Watching this morning’s mini-debate on Meet The Press between Terrel and Landrieu, it occurred to me that Landrieu is now in much worse shape for the run-off than she was in the general election.

In the general election, she could make the same argument that Johnson did in South Dakota–that she’s a member of the majority party, and will therefore have more clout in representing Louisiana. Now that the Donkeys have lost the Senate, she can no longer make that argument, but Terrell can, if she’s smart.

She couldn’t get half the vote in the general election. I suspect that many who voted for her because she was a member of the Senate majority may now switch. It’s hard for me to see how she picks up any significant Republican vote this time around.

Glenn, linking to this article describing how Libertarians helped swing the South Dakota senate race, points out that Libertarians (and other third parties) make their impact primarily by affecting the outcomes of close elections.

Well, the solution is for the Republicans to avoid the big-government intrusiveness that alienates libertarian-leaning voters. But are they smart enough to realize that? The push on the Homeland Security bill, and Trent Lott’s comments about reopening the abortion issue, suggest that they’re not. But this is how third parties traditionally have an impact — by costing one of the two major parties close elections.

Well, yes, as a general principle. But in the case of South Dakota, you can’t just point the finger at the three thousand Libertarians. Mr. Miller missed the real story, which was that the Republicans lost many thousands more Republican votes from Republican voters who bought the Democratic line that South Dakota would have more clout with two Senators in the majority party.

Obviously, in retrospect, they screwed themselves.

While I’d prefer that Thune had won, I have trouble spooling up the tearworks for SD Republicans, who voted for crass political influence over party principle, and had no faith in their own party to win a majority. Now they’ve got two Senators in the minority, and it serves them right.

I don’t know if this editorial is correct, but it sounds about right to me.

…we may well see one of the bloodiest intraparty fights since the Whigs imploded 150 years ago.

It’s somehow appropriate, albeit ironic that Marx’ prediction about failing of its own internal contradictions seems to be coming true not for capitalism, but first for communism and now, for the Democratic Party.

I don’t know if this editorial is correct, but it sounds about right to me.

…we may well see one of the bloodiest intraparty fights since the Whigs imploded 150 years ago.

It’s somehow appropriate, albeit ironic that Marx’ prediction about failing of its own internal contradictions seems to be coming true not for capitalism, but first for communism and now, for the Democratic Party.

I don’t know if this editorial is correct, but it sounds about right to me.

…we may well see one of the bloodiest intraparty fights since the Whigs imploded 150 years ago.

It’s somehow appropriate, albeit ironic that Marx’ prediction about failing of its own internal contradictions seems to be coming true not for capitalism, but first for communism and now, for the Democratic Party.

You were saying, Mr. Daschle?

“There have been a number of — numerous senior leaders of al Qaeda that have either been eliminated, incarcerated or detained someplace,” national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news – web sites) said without elaborating.

First Bella Pelosi takes over as Minority Leader, and now Terry McAuliffe is going to keep his job.

All we need is a promise from Bill Clinton that he’ll campaign for Democratic candidates in 2004 as hard as he did in 2002, and Bush’s reelection is in the bag.

Washington DC — January 14, 1943 (Routers)

The OSS and military intelligence came under renewed attack in Congress today for failing to find Admiral Yamamoto, with the increasing certainty that he is still alive prompting senior Republican senators to brand the effort to dismantle the Japanese military as a failure.

A leading Republican senator charged that the Roosevelt administration had been distracted from the fight against Japan by the invasion of Northern Africa last month.

“They are so focused on Tunisia that they aren’t paying adequate attention to the war on Japan,” he said in an interview.

He said that American intelligence agencies had failed to determine the extent of the Japanese threat even as the country prepared for war on the other side of the globe. Island lookouts have been seeing increasing Japanese naval activity, indicating an imminent threat to US forces.

“Just because we destroyed much of their force at the Battle of Midway last June doesn’t mean that we’ve taken them out of action, and we still don’t have positive proof that we got Yamamoto. The Japanese continue to reconstitute and rebuild in their home islands.”

If Admiral Yamamoto is alive, he suggested, then the threat to the United States has increased. “If he is still alive and still in charge, that means the Japanese navy continues to have a highly capable and venomous leader.”

“We can’t find Yamamoto, the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and we haven’t made real progress in destroying key elements of the Japanese army or their infrastructure. They continue to conquer territory, and to be as great a threat today as they were a year and a half ago. So by what measure can we claim to be successful so far?”

(Copyright 2002 by Rand Simberg)

Reuters is laying off a hundred and fifty people in north America.

One man’s pink slip is another’s excuse to sleep in.

Reuters is laying off a hundred and fifty people in north America.

One man’s pink slip is another’s excuse to sleep in.