After almost six years of flipping through news channels to watch Comedy Central, sports or a movie so I wouldn't become repulsed at the sight of Bush or some other arrogant republican gloating about their latest divisive, hypocritical tactic, I spent much of the wee hours on Wednesday morning glued to the tube.
I couldn't stop watching right-wing media types like Scarborough openly admit the Republicans got drunk with power after 1994 and botched their shot to retain the House. I laughed as other less honest
commentators tried to spin it by saying the Dems elected were conservatives or the Dems needed to all of a sudden "work" with Bush.
I really laughed as DeLay claimed his indictment was not related to his lust for power to redraw Texas Congressional seats. DeLay guaranteed Reps would win back the House in 2008, as he continued to
support Rumsfeld, even as Bush was finally firing the guy. Talk about being disconnected from reality. DeLay was on another solar system, bound for a jumpsuit and a 3 a.m. wake-up appointment with a cellmate.
It was great theater. I finally turned off the tube at 4 a.m. and woke before 8 to watch some more.
I used to be a TV and newspaper junkie, but I kicked the habit after Bush stole the White House to get hooked on something more sensible, such as the online experience. But my addiction is back. You never know how much you miss an addiction until it returns.
Here are some random thoughts on this election and the aftermath:
* It's amazing with all the blatant cheating by Reps that Dems did so well. I mean, just amazing. I'm more amazed than I was when Clinton beat H.W. Bush in 1992. The cheating by Reps was so official that many state Republican parties published actual manuals on how to intimidate voters at the polls, giving such instructions as to threaten judges with jail time if they refused challenges. After all the robo-calling, all the bussed-in homeless people to distribute lying "voter guides" that claimed phony endorsements, all the disgustingly dishonest ads,
all the calls and fliers about polling places supposedly being moved and arrest threats at the polls, Dems still won more seats than most, especially me, thought they would.
* Allen's people talking about letting the process play out and counting all votes and so on sounded a lot like what Gore's people said in Florida in 2000. Should we not organize "Sore Loserman"
protests in front of Allen's home and semi-riots outside the vote-counting process? The former would be cool, not so sure about the latter – don't know that we want to go too far in playing the other side's role in this replay.
* Another act of poetic justice was both 2000 Bush theft architect Katherine Harris and 2004 Harris wannabe Ken Blackwell losing big in the same election. Blackwell even conceded before a single vote was counted.
* Having a Democratic governor in Ohio is big, especially related to the 2008 presidential election. Sherrod Brown, Ohio's new democratic senator, said on Al Franken's radio show on Wednesday that Democrats plan to first work on some issues that many Republicans can agree upon, such as education programs and raising the minimum wage. That's smart not to start off on some hot-button issue like a national health insurance program, although something needs to be done on that front soon. Brown also mentioned how Republican dirty tricks have been in play for decades, including intimidation at the polls in a race he was involved in during the early 1980s.
* With so many races that went the Dems' way, what happened to the hacking of the vote that was supposed to occur with the Diebold electronic balloting machines? Did the hackers have a change of heart and revolt against Rove? Or was the vote against Bush and Congressional Reps even more lopsided than it showed? One of the few key races lost by Dems – the senator election in Tennessee – was only taken after Republicans ran a racist ad suggesting that Harold Ford slept with a white Playboy bunny.
Well, it's back to feed my addiction..... I hope to enjoy it for a long while.
-Jackson Thoreau is a Washington, D.C.-area journalist/writer. His latest book, "Born to Cheat: How Bush, Cheney, Rove & Co. Broke the Rules, From the Sandlot to the White House," is due out in late 2006. He can be contacted at jacksonthor@gmail.com.
