It's All Good

Wow!

Who really believed two months ago that things would end up this way on November 8th?

The House of Representaticves has gone handily to the Democrats. The Senate hangs on the almost certain recount in Virginia. As for the Virginia race, may I refer you back to my post of one week ago...

As much as I want to see that racist anti-semite in Virginia defeated, I would still consider a 50-50 split in the Senate a victory for the side of decency in America. The Senate has always been a much more deliberative body than the House. There are a number of conscientious moderate Republicans who are not exactly salivating at the prospect of continuing to "stay the course" on the faulty policies of the Bush administration. Even with Tricky Dickie II as the deciding vote in a 50-50 Senate, it will be a much more interesting place than it has been for the past several years.

The congressional candidate I've volunteered for this season (my first time participating so directly in the political process) won easily, defeating a ten-term incumbent. Surprisingly, the Pennsylvania 8th district is still tied 50% each as of this writing. Frankly, if I lived in Bucks County, I might very well have voted for Mike Fitzpatrick over Patrick Murphy. I just learned that Lois Murphy, the Democratic candidate in the county I lived in a few years back, was narrowly defeated by the Republican incumbent. That's a darn shame. This was Murphy's second tight race against Jim Gerlach and second defeat. But then, Berks County is rife with old-timey white sheeters, being considered by some to be the birthplace of the KKK in the central-eastern part of the state.

The greatest victory is that Rick Santorum will not be returning to DC to represent me in January, not that he ever represented me at all and not that Bob Casey is a tremendously better choice. Both candidates are "pro-life," running counter to my core beliefs in a woman's right to control what happens inside her own body. But Santorum was frighteningly fundamentalist...claiming gaya sex was a step away from bestiality and that women should not work outside the home. It's scary to think of how our nation might have evolved had Santorum's presidential aspirations come to fruition. Hopefully, he will return to the private sector and squelch any desires for the White House in the future.

All in all a very good day to be a Democrat in PA!

tags: Pennsylvania politics / US House of Representatives / US Senate / US politics