To paraphrase the great Yogi Berra, we may be in for deja vu all over again. Or to put it in as succinct a manner as possible, what do you get when you add a Republican hack sitting on the Franklin County (Ohio) Board of Elections, a 6th Circuit Court of Appeals that has shown itself to be in the business of trying to suppress votes and an Ohio Supreme Court that is made up of seven Republicans and has as many Democrats as Ted Nugent has brain cells?

Yeah, you already know the answer. You get a seat that should be in the hands of progressive champion Mary Jo Kilroy, so she can help pass universal health care, raise the minimum wage and protect workers' rights, and you give it to a bank lobbyist named Steve Stivers, who was handpicked to run for Congress by a student of the George Hamilton school of self-tanning and Republican House Leader, John Boehner.

There is more on the whole story here.

OK, first, let me explain the situation, and then I'll let you know what you can do about this potential travesty.

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They really don't come much scummier than Freedom's Watch, the wretched excuses for human beings who smeared Democratic candidates this past campaign with lying robo-calls. The DCCC's anti-FW site has the goods on their deep GOP ties.

Supposedly they're about to go out of business. But evidently -- like the dying sting of a scorpion -- they're taking one last stab.

Now they're running truly vicious ads attacking Jim Martin, the Democratic challenger to Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia currently facing a runoff election:

Yesterday, the struggling Freedom’s Watch released an attack ad against Georgia’s Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jim Martin, saying that he “failed to look out for Georgia’s families.” “First he actually helped block stiffer penalties for drunk drivers,” warns the voice in the ad, which echoes previous GOP ads. “And then, Martin voted against tougher sentences for domestic abuse.”

As it happens, Martin built much of his political reputation as an effective advocate for protecting children from criminals -- no doubt a product of having his then-8-year-old daughter kidnapped. So he made an ad responding to the Freedom's Watch ad by pointing this out. As you can see, it's incredibly effective.

Of course, this is all too reminiscent of the way Chambliss won in 2002 -- with Republican operatives assailing the patriotism of Max Cleland, a decorated war veteran who left limbs on the battlefield.

It may have worked in 2002. In 2008, though, the national mood is different. Recall what happened to Elizabeth Dole when she tried pulling similarly nasty tactics near the end of her campaign against Kay Hagan in North Carolina -- she was spanked by an even wider margin than polls had indicated.

Most people are tired of this nonsense -- they want serious people who will go to work to solve the nation's problems. Hopefully, the voters of Georgia will be thinking likewise.

Oh, Sarah. How we will (not) miss you.

Yesterday kicked off the first day of the Minnesota recount and while a whole host of ballots still need to be tabulated, things are looking good for Al Franken. There is still substantial ground to be made up, but a net gain of 43 votes is a pretty good start. Nate has more.

According to data just released by the Minnesota Secretary of State, Al Franken has gained a net of 43 votes on the first day of that state's recount process. Norm Coleman had a lead of 215 voters over Franken in Minnesota's certified, pre-recount tally; that margin is now 172 votes.

Minnesota reports that it has thus far re-counted 15.49 percent of its ballots. If the first day's results are indicative of the pace that the candidates will maintain throughout the recount process, Franken would gain a net of 278 votes over Colmean, giving him a narrow victory. For any number of reasons, however, the results reported thus far may not be indicative of future trends.

We'll just have to wait and see how things shape up. In case you forgot, a Franken victory would put us at 59 blue Senate seats (counting Lieberman and Sanders). If Franken does manage to pull this off -- indeed, even if he doesn't -- all eyes will turn to Georgia on December 2 for the run-off between the execrable incumbent Saxby Chambliss and challenger Jim Martin.

The Franken campaign is optimistic. Keep your fingers crossed.

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Mark Begich finally takes down Ted Stevens, the rampaging Hulk from Alaska.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the Republican lawmaker convicted on felony corruption charges in October, appears to have lost his bid for re-election to Democrat Mark Begich, according to a release from Begich's campaign and unofficial results from state officials.
Democrat Mark Begich (left) has claimed victory over Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska.

The statement and results Tuesday come two weeks after the election, after absentee ballots were counted.

With 100 percent of Alaska's precincts reporting, Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, had roughly 47.7 percent of the vote, compared with about 46.6 percent for Stevens, according to unofficial results posted on the Alaska Secretary of State's Web site.

He appears to have bested Stevens by 3,724 votes, according to the posted results.

So much for Sarah Palin's hopes of sliding over to the Senate.

And the Democratic tally in the Senate now reaches 58, with two more races still in the balance.

Rarrrrghhh!!!

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C&Ler Jim T. alerted me to this segment from Hardball and said this:

The last 20 minutes or so are a case study of the gossip-fest that cable and "journalism" in general have become. The segment features Michelle Bernard and some kook from N.H. discussing the possibility that Hillary Clinton may be offered State in the Obama administration. Probably one of the most bizarre spectacles I have seen in a long time, even considering the two year idiocy we've just been through.

Bernard is a serious Clinton Hater and as the day unfolded she just couldn't contain it any longer. There were plenty of snide comments about Hillary from the media like, "Obama better have a food taster" if he gives her the job, (I wonder if the media would say things like that if McCain asked Romney to join his cabinet) but nobody went as far as she did.

For some people the primary has never ended.

MATTHEWS: [unintelligible] You guys are so suspicious. Look, I think that since she lost the fight for the nomination, Michelle and Jennifer, she has been not just a good soldier, she has sang the tune of this guy. She's been illustrious, she's been admirable. She -- her spirit seems to be with him. Bill's a little more troubled, obviously, by what happened. But she's been totally with him, and that's why he's obviously thrown her name out. Why would he even be thinking of her if he thought she might be insubordinate?

{snip}

BERNARD: No, they're not going to keep her in line if she's secretary of state. If she's secretary of state --

DONAHUE: Well, that's why she's not gonna get it.

BERNARD: -- she will run a parallel government. It will be a huge problem.

DONAHUE: I don't believe she'll get it

It's Obama's party and he gets to decide ultimately who he wants and if he actually asked her or even seriously considered her then he knows he can trust her not to run a parallel government that would destroy Obama. Outside of being plain stupid, it's insane talk.

I always wondered where Michelle Bernard came from when she suddenly showed up on MSNBC as an analyst. The group she belongs to have people like Kate O'Beirne and Larry Kudlow attached to it. Bob Somerby felt the same way back in March:

Who is Michelle Bernard?

On the surface, the question is easily answered. At present, Bernard is CEO of the Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative women’s group founded in 1992. (According to Wikipedia, the IWF grew out of an ad hoc group created to support Clarence Thomas.) The groups directors emeritae include such conservative stars as Lynn Cheney, Wendy Gramm, Midge Decter and Kate O’Beirne. To peruse the group’s web site, just click here.

The IWF, like many such groups, is founded as a non-partisan 501(c)(3) group. As such, the group does not endorse candidates. But it does promote a range of conservative causes.

Let's hope this trend continues and Stevens finally gets the axe.

Democrat Mark Begich now leads Sen. Ted Stevens (R) by just over 1,000 votes with more than 90 percent of the total ballots now counted in the high-profile Alaska Senate race.

The Alaska Division of Elections counted another 14,500 votes on Friday and Begich's lead increased from 841 before the day started to 1,022 when the counting ended.

That means that Begich has gained more than 4,200 votes on Stevens since the 90,000 early, absentee and questioned ballots began to be counted on Wednesday. There are roughly 24,000 votes left to be counted, and the counting will resume, and presumably conclude, early next week, according to the Begich campaign.

Of the remaining votes, roughly 15,000 are in the Anchorage area (a swing area in the race) and another 8,000 are in the Juneau area, which should be Begich territory.

"The news continues to be positive," Begich said in a statement released by the campaign tonight. "With the gap widening slightly in our favor today, I feel even more optimistic that when all the ballots are counted next week, we'll see Alaskans came out to vote for new leadership in Washington, D.C."

I wonder what Gov. Palin will say if it goes to Begich?

You've probably been hearing a lot of Republican talking points that rewrite history by saying that as soon as Bill Clinton came into office, he adopted a loony left-wing agenda that was rejected immediately, and he suffered for it. The Villagers and right wingers are thus warning Obama to govern like Republicans (which, if you think about it, would mean giving the other side of the aisle the hot poker while proceeding with the most extreme agenda imaginable).

Bill O'Reilly and his pals are so very afraid of Obama's upcoming agenda. After all, look how great our country is running right now after eight years of Bush. Check out the jobless statistics today. It's staggering.

As I see it, Obama is not as progressive as I am, not if you look at his voting record, but is a moderate Democrat and will probably govern that way. Howie Klein and I wrote a piece back in May that outlined Obama's record when FOX and pals were trying to scare the country into thinking that Barack was the most liberal Senator in Congress so you should be very afraid. That argument didn't work too well even to Conservatives. Nearly Half of Conservatives Confident in Obama

Anatomy of a Right Wing Myth: Obama is the most liberal Democratic Senator

Lately John and I have been gnashing our collective teeth every time we see one of the Republican shills on TV repeating, mantra-like, the #1 GOP Big Lie of the campaign: "Barack Obama is the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate."

If only! Actually there are 39 Democrats with more liberal voting records, although Obama does at least beat perennial Bush rubber stamps Holy Joe Lieberman (CT), Ben Nelson (NE) and Mary Landrieu (LA). His voting record-- however you slice it, however you dice it-- points to a solidly mainstream centrist...read on

I know I'll disagree with some of his policies as he moves forward, but that's to be expected.

Digby writes an excellent piece that outlines what happened when Bill Clinton took office.

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This is too much. The Republicans are basically admitting that Katherine Harris stole the election for George Bush.

Republicans are also questioning the credibility of Minnesota’s Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, the man tasked with overseeing the recount. A background document distributed by national Republicans portrays Ritchie as a far-left, Democratic version of Katherine Harris, the former Republican secretary of state whose actions helped decide the 2000 presidential election. The document accuses Ritchie, who was elected in 2006 with the assistance of a progressive-led group designed to elected Democratic election administrators, of having connections to the controversial voter registration group ACORN and the Communist Party of America.

As Al Franken gets closer to victory, the Republicans are unraveling. A recount is definitely on its way. Oh, what fun...

All of the talk about the special Newsweek report describing the backstage events in this year's presidential campaign has focused on various revelations about Sarah Palin's astonishing lack of knowledge about global and national affairs, as well as her spending sprees.

But this passage seemed at least as significant, if not more so:

The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that many crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle asked a top campaign aide.

Tim Shipman at the Telegraph (UK) has more:

Details of the spike in threats to Mr Obama come as a report last week by security and intelligence analysts Stratfor, warned that he is a high risk target for racist gunmen. It concluded: "Two plots to assassinate Obama were broken up during the campaign season, and several more remain under investigation. We would expect federal authorities to uncover many more plots to attack the president that have been hatched by white supremacist ideologues."

Irate John McCain aides, who blame Mrs Palin for losing the election, claim Mrs Palin took it upon herself to question Mr Obama's patriotism, before the line of attack had been cleared by Mr McCain.

There was a reason, I think, that people were repelled by the ugliness that proceeded from the McCain/Palin campaign this year -- common sense, after all, should tell you where this kind of ugliness was heading. It showed up at the polls.

The problem is finding a way to put out the fuse that they lit.

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I'm too distraught to write about this.

So go read Jesse Wendel. He pretty much sums it up: This was a media hit job.

It wasn't just the Seattle Times, incidentally, though they led the charge. Local talk radio -- particularly two very well-known jagoffs on the two biggest stations in town -- played a big role too.

I don't know if there will be a "next time" for Darcy. I do know that the Times' karmic bitch will be biting them in the ass for this in a big way.

The Concern Trolls are roaming free in the Village these days: John King, Laura Ingraham, Charles Krauthammer, Tom Brokaw, Karl Rove, Ruth Marcus … I don't know how many talking heads I've heard claim that "America is still a center-right country" in the past few days, but if it were a drinking game, I'd have alcohol poisoning.

I guess I'm confused. I keep hearing from a lot of conservatives that McCain lost because he wasn't conservative enough -- that is, he was essentially a center-right candidate. And I think that's the consensus about where he sat on the political spectrum.

So if America is a "center-right country," then why didn't they elect the center-right candidate?

It's all bullshit, of course. As a CAF/Media Matters study found last year: "Media perceptions and past Republican electoral successes notwithstanding, Americans are progressive across a wide range of controversial issues, and they're growing more progressive all the time." In fact, as CAF's Robert Borosage points out, "Voters didn't just elect Democrats, they elected progressives." This is a liberal mandate.

Yet it's probably true that the election doesn't necessarily reflect an all-out embrace of all things liberal. Obama largely succeeded by making clear that he has a moderate temperament on a number of issues, and more importantly, in his style of governance. So a certain caution is probably wise.

No, this election was about one thing primarily: a sweeping repudiation of movement conservatism.

The breadth and depth of Democrats' victory was a loud shout from the American public: We have had enough of this crap.

Specifically, we've had enough of two things: conservative governance, and conservative politics.

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Jon Stewart looks at the Obama Victory coverage, including the new and very, very strange toys the networks employed to jazz up the electoral results.

It was looking grim early last night for Jeff Merkley in his race to unseat Republican Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, but that was mostly because the Multnomah and Lane counties hadn't been counted much yet.

Those counties started coming in this afternoon and evening, and the trend is so strong in his favor (at last check, Merkley had about a 10,000-vote lead, and growing) that the Oregonian has called it for him.

Congratulations, Senator Merkley. Thanks to you and your awesome staff for all your hard work. And Democrats have just inched a tad closer to a filibuster-proof majority.

We knew beforehand that the Latino vote was going to be a major player in the 2008 election.

And they were:

About two-thirds of Hispanics voted for Obama, decisively surpassing the 53 percent who voted for Democrat John Kerry in 2004, exit polls showed. That year Bush enjoyed a high-water mark of GOP support from Hispanics with 44 percent of the vote from the nation's fastest growing ethnic group.

America's Voice reports in a press release:

• The Latino Vote Surged in Size: The Latino vote comprised at least 8% of the overall electorate, according to exit polling. This works out to approximately 10.5 million voters, given the expected 130 million votes cast. This figure represents a jump of 3 million voters since 2004, when 7.6 million Latinos cast ballots, and is almost double the Latino turnout of 2000.
• The Latino Vote Broke Democratic: In 2004, Democratic candidate John Kerry won the Latino vote 56-44% against George W. Bush. Yesterday, Barack Obama won the Latino vote by a 66-32% margin against John McCain, and even won a majority of Latino support in Florida, a former Latino stronghold for the GOP. Given the increased size of the Latino electorate, this means that 2.9 million more Latino votes went to the Democratic candidate compared to 2004.
• Barack Obama Swept the “Latino Battleground” States: Both the Obama and McCain campaigns focused their Spanish-speaking advertising and outreach on four key battleground states – CO, FL, NM, and NV. Within these states, the Latino vote’s rapid growth and break towards Democratic candidates played an important role in Democratic victories.

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