First off you have to understand that the Democratic Party not only won control of the House and the Senate, but there is now a Democratic majority among governors, and nice gains in state legislatures.

Rahm Emanuel of the Congressional Committee only worked on House campaigns. Chuck Schumer only worked on Senate campaigns. Howard Dean worked on all campaigns.

As Ellroon reports in this Kommuniqué from Kommander Kos, Before the Democrats get all full of themselves and forget, everyone helped and everyone deserves credit.

With those realities in mind, this move by the “DC Democrats” to seize control of the Democratic National Committee from Howard Dean is not acceptable. James Carville and the DLC are losers without Bill Clinton as a candidate. Bill Clinton won, not the DLC. The “spoils” and jobs belong to the people who win elections, not those who lose them.

Shakespeare’s Sister discusses this effort in her post, Today In Great Ideas; NTodd calls his, Democratic Pharisees; Digby calls it turning Winning Into Losing; and MJS gives us a song, I Drove My Car to Carville.

John Emerson has a trilogy: Mr. Matalin wants to fire Howard Dean, Let’s sort it out, and The DC Democrats.

[Read more →]

A big thanks to the Shrubbery and his political genius for delaying the one thing that might have saved the Senate for the Republican Party, the resignation of Rumsfeld, until after the election. I’m sure that there are a few Republican Senators who will show their own version of “gratitude” during the lame duck session.

The only thing the Congress really has to do every year is pass a budget by 1 October, so it should surprise no one that they still haven’t bothered to do it. One would hope that the myth of efficiency in one party rule has been buried.

It would seem that just to prove that “bipartisanship” was only a passing fancy, the Shrubbery is attempting to get John Bolton, Robert Gates, and the “tap any phone I feel like” measures through Congress during the dying 109^th Congress. I hope the Republicans have figured out that you can be a Republican without being a Bushevik, because the Busheviki don’t really care about the Republican Party.

The few of you who were amused by the fact that Burns and Allen were the last two Senate elections to be settled will appreciate “Say good night, George.”

[Note: outline of the graphic courtesy SillyBill.com, the additional political variations are my fault.]

United States Marine Corps

1775

Of Course It’s A Catwalk

Is that a moth?

I guess I’ll have to wait.

[Editor: My Mother just found these pictures of Koshka playing on the top of the kitchen door. I always had to check before shutting doors, but I didn’t have to worry about dusting them.]

Friday Ark