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In a shocking political earthquake, the Republican Party has lost a Senate election in Alabama.  For perspective on how difficult that feat was, the closest previous Senate contest in that state over the last two decades was a...19-point GOP victory.  Just three years ago, Jeff Sessions ran unopposed.  Donald Trump carried 'Bama by 28 points last fall.  In my election preview post yesterday, I wrote that an upset by liberal Doug Jones was improbably plausible, due exclusively to the disastrously awful candidate Republicans had nominated.  Apologies for quoting myself, but here you go:

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said on Wednesday that he is "relieved" GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore lost the Alabama race and won't be representing the Republican party in Congress. "Relieved? Yes that's a good word. I'm relieved and I believe a lot of Republicans are relieved that Roy Moore and some of his people aren't the face of the Republican party," he told reporters when asked if he was feeling any relief over Tuesday's election results.

Rep. Mo Brooks was the true Trumpian candidate in Alabama, which is why I endorsed him in the primary (here, here and here). When the accusations against Roy Moore first arose, I proposed that the president make a deal to replace Moore with Brooks. Obviously, the GOP would be in a much better position right now if only Republicans had learned to hang on my every word. Instead, everyone did exactly the wrong thing, and they got the worst of all possible worlds. Trump should have endorsed Brooks in the primary, but he endorsed Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s pro-amnesty...

In a political environment as volatile as this, his power as the Court’s swing vote is at its maximum. It seems counter intuitive that he would retire as his influence reaches its apex. What’s more, Kennedy has a high opinion of the Court’s capacity to bear moral clarity for a restless nation, making his continued service a matter of duty. However true this may be, the justice is 81 and he is, after all, a Republican. Given his age and political inclinations, it is reasonable to assume he would like to retire and would prefer to do so under a...

...after AP Calls Alabama Race for Democrat Doug Jones

As we all know by now, Judge Roy Moore wound up getting fewer votes than his opponent yesterday. A lot of people today are calling Moore a loser. On first appearances, not knowing the background to yesterday's election, that might seem reasoned. It isn't. Knowing what I know, I have a reaction I'm not seeing others have. I'm sorry to realize that. Judge Roy Moore deserves our thanks for putting his neck on the line, trying to carry the mantle of our ideals into the Senate of the United States. It was an honorable thing to do, and it was...

Shawn Hannity did a number on Judge Roy Moore Senatorial campaign. Candidate Roy Moore allowed himself to be bushwhacked in a telephone interrogation on national television. Hannnity acted as a prosecutor during the interview. How many Democrats when faced with a sexual scandal, encountered a prosecutorial styled interview? I cannot think of any. Do you remember Steve Kroft's interview of the Clinton's, which was later called the "Stand by Your Man" interview because of Hillary's defense of Bill Clinton? They were all soft ball questions with no follow up. I wanted to smash my television! I wanted to smash my...

Politics is a bloodsport...but, it is also a people contact sport. When I learned back a week or so ago, that Judge Roy Moore was not out campaigning in public...I knew this political game for Moore was over or, at least on a dangling, dangerous lifeline. One of the many major reasons that Democrat, Hillary Clinton lost her POTUS run to Donald J. Trump is that she literally stopped major campaign activity starting in August, 2016...a big, major mistake. Pressing the flesh of voters is an absolute must and, Doug Jones did exactly that many times over. Roy Moore did...

Total Ballots Cast: 1,346,147 Total Registered Voters: 3,326,812 Voter Turnout: 40.46% Counties Reported: 67 of 67 Last Updated: 12/12/2017 10:46:17 PM The election results presented on these pages are unofficial and presented as a courtesy of the Alabama Secretary of State and Alabama’s Probate Judges. The accuracy of the election results is the responsibility of the Probate Judge for each county reporting.     Percent Votes Doug Jones (DEM) 49.92% 671,151 Roy S. Moore (REP) 48.38% 650,436 Write-In 1.69% 22,780       1,344,367

Several establishment Republicans cheered as the Alabama Senate Republican candidate Judge Roy Moore lost to his Democratic opponent Doug Jones. Here are some of the establishment Republicans who praised Roy Moore’s loss in the Alabama Senate race on Tuesday: National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Cory Gardner (R-CO) said in a statement, “Tonight’s results are clear – the people of Alabama deemed Roy Moore unfit to serve in the U.S. Senate. I hope Senator-elect Doug Jones will do the right thing and truly represent Alabama by choosing to vote with the Senate Republican Majority.”

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) responded to Democrat Doug Jones’s victory Tuesday in the Alabama Senate race by saying “Decency wins.” Flake, who has announced he will not seek reelection in 2018, was a vocal critic of Republican candidate Roy Moore. Moore was plagued during the campaign by allegations of sexual misconduct, including accusations that he made advances on teenagers when he was in his 30s. Flake wrote Jones’s campaign a $100 check, writing “Country over Party” in the memo line. Flake pointed to Moore’s past remarks that Muslims should not serve in Congress as an indicator he is “unfit” for...

Alabama voters can be forgiven if they preferred to sit out Tuesday’s special Senate election, but those who turned out narrowly elected Democrat Doug Jones to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The result is a painful lesson for the Alabama Republicans who nominated Roy Moore in the September primary. But it’s also a useful act of political hygiene for the national Republican Party given the accusations of sexual misconduct against the former judge. The cost of defeat will be high and immediate. Despite his campaign vows to “cross the aisle” to work with Republicans, Mr. Jones...

A real probable scenario is that all of the women who accused Moore of sexual misconduct will suddenly disappear from the scene. Mission accomplished. Mitch McConnell can't disappear, but he also bears a huge part of the responsibility for unjustly undermining Moore's campaign. Complete falsehoods were used to win politically. Look at which point in history we have arrived.

While Mitch McConnell and his allies will try to blame conservatives for nominating Roy Moore, it’s important to remember that McConnell is the main reason Roy Moore was nominated. The moment it was clear there would be a Special Election to replace Jeff Sessions, McConnell and his PAC, Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) declared they would back Luther Strange and vowed to spend millions on his behalf. Strange was a flawed candidate from the jump. The circumstances around his appointment by scandal-ridden Governor Robert Bentley were sketchy at best, and rightly or wrongly, voters just never trusted him. Looking back, an...

Democrats can claim the narrowest of victories in deep-red Alabama’s bitter U.S. Senate race, but the truth is Roy Moore was a viable candidate in spite of them — and because of their shameless condescension. Roy Moore is no deliberative statesman — he’s a wrecking ball with a Southern drawl. At the height of the #MeToo movement, there are serious sexual impropriety allegations against him, as well as a bucketful of other flaws and unforced errors. Even his nomination to the Republican ticket was cast in the Trump die, a refutation of elites everywhere by blue-collar, working people.

Furious Trump says Republicans will eventually 'have another shot' at Alabama's Senate seat as shell-shocked White House blames Steve Bannon for stunning loss Donald Trump fired off a conciliatory tweet Tuesday night shortly after Roy Moore, the candidate he endorsed in the Alabama Senate race, was knocked off his high horse by Democrat Doug Jones. But the tone of his words didn't capture the rage that filled the White House residence, according to two sources with knowledge of the president's mood. 'Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory. The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a...

Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon was widely mocked in political circles following Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore’s humiliating loss in the deep-red state of Alabama. Bannon was one of Moore’s earliest supporters and campaigned in Alabama for the scandal-plagued candidate. In the primary run-off, Bannon backed Moore over President Trump’s preferred candidate, Republican Sen. Luther Strange. (RELATED: WSJ Editorial: Bannon May Be Rooting For Republicans To Lose The Senate) “Luther Strange would have won in a landslide… Just too much crazy in nerve racking times,” influential news kingpin Matt Drudge wrote on Twitter following Moore’s loss. “There IS a limit!”

…There is little chance they can hold this seat in 2020 (unless Republicans nominate Roy Moore again). Meanwhile, Jones deprives them of their favorite talking point that Republicans are all drooling knuckle-dragging morons. Worse, it means Al Franken will likely have to go through with his resignation after all…

There is a strong argument to be made that Sen. Al Franken's central reason for resigning is he knew he would be reduced to being shunned by his peers and the press if he were to continue representing Minnesota in the congressional upper chamber. In short, he would have become a joke, an afterthought, a pariah, a no one. For the egocentric Minnesotan who was courted by everyone in the Democratic Party to headline their fundraisers -- both for their re-elections as well as their state party's coffers -- and fawned over for his Hollywood pedigree and admired by progressives...

GOP Alabama Senate Candidate Roy Moore refused to concede on Tuesday night and insisted more votes could still swing the race and save him from a stunning defeat to an underdog Democrat. “When the vote is this close, that it’s not over,” he told supporters in Montgomery at his campaign rally shortly after Democrat Doug Jones already had been declared the winner by multiple news organizations and had given a televised victory speech. With all precincts reporting, Jones had 49.9 percent and Moore 48.4 percent. Moore quoted from scripture and told supporters to wait for all votes to come in...