Now That’s The Pluck I Expect from Corner Readers [Jonah Goldberg]

Quote of the Day, from a reader on Obama’s victory:

It’s kind of like being diagnosed with testicular cancer. You hope to live through the treatment, but you don’t look forward to what you’re about to lose.

11/05 09:26 AM

You know, I was thinking I would so enjoy watching their heads explode, but this is just sa…

Oh, who am I trying to kid? Pass the popcorn please.

I’m kind of looking forward to COS Rahm telling the Repubs to “shove it.” I’m thinking he gets to play bad cop to Obama’s good cop.

And as far as the medical conditions of Corner Readers, I think syphilis is a more apt metaphor.

Heh, can you tell I’m not ready to make nice?

Is that “Moran” guy Joe the plumber before he went bald?

Except for the bigots, rascists, and end-timers, I don’t think a lot of moderate Republicans are going to lose much sleep with Obama and the Democrats in charge. I’ll bet more than a few are actually relieved to know they can bitch on the sidelines while Democrats fix the economy and our international reputation. Their rhetoric is always more effective when they don’t actually have to apply their theories to real world application.

Get a brian, you brianless moran.

Well, the glow from last night lasted…last night.

In the light of morning, with several of the Worst and Dimmest returning to their Congressional seats; with Prop 8 not soundly defeated; with over 50 million votes for a campaign that offered nothing but hate, ignorance, and the worst of America…well, my hard-won cynicism is not exactly having to search hard for sustenance.

Meet the new America; not really all that diferent from yesterday’s America.

I hear ya, but I still have to disagree. We won. They lost. And I’ve still got that Steely Dan song going through my head.

Have to agree; America couldn’t even figure how to retire Ted Stevens properly even though he was convicted of a felony. Looks like Michelle Bachmann is back in DC, too. Whee.

A buddy of mine just gushed how great it was that we have “a new president!” Yeah, that’s great and all — but he’s in charge of the most pathetically dysfunctional nation of morans and bigots. Good luck to him — now let’s see how much change he can/will put in place and how fast.

Which is why hiring Rahm Emmanuel to do anything of real importance would be a bad sign: that little shit did everything he could to stop the Democratic party from moving so much as an inch away from the embarrassing Blue Dog school of selling out back in ‘06. He’s exactly the kind of guy who’ll keep Obama from achieving anything meaningful to change how the farm is run. Emmanuel will bask in the glow of his new-found power and then proceed to bitch about the mess the previous tenants left, and then rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. He’s not what’s needed right now.

Prop H8 got passed – that’s heartbreaking. Ted Stevens and Michele Bachman have return engagements on Capitol Hill – that’s crazy. But Liddy Dole, John Sununu, Chris Shays and I forget who else will be issued packing boxes when they arrive at their offices in DC. And Barack Obama has made sure that Grampy McSame will be able to retire in comfort sooner than later.

Happy Schadenfreude Wednesday, y’all.

Other shorter right wing commentariat, blogosphere, dead-enders, and talking heads:

The fact that that corrupt Marxist Black Liberationist socialist terrorist-loving America-hating drug-dealing adulterous secret muslim communist was decisively elected President proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that we really are a conservative nation, just like I’ve been saying all along.

Jesus, it’s like a digby thread in here. Emmanuel is a nutcracker — that’s what a Cheif of Staff needs to do. Dick Cheney was Ford’s Cheif of Staff, and Ford wasn’t a raving wingnut, nor did he govern like one. Why do you think Emmanuel’s politics will have anything to do with an Obama presidency’s? He serves at the pleasure of the President, not vice-versa.

And America had nothing to do with Ted Stevens. The stupid hillbillies in Alaska did. Same with the idiots in 1 MN congressional district with their choice of the batshit insane Bachman. There are plenty of stupid Americans.

But America voted in a wildly smart black guy with the middle name of Hussein for fucksake. Overwhelmingly. If you can’t gin up even a little of optimism that, at the very least, our country won’t be governed by an ignoramus for the next several years then what’s the point of caring what happened at all?

Seconded.

And it’s just getting started. I predict that the “progressive” blogosphere come February is gonna make the Hillary-Obama wars look like a frikkin tea party.

Maybe, my original point has been misunderstood. So let me restate it in “shorter” fashion, using the words of Winston Wolf:

“Let’s not start sucking each others’ dicks just yet.”

“I can’t believe this is the same car country.”

TBoggs. I love your visuals, but in the future have mercy on my insane love of the Cards and blur their name on this morans T-shirt. The horror…

Oh, heaps of optimism over the fact that America elected Obama. Heaps. But let’s moderate the euphoria with a healthy dose of “the day after” realism that the degree of change we’re about to see is going to depend on a) how much the morons who insisted on reelecting a felon and a rabid racist are able to influence the compromising that will be needed to accomplish anything, and b) how much Obama is willing to pre-emptively compromise, e.g. by picking someone like Emmanuel to screen his calls for him. “Emmanuel is a nutcracker — that’s what a Cheif of Staff needs to do.

All depends who you consider to be the nuts here, doesn’t it? If the “clean coal” lobbyists get his direct line while the single payer health advocates get told by Emmanuel to go take a running jump, well…

According to my latest text message from MSNBC, Rahm hasn’t accepted the job.

I wouldn’t go crazy yet, at least wait until Jan 30, 2009.

More good news: Colorado’s Marilyn Musgrave was resoundingly defeated by a smart lady democrat. That’s a victory for gay abortionists everywhere!

So when do we open the re-education camps? Can we start now or do we have to wait for the inauguration?

</snark>

There will not be organized retribution against the obstructionists and morans across the aisle (Dems don’t do organization) but they’ll still find something to play the victim about. There’s too much real work to be done to bother with that and I look forward to some real work getting done in the people’s house.

At the same time, I have to wonder what the incompetent incumbent can screw up in the next 76 days

Well, Harry could start tomorrow with throwing Short Ride down the Capitol’s marble steps…(from Raw):

“Thursday will be Senator Lieberman’s “day of reckoning,” according to a Capitol Hill paper.

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is scheduled to meet with Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) on Thursday to discuss his future in the Senate Democratic Conference, according to a Democratic Senate source,” Tim Taylor reports for Roll Call.

Taylor notes that “a growing number of Senate Democrats have been pressuring Reid to penalize Lieberman for aggressively backing Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in this year’s presidential contest,” and that his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and his place in the Democratic Conference are both “at stake.”

Yeah, it’s much more productive to bitch and whine about how nothing has changed in the few hours after an election, lest anyone decide to feel optimistic for a few minutes.

And thingwarbler, can you find me a single person — anywhere — who thinks that electing Obama was the only thing that needed to be done? If so, then I think your point is fair. Otherwise, the real day after realists aren’t making up elaborate hypotheticals that in the yet-to-exist Obama Administration, the Chief of Staff will really be the power behind it, and the decision maker in it.

Yes, much to be excited about. The Alan Grayson win alone was enough to make me thrilled about the results. He’s made a career out of taking on war profiteers…and winning!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61dD4X8Doa0

Plus, he’s extremely funny judging by his FDL live chats. Bonus. Add in Donna Edwards, Jim Himes (who picked a blogger as his campaign manager) and many others like these, and we’ve made incredible progress between the 06 and 08 elections.

We’ve got two years until the next elections, and right now we can start keeping them honest and pushing them to the Left. And the fact that Obama has organized Dems to levels never seen before shows that it is possible to herd cats. There’s a lot of people out there now with organizing skills and excitement. I like our chances.

That million-dollar donor drive for Bachmann’s opponent would have been better spent on paying people $100 every time they tell her she’s a raving loon to her face. To paraphrase Roman Hruska, loons need representation too.

As for Saudi Alaska, it’ll be funny if Tubes gets expelled by the Senate, then wins the special election. Because Alaskans would do that.

Never understood why that dude in the photo hates ABC News anchors so much. Weird.
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=127239

If you hire a gatekeeper to do your gatekeeping for you, the person you hire to place at your door says something about the kind of company you want — and don’t want. Emmanuel has been very clear about what kind of Democrat he listens to and helps, and what kind he ignores completely and works hard to get rid of. I have to assume that he’s being considered for the job based on his track record, not in spite of it.

We’re already hearing rumblings in the MSM about how Obama better ignore the rabid left wingers and keep moving to the center to show that his talk of bipartisanship is for real.

Of course it’s great to have Obama in the White House, and there’s every reason to believe that he will stay focused on the promises he made and the mandate he got for some real change; Emmanuel may even turn out to do a fine job as a CoS. But those of us who have misgivings about his proposed policies (e.g. see Krugman on his health care plan) and were dismayed over his stance on FISA (see Greenwald) etc. etc. reluctantly acknowledged that we shouldn’t rock the boat during the election and that there were things he supposedly “had to do” to get elected. Now we’re being told there are things he’ll “have to do” to get things done and that we should just enjoy the fact that he’s there. Of course he’ll have to compromise — but it remains to be seen just how eager Obama is to push the envelope back to the left in order to at the very least undo eight years of relentless slippage to the right.

I’m not pissing on the parade, I’m simply wondering what kind of administration his will be. YMMV.

I think this outlook reflects an historical artifact of Republican governance. I have no doubts that Micheal Deaver was the operative brains behind Reagan and Erlichmann may have had the same role with Nixon. Cheney certainly did with Ford and I’m sure Bush the Lesser relied pretty heavily on his VP and CoS to get him through the day.

But there’s nothing in Obama’s character that leads me to think his CoS is going to drive the agenda. Daily schedules, yes….providing the administration’s vision, no. Not that I don’t think Rahm wants that kind of power as Obama’s CoS. The fact that it’s not a done deal might well be that this conversation has already occurred and been disgarded by Barack.

The important qualification for a Chief of Staff is that he be up to getting us some cheeseburgers.

Which one is the lesser? The one who did the least damage or the one who is, you know, the lesser in every other measurement?

Hey, Rahm’s a former ballet dancer. Speaking as a former dancer, having studied ballet for 10+ years in NYC, we’ve all got a mean kick.

All, kidding aside, I think he is a horrible choice.

America couldn’t even figure how to retire Ted Stevens properly even though he was convicted of a felony.

Small point of order: Alaska isn’t America.

Digby has a great post up about progressives, no, strike that, LIBERALS working to move the center back over to, well, the actual center again — instead of the mid-right-wing spot it’s been shoved into by 40 years of Rethuglican Newspeak. Here’s the link: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com…..ading.html

I almost didn’t vote for Obama in the primary (Calif.) — he’s a little too center-right for my taste — and I don’t expect him to be my ideal President, but jeez, after the last 8 years, even an honest conservative would be an improvement. Not that we were offered one, of course.

Hope should still be prayers because if the right as they call themselves can find a way they will still distroy this country while thinking they are saving us from ourselves. The new president does need our help because it may take all of us to stand against the right who is always wrong. They saved Iraq at the cost of many of our peoples lives and how many thousand Iraqies lives. They saved Iraq at the cost of crippled mamed and disfigured thousands on both sides. They are still saving Afgahnistan even while they cry for the the innocent civilian deaths to stop. Saving is an action not just a word. They saved the rich from high taxes, saved us from paying for the wars by putting us in debt, they are saving us labor by killing our jobs and sending those jobs and business to other countries. They are saving us from spending by trying to kill every bit of the that is left of economy. Yes they will save us from the democrates running wild and actually doing something good for the country. Yes they will save us from the prosperity we could have and maintain their opposition to all. Be proud alittle over half the country came to it’s senses but don’t forget that other half. They will keep giving us fair and balanced news and vial rants from their pride and joy on radio and T V. Ah there is so much to be hopefull about if you can over look the right.