Hank Kalet

Want analysis of last night’s public flogging of the Republicans? Forget the gibberish being offered by all those useless talking heads on the cable shows, just read this post by David Corn on his Capital Games blog on The Nation‘s Web site. A sample:

There is no way to spin the election results. They were a repudiation of George W. Bush, his party, his agenda, and his war. The commander in chief argues that he is fighting a war in Iraq that is essential to the survival of the United States. The electorate sent a message: we don’t buy it. Political genius Karl Rove and GOP chieftain Ken Mehlman, with their scare tactics (defeatist Democrats will surrender to the terrorists; Nancy Pelosi will destroy the nation) and below-the-belt ads, were not able to defy popular sentiment. Comeuppance was the order of the day. Because of Bush, R became a scarlet letter. In Rhode Island, incumbent Republican Senator Lincoln Chaffee, a moderate who voted against the war in 2002 and against Bush in 2004, enjoyed a 66 percent approval rating; still, voters sent him packing. Children, pay attention. If you’re a president who misleads the nation into war and then mismanages that war, you might sneak past a reelection but then bring ruin upon your party. The Bush-wreaked reality trumped the Rove-designed rhetoric–finally. The voters chose not to stay his course. The market worked.

Yes. It certianly did.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Bob Menendez, as The Opinion Mill points out, voted against the war and has remained against the war ever since.

Jim Tester was critical of the war and appears to have defeated Conrad Burns in Montana.

Sheldon Whitehouse opposed the war and while his opponent, the incumbent Republican Lincoln Chafee, is rather independent, that big fat R on his chest and the party’s responsibility for the war was the “decider” here.

I could go on, but it might be better to just read this from John Nichols.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

First, it was weapons of mass destruction.

Then, it was to fight terrorism.

Then, it was to foster democracy.

Then, it was human rights.

Then, it was terrorism again.

And now, what?? What? Oil? It couldn’t be.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Fifteen was the magic number and it appears the Democrats are there.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

No surprises in South Brunswick. The Democrats won with a huge margin and the Republicans continued their descent into complete irrelevancy. (The lone surprise was the number of write-ins — more than a thousand, about one in nine votes cast.)

The GOP is likely to cast blame around with the targets likely to be everything from the Middlesex County Democratic machine (legitimate target) to the local Democrats’ money advantage (again, legitimate) to the South Brunswick Post (if only we had the kind of influence the GOP thinks we do).

One target likely to escape blame, however, will be their party’s leadership. The fact is, the party has failed its faithful, running a cast of mediocre candidates for years, candidates who have offered little in the way of vision and little to convince local voters that they should be elected to replace the incumbents.

If money was the only issue, if the party was running strong candidates or offering a compelling sense of where the township should be heading, it wouldn’t be losing by two-to-one margins, as it did this year.

Think about this: There was enough disenchantment with the incumbent mayor that a write-in camapaign against him managed to garner more than a thousand votes — an amazing feat given that writing in a candidate is not the easiest of processes.

If the GOP wants to be relevant again, it needs to find fresh faces and new leadership.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick