Richard Bennett at Mossback's Lunch has a word for the Democrats:
bq. The President has a working majority in the Senate of 55-45, which is going to make it easier to peel off Democratic members to break filibusters, and he has Tom Daschle�s scalp as a reminder to Democratic senators who want to play the obstructionist game that this game has consequences. When Harry Reid replaces Daschle as Senate Minority Leader, the Democrats will have their first and only pro-life figure in a nationally prominent role, and Bush�s judges will have much less standing in their way than they�ve had for the last four years.
bq. We now know that most of people in this country didn�t buy the extremist rhetoric about the illegitimacy and radicalism of the Bush Administration, and their judgment was harsh.
bq. Democrats have much to learn from this election, starting with this: they can keep on acting like spoiled, bratty children and see their party recede ever farther into the fringe of American political life, or they can get in touch with their inner adult and take part in the dialog. It�s their choice to make, and while they�re mulling it over the country will proceed just fine without them.
bq. Oh, and to those of you who�ve been claiming to be part of a �reality-based community� � actually, no, you aren�t.
Heh... Very true words.
Wake up people - there are lots of other people outside your small insular community.
UPDATE: I had a comment from an Anonymous reader in the Austin, TX area who wrote (I am excerpting):
bq. Yes, Bush recieved the majority vote.
But Kerry recieved very close to half--is this a "small insular community"? I think not.
It's not a matter of "you other half of Amercia needs to wake up & get with it." Dissenting views are not only part & parcel of democracy, but a sign of its health & vogor.
I agree with their views on dissent being a sign of a healthy democratic process but this is the isolation and insularity that I was meaning:
Yes, Bush recieved the majority vote.
But Kerry recieved very close to half--is this a "small insular community"? I think not.
It's not a matter of "you other half of Amercia needs to wake up & get with it." Dissenting views are not only part & parcel of democracy, but a sign of its health & vogor.
I don't wnat ot read in the coming weeks the whining of Demoratic "sore loosers."
Neither do I want to read the whining odf "sore winners." Rational, even witty, remarks from both sides a pleasure to read--like much of what Ricahrd writes. But some of it is vitrol, & in this case marked by a delusion of grandeur.