For a cocky guy who I don’t imagine has ever had to sit still for a serious rebuke in his life, I’m really wondering what the take-away is going to be from the press conference he has called for tomorrow at 1 PM. At some level, I think they just want to get him back in front of the cameras quickly, the way a boxer snaps back to his feet when he gets knocked down, just to show he’s still in the fight, back in his opponent’s face.
But what do you think he’ll do?
My best guess is he comes in with a group of his father’s cronies, announces that these gents have formed a business consortium and that he’s selling them the country.
How about you?
New numbers out of Montana this morning: With 99% of precincts reporting, Dem Jon Tester’s lead over GOP Senator Conrad Burns has now edged up to a total of 1,586 votes.
Want to know whether the Dems will control the Senate? Check back next month.
From The LA Times:
White House allies suggest there is little reason to think Bush and the Democrats will work together. Bush has tied himself closely to conservative movement leaders who bitterly disagree with Democrats for their opposition to tax cuts and to privatizing Social Security â two of the administration’s top goals.
“When we want to go up and they want to go down, we want to go right and they want to go left, there’s no compromise,” said anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, a close advisor to the White House.
Norquist said the Republicans’ primary goal for the next two years should be making the case for GOP control â not bipartisanship.
“Nancy Pelosi will do for the Republicans what [Bill] Clinton did for the Republicans â become the lightning rod to explain that their congressman who they thought was a reasonable guy was really a left-wing wacko,” he said.
Just a note — we’ll be continuing to update our scoreboard throughout the day with the latest results.
As of right now, in addition to the two Senate races, we have 13 House seats that either haven’t been called, are going to a recount, or are headed to a runoff.
Recount battle brewing in Florida’s 13th District. Yes, that’s Katherine Harris’ district.
TPM Reader CC …
Following up on another reader’s comments on how the MSM has totally absorbed the right’s framing of the political conversation:
Very frustrating to watch Russert et al. on the morning shows and to hear all the “what ifs” about Democrats in the house turning the place into a circus of hearings, subpoenas, etc. and the prospective difficulties of working with ultraliberal wackadoo Nancy Pelosi.
Why isn’t this news presented for what it is — a blunt rejection of the president, his party, and their conduct of the last few years.
Voters are saying they want accountability and answers to very important questions on Iraq and a host of other issues, something they have been unjustly denied by Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, and co.
If it takes subpoenas to get that accountability and those answers, so be it.
At the moment, I’m going on just a few hours sleep. So a detailed post just isn’t in me. But a lot of the names in DC have built their reputations, meal tickets and most importantly their world view around the Republicans. I mean, Mark Halperin needs someone to abase himself to, right? Don’t expect that to change overnight. That’s a battle to be engaged.
So George Allen has Ed Gillespie to help him try to steal the Virginia election. But seriously, read this post from last night.
And let’s also take a look at those voter suppression activities the Allen campaign pulled yesterday, the ones the Feds are already looking at.
Here’s what the Democrats are saying about what to expect in the coming days as the votes are counted in Virginia and Montana.
Update: Election Central has a primer on how recounts work in the two states.