Sure, the overall trend has been toward the GOP, but that's hard to avoid,
since the starting point was a one-party Democratic region.
The conservative era in American politics, which has coincided with my
entire adult lifetime, came to an end two weeks ago.
So, if I'm correct that the conservative era is kaput, what comes next? No
one knows! But perhaps we can speculate about some of the candidates for
successor. Here are four possibilities, moving from left to right.
It's a mistake to regard such Gestapo tactics as compromising freedom, he told the young officers in training. "This [antagonistic] view is shortsighted. Its definition of freedom - one utterly divorced from civic responsibility - is superficial and is itself a grave threat to the liberty and security of the American people".
Only days earlier, vice president Dick Cheney had denounced an August court decision in Michigan that found the NSA wiretap program unconstitutional as "an indefensible act of judicial overreaching".
It should surprise no one that the Bush administration is mounting a PR campaign to sell its illegal mass wiretap program, even though it's hardly a hot news item at the moment (the Michigan decision is being appealed). The sales job is directed toward the lame duck Republican Congress, in hopes of having the domestic spying program legalised after the fact, before Democrats take control of the Hill."
So does anyone think that they'll be able to get it pushed through? I personally don't; isn't trying to get it legalized to "supplement" the authority that already exist rather pointless to if it was already legit? I think even if they tried to push this through it'll take something to let the general public know and from them I'm sure the general feeling will be of displeasure. Time will tell.
That is one of the most striking findings about the state in an examination of exit poll data from across the country.
Voters age 18-29 made up 17% of the Wisconsin electorate - more than anywhere else except Montana (also 17%). Nationally, young voters made up between 12% and 13% of the electorate.
"We lost all these college-town seats," Janesville congressman Paul Ryan said. "The marriage amendment clearly complicated the turnout situation, which did not play to our benefit in many ways."
According to a preliminary national estimate by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at the University of Maryland, about 24% of eligible voters between 18 and 29 went to the polls Nov. 7, up from 20% in the last midterm in 2002. National turnout for voters of all ages is estimated at a little more than 40% in 2006."
This article has it all –distribution of power, junior members and redistricting. Enjoy.
Republicans, normally sure-footed this decade, reacted with a tentativeness that they called evidence of a divergence between a White House that viewed a victory in Iraq as central to Mr. Bush’s image and Republican candidates who saw the war as poisoning an already difficult re-election environment.
Senior Republican strategists said they told candidates to avoid talking about the war, and even to distance themselves from it, and urged the White House to change its approach, at least through November. But that strategy was undercut by Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who kept making the case for victory in forum after forum, ensuring that the issue remained in public view.
What a novel approach for Democrats.
