Some Virginia Republicans have spent months complaining long and loud about what a terrible candidate that Jim Webb is and what a terrible campaign that he ran. They declared him to be the worst candidate they’d ever seen, asserted that he didn’t have even the most remote shot of winning, called him every name in the book. At their most kindest they described him as “not ready for prime time.”
But Jim Webb won and George Allen lost. (Recount willing, of course.) Which would have to mean that George Allen ran an even worse campaign than Jim Webb’s “worst campaign ever,” making his the worst. Allen would be, in fact, the worst candidate ever.
My point is not to claim that Allen’s campaign sets any records for terribleness — after all, he lost by a tiny margin — but, rather, that many Republicans rhetoric wasn’t rooted in reality. That happens to be the same reason that Republicans received a drubbing nationwide.
Republicans have had a half-decade of total control over federal government. There has been no tax reform. No abortion ban. No balanced budget. No decrease in the size of government. Instead we had Terri Schiavo, Katrina, Iraq and Afghanistan. We had Halliburton, MZM, Jack Abramoff, Mark Foley, Donald Rumsfeld and The Bridge to Nowhere. The Republican Party lost all commitment to its ideas of small government and limited spending. Even with total control of the federal government they couldn’t even muster an effort. When confronted with that truth they wouldn’t even admit the problem, least of all attempt to fix it.
So Democrats are filling that void. We’ve become the party of fiscal conservatism and good governance, at least in message. It’s up to voters to make sure that the new Democratic majority sticks to that promise.
Such promises won’t be hard for Jim Webb to stick to. He’s mighty conservative, as Democrats go. If Allen weren’t running again, I don’t doubt that many Republicans would have been happy to have Webb as their candidate. Republicans that don’t understand that are doomed to repeat this election.
Many people from Allen’s campaigns probably shouldn’t be heard from again. Chris LaCavita and Dick Wadhams’ stars have fallen. But for some people — notably netroots coordinator Jon Henke — this ought to be the start of a career, not the end.
George Allen has done terrible things in his life. Many of those things came to light in the past few months, sometimes brought forth by those closest to him. In Albemarle County, the district that knows him best, he could only muster 41% of the vote. George Allen’s opponents don’t like him, and his friends seem to like him even less. His campaign was chronically unable to deal with his past misdeeds coming to light. They spent weeks fumbling the “macaca” story, and weeks more making a hash of the “n****r” story. It wasn’t until October that they learned to change the topic, and even then they picked the wrong new topic.
Napoleon Bonaparte is often quoted as saying you must never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Jim Webb followed that advice. The man barely got a word in edgewise.
Now watch as Senator Jim Webb’s actions are heard much louder than any words.
Congratulations to my Jim Webb and his campaign staff. I look forward to observing how he conducts himself as our new senator with as much of an open mind as I can muster.
Truth be told, from a purely partisan Republican standpoint, the stupidest thing I did in the run-up to the election was go to Webb’s campaign site and read his bio. Wow. The guy’s got skills. It’s my hope that he’ll quickly develop into the kind of conservative Democrat that Chuck Robb was before Clinton got his hooks into him, or maybe even a guy like Sam Nunn. I think a guy like that would be a senator that most of Virginians would be proud to have and wanna keep around for a while.
This was a tough election for Republicans, but I gotta give the other side its due for blazing through the GOP’s vaunted “firewall” made up of the Senate seats in VA, MO, and MT. It looks like only the Tenn. portion held, and there not by much.
Oh well, we’ll get ’em next time.
Waldo it only day one and you’ve already gotten rid of Rumsfeld.
*Laugh* That my favorite comment on the race so far. :)
I did?
Holy shit. I just checked the news. I had a feeling Rumsfeld might fall on his sword if the losses were as bad as forecast. President Bush clearly doesn’t have the common sense to fire the guy, but he’s bad for Republicans nationally like Bob Marshall is for Republicans in Virginia. He must have come under a lot of pressure to quit.
It will be very interesting to see if there will be pressure from the Republicans for Allen to concede. Just so that they can get this whole mess behind them.
Any thoughts?
No pressure. Rumsfeld had to go so that Bush’s gangstas in the Congress could get Gates approved before Turkeyday.
Speaking of Rumsfeld, I hope you’ve seen the video where Bush admits he lied about Rumsfeld for political purposes.
So, Waldo, if you’re so concerned about limited government — as you lament in your tirade — how come you associate with and support a party that wants even more government? Cutting off your nose to spite your face? Makes no sense.
But I hope actions are louder than words; if Jim Webb really can bring change, great. Doubt it though.
Again, you paint in a broad brush. Lump all Republicans together as a monolith. It’s precisely that attitude that breeds contempt and fails to provide a window for compromise.
WRT Allen conceding, I hope he’s just waiting for the last 3 precints to come in. If he wants to show all his troops that he’s not throwing in the towel before all the votes have been counted out of respect for their hard work on his behalf, then that’s fine with me. But he should concede graciously and go ASAP. I don’t see how you can make up 7,800 votes in a recount (or even 780, for that matter). 78 maybe, but not 7,800.
So, Jim, if you’re so concerned about limited government how come you associate with and support a party that wants even more government?
I did no such thing, Jim. In fact, that’s precisely the opposite of what I did:
* “Some Virginia Republicans…”
* “…many Republicans’ rhetoric wasn’t rooted in reality”
* “…I don’t doubt that many Republicans would have…”
* “… Republicans that don’t understand that are…”
In fact, I didn’t once in this entire blog entry make a sweeping statement about Republicans other than to say that “The Republican Party lost all commitment to its ideas of small government and limited spending,” but that’s a statement about the party, not the individuals. In all of my writings for years I have been very conscious of the importance of treating neither Democrats nor Republicans as a monolith.
I understand that you’re sad and angry, Jim. It’s been a tough day for Republicans. But, please, don’t take it out on me — if you’re going to accuse me of things, please try to only accuse me of things that I’ve actually done.
Also, I guess there are absentee ballots that need to be counted. Does anyone know anything about those or how they’re likely to break?
if you’re so concerned about limited government — as you lament in your tirade
According to my reading of Waldo’s “tirade”, his comments about limited government seem to have been presented in the context of enumerating goals that the Republicans have set for themselves and failed to achieve. Waldo doesn’t seem to have made any comment as to whether or not he favors smaller government. Nor whether he favors tax reform, an abortion ban or a balanced budget, for that matter.
Those absentee ballots are all counted on a district-by-district basis in one or more Central Absentee Precincts. As of 16 hours ago, many of the uncounted votes were absentee votes. As the percentage of precincts reporting increases, you’re seeing those absentee ballots be counted and reported.
Quote:
“WRT Allen conceding, I hope he’s just waiting for the last 3 precints to come in.” This was at 4:11p.m.
At 5:19 pm, I looked at the returns at the state board of elections’ website and now instead of 3 precincts, all of a sudden it’s 141 precincts remaining to be counted:
Office: U.S. Senate
Precincts Reporting: 2458 of 2599 (94.57%)
Registered Voters: 4,555,524 Total Voting: 2,368,758 Voter Turnout: 52.00 %
source: http://sbe.virginiainteractive.org/index.htm
Did I miss something?
Here’s what it says at the top of the site:
Important Note about Percentage of Precincts Reporting:
The percentage of precincts reporting has changed due to the start of the canvas and the counting of provisional ballots. For reporting purposes, the day immediately following the election, each locality creates one conditional vote (CV) precinct, per congressional district, in which to report their provisional votes. Localities with no provisional votes will show total votes of zero in the CV precinct for each candidate/ballot issue.
Ok. Sorry.
I was hoping it was something like that. When I first saw the “extra” precincts, the SBE hadn’t posted an explanation. Not being familiar with how the SBE does business, it actually had me worried. My daughter (again) pointed out age doesn’t always equal knowledge. D’oh!