Feingold has actually lost already, which sucks

Whoa.  Oberstar and Cravaack tied.  St. Louis comes in late, right?

Oberstar gave a victory speech...then lost.  Classic.

Well, well, well. Seems as though the "change" that was promised took a bit longer than expected. St. Louis County is still the only brain-dead area of our country. 


(MPR photo)

Oh, how I would love to have been at Jimmy's victory speech. I wonder what the heir apparent Donny is thinking right now? Maybe a career as Duluth's Mayor? No handing of the crown this time, Donny. Jimmy flushed that away in an epic underestimation of his constituents and his opponent. Sorry libs, turn off the lights, cause Nancy, Russ and the rest of your pack of thieves have been sent packing. 

Cel-e-brate good times, come on!   

It truly is a Perfect Duluth Day. Adios to Oberstar.

A tea party win around here.  Who would have thunk it.  

At least Cravaack showed class and didn't encourage his followers to interrupt Oberstar at the debate.  Oh... Wait... nevermind.

You stay classy, Tea Party. It's the equivalent of the team who wins a football game by 40 points and goes on a tirade after. There's no "good game" handshake, just "We're number one!" chants.

What Sam said.  Thanks.

Whew, call it a thumping or a bloodbath - the Republicans and the tea party had a big win last night.  My liberal ass is quite shocked, so go ahead and gloat.

But, when you're finished gloating, please take a look at the scene around you.  Republicans won with a vague and contradictory message, but probably the one theme that came from the voters the loudest is, reduce the size of government and reduce the deficit. So are you Tea Party types ready to follow through?

So let's trim back this bloated government, as a progressive I'll help with some ideas to cut federal, state, and local government.

1) End the farm subsidies. Why does the government pick up half the cost of growing corn and soybeans for processed food?  Let's stop dumping money down this hole, and while we're at it ...

2) End the mandates and subsidies for ethanol

3) Repeal the Patriot Act.  This bipartisan behemoth subverted the bill of rights.  So how about this, a coalition of libertarians and liberals can stand up and demand this bill is repealed so whoever is running government our civil rights will be protected.

4) End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  (We sure can't afford them).

5) Legalize marijuana. The war on this plant is the height of big government arrogance.

6) Cut off the money gusher for duplicative and ineffective national intelligence albatross.  As the Washington Post series illustrated, it doesn't make us any safer when 2,200 agencies are crawling all over each other getting in the way.

7) Roll back the police state. Our communities are being overrun by paramilitary style police.

8)Put a freeze on road/highway/sewer infrastructure expansion.  Just maintaining the roads we already have will take a lot more funding then our non-indexed gas tax can keep up with, we cannot afford to continue to subsidize suburban sprawl.

9) Let the Bush tax cuts expire.  If the concern is really the deficit, this is a no-brainer.

10) Reduce prison populations.  End mandatory minimum sentencing; treat the mentally ill rather than punishing them; end the failed drug war.

If there is now a mandate for reducing the deficit, let's talk about how to do it.

I think that argument hinges on the fact that Oberstar supporters (myself included) probably unwisely assumed it was going to be a seamless transition from one D to the next when that time came.

Claire: Grandpa Jimmy wasn't going to be sending bacon this way anyhow -- he would've lost his chairmanship in the House.  

This is a huge win for northeastern Minnesota.  Instead of Oberstar sending tax dollars up here to fund government expansionism, we might actually attract some significant private enterprise.  And with any luck, the Pipe Dream Express train to MSP will die an appropriate death on the budget-cutting room floor.

And even though Dayton will probably win, at least the Repubs swiped both houses at the state level.  That should keep Richie Rich from jacking taxes on earners while keeping taxes low on his inheritance.

I think it's possible that even some Democrats used the strength of Cravaack's campaign to see a Washington "lifer" get voted out. I'm not thrilled with the outcome, but it could be an opportunity to see some new blood representing our area.

I really do hope that, all bickering aside, each winner will try to do what is best for his/her constituents. Unfortunately, everybody will disagree as to what this means.

Truth hurts, doesn't it, Jim? I'm not angry and bitter -- I'm actually interested in seeing how this plays out. It's like Cravaack and his supporters are the dogs who chased a car -- and now you've actually caught it, you and he have absolutely no idea what to do now. 

And I don't appreciate your many rants, but I am not going to try to deny you your Constitutional right to complain about everyone else who disagrees with you or is different in any way from you.

Claire, the truth is that we are now in a new era of cooperation and parity. I'm fine with that, and I'm asking you to do the same. It's time to do away with all of the poop references and anger. Let's all try and get along to work toward a better tomorrow!

Hey, I know! Let's talk about the results of a race we can all agree on: Frank Jewell's victory over Dennis Fink! What a blowout. I think I would have lost all faith in humanity if it'd been at all a close race. I think the county commissioners have been served with a mandate:

Don't harass county employees and don't spend taxpayers dollars on expensive hotel rooms and sexual aids.

Fink spent county money on sexual aids? That's a bold statement. The election was a blowout, but obviously Fink suffered from the same malaise as Mr. Oberstar. I wish the best for Mr. Jewell. I think a turn over on the board will do us all good. Mrs. Sweeney, your table is ready!

Oberstar got what he deserved!

Commissioners are not required to submit invoices for meals and entertainment, they have a per diem. So, his submitting receipts for these items indeed constituted harassment of his secretary and I suggest you read the full account on We Are Watching's website. Just Google it.

Tea Party caucus member Michele Bachmann's presence at a big GOP election function yammering on and on about the finer points of the Republican victories proved what I've been saying for the last year: that the Tea Party isn't a political entity in and of itself, but the radical arm of the GOP.

See Zra, here in lies the problem. You say Barbara, I say Barney. Your party, in many peoples' opinion, is every bit as radical as the Tea Party, if not more. You may not think so, but millions and millions of hard working Americans do. Let it go -- it's over.

Jim's right. The Tea Party is over. After a couple of years of shouting, birtherism, belligerence, bleating, and gloriously displayed ignorance and paranoia to rival "Coast to Coast am," they've elbowed their way into office via organized confusion and mass propaganda, and it won't be long until they start disappointing all their supporters when they aren't able to dismantle the federal government piece by piece.

The only thing is, no one who won an election last night did it under the "Tea Party" label. Every one of those bastards did so as republicans. 

Rebranding: it's not just for corporations.

It's important to look at the changing demographics of the 8th Congressional District as a factor in the Oberstar defeat.  Although I haven't been able to find hard numbers on the Secretary of State's website yet, but I'd hypothesize that a greater proportion of Cravaack supporters would be found towards the southern portion of our district, near the north metro.  This likely tipped the scale in his favor over our Northern boy Oberstar.  As the metro population machine continues to expand northward I think we will be seeing more of our elections affected in this manner.

Gary's right, I think. If you look at the election results, it's the southern and western parts of the district that went for Cravaack, St. Louis County went for Oberstar, but less so than in the past. 

I was a "poll challenger" Tuesday at Precinct #11 in Kenwood. The GOP "challenger" asked me how far I'd driven. I looked at him in surprise, and said, a few blocks, maybe a mile. He told me he'd driven from *North Branch* to Duluth. He told me that CC "knows more people" down there b/c he lives in the southern part of the district, and some of the challengers in Duluth Tuesday were CC's people from elsewhere. The other GOP operative who relieved the first guy at the lunch hour was from the Twin Cities.

On a related note, the DNT talked to CC, who promises to do nothing for his constituents, except to try to take things away that would benefit us here and  throughout the entire region, notably the NLX train, the new terminal at DLH, the extension of the Munger Trail.

"St. Louis County went for Oberstar, but less so than in the past." 

Much less Claire. 63% versus high 70s in the past. Redistricting of the 8th gave Mr. Cravaack some inroads to the cities populace which helped too.

Cravaack defeats Oberstar in 8th District race

I also thought Cravaack's comments in today's (Nov. 4) DNT were disheartening. I hope he changes his mind about some of the great strides in transportation and infrastructure in this region by Oberstar. Economic development depends on these unsexy things and to belittle them, as Cravaack did, shows a lack of commitment to the area and a good degree of naivete. The benefits FAR outweigh the costs.