Moe Lane

…and the desire to deal with the hassle of crossposting… yeah, not so much. Sorry.

They finally counted all the absentee ballots, and the race has been certified. This was a pickup from a Dem-held seat, by the way.

Please note that even at this point the Tea Party folks would welcome Democratic legislators who were truly sympathetic to Tea Party goals and objectives. They just don’t expect it to happen, which is why they’re working with the Republicans. Our gain, the Democrats’ loss – which, really, is how it should be.

(H/T: Instapundit)

…but first – as Greg Mankiw kind of points out – I’m going to need every Democrat out there yelling about ‘tax cuts for the wealthy’ to provide documentation showing their voluntary overpayment of taxes at a pre-cut level, plus of course their history of attacking for hypocrisy Democrats who did not voluntarily overpay. Once we do that, we can get to us… no, wait: we still need to address why so many Democratic politicians get around this problem by NOT PAYING THEIR TAXES IN THE FIRST PLACE. Silly me.

Still want to play, Democrats? – Because both my and Allahpundit’s response is pretty much going to be automatic, and unlike the Democrats’ phony ‘outrage’ it addresses a situation that the American people actually consider outrageous.

Moe Lane

PS: It’s not an ‘illogical’ attack, Greg. It’s a ‘desperate’ one.

Crossposted to RedState.

Yeah. Too obscure for Amazon.com. So just go buy something anyway: I got a beer tab to worry about.

I meant to see Zombieland in theaters, but I did not. I wish that I had: it was fun, even if Woody Harrelson is kind of nuts in real life, too.

And so, adieu to Ocean’s 11.

Moe Lane

…third parties are a dead end.

…she quickly pivoted to the broader question of whether the Tea Party movement might successfully field its own candidates in national elections, and on that point she sounded far from convinced.

“Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party,” [former Governor Sarah] Palin said. “Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’.”

Ace (the aforementioned, and self-described, GOP shill*), cut right to the chase when responding to both this, and the fairly obvious point that a functional third party = Democratic victory:

I’m not interested in “sending messages” when those messages come with the other, all-caps message: BARACK OBAMA AND HIS MOST STALWART LIBERAL ALLIES WIN, IN BLOW-OUTS, FOR AN ENTIRE GENERATION.

I’m not interested in a message like that, either.  Mind you, I’m not as worried about this as either Ace or Allahpundit is.  Third parties are often threatened, but are rarely a problem on the federal level.  Indeed, if the Democrats are really relying on and spending resources on the plan of encouraging a national third-party in time for November then it’s official: Congress will flip in the next election.  Both Houses.  You don’t make desperation plays like that unless you’re, well, desperate.

Besides, the RNC had a rush of oxygen to the brain.  I guess that we must have tried everything else, first**.

Moe Lane

*I’m the partisan hack, in case that wasn’t obvious.

**I didn’t say that I was a blindly partisan hack.

Crossposted to RedState.

Pretty please, with sugar on top – and that’s a request that would be echoed by probably every conservative/Republican activist in Indiana.

You see, as it stands Baron Hill is doing so badly in IN-09 against Mike Sodrel that it seems almost almost wasteful. But having him do a Melancon and switch from a House race that he’s going to lose over to a Senate race that he’s going to lose?  That will have the happy effect of preserving the line of attack that the GOP’s already preparing and helping us with all the other statewide/Federal races, too. To put it another way: there are many Indiana Republicans out there who were disappointed that they had no way to vote against Baron Hill. If he becomes the Democratic candidate for Senate, it’ll be like the sun coming out for them.

So please.  Try to get that nomination, Hill.

Please.

Moe Lane

…CPAC starting tomorrow, of course.  I’m mostly going to get some candidate interviews; useful work, but very very thirsty work, too.
Hint, hint.

A GOP retention in NH & a GOP pick-up in AL.  The second is probably more noteworthy: until quite recently, it took real skill for a Democrat to lose a state legislature election in Alabama.  Heck, the Democrats still hold a four-to-three advantage there, and their national party has been reflexively attacking Southerners for three decades now.

No!
Really?
Do tell.

Nice to see folks catch up:

…some of the same unlikely states that Obama put in his party’s column 15 months ago feature Senate, House and governor’s races with Democratic candidates in grave danger of losing in what is quickly shaping up to be a toxic election cycle.

While off-year and down-ballot elections are inherently different than presidential contests, the rapid reversal in Democratic fortunes in the very places where Obama’s success brought so much attention suggests that predictions of a lasting realignment were premature.

And it’s raising the question of whether the president’s 2008 win was the result of a unique set of circumstances that will be difficult for him to replicate again and perhaps downright impossible for other Democrats on the ballot to reprise.

The great danger for the Republican party, post-2008, was always that President Obama would manage to resist the temptation to give into the encouragement of his sycophants and act like unto a demigod. Unfortunately (speaking as an American), he didn’t: he instead combined passivity and arrogance to a degree that mainstream political scientists are just now starting to understand. Me, I knew, starting in December 2008 (and the GA/LA elections), that Obama’s touch wasn’t a cure-all. When they write the books on the 2010 elections, they’ll probably start with those races, and why the Democrats shouldn’t have eased up on them…

Moe Lane

“All the security services make, thank God, great efforts to safeguard the security of the State of Israel,” Interior Minister Eli Yishai told the reporters with a smirk on his face.

This post by Carden Chronicles is absolutely fascinating reading/watching.