Jeff Merkley pulls it out in Oregon
By David Neiwert Thursday Nov 06, 2008 5:30amIt 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.
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It's 60 Senators who will stand with the Democrats.
So long as there are moral cowards, spineless weaklings, and dino's sitting in the Senate, there will not be a filibuster proof majority.
Sure, almost every Democrat wanted Lieberman out. But how many are calling for Nancy "impeachment is off the table" Pelosi to be replaced? Who is calling for Harry "Joe is a friend of mine" Reid to be replaced?
The Democrats have enough right-wingers and right-wing apologists in their ranks without getting distracted looking for this magical 60 number, as if that's going to solve the problem. It won't.
I guess I voted for Salazar here in Colorado so I can watch his damn Blue-dog ass. He is a spineless wimp but I could not go for his republican opponent because no republicans have not shown a hint of independence (save for Hagel and that was only his opposition to the invasion!!)
Remember, The other Bush Doctrine(I'm only President to those who voted for me) is over. Obama will be able to work with moderate Repubs.
who will stand with the Democrats. Not 60 Democrats.
We need some public mechanism to call out the obstructionist Dubyacrats and make their political lives miserable when they pull out the usual crap.
Maybe recall campaigns need to become a more common occurence to keep these renegades in line?
Senate rule 22 allows the Senate to invoke a cloture; which automatically ends a fillibuster and puts any bill to a vote. It takes a 3/5th vote to invoke a cloture on a bill; which is exactly 60 Senators if all 100 Senators are Present.
Did you just read the headline, is that it?
The blogosphere has been proven to be an essential weapon against the Authoritarians.
The Authoritarian minority set a record for filibustering in the last two years.
It will be up to the netroots to raise holy hell every time these yahoos try to stop the forward progress of our country.
Al Franken might win in a hand recount in Minnesota.
A runoff vote could be won in Georgia with organizing efforts for Dec. 2nd.
And I can't believe Ted Stevens won in Alaska. Mark Begich was predicted by all the accurate polling to have that seat no problem.
We need true election reform in this country removing private software and private machines from our democracy.
the electronic voting machines.
Election reform needs to be the top priority.
Before it is too late.
After seeing Steven's get re-elected, suddenly that whole Palin thing makes sense. Those people must have permafrost surrouding their frontal lobe.
Than party affiliation.
Do not advocate that Democratic membership alone is worthy of blind support. if you do, you run the risk of falling into the same trap that destroyed the Gingrich "Republican" revolution.
Advocate, instead, for honesty and integrity.
We (the progressive blogosphere) reclaim our nation by being a louder voice than the corporate lobbyist backed interests. But by loudly proclaiming "DEMOCRAT OR NOTHING", you seem to advocating that a good 30% of the country no longer deserves representation.
That's as unamerican as Sarah Palin and Karl Rove.
Country first was one of their slogans. When they waved that flag, it's irony was not lost on me, as they were publicly advocating just the opposite. We all publicly decried Rove's "Permanent Republican Majority" and that majority wound up killing itself.
Why would you think a "Permanent Democratic Majority" would be immune to the same destructive forces?
Just sayin.
what is progressive!
It's a realistic approach towards governance, I suppose. One not rooted in party loyalty.
Some "progessives" stand for reflexive attacks on all politicians who don't measure up to an idealized or rampantly ideological position. Obama hadn't been President-elect for a full 24 hours before he was being accused of being little different from McCain.
Other progressives have a realistic approach to moving political and corporate governance (incrementally) towards certain communitarian principles.
I know plenty of people who focus mostly on the similarities of Obama and McCain, more to stem the tide of insane messiahanism that seemed to follow Obama.
He won't fix all ills. He won't close guantanamo. He won't repeal the Patriot Act. He won't go after the telecoms for spying on Americans. He won't berate the NSA. etc...
And those people didn't wait until he was elected to make those points. They've been making them ever since he got the nomination.
U must be a Progressive, if you wouldn't be caught alive or dead at a Harold Ford DLC meeting.
It's a simple three step process to BE a Progressive:
1. If you believe the long held base principles of the Democratic party are worth fighting for and worth holding your ground for, rather than capitulating to your opponent in the sole desire to please your opponents - then you are almost a Progressive.
2. If you've boldly held your ground, yet cannot move forward because you face a worthy opponent willing to hold his ground for the sake of his values and principles, and then take the higher road by reaching out to him in a good faith effort -because that's who you are - an effort that demands each give something to the other in order to move forward together - then you are almost Progressive.
3. And after boldly holding your ground and reaching out to the other for a dialogue, should your opponent not respond favorably, nor show any willingness to find an equitable solution, as in any Court of law - you declare his failure to respond and you boldly continue moving forward in whatever manner is available to you, reaping all the benefits and with no liabilty for his losses, hoping he learns his lesson that you are honorable -but will take him down in a heartbeat if he won't play nice, then you have officially become a Progressive.
Pelosi gets it- but Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer, Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid play both sides against each other for their donors and their own self interests.
That's why the statement ends in an exclamation point!
And, that's the gist of my comment in the post about Latino voters.
Just so I can beat ysbaddaden to it, isn't it illegal to "pull it out" in Oregon, especially if there are other people around?
Well, that was fun. ;)
Wouldn't you pull both of them out? :)
I was representing ysbaddaden, not myself. ;)
And I was just getting warmed up.:)
Oregon has always given us the best, some of the most progressive folks from both sides of the aisle. The stench will be gone soon.
Finally that wad is out on his ass!
Any likely prospects to pick up more Senate seats then? Or is it too early to ask?
Just that it might be a more realistic option of getting 60 Senators and even more of an incentive (if one were already needed) to do a good job over the next 2 years.
Let's see what can be done for Al Franken, or Jim Martin, or Mark Begich....all of whom appear to have similarly tight races (although Jim Martin's seems somewhat of a lost cause now).
Inasmuch as I'd *like* to see a Dem Super-Majority, I'd like even more to see all the votes counted, and nobody's voice muted.
This, and Joe Lieberman losing his committee seats....
last half-hour, NPR reported it still in doubt?
If you go to CNN election results and check the State, then Senate race and click on the counties icon, you will see that the two largest counties went overwhelmingly for Merkley 325000 to 130,000. They are also two of the few remaining counties that still have "significant" numbers of votes that have not yet been counted.
If you went there yesterday, you knew Merkley had it won before they called it. He is only going to uncrease his margin of victory at this point.
I don't think OPB (local NPR) will call this until all the votes have been counted, because the State isn't officially calling it until then. It looks like this may finally be done by this afternoon.
Smith is refusing to concede, and doesn't really have any reason to. It's delusional to think he can come from behind at this point, because most of the remaining ballots are from Lane (Eugene) and Multnomah (Portland) counties, which are solidly Democratic.
I hope Al Franken can win. I've been following his myspace page for ages, and the strain of his campaign is too much to bear. What a crime that Coleman used Franken's comic skits against him. I'm not optimistic in the recount garnering Al many more votes. He's got to have a miracle.
Bill Hedrick is still battling for Ken Calvert's seat in the California 44 Congressional District. He's trailing by about 4,000 votes but a lot of people had to use provisional ballots because they showed up to vote where they've been voting since 1985 and were told they weren't on the role. This happened in the area where Bill had his strongest support.
From an e-mail...
If you voted on a provisional ballot (and apparently this happened a lot in Corona, Norco, and the east side of Riverside), or if you voted-by-mail, call the registrar's office and ask that every ballot be counted. We do not need a Florida-style controversy in Riverside County! We are consulting with attorneys to ensure the integrity of the voting (and counting!) process, and we will keep you posted. We have had--and will continue to have--observers in Riverside and Santa Ana as the ballot verification continues.
It would be nice to have, but it will probably not be necessary. I suspect that President Obama will be able to work like Reagan and get the citizenry to hold the feet of their Senators to the fire. If Obama can help instill in these Senators the fear of the people rather than the fear of their party or the moneyed fat-cats then maybe the Senate will start to resemble a democratic—small "d"&mdas; institution once again.
Another plus is that if we're not right at 60, we can put an end to all of this kow-towing to the execrable Zell Lieberman.
The Oregonian is now reporting that Gordon Smith phoned Merkley this morning to congratulate him.
and proud to be a registered Oregon voter. To know that my little drop in the bucket helped not only Obama win the White House but send Jeff Merkley to Congress. I have never in my whole life ever felt like my vote mattered more than I did in this election, and so proud of my country for finally, finally getting it right. Believe me, the world is not only happy for us, there's a collective sigh of relief that can be heard around the whole planet.
To those who are warning us about the Obama messianic fervour, don't worry. We've been so cynical for such a long time, it's not an easy habit to shake off. But for now, let's just enjoy the very short-term glow of a victory a long, long time in coming, then harness that enthusiasm and energy and get some real work done before it's all back to business as usual. The honeymoon is going to be bloody short - so let's put some serious momentum behind that rolling ball now.
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