Morning...

Here I am in what must be the only near-progressive county in West Virginia. Oh, we voted for Governor Manchin to take the Senate seat (Manchin is many things, but Progressive is not one of them), and Delegate Doyle seems to have made it back. It looks like Democrat Paul Taylor and not Independent Dunleavy is the County Commissioner. (Update: newest results now in and Paul Taylor is not county commissioner, but Walt Pellish, the Republican, has taken a slight edge – BT) My town seems to have supported Virginia Graf for the house, but Shelly Moore Capito (R) was reelected by the rest of the constituency (which stretches irregularly accross the state).

As to the Federal elections and the state governor races. this was the Republicans‘ election. They swept the House, giving John Boehner a seat of power that I fully expect him to abuse. The cut down on the Democrat lead in the Senate, but at least Harry Reid got reelected in the face of a Tea Party Loony looking like she might take his seat. We’re still waiting to see if Patty Murray takes Washington state. That would help keep the Democratic Senate in a working majority situation.

The thing I am most thankful for is that Christine O’Donnell lost by a large margin in Delaware. While she may not be a witch, she is definitely not an intelligent politician and would have made our lives even harder to get through.

Now I want to see how the Republicans are going to both cut taxes and reduce expenditures at the same time. Whenever winning Reps like Rand Paul were asked how they would do it, they sort of smiled and gave us a “you’ll see.” Even Eric Cantor (R – VA), now in a new seat of power couldn’t come up with an answer to the how-will-they-do-it question. I expect a lot of head-on crashes between House and Senate, Congress and Obama, and the people against the government. It’s not going to be pretty.

My wife said this morning that it might be time to see if there is a way to move to Canada.

Related Articles

• West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin Will Fill Sen. Byrd’s Seat (politicsdaily.com)
• Tea party hero Rand Paul wins Senate seat in Ky. (thenewstribune.com)
• Republicans capture House, gain in Senate (reuters.com)
• Republicans aim to deliver stinging blow to Obama (thestar.com)
• Democrat Manchin wins West Virginia Senate seat, NBC projects (reuters.com)
• Teamsters Applaud Manchin Victory in West Virginia (prnewswire.com)
• Manchin wins Byrd’s old seat in W. Virginia (marketwatch.com)

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