How We Loved Tuesday's Massacre!

Instead of getting to be on-line all day today, to savor the news from last night, we've had to be on the road most of the day, so I'm just now pulling up a padded chair to the howling internet. No doubt you already know the high spots:

1. Nut-job Vernon Robinson, who gave Madame Virginia Foxx such right-wing fits in last year's Republican primaries, got booted off the Winston-Salem City Council.

2. Eight -- count 'em! -- Republican members of the Dover, Pa., school board, the bunch that smuggled creationism back into the school curriculum under the guise of "intelligent design," were relieved of duty en masse by eight Democrats who explicitly supported the teaching of evolution.

3. Oh, yeah, and that business about the two guvs of Virginia and New Jersey.

4. All of Governor Terminator's ballot initiatives in California went down to defeat -- every last one.

5. A whole host of other bright spots, from big-city mayors, to more Dems in the Virginia House of Delegates, but we haven't had the proper time yet to fully landscape that garden.

No, what we MOST wanted to read were the pundits of what our bartender at the Whiskey Bar calls "Right Blogostan," to see how they would spin these losses (but really we just wanted to watch 'em bleed). Here's a quick and highly arbitrary tour (click the boldfaced names below to get the links):

Tammy Bruce: "I'm sad to see Arnold's propositions have gone down .... I'm particularly sad because it's not good for any of us to have Arnold lose one; this cuts down on his political capital, and I had hoped that he might help lead the entire Republican party in the right direction (i.e., sensible fiscal policies and tolerant but non-kooky social policies). If Arnold can"t show Republicans the way, then who will?"

GOP Bloggers: "What happened in California yesterday was just sad .... To make things worse, they also rejected parental notification for minors seeking abortions ... Which is perhaps what disturbs me most about how Californians voted."

Kevin McCullough: "So where was the one lone bright spot for values based voters? Texas voters by 76% rejected changing the definition of marriage to include homosexual unions. Like so many other states the laws in Texas did not previously allow such unions to be called marriage, but this action was taken so as to prevent activist judges from overreaching and redefining something against the expressed will of the voters. And voters spoke loudly at a 3 to 1 ratio making it clear what the intent of the people is!"

Outside the Beltway: "Most of the political analysis leading up to and now reporting on yesterday's numerous state and local races focused on what message it would send about national politics. A win by Republicans would help President Bush while a win by Democrats would signal that the country is tired of Republican leadership, an ominous harbinger for the 2006 Congressional elections and the 2008 presidential race. Such analysis is, in a word, nonsense."

Michelle Malkin: "The Dems may have claimed victory in NJ and Va., but I think it's still too early to proclaim this the 'Night of The Democrats,' as the Drudge Report headline is calling it. The Soros-backed election 'reform' measures in Ohio look like they're going down in flames. And the night is still young in California... Still, the Virginia loss should trouble the GOP greatly. Turnout didn't happen, and party leaders have some 'splainin' to do."

Alexander McClure: "The bright side, if there is one, is that the Republicans won both the Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General races [in Virginia]. That means the Democrats do not have any heavyweight contender for the nomination in 2009. But I won't predict the GOP picks up Virginia in 2009. Knowing the Republican Party, it will have a brutal and vicious primary. Nice job GOP. Nice job George Allen. I hope Republicans across America don't allow you anywhere near the podium on the final night of the 2008 Republican Convention."

Curious ... no right-wing bloggers that I can find (admittedly on the fly) are wrapping themselves in the reelection of Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg of NYC. Could it be because he's L-I-B-E-R-A-L?

It's a sad commentary indeed -- poor Kevin McCullough! -- to be forced to find solace in the fact that Texans really really really hate gay people (every last one of them ... except the organists in First Baptist Churches all over the Lone Star State).

And, yes, the winner of the election in Virginia may really be Mark Warner, the soon to be ex-governor and future candidate for president. But I'm actually more impressed that yesterday also curiously helps John McCain tremendously, and Chuck Hagel, a couple of Republican renegades who might now be positioned to come riding in on steeds of moderation (is that a contradiction in terms?) to take a defeated and decimated Republican Party back to the center after the elections of 2006.