DE-AL: John Carney (D) defeats Glen Urquhart (R).

Forida 2 – Teabagger Steve Southerland (R) defeats Incumbent Blue Dog Allen Boyd (D)

Well, from the looks of this list, seems like the American people, in their infinite stupidity, decided to replace their paper trash with moldy food……………….

Correction: IL-08 is incumbent Dem Melissa Bean v. TP Joe Walsh.

Well, Exit polls are saying Hanabusa will beat D’jou by 5-8 points, no real poll #’s released yet, tho…! They’re saying the first batch is due any minute…! ;-)

AL-02: Martha Roby defeats Bobby Bright (D)

Congratulations DCCC. That was a million dollars well spent on a guy who promised to vote against Nancy Pelosi.

Chris Carneyyyyyyyy!!!!

My view

Number 8 in your second list is the same as Number 1 on your first list, Jane.

FL-08: Daniel Webster (R) defeats Alan Grayson (D)

“Goodbye venerable Kabuki Master”

(spoken in ham Japanese english accent…. bows head respectively clad in martial arts uniform of some kind and retreats)

Here in NH we did our best to send us all to hell in a hand basket. Of course, here in NH, we have crazies aplenty and many to spare.

Obama better start running for reelection today.

The first thing he should do at the press conference is call for the failed Senate Majority Leader to step aside.

In addition to spouting the already tired bs about Republicans now having to act as though they real responsibility, Obama better focus on firing up his own base by saying that he’ll fight harder to achieve the results that we wanted him to achieve since he took office.

If he even bothers to run for reelection, he’ll count on OFA to fire up the base round bout May 2012.

I would personally like to know how many of the people on this blog who urged people, “Vote third party, or don’t vote at all,” actually did the most idiotic thing anybody could possibly do.

About the only good thing in the House to happen last night is the decimation of the Blue Dog Caucus, but that came at the cost of replacing them with Republicans, rather than liberal Democrats.

Whatta POS Carney is. Pennsylvania’s loaded with Blue Dogs. Don’t know if we’re worse off with outright republiKKKans or just republikkrats.

Dem’s make me want to puke.

Allowing Bass back in NH (12 years in DC, out for 4 years…and now back).

AllBark Obama, you suck.

Assuming facts not in evidence. There were no progressives running in those races.

Reid sucks as well. Hope they are happy to keep his seat & lose the country.

Question from another thread that nobody answered. I know there were many reasons for the different results. Specific to Russ Fiengold and Wisconsin – is that a case where someone really was “too liberal”?

I am not saying to to draw a false equivelence, but it would be nice to bucket likely reasons for the loss and analyize each one.

Since he won’t be able to get anything accomplished, prepare to hear lots of happy talk that will please the base but has no chance of happening.

I’m not sure which way he’ll go. He could do what you suggest, or he could simply go verbally right, as he did on his actions. We all know he learned that right is the only way to go.

didn’t know about Bobby Bright losing, wonder if Madame Speaker was tempted to call to say how sorry she was ;D

and good riddance to Melissa Bean – Banksters have probably already defriended her on FB

Happy talk will just make him look weaker. The guy is cornered. No way out.

A better question would be how many Dems still believe in Obama leadership

all the polls said what everyone has been preaching on this blog for last 20 months, the only issue in the USA is JOBs

Obama did not listen, he thought people wanted the Bob Dole health care bill, and weak dems followed him to their slaughter.

How many Dems shouted and jump for joy, telling their voters they voted for OBAMACARE? few to none

CO SEN – Bennet wins.

http://www.denverpost.com/election2010/ci_16502977

A recount would be required if the difference between the two candidates’ vote totals is less than one-half of 1 percent of the highest vote total, or about 3,900 votes based on current tallies.

Bennet leads by nearly 7,000 votes with an estimated 30,000 still to be counted in Boulder County.

The guy is cornered. No way out.

We know that, but how long will it take for him to realize that?

A better question would be how many Dems still believe in Obama leadership

I think they are still waiting to see some leadership.

They will only let him lower taxes on the rich, reduce benefits in SS, deregulate business, or hamstring government agencies. it’s OVER for this guy, folks.

Obama has been a catastrophe.

He needs to be challenged. Russ Feingold may be the one. He is honest, not corrupted and egotistical like Zero.

This debacle can all be traced back to Obama’s obsession with Bi-partisanship and how the Rethugs took his overtures and turned them against the Democrats especially in the House. Starting with their demonization of Pelosi. If BO had just stood tall and informed the Rethugs “That the either join us or step aside” and rammed his agenda especially HCR through in 3 Months we would be still in full control of both houses this day. Un-fortunately the Villagers will see the loss as an excuse to move BO right. You wait and see. If BO falls for Lucie the Rethuglican’s offer to let him kick the fotball again he will be a one termer.

Russ Feingold is an interesting case

Russ is a stand up guy. he didn’t go negative in his ads

Also RUSS had the big problem facing most senators, “IT IS THE ECONOMY STUPID”

Obama didn’t help many Dems win last night

A lot of Democrats who loss their political careers last night are very PISSED, they know OBAMA sold them out.

A below average Democratic President would have kept his party focus on fixing the economy the last 20 months, not OBAMA

Russ losing had a lot to do with OBAMA

Exactly.

IF there had been “progressive” Dems running in those races, I can guarantee FDL would’ve been supporting them. Whereohwhere are all the “progressive” Dems. From where I sit, I see a bunch of Blue Dog Dems that got their butt’s kicked for being Republicans in disguise. Time to moooooove on….

from the orange site:
————–
Let’s keep this in perspective. This is not a seismic shift to the Republican agenda. This was a protest vote—a message to Democrats that said, “We don’t think you delivered our ponies fast enough, so we’re going to make you feel our pain the only way we know how: by reminding you that there’s another team out there.”

==============
ha ha ha.
ponies.

I thought I wanted my constitutional rights…

so many ways to spin it.

how long will it take for him to realize that?

The 2012 race starts today. The results from last night were almost exactly what the polls said, so they should have a contingency plan for that expected outcome.

Feingolds loss will just about make it impossible for him to the needed support, let alone the Nomination.

Obama is a Trojan Horse candidate sent forth by the corporations to destroy the Democratic party. In that alone, Obama was superlative at his job. No snark.

LOL… I want my unicorn!!!

According to the version I read this morning, Feingold & Grayson had a ton of outside money against them.

Obama has been a catastrophe.

For the country and for his party.

Yep.

Maybe but not necessarily. I wouldn’t write off Feingold yet.

Unicorn? We don’t even have a functioning Democratic donkey.

I saw that somewhere, too. I do think the corporations were intent on getting rid of Feingold & Grayson because they are more or less progressive. Food for thought, that one.

There were few results more satisfying than this one. Grayson, an embarrassment to all sides.

Just being silly. But I agree. I think that Dem donkey done be done and gone… maybe it’s time for a different party? and a different, errr, party animal… ??? take that any way you want (a little levity never hurts).

Since he won’t be able to get anything accomplished, prepare to hear lots of happy talk that will please the base but has no chance of happening.

I’m counting on everyone at Firedoglake to hold him accountable each and every time he says one thing while doing another. Yes, the Republicans will do moronic stuff, but let their own base take care of them. We should be focusing on the failures of Obama and Dems to deliver.

Obama can talk as happy as he wants, but it’s results we want to see.

One refrain from us has to be: “Then why didn’t you fight for it – real health care reform, repeal of DADT, etc – when you had the chance?”

(Edited by Moderator: You really need to find some other way to respond beside berating another commenter.)Sorry but theres no other way to respond.

Feingold was the corp target because of campaign reform.

I’d strongly support Feingold for the nomination of a Progressive Party to run against Obama.

Just for a few minutes though, I do wish to step forth and do my schadenfreuda dance that E-NutMeg Whitman wasted over $165million trying to buy the CA Gov job. NutMeg went down like a submarine!!! WOOT!

It’s quite shameful that in a time of real economic problems, this self-involved billionaire – who offshored jobs to the third world – had the chutzpah to spend like a drunken sailor on herself for all the world to see. Says something, that does. I think CA voters were disgusted and voted accordingly.

But we do have a lot of functioning asses.

I heard somewhere last night, that Las Vegas (or some other location) is the home of fake tits & real assholes.

Guessing you haven’t read Paul Street’s books on O.

That’s fine. You are very much entitled to your beliefs, as I am entitled to mine. It’s good to have discussions and air our differences.

Michigan too – nearly every office is now filled with a Republican.
Stupid, stupid people. No Green party, no other real 3rd party candidate appears to have won anything.

Obama did that rare act of pissing off both his friends and his enemies.

That’s why his excuse of “being some concerned about getting the policy right that we forgot the politics,” is so asinine. If he had been concerned about the policy and not the politics, he would have had the public option.

No, he either is a liar or delusional to a high degree, blinded by personal ego.

That answer of his was like the guy in the employment interview, when asked what is his biggest fault, who says, “That I work too hard.”

A person who cannot truly look inward.

Where Meg’s money went…

Thanks for the reminder; that makes sense. sure.

Yep. Onitgoes is crazy like a fox, and he can spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing from miles away.

Obama’s a failure.

Thank you, Judge Alito!!!

Thanks for that information! Sadly, the truth is that E-Meg has plenty more where that came from. It was trifling chump change for the likes of Goldman Sachs insider trader E-Meg.

Then I’m nuts too because I totally agree – he is a Trojan horse.

Brown can now ride California down the tubes.

The most stupid aspect for Whitman was that anyone would even want that job for free, let alone pay for it.

He refused to run negative ads, which hurt in failing to define him as a teabagger. Also the rethug was a millionaire in addition to all the outside cash.

And yes, third parties haven’t worked in America since the 1800s. A lot of these guys will lose in 2012, we have to get good nominees in those seats before the DCCC fills them with Blue Dogs.

Yes, and Grayson was his jockey.

You make some good points & some, at least, are probably accurate.

I’ll be simple: Obama was bought off by the corporations. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Maybe I should say, Grayson was the headless horseman.

I disagree! Obama DID help the Democrats yesterday. He helped them right out the door. As did Steny, since they were both convinced that what voters really wanted was to see the rich get richer.

My twin nieces (on my late husband’s side), Jews in their late 50s, still can’t believe my version of O. They have been lifelong Ds and pretty alert to politics. But neither has noticed how much things have changed in since Clinton took over the party. One just shrugs off inconvenient facts like O’s secrud meetings with PhRMA & insurance corps came up with the same kind of deals that Cheney arrange with his secrud meetings with oil. The other is more “he did the best he could.” But my general point is that there are still a whole buncha Ds around, who are several steps up from low-info voters, who still don’t understand the state of U.S. politics today, being too encumbered by what they know from the past.

I got so mad I signed up at the Great Orange Satan so I can flame those K-Street bullies. Don’t anyone tell them.

The most stupid aspect for Whitman was that anyone would even want that job for free, let alone pay for it.

There I have to disagree with you. E-Meg very much had a PLAN, and the money she spent – and remember that $165million literally is chump change to her – was an investment on the return she EXPECTED to get.

E-Meg would’ve plundered, looted, stolen & robbed CA until it decimated into smouldering rubble, from which E-Meg would pick out the last little pieces of what was left. Or she would’ve sure tried to do that… E-Meg had big plans to rape our state for her personal benefit and gain… and for the benefit of her richy-rich pals.

Brown’s gonna have a tough job, and my bet is that he won’t do a lot better than Ahhhhhnold, but it’ll be a damn sight better for CA citizens than having E-Meg in Sacramento, that’s for sure.

Feingold and Grayson were too liberal to stay. The real powers that Obama and the rest are beholden to couldn’t have them mucking things up. This leaves Feingold free to challenge Obama from the left. Feingold/Grayson ’12!

The Democratic Party didn’t need a Trojan horse to take it down. Obama seems to be pretty typical of it’s leadership anymore. The easy money raised from corporations and wealthy donors who have billions in excess capitol laying around was the party’s undoing.

Damn We finally get a REAL outspoken Democrat in Grayson who speaks up and calls out the Rethuglicans for their deceitfulness and your embarrassed? Would you prefer he acted like a Blue dog? The Rethuglicans won back the House by leaning on and suppotring a very long list of embarrassing candidates. When are Progressives going to learn you cant be NICE the these Thugs.

I know whereat you speak and have similar friends who are simply are not paying attention to what’s going on. They *hope* for the best; cannot stand the basic Republican policy stands; and they buy into the nonsense that Obama was “hindered” solely and only by the Kabuki show of Republican obstructionism. It is frustrating….

FWIW, my cut is that he is so arrogant that he was sure he could serve two masters.

Yes, he lied and really had no intention of upsetting the status quo. He thought he could finesse the PTB, and use their money to persuade them to let the have-nots at least wet their beak, in exchange for further solidifying their dominant position in society.

He forgot that (1) the haves have it because they keep the have-nots from getting it and (2) the haves want it ALL.

Obama has broken the Progressive brand, and he isn’t even a Progressive. Amazing. Progressive was merely a name assigned to him from the corporate media. Obama’s lame duck session begins today.

People are scratching their heads about California electing Brown while defeating marijuana but I can’t see the source of their confusion. The state elected Obama and approved prop H8 and by roughly the same margins. Who are they going to blame this time? The black folks again or will it be LGBT people, “bent on revenge” for H8?

Perhaps. I feel that he was a Trojan Horse because of how he presented himself in his campaign. No one expects all promises to be met or striven for, but Obama pretty much did a 180 degree turnaround after the campaign and began running his Admin as a NeoCon. IMO, calling Obama a NeoLiberal is grossly inaccurate.

I always had my doubts about Obama, but I also feel that the PTB pushed Palin out there in order to get doubters like me to vote for Obama.

Maybe I’m reading too much into the tea leaves, though. But I agree that all the “leadership” of both parties are feckless corporate tools.

It was interesting out here to see who was against Prop 19. Of course, there were the usual “money” suspects who didn’t want it legalized because they make more when pot’s illegal. This includes so-called “hippy” pot growers in Humboldt, Lake & Trinity counties. Those people have carved out a comfortable middle class lifestyle by cultivating and selling pot at high prices illegally. they take a risk, but they’ve made good money. Most of the “traditional” growers didn’t want pot legal.

Then there’s BigPharma, plus the gangs and the Mexican cartels. All lined up against making pot legal because they all make more money – in one way or another – with it illegal. And so on….

The most frustrating part is that my discussions with them are generally confined to facts & illustrations with low emotional tone-of-voice content. They just can’t believe that what I say is accurate, even though they know I spend much more time at it and have been a reliable conveyor of information in the past.

I think a large part of it is still the starry-eyed romanticism of finally having an A-A in the WH. They are both reluctant to believe that such a groundbreaker could be a failure as prez.

Obama’s lame duck session begins today.

Seems to me that Obama’s lame duck session began on Jan 20 2009. /s

I agree. It was a bait and switch at least.

I hear you and have gone the same route as you, including the calm tone of voice. And the AA POTUS is so powerful of an image. Many of us whites who despaired of segregation (we can never ever know what it was like to be AA, but we hated all of that with a passion) were just so wanting to achieve this goal (hearing MLK: free, free at last during the inauguration).

Sigh. It’s hard to put those dreams aside. Plus, it’s also asking trad Dems to think “outside the box,” which can cause discomfort or even fear. WHAT are they supposed to do NOW, if Obama really IS as you portray him??? Hard to contemplate, that one.

The Massacre of the Republicanzied Democrats continues. I love it………

Definitely. I think it was *no accident* that the Oligarchs picked out Palin to run with McCain. The more time goes by, the more that seems to be the case. It was all orchestrated, including the immediate T-bagger rallies that happened in November 2008. The Kochs were very busy behind the scenes all along.

David Dayen has a fresh cross-post already in progress: For Once, a Post-Mortem Really Feels Like a Post-Mortem

It’s really pretty amusing, for those of us who aren’t at all surprised (or unhappy) about what happened yesterday (not that we wouldn’t have preferred conditions that made it unnecessary, you understand).

People like those at Kos seem to be convinced that we caused the whole thing. There’s even some testy sentiment to that effect here, including characterizations as ‘immature’ and ‘trolls’ (wonder why The Management doesn’t seem to consider such personal slurs to be as unacceptable as the other personal comments that regularly get nannied away here, but as I’ve observed before, some comments and commenters seem to be somewhat more equal than others, and while that’s hardly laudable it’s very human – especially after an emotional shellacking like yesterday’s).

But while I’d love to believe that a VERY small percentage of non-Stepford Democrats could wield that kind of influence, realistically I’ve got to admit that all we were doing was trying to keep the idea that there ARE alternatives to lesser evilism out there for other progressives to think about. We (if I can speak for more than just myself, though that’s always risky) believe that the party responds only to force, and that threatening it with defeat is the only way to influence its behavior (the same happened 6 years ago during Kerry’s Bush-Lite campaign, by the way: the intent was to change his behavior BEFORE the election so that he just might win it).

But the magnitude of yesterday’s rout makes it crystal-clear that it wasn’t due to us. We were heard by only a small group of fellow progressives, the main veal-pen organizations like MoveOn and DFA (let alone the wholly-owned party subsidiaries like OFA) went all-out to turn out the Democratic vote (believe me: I was emailed incessantly over the past few weeks both by the organizations and by individuals within them), and there’s just NO WAY that either our minuscule defections or lack of effort by more Stepford-like progressives caused what happened.

The much-ballyhooed ‘enthusiasm gap’ was real, but it didn’t keep most progressives from bellying up and working their tails off just as if they still BELIEVED. It just made their efforts ineffective, because rank-and-file Democrats and Independents (and even some cross-over Republicans) KNEW that they had not gotten what they had voted for in 2008 and either stayed home, left ballot slots blank, or out-right defected.

THAT’S the only way that a rout of this magnitude can occur. It wasn’t us, it wasn’t you, and it certainly wasn’t a massive swing to the right: it was anger by the voting public (which also gets a lot of derision here for not acting as people think they should, but who in fact may have a better grasp of reality than those who deride them do) at failure to deliver what was promised.

And it just might have some salutary effect. At least I hope it will, because it caused incredibly severe collateral damage to the party a state and local levels which were in no way complicit in the national party establishment’s treachery.

And, just maybe, it will open some eyes here as well, if they’re not too tightly shut due to the emotional investment in believing something else.

Now he can concentrate on foreign policy and killing foreigners in order to help create more of the actual terrorist threat our MIC needs.

Not all problems have solutions.

There’s no solution I see now. I’m just monitoring what is happening to see if there might be one in the future.

I would personally like to know how many of the people on this blog who urged people, “Vote third party, or don’t vote at all,” actually did the most idiotic thing anybody could possibly do.

Relax. We didn’t do “the most idiotic thing anybody could possibly do.” We voted third party. See you in 2012.

All,

For all you people out there subsisting on the empty bowls of wishful thinking that the Republicanized Democrats have been feeding you all these years, time to throw this starvation diet aside and start banqueting elsewhere. Time to start feasting at a different table with new, fresh, and independent candidates for future elections. The Republicanized Democrats will never feed your political aspirations and causes, and thus, as a consequence, you will continue to starve standing in their food lines. Thomas Frank and others whine about conservative voters who continue to vote for the 2nd and now 3rd wings of the Republican Party as voting against their own interests. Well, the question is now applicable to the liberal voters. Why are you continuing to vote against your own social, economic, and political interests by voting for Republicanized Democrats who have made it CRYSTAL CLEAR” that they have absolutely no interest in legislating for you “effin retards”? (Per Rahm Emanuel)

It was Obama’s election to lose, and he did it well.

http://moneyedpoliticians.net/2010/11/03/obamas-election-to-lose-and-he-did/

Something I might like to see, and I wouldn’t mind if it were to start with Democratic legislation, is that legislation come with a description of it’s intended result. If it becomes clear that nothing intended is happening, it would get rolled back. I’m thinking of promises we hear about tax cuts benefiting the average person as an example.

Jane,

Chances are one billion percent you will censor and delete this, but even so the time has come. As a battered wife of the Democratic Party, it is now long past time for you to take a stand, stand with the middle and working class people of this country and write off for good the Republicanized Democrats of the Republican Party. You, Katrina Vanden Huevel, Joan Walsh, Stephanie Miller, Karen Finney, Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Lawrence O’Donnell, Ed Schultz, Chris Matthews, David Corn, the whole Obama smoke and mirrors machine, time for you all to step up to the plate, hold a press conference, and tell your followers the truth about the Republicanized Democrats. Once and for all, it’s time to take a stand for what you claim to believe in……………….

Now the remaining Dems need to get busy on hiring/learning how to speak in simple, memorable sound-bites and candidates need to do the same thing.

Also, I’m pretty sure that the Citizens United cash in the Thomas household is buying a new RV for those next few trips to Wal-Mart parking lots across America.

I’ve followed politics fairly well since the middle of the ’90s. I voted party line for most of that time and started making $ contributions in 2004. Frankly, I was beginning to like Obama until about July or August, when it became obvious that something was off between what he was saying and what he was doing.

Regarding Clinton: I agree that the Neo-Liberal nonsense has its roots in the Clinton era. Without starting a separate argument from the discussion in this thread, I’ll just say that I believed then and still think now that what Clinton did wasn’t entirely bad and may have been largely the right thing to do at the time and for the times. Obama, on the other hand, is misjudging the current situation and is failing to lead well for these times. He’s essentially our George W. Bush, another failure of the same type.

Most of the credit for the Republicanized Democrats going down goes to Harry Reid. It was his collaboration with the second wing of the Republican Party in the Senate that sealed the fate of Nancy Pelosi and the House of Representatives………….

Since you ask:

I voted Republican for my House rep, because the race was predicted to be close enough that I wasn’t sure that the Democratic incumbent would lose without my help (and there was no actual progressive running, which made it easy). Turned out that I could have written in “Medicare for All” safely, as she was easily defeated anyway.

For Senate, however, the race was predicted to be won handily by the Republican and there WAS a progressive independent on the ticket (not exactly a viable one, but at least one with decent positions) – so I voted third-party for that one.

I actually pledged to the party leadership to vote Republican in all national races (I still vote Democratic in state and local contests) until such time as a ‘public option’ becomes law back at the end of the health-care reform sham, when Pelosi and Reid were vigorously suppressing reintroduction of the public option during reconciliation (where only 50 Senate votes, plus Biden’s, would have been required for passage), but figured that as long as a race was not in jeopardy of being won by a Democrat I had a reasonable excuse for expressing my real preference rather than voting strategically. And I’d also feel I had some leeway if the Democratic party actually offered up a convincing progressive for me to vote for.

Since I don’t have a very high opinion of those who desperately cling to lesser evilism, I guess I really can’t get upset if you consider me to be an idiot.

Cheers.

Has Time Kaine been fired yet?

I meant Tim Kaine….

No, he’s resigning, he’s done his job well and will be going into the corporate world to earn his just rewards!

…and we paddle faster and faster to the edge with brown…

hooray. the left is a monochromatic mass of splinter extremists that will be exposed for the self-serving complainocrats that they’ve become.

the moderate democrats, those of us that can see past the end of our noses have once again been crowded out by the loudest members of the club.

fantastic work – and the emmy goes to nancy.

tim kaine is a disgrace. but, if he were to grab a stripper or two, catch it on a staffer’s iphone, he might be able to get a job at ObamaNN doing commentary with Ediot Spitzer..

the republicanized democrats delivered you Obama, the Great Pretender. we were rewarded for this by having our arms twisted for 2 years then got slugged in the n*ts last night, thanks to you.

now you and the cardboard cutout of a president can have your cake. we’ll be sure to feed the fight for hillary that starts today. (and you think the republicans are gonna have a split personality?).

today, the bluedogs go back to our principles…have fun in your lofty paradise of hyperliberalism.

feingold/mccain 2012. born to run.

Do you seriously think I ever wanted Obama? Far from it. Hey, if you like War without end, job outsourcing until unemployment seems the natural order of things, bridges that collapse, levees that get flood over, gas pipes that explode and blow up whole towns and cities, children homeless and hungry in the streets, if you like these things, well pal, go for it. Me, myself, I happen to think a nation that allows this sort of thing to happen is a national disgrace and should be ashamed of itself………..

I think this nation tried the McCain part already. Try something new and intelligent for a change…………..

Unfortunately, if that was Whitman’s idea, she’s too late. The politicians there have already looted the state. There isn’t much left.