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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/11/AR2006111100726_pf.html
The Questions That Defined the Election
Sunday, November 12, 2006; A06
By the summer, it was obvious that this year's political winds were notblowing favorably for Republicans. But it was far from inevitable thatDemocrats would command a majority simultaneously in the House and Senatefor the first time in a dozen years. In July, the political staff of TheWashington Post and washingtonpost.com came up with a list of eightquestions that would frame the campaign. Some of these involved long-termideological and geographic trends, and others focused on issues specific to2006. Over the past four months, individual articles -- which remain onlineat http://www.washingtonpost.com/bellwether -- looked at races where thebellwether questions were most vividly on display.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001387_pf.html
Is America too Racist for Barack? Too Sexist for Hillary?
By Benjamin Wallace-Wells
Sunday, November 12, 2006; B01
The 2006 elections were for the technocrats and the operatives, pitting theDemocratic tacticians against the Karl Rove machine. But the next electionis already beginning to look quite different: 2008 may be one for thenovelists.
Viewers of the election returns late on Tuesday, after all, got an earlystart on the iconography of the next presidential race. The cable networks'cameras cut between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, thanking her supporters foran overwhelming victory in the New York Senate race, her husband standingpointedly behind, and a smiling Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, givingcautious, professorial analysis to the television viewers. Nobody noted thesignificance, but it stared us all in the face: The two presumed leadingcontenders for the Democratic presidential nomination are a woman and anAfrican American.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001487.html
Right Vision, Wrong Policy -- and a Mideast Price to Pay
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, November 12, 2006; Page B07
President Bush lost more than a midterm election and a cantankerous defensesecretary last week. He also abandoned any lingering chance of remaking U.S.foreign policy into a radical force for democratic change in the Middle Eastand elsewhere.
He had to. The American electorate showed emphatically that it had lostfaith in his party and his promises. Bush's refreshing generic denunciationsof foreign dictators -- including those who played ball with Washington --could not make up for his failure to produce positive visible results tosupport the rhetoric. He needed an immediate firebreak, and so he named BobGates to replace Don Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001381.html
A VIRGINIA WELCOME
I Am Macaca
By S.R. Sidarth
Sunday, November 12, 2006; Page B02
This past summer, between my third and fourth year of college, I decided tovolunteer for the campaign of Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb in myhome state of Virginia. For most of the summer, I worked behind the scenesat the campaign headquarters in Arlington, helping set up field officesstatewide and performing other odd jobs. In the second week of August, I wasdispatched by the campaign to serve as Republican Sen. George Allen'stracker on a "listening tour" across the state. Tracking was a rathersolitary pursuit; I videotaped Allen's public appearances whenever I wasadmitted into an event and killed time between stops in places I had neverbeen to before.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/us/12judicial.html?pagewanted=print
November 12, 2006
New Democratic Majority Throws Bush's Judicial Nominations Into Uncertainty
By NEIL A. LEWIS
WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 - The impending Democratic takeover of the Senate,lawmakers and administration officials agree, will produce a vast change inan area that has produced some of the sharpest partisan battles in recentyears: President Bush's effort to shape the federal bench with conservativejudicial nominees.
There is a strong consensus that the four most conservative of Mr. Bush'snominations to the federal appeals courts are doomed. Republicans andDemocrats say the four have no chance of confirmation in the next severalweeks of the lame-duck Congressional session or in the final two years ofMr. Bush's term.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/washington/12gates.html?pagewanted=print
November 12, 2006
In Gates Selection, White House Hopes to Close Rift Between State andDefense
By DAVID E. SANGER and SCOTT SHANE
WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 - President Bush selected Robert M. Gates as his newdefense secretary in part to close a long-running rift between the DefenseDepartment and the State Department that has hobbled progress on Iraq,keeping the two agencies at odds on issues ranging from reconstruction todetaining terrorism suspects, according to White House officials and membersof Mr. Gates's inner circle.
While Mr. Gates, a former director of central intelligence, had long beenconsidered for a variety of roles, over the past two months Secretary ofState Condoleezza Rice and the national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley,quietly steered the White House toward replacing Donald H. Rumsfeld with Mr.Gates, who had worked closely with Ms. Rice under the first President Bush.One senior participant in those discussions, who declined to be identifiedby name while talking about internal deliberations, said, "everyone realizesthat we don't have much time to get this right" and the first step is to get"everyone driving on the same track."
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The New York Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001694_pf.html
Democrats Win Bigger Share of Religious Vote
Parties Disagree on Why The Gap Has Narrowed
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 11, 2006; A01
As the results of the midterm elections sank in this week, religious leadersacross the ideological spectrum found something they could agree on: The"God gap" in American politics has narrowed substantially.
Religious liberals contended that a concerted effort by Democrats since 2004to appeal to people of faith had worked minor wonders, if not electoralmiracles, in races across the country.
Religious conservatives disagreed, arguing that the Republican Party lostreligious voters rather than the Democrats winning them.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/washington/12gates.html?pagewanted=print
November 12, 2006
In Gates Selection, White House Hopes to Close Rift Between State andDefense
By DAVID E. SANGER and SCOTT SHANE
WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 - President Bush selected Robert M. Gates as his newdefense secretary in part to close a long-running rift between the DefenseDepartment and the State Department that has hobbled progress on Iraq,keeping the two agencies at odds on issues ranging from reconstruction todetaining terrorism suspects, according to White House officials and membersof Mr. Gates's inner circle.
While Mr. Gates, a former director of central intelligence, had long beenconsidered for a variety of roles, over the past two months Secretary ofState Condoleezza Rice and the national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley,quietly steered the White House toward replacing Donald H. Rumsfeld with Mr.Gates, who had worked closely with Ms. Rice under the first President Bush.One senior participant in those discussions, who declined to be identifiedby name while talking about internal deliberations, said, "everyone realizesthat we don't have much time to get this right" and the first step is to get"everyone driving on the same track."
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001436_pf.html
Lawmakers Who Won't Be Missed
By Colbert I. King
Saturday, November 11, 2006; A27
"Conrad, how can you live back there [in Washington] with all thoseniggers?" When asked how he had responded, Sen. Burns is reported to have .. . said with a chuckle that he told the rancher that it was 'a hell of achallenge.' "
-- The Washington Post, Oct. 22, 1994
Election night in the nation's capital was a pretty tame affair, given thatmost of the important local races were decided in the September primary. Butfor some of us who live in the District, the real action on election nighttook place far beyond city limits.
My attention, for example, was focused on Big Sky Country, where three-termRepublican Sen. Conrad Burns was locking horns with the president of theMontana Senate, Jon Tester. It wasn't until late Wednesday morning that wereceived the good news that Burns had been defeated. It was worth the wait.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/11/AR2006111101103_pf.html
Rove Remains Steadfast in the Face of Criticism
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 12, 2006; A01
For a man still climbing out of the rubble, Karl Rove seemed in his usualunflappable mood. He roamed around his windowless West Wing office decoratedwith four Abraham Lincoln portraits, joking with his staff, stuffing copiesof "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" into his bag and signing the last paperworkof the day.
The Architect, as President Bush once called him, has a theory for why thebuilding fell down. "Get me the one-pager!" he cried out to an aide, whopromptly delivered a single sheet of paper that had been updated almosthourly since the midterm elections with a series of statistics explainingthat the "thumping" Bush took was not such a thumping after all.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/opinion/12sun2.html?pagewanted=print
November 12, 2006
Editorial
The Corporate End Run
Corporate profits are at record levels. The Dow, too, has climbed past itshigh-water mark from the dot-com era. Executives reap bigger and biggerpaydays, even as wages have stagnated. Meanwhile, the widening investigationinto stock-option backdating reminds us that the corporate malfeasance erawas much more than just a couple of bad apples like Enron and WorldCom.
It seems almost unbelievable, then, that corporate America would pick thismoment to beg for relaxed regulation and enforcement, as well as moreprotection from investors' lawsuits. But as Stephen Labaton reportedrecently in The Times, industry groups are seeking broad new protections forcorporations and accounting firms, not through legislation but from the Bushadministration through agency rule changes.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/opinion/12sun3.html?pagewanted=print
November 12, 2006
Editorial Observer
Facing Reality on Europe's Immigrants
By DAVID C. UNGER
"Write an article!" came the shout as I left a room full of German womenpreparing the food for their weekly breakfast discussion meeting in theRollberg housing project in the Neukölln section of Berlin.
They were Germans now, but most had been born elsewhere, generally in Muslimcountries. One wore a head scarf, the others did not. The youngest lookedabout 19. The oldest might have been a grandmother.
These women illustrated a reality finally accepted by some of Germany's mostconservative politicians - there is no reason someone cannot be German andMuslim at the same time. In America, that idea would be unremarkable. InGermany, with its tragic history of exclusive nationalism and race-basedcitizenship, it is an intellectual revolution.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/opinion/12chafee.html?pagewanted=print
November 12, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Holding to the Center, Losing My Seat
By LINCOLN D. CHAFEE
Exeter, R.I.
LAST Tuesday, I was one of the many moderate Republican casualties of theanti-Bush virulence that swept the country. Despite my having voted againstthe Iraq war resolution, my reputation for independence, the editorialendorsement of virtually every newspaper in my state, and a job approvalrating of 63 percent, I did not win. Why?
Back in December 2000, after one of the closest elections in our nation'shistory, Vice President-elect Dick Cheney was the guest at a weekly lunchmeeting of a small group of centrist Republicans. Senators Susan Collins andOlympia Snowe of Maine, Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont, Senator ArlenSpecter of Pennsylvania and I were honored to have the opportunity to visitwith him on the eve of a session of Congress in which, because of Republicandefeats, the Senate would be evenly divided at 50-50.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/opinion/12ponnuru.html?pagewanted=print
November 12, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Reactionary Moderates
By RAMESH PONNURU
Washington
SOCIAL conservatives had a bad election night on Tuesday. A slew of pro-lifesenators and House members lost their races. Missouri voted to amend itsConstitution to protect a right to clone human embryos for research. Everypro-life initiative on a state ballot failed.
But before we declare this election proof that social conservatism isdoomed, consider that Republicans as a whole had a worse night. Pro-liferslost four seats in the Senate and, depending on some unresolved races,appear to have lost 20 in the House. But the Republican Party lost six inthe Senate and 29 in the House. The discrepancy stems from the fact thatsome pro-choice Democrats are replacing pro-choice Republicans, and even afew pro-life Democrats are replacing pro-life Republicans.
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/11/judicial_independence_remains_under_fire?mode=PF
Judicial independence remains under fire
By Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press Writer | November 11, 2006
WASHINGTON --Efforts to curb judges' independence suffered some Election Dayetbacks, but supporters pledged to keep fighting against a judiciary theysay has lost touch with America.
The problem, critics say, is that judges too often make laws rather thaninterpret them. On Tuesday's ballots, the possible solutions ranged fromterm limits to prison time. All failed, most by wide margins.
Judges say such efforts threaten their autonomy and some legal scholars seethem as part of an organized campaign to persuade voters that judges, likelegislators, governors and presidents, are policymakers who need politicaloversight.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/11/AR2006111100689_pf.html
Bush approval drops, Democrats' goals backed: poll
Reuters
Saturday, November 11, 2006; 9:58 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just days after Democrats took over Congress,Americans embraced their top goals and President George W. Bush's jobapproval rating slid to 31 percent, according to a Newsweek poll issued onSaturday.
Huge majorities of those polled said they approved of the legislativepriorities cited by Democratic leaders after their party seized control ofthe Senate and the House of Representatives from Republicans, the magazinesaid.
But they also expressed concerns that Democrats might seek to pull U.S.troops out of Iraq too quickly or hamper the administration's efforts tocombat terrorism, it said.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-usa-elections-blacks.html?pagewanted=print
November 12, 2006
Black Candidates Head for Middle at Polls
By REUTERS
Filed at 8:56 a.m. ET
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Black candidates in the U.S. midterm elections movedtoward the political center, seeking votes across the spectrum and playingdown race, academics and analysts said on Friday.
The strategy reflects a further shift from African- American leaders rootedin the civil rights era to a generation of politicians for whom race can beused best as a vehicle for appealing to universal themes such as overcomingpoverty.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/weekinreview/12nagourney.html?pagewanted=print
November 12, 2006
Now, the Tape Measure for Those Other Drapes
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
WASHINGTON
SENATOR GEORGE ALLEN of Virginia had yet to hand back the Senate to theemocrats when Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa announced bright and early Thursdaymorning that he was running for president. Back in Washington, Senator JohnMcCain of Arizona moved to set up his own presidential exploratory committeeand prepared what aides promised would be two major speeches this Thursdayabout 2008, based on last Tuesday's vote. And Hillary Rodham Clinton scoredthe election-week cover of New York magazine; the subject was not her easyreturn to the Senate.
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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2006/11/12/a2e_hanifcol_1112.html
2006 not Year of the Black Republican
By C.B. Hanif
HASH(0x1095fb0)
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Some of the most interesting post-election analysis as politicians beginpositioning themselves for 2008 may be the Republican Party's spin on itsesounding rejection by African-American voters.
"Republicans had hoped the midterm election would brand 2006 as the year ofthe black Republican," The Associated Press reported a day after Tuesday'selections. "That did not happen. With high-profile losses in Maryland'sSenate race and in contests for governor in Ohio and Pennsylvania, prospectsfor Republican gains among black voters turned up short this year and gavescant hope for 2008."
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The Miami Herald
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001366.html
Are We Ready Yet?
Sunday, November 12, 2006; Page B04
This generation will be the first to move closer to the vision of equalityand fairness envisioned by the founders of this country, because we will bethe first to embrace the potential contributions that women, and AfricanAmericans and, by extension, other minorities can make in behalf of thepublic interest.
Carol Moseley Braun, former senator and Democratic presidential candidate in2004
Even though more women are being elected to the House and Senate, voterprejudice is still there. When I was campaigning for DA of Brooklyn, voterssaid to me, "Liz, we voted for you for Congress, and for the Senate, but DAjust isn't a job for a woman." Because I was running against a stereotype,the race became extremely difficult.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/opinion/12rich.html
November 12, 2006
2006: The Year of the 'Macaca'
By FRANK RICH
OF course, the "thumpin' " was all about Iraq. But let us not forgetKatrina. It was the collision of the twin White House calamities in August2005 that foretold the collapse of the presidency of George W. Bush.
Back then, the full measure of the man finally snapped into focus for mostAmericans, sending his poll numbers into the 30s for the first time. Thecountry saw that the president who had spurned a grieving wartime mothercamping out in the sweltering heat of Crawford was the same guy who had beenunable to recognize the depth of the suffering in New Orleans's fetidSuperdome. This brand of leadership was not the "compassionate conservatism"that had been sold in all those photo ops with African-Americanschoolchildren. This was callous conservatism, if not just plain mean.
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Forwarded from Jinni:
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/opinion/12panetta.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
November 12, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Govern, Don't Gloat
By LEON E. PANETTA
Seaside, Calif.
WE govern our democracy either by leadership or by crisis. Last Tuesday, theAmerican people sent a clear message that they are sick and tired ofgovernment by crisis. They elected Democrats to the House and Senate not toprolong gridlock, but to govern.
There are those who believe that the best political strategy for 2008 is forthe Democrats to continue to confront President Bush and seal his fate as afailed president. The danger, however, is that if the Democrats becomenothing more than a party of obstruction, it will be only a matter of timebefore they too will lose the trust of the American people. The lesson ofthis election is that the public will no longer tolerate incompetence andgridlock, whether it comes from the Republicans or the Democrats.
Twelve years ago, President Clinton suffered a similar defeat whenRepublicans captured both houses of Congress. As chief of staff to thepresident at the time, I was asked to comment on the implications of thatmidterm election for the president and the future of the nation. My responsewas that the real question was whether a party that had been a minority inCongress was now prepared to work with the president to govern the nation.
Today it is fair to ask the same question of the Democrats.
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A Note from Ray's List about Online security - bogus credit card e-mail:
I frequently receive messages like this in my inbox - notably from a phonyPayPay and some other bogus senders:
The following was in today's e-mail:
.... payment posted to your Sears Card account on or before 30 October 2006.
Because the Lookup Country for this IP address, we decided to restrict yourSears Card account features in order to protect our entire payment systemform future fraudulent transactions. To report unauthorized use of youraccount, to change your password, to check available credit, or for moreinformation about your account, go to payment posted to your Sears Cardaccount on or before 30 October 2006.
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After I received the above this moroning, I went to the official Searswebsite and checked "security." This is what Sears posts on their officialsite:
Sears.com never asks you to transmit personal information like yourpassword, bank account number, PIN, or credit card information via e-mail.Providing information on our web site is safe and secure.
Sears.com never sends e-mail claiming we lost your account information orneed you to update your records via e-mail.
Sears.com never threatens to close accounts or cancel orders if you do notprovide personal information via e-mail.
I suspect many of your also receive such spam. Treat it is junk and don'trespond, and/or share your personal information based on such bogus e-mails.
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Forwarded from Ron Mills:
http://Politalk1.blogspot.com
Russ Feingold
Dear Friends and Supporters,
On Sunday, November 12th in Racine, I will hold my 1000th Listening Sessionwith the people of Wisconsin. Before reaching that milestone, I want you toknow that I've decided to continue my role as Wisconsin's Junior Senator inthe U.S. Senate and not to seek the Democratic nomination for President in2008.
Like many Americans, I am excited by the results of the November 7thelection. My fourteen years in the Senate have been the greatest privilegeof my life and I am extremely pleased with what we have accomplished. Duringso much of that time, however, we Democrats have not only been in theminority but have often been so deeply mired there that my role has oftenbeen to block bad ideas or to simply dissent. That is a very important rolebut I relish the thought that in this new Congress we can start, not only toundo much of the damage that one-party rule has done to America, we canactually advance progressive solutions to such major issues as guaranteedhealthcare, dependence on oil, and our unbalanced trade policies. The Senateof the 110th Congress could also well be a place of greater bi-partisanopportunities for change; something I am very proud to have been effectiveat in both Republican and Democratic Senates.
I hope all of you know how much I have appreciated the incredible responseyou have given me and the efforts of our Progressive Patriots Fund sinceJanuary, 2005. In addition to all of our work in Wisconsin and D.C., I havetraveled to seventeen states trying to promote the election of progressiveDemocrats in all states. At every stop from Birmingham, Alabama toBurlington, Vermont, to Ft. Dodge, Iowa, to Las Vegas, Nevada, people haveagreed with my view that we need to stand up for a strong, principledDemocratic party that is willing to replace timidity with taking the risksof promoting a platform of bold solutions to our nation's problems.
more....
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/15975350.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Nov. 10, 2006
Accountability arrives after a long absence
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com
Looks like we won't have Donald Rumsfeld to kick around anymore. Dingdong, the Wicked Witch is dead.
Circle the date in red. In announcing his resignation Wednesday, themorning after voters angry over Iraq delivered the GOP an epochal,sea-to-shining-sea beat-down, Rumsfeld -- albeit at metaphoric gunpoint --shows us something we have not seen from a political leader in a very longtime, a thing so rare that the oldest among us can just barely remember it.
It's called accountability.
You are forgiven if you don't know the word. Who can blame you? Inrecent years, we've seen it very little. Oh, we've had plenty stay thecourse.
[ Send your comments about any of the articles in Ray's List Digest toRays.List@Comcast.net ]
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