Is this pure coincidence? No way! Those GOP-loving country music "stars" are going to totally try to steal this election away from the Democrats (i.e., Toby Keith, anyone?). This would be like having the Academy Awards on tonight. What would the Republicans say if liberal-Hollywood had THREE HOURS of live air time on the night before an election! If even one award-winner or presenter says something nice about W. (I've got my eyes on you, Brooks & Dunn!) I swear I'm crying foul and calling the FCC.

You were warned here first, and don't worry-- I can't tell if I'm kidding, either.