LIVE THREAD: ELECTIONS 2006

[Lexinom]

What is it in Virgina? It's fairly liberal in my state - put Cantwell over Gorton in '00. I sure hope Virginia has honest elections officials...

[Right Wing Assault]

And we still have the house right?!

For a couple more hours.

[JFC]

on man, no way I can take Harry Reid blabbling. He is bipartisian now... whatever!

[eleni121]

real happy are you over that?

[rwfromkansas]

Kyl is losing? That would be terrible!

We may in fact lose the Senate, too.

Just terrible.

I think I need a break....and a drink. Check on this in the morning...

[gotribe]

Hardly. I'd come to his defense, too, but a lot of the country wouldn't and the media sure wouldn't either.

[NYC Republican]

MSNBC is predicting at least +29 seats

[Petronski]

can you say, douchebag?

I see your posts and somehow, yes, I can.

[Howlin]

He ain't gonna be the leader; it's gonna be you know who.

[Lancey Howard]

Why do I not feel sad when I see that Chaffe is gone?

At least now Rhode Island has a liberal Senator who will stab us in the front.

[Windcatcher]

There's a lot more to this. I just got home from the gym where I had to listen to someone's tirade (not to me, thankfully) about how corrupt Weldon is. Weldon was *safe* until the scandal broke, and *it's his fault*.

We have an ethics problem in our party. It's not enough to say, "there is no evidence", "he didn't break the law", or any other defensive explanation. We shouldn't have to be issuing them in the first place. People in our party need to get this burned into their brains for all time: the media is 100% in the tank for the Democrats and they will crucify us for the slightest appearance of impropriety. It doesn't matter if our people actually do anything wrong or not. If it looks bad, it is bad. They absolutely will report it that way and they will hammer it all the way up to election day.

It's not enough to say that "we'll clean the party up", or try the outsider approach, "the party needs to clean itself up" as if the Republican Party is some anthropomorphic being that has its own intelligence. The party is us and people in a lot of districts (like mine) have said loud and clear that our behavior is lacking in their eyes. Remember, with the Liberal Media stacking the deck, perception is reality, and they get to shape perception.

I'm sure that a lot of us work for companies where we have to undergo ethics training. I've worked for three such companies in my travels, and you wouldn't believe the ethics training I have to undergo where I currently work. I don't shy from it, in fact while I undergo more hours of it now, I've worked at other places where it was even more strict in terms of what to do and not to do. For our party, the #1 ethics rule must be:

It is not enough to not have a conflict of interest—there must not even be the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The GOP should (and must, in this political climate) undergo yearly ethics training, maybe even every six months (hey, if I have to do it, so can they). They must be public about not only taking the training, the training itself must be public for all to see. The party's charter should not allow assistance of candidates who are delinquent in their training. No slaps on the wrist anymore. The GOP must prove that they're serious.

I know what some are thinking—that it would be an admission of guilt. I would ask those people: what in the heck do you see going on tonight? The voters have already passed judgment in their votes, and they already think you're guilty of impropriety, whether you are or not! We're always talking about needing a new Contract With America, and this should be the first covenant made.

[nitejohnboy]

You stuff it too.

[dirtboy]

That's wonderful news. Allen up over 40K with just over 60K votes remaining to be counted. Webb will have to break 2/3rds of the balance to win.

[Fee]

Support minimum wage, enforce illegal immigration laws, review trade treaties that outsource US jobs, and review policies that expand H-1B workers and you will see a shift in the independents for the GOP. Many GOP forget that globalism brings change in the US also, someone will lose their jobs while others make money from it. Many of the Reagan Democrats are the ones in the manufacturing sector, textiles, IT workers, service sector and etc who do not see a government that measures their needs against the benefits of open trade. After 12 years of patience with the GOP Congress, it finally runs out. GOP lost a number of conservative rural/textile districts in the South that normally should not be losses as well as suburban districts where high tech workers live in.

[FastCoyote]

[We can blame various Republican leaders or the uninformed "middle" of the electorate and there is some truth to each criticism we make, but the MSM/Demagogue alliance is still tight and strong and deadly. The MSM was worth 10-25 points to EVERY 'Rat candidate tonight.]

That's for damn sure, they didn't even bother to hide it this time around. Just blatant distortion. I was in on the Harry Reid scandal, it should have blown up big time but they squashed it. Not subtle at all.

[conservative in nyc]

In MD, according to CNN's website, 35% is in. But only 20% is in from heavily Democrat Baltimore City (which is swinging 80-20 Cardin), and 25% from Montgomery County in the Washington Suburbs (about 70-30% Cardin). On the other hand, many of the small rural Republican counties are 100% counted.

It's going to be an uphill battle for Steele, absent a very strong absentee ballot showing.

Please don't shoot the messenger.

[Vicomte13]

"We should save our anger for ... the coddled, brain dead American public."

Well, that's a good way to end up a permanent minority.

The public are not brain dead.
The Republicans did not keep their support.

Republicans have to figure out why.
If just the "broken glass" Republican consevatives, the diehards, come out to vote, you've got a permanent, smallish, rump.

Screaming epithets at the people who elect you is a bad way to get elected.

The fault does not lie with the People. The fault lies in decisions taken by the leadership.

[PhillyMom]

I knew it when Fast Eddie was Mayor here; he would be extremely dangerous as Governor. We have to make sure that he stops there - I so want the Eagles to hire him!!!!

[Arizona Carolyn]

~LOL~ don't know, but seemed a little big-brotherish to me.

[bwteim]

Have you been naughty or nice?

-- santa