Internal Monologue

Right now, Kevin Drum of The Washington Monthly has me as the odds on favorite to win the 2006 Crystal Ball Award for predicting +6 Dems in the Senate, +29 Dems in the House and sticking to it: Only one person correctly predicted both numbers in our election pool: Zachary Drake, who not only picked the right winning margin, but resisted the temptation to change his guess later because it would mean greater pundit glory to have gotten it right from the start. My kind of guy! This could change later depending on how recounts go, but for now it looks like Zachary is the odds-on favorite to win the Washington Monthly's 2006 Crystal Ball Award. Congratulations! Of course some recounts could change this and give the award to someone else. Concede, Mr. Macaca! Here's the acceptance " speech " I made over at his blog: Uhh...I'd like to thank the Academy...this is an incredible honor...I'd like to thank soon-to-be-ex Senator Allen for losing and making Dem

AP has the story (HT: georgia10 on Kos ): WASHINGTON - Democrats wrested control of the Senate from Republicans Wednesday with an upset victory in Virginia, giving the party complete domination of Capitol Hill for the first time since 1994.

On MyDD : When the nation woke up today, it was told that the balance of the Senate rested in two key races: Montana and Virginia. At the same time, the nation was also told that various higher-ups in the Democratic Party were primarily responsible for the huge Democratic victories. What the nation was not told, however, is that the two Senate races that were about to put Democrats over the top were two of the most people-powered campaigns in the entire country. Both campaigns were driven heavily by small donors, blogs, and volunteer activism for nearly an entire year. Given this, it should be obvious who put Democrats over the top in the Senate: the netroots and the progressive movement. Without either, Democrats would not be about to take control of the Senate. Even beyond the netroots, however, the people who really decided this election were the voters. The 2006 elections had the highest voter turnout for a mid-term election in the post-civil rights era. Further, while it is diffi

Matt Stoller : Rahm Emanuel did his best to force Howard Dean to move money out of party building and into his terrible TV ad program that lost IL-06. He sniped at Dean, at Moveon, at George Soros, at blogs, at anyone he could. He ran scared, and he put his thumb on the scale against liberal Democrats. He couldn't even win in his own backyard, with the milquetoast Dan Seals and charismatically moderate Tammy Duckworth. Most significantly, for a good amount of time he didn't want Democrats to mention Iraq, period. If Rahm Emanuel were actually been a loyal Democrat instead of someone hellbent on sabotaging liberals, imagine how many seats we could have picked up. Rick Perlstein (TNR subscription req'd): The Democrats have won back the House. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ( DCCC ), nearly tripped over himself on the way to the microphone to claim the credit. In fact, while the tidal wave in the House looks like a bit of st

Here's the CNN story : World reaction: Democratic win welcomed MADRID, Spain (AP) -- The seismic shift that midterm elections brought to Washington's political landscape was welcomed by many Wednesday in a world sharply opposed to the war in Iraq and outraged over the harsh methods the Bush administration has employed in fighting terrorism. [...] Regardless of the effect on world events, global giddiness that Bush was finally handed a political black-eye was almost palpable throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In an extraordinary joint statement, more than 200 Socialist members of the European Parliament hailed the American election results as "the beginning of the end of a six-year nightmare for the world" and gloated that they left the Bush administration "seriously weakened."

Well, just one week after Bush publicly declared the Rumsfeld and Cheney are staying for the rest of his presidency, Rumsfeld resigns and will be replaced by former CIA head Robert Gates (about whom I don't know anything). Here the story : WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, architect of an unpopular war in Iraq, intends to resign after six stormy years at the Pentagon, Republican officials said Wednesday. Officials said Robert Gates, former head of the CIA, would replace Rumsfeld. Is this the new, "able to make concessions to reality" version of Bush? It took him long enough, though. I'm sure Andrew Sullivan will jump with even greater jubilation when he hears this. But frankly, the problem is Bush. I don't think the appointment will suddenly reverse our fortunes in Iraq. I don't think anyone could turn it around in the immediate future. And by the way, Bush doesn't have the authority to fire Cheney, does he?. The Vice President i

Looks like Tester (D) and Webb (D) won in Montana and Virginia. There's going to be some recounts and stuff, but I think the Dems have re-taken the Senate against all (OK, most) expectations. CNN calls Montana for Tester , and Virginia is still "processing".