Two–Four: “‘Off With Their Heads’
Watch for a Dick Morris column tomorrow in which he lays substantial blame for the Republicans’ disaster at the feet of House leadership, with emphasis on Hastert and Frist. I think he might get fairly close to some fact and truth.

Dennis Hastert is a goddamned idiot. Beyond the sort of pig-eyed machinations finely contrived for wedging himself into place in the House, he couldn’t think his way between Goldwater and LBJ in a straight line, and I don’t believe that he would care even if he could.

Yesterday, a great deal of Body Mass Index went under the wheels of people who know what they’re doing in ways that these imbeciles just can’t imagine.”

Two–Four: ‘And while I thought he should be replaced, I found the manner and the moment of his purge utterly disgusting. What was the rush? It was one of the worst moments of W’s presidency. It was a double surrender by the president, throwing a severed head to the Democrats and to the terrorists.’
(Michael Ledeen on the sack of Rumsfeld)”

The Plank: “It would be great if TNR could do an article on whether the 50 state strategy worked. Since we just got a landslide victory and were in play nationwide it seems strange to have knives out for Dean. Am I missing something here? It seems like we managed both a big win and party building, which is the best of both worlds. “

Crooks and Liars: “Atrios:
…………… at least that’s what I keep hearing. So, I bring you the conservative agenda
Read on…
As SusanG at dKos says: We’re All Conservatives Now .
On a related note, PBS’s NOW offered an examination of the role liberal bloggers played in Tester’s candidacy. Read it here. “

“En Vogue Tour Journal – Rehearsal 1”: “August 31, 1992
Los Angeles
Rehearsal 1

We do our most important work like elves.

During the day, we work with wrenches, screwdrivers, and meters. We tweak the design, change bulbs, re-assign dimmers…hardware stuff. We’re in the company of band gear guys, the set carpenter, runners, and various other production types. This project has more than a dozen people onstage during the show; players, dancers, and the Funky Divas from Oakland who are En Vogue. During the day, the entire entourage makes this old (1914) silent film stage a very busy place.

K.C. and Greg, the backline gearheads, occupy a dressing room jammed with electronics racks, keyboards, computers, cables, connectors, soldering gear, and guitars. They shuttle gear and floppy disks back and forth to the stage. They do things that we don’t know anything about, except when we hear an occasional blast of sound from the monitors announcing a new keyboard patch or DAT run.

David and Scott (known to us as the ‘Buttata-Heads’) work the sound rig. We don’t know what they do, the almost traditional, invisible walls between sound and lights people being what they are. However, they work quite hard with tapes, patches, mixes, microphones, and who knows what other sorts of hum”

John Albert Burks #644: “Abeline ReporterNews.Com
‘Convicted Killer of Waco Tortilla Shop Owner Executed,’ by Michael Graczyk.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas parolee and twice-convicted burglar was executed Wednesday evening for fatally shooting a Waco tortilla shop owner during an unsuccessful robbery more than 11 years ago. In a brief final statement, John Albert Burks, 44, greeted some relatives who served as witnesses and told them it was “going to be all right.” Burks said “the Raiders are going all the way y’all.” He looked at his witnesses and told them: “You pray for me, it’s going to be all right.” Then he told the warden, “It’s going down, let’s get it over with. Y’all take care.” “

Bush Pledges to Work With Democrats – Examiner.com: ”

WASHINGTON – President Bush pledged Wednesday to work with Democrats after the ‘thumping’ his party got on Election Day. He named a new defense secretary to oversee the war in Iraq, a change the president said was going to happen whoever won the elections.

Bush said former CIA Director Robert Gates would replace Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. The president said Rumsfeld was a ‘patriot who served this country with honor and distinction.’
Bush said he had been talking with Rumsfeld about whether it was time for a fresh perspective at the department, and the two agreed Tuesday that it was appropriate for Rumsfeld to resign.
‘He, himself, understands that Iraq is not working well enough, fast enough,’ Bush said. The president planned to meet with Rumsfeld and Gates on Wednesday afternoon in the Oval Office.
Bush called Democratic leaders to congratulate them on their victories in Tuesday’s voting and he expressed both disappointment and surprise over the election results. He admitted that he wrongly predicted a Republican victory on Election Day.
‘Actually, I thought we were going to do fine yesterday, shows what I know,’ Bush said. ‘But I thought we were going to be fine in the election. My point to you is that, win or lose, Bob Gates was going to become the nominee.’
Bush seemed stoic about the election, proclaiming: ‘This isn’t my first rodeo.’
‘I recognize that many Americans voted last “

One of the most moronic media lines last night, and continuing through today, is how ‘conservative’ these newly elected Democrats are.
Except, that they’re not. In the Senate:
Bernie Sanders, VT: So conservative that he’s a ‘socialist’. His National Journal ‘liberal’ rating is 89.7 (out of 100).
Sherrod Brown, OH: NJ liberal rating is 84.2. For comparison’s sake, Harold Ford — a real conservative Democrat — had a 58.3 rating.
Sheldon Whitehouse, RI: An unabashed liberal in every definition of the word. I mean, he defeated a liberal Republican.
Claire McCaskill, MO: She’s a progressive on every major issue. In fact, it was one of the GOP’s lines of attacks against her. As the conservative Real Clear Politics wrote in its race summary:
State Auditor Claire McCaskill lost a close governor’s race two years ago to Gov. Matt Blunt 51% – 48% and thus starts out of the gate with a high level of name recognition and a solid base of support. However, McCaskill lost 90 out of 97 counties statewide and has a problem of being perceived as too liberal outside of metro St. Louis and Kansas City. Missouri is a relatively, culturally conservative state that President Bush won by 3% in 2000 and 7% in 2004 and running the standard Republican playbook hitting McCaskill as too liberal on judges, the war, and taxes should be enough for Talent to carry the day.
Amy Klobuchar, MN: There’s nothing ‘conservative’ about our newest senator from one of the bluest states in the union.
Jon Tester, MT: One of the people accused of being a ‘conservative’ Dem, yet he’s against flag burning amendment, against an amendment banning gay marriage, against the Patriot Act, and against t”