The Dish

Was this ironic:

Now that it’s past midnight, I begin my Santorum for SecDef campaign. Rumsfeld will likely resign before year is out. And so …

The entertainment over at NRO is quite spectacular.

Money paragraph:

We need to refocus on our conservative principles of less government, lower taxes, less regulation, strong national defense, judicial restraint, and fiscal conservatism. We have a very vibrant and strong party and a philosophy that works. We just have to recommit ourselves to better serving the American people.

No mention of same-sex marriage, abortion or stem cell research? There are signs of life in the conservative soul. Maybe some of them will even read my book, making the case for just such a return to basics.

The obvious result of last night’s returns is the complete historical and geographical inversion of what was once the Republican Party. Nixon’s cynical Southern strategy has now been played out to the nth degree – and, after a good period of opportunistic success, it has failed. All the states Lincoln fought against are now the bastions of his own party. And most of the rest of the country – especially the sane, common sense conservatives of the MidWest whence Lincoln himself hailed – have been forced into the Democratic camp. Formerly solid, freedom-loving Republican states, like California, are now overwhelmingly Democratic.

The GOP is now very much the party of Dixie; and the consequence of this election is that the Congressional leadership is even more Southern than it was before. The irony is that it was the moderate Republicans who were disproportionately punished electorally by the extremists in their midst. And so the party that lost because of its extremists now sees itself more dominated by the extremists. Nixon’s cynical ploy – played beyond the extreme by Rove – has, in other words, come back to haunt and defeat his party in the end. Because it over-reached.

So now the battle for the soul of conservatism can begin in earnest. Either the Democrats will capture it; or the Republicans will recapture it. My manifesto is here. I’m open to debate it anywhere anytime.

A handy primer.

… McCain! I mean: who else? He’s been president for six years, hasn’t he? Money quote:

The long and short of this bad but not horrific night was that majorities must act like majorities.  The public cares little for the "traditions" of the Senate or the way the appropriations process used to work.  It demands results.  Handed a large majority, the GOP frittered it away. 

The chief fritterer was Senator McCain and his Gang of 14 and Kennedy-McCain immigration bill, supplemented by a last minute throw down that prevented the NSA bill from progressing or the key judicial nominations from receiving a vote.  His accomplice in that master stroke was Senator Graham.  Together they cost their friend Mike DeWine his seat in the Senate, and all their Republican colleagues their chairmanships.  Senator McCain should rethink his presidential run.  Amid the ruins of the GOP’s majority there is a clear culprit.

What else does Baghdad Bob Hewitt say? Ah, yes, this:

"…Senator Santorum is now available for a seat on the SCOTUS should one become available."

Clinical.

A pathetic scene from a polling station in Philadelphia, where a legally qualified polling officer is barred from entering a station in urban Philly to ensure fair practices. The cops do nothing.

That’s the question. A reader sums up the argument:

Assuming that the Dems get the Senate, could Rove’s final play be: Bush accepts Rumsfeld’s resignation, appoints Independent Lieberman as Secretary of Defense and Connecticut Governor Rell (Republican) appoints a Republican to fill Lieberman’s Senate seat, putting the Senate under effective Republican control with Cheney’s vote as tie breaker?

That is possible, but it would, I think, be politically suicidal for the president. (Still, his campaign rhetoric was suicidal, so maybe he’ll stay that way.) If Lieberman holds the key to a Senate majority, appointing him SecDef would be too political a move, even for Bush. It would divide far more than it would unite.

But there I go again, giving Bush the benefit of the doubt. He’s done crazier things, hasn’t he?

(Photo: Bob Falcetti/Getty.)

Joe Lieberman seconds my suggestion. Anyone who actually wants to win the war should. Of course, that hasn’t yet included the president, who would rather lose a war than concede any mistakes. And Mike Allen says he’s in no mood for magnanimity. Three words for POTUS: get over yourself.

It’s a Sunshine Day!

Money quote from the AP:

In a triple setback for conservatives, South Dakotans rejected a law that would have banned virtually all abortions, Arizona became the first state to defeat an amendment to ban gay marriage and Missouri approved a measure backing stem cell research.

Barry Goldwater’s state voted against discriminating against gay citizens in its own constitution, despite John McCain’s vociferous support. Long live Goldwater.