What’s a couple of governors compared to Alito?

We’ll have to wait a year to find out if Tuesday’s Democratic gubernatorial victories — in Virginia and New Jersey — are predictors of mid-term gains for Democrats. But the losses provided immediate bad news for the GOP, which has had plenty of bad news lately. But their effect could be overblown, Richard Norton Smith, former director of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics in Lawrence, told the Washington Post:
“It’s bragging rights for a couple days,” Smith said of the Virginia results. The far greater issue is Bush’s prospects of getting Judge Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court. “I suspect he would trade Virginia for Alito,” Smith said.
Posted by Melissa Cooley

5 Comments

  1. Joe Blow
    Posted November 10, 2005 at 7:01 am | Permalink

    Gotta keep your eyes on the prize!

  2. Ray Thomas
    Posted November 10, 2005 at 9:21 am | Permalink

    Doesn’t appear to be a “mandate” at this point. Time will tell if the pendulum is swinging back in its cyclical change. Maybe this is a harbinger of change…little early to claim one way or the other, tho.

    Remember the Republican Revolution of a few years ago? That was the pendulum swinging again. The cycles are almost predictable.

    Regardless of the actions of one party or another, the voting mood seems to change on a regular basis, disenchantment with the party in power is a regular occurance.

    If this happens again, then in a few years, it can be the Republicans sniping at everything said/dobe by the White House. The current situation is certainly not new. The last Democratic president was impeached. Public dissatisfaction is an easy flame to fan.

  3. Galahad
    Posted November 10, 2005 at 9:44 am | Permalink

    The fact of the matter is this–the only major race the Republicans won was Bloomberg in New York, and he’s so moderate, he might as well be a Democrat.

    Two governorships, protection of gay rights in Maine, a pro-Bush mayor of St. Paul ousted by an anti-Bush mayor. City councils in Long Island were a democratic rout. Arnold Gropenfueher’s propositions in California crashed and burned.

    It’s hard to imagine a clear win for Democrats and defeat for Republicans than in this last election.

    Rick Santorum isn’t even going to appear with Bush when he appears in Pennsylvania. Bush is the monkey on the back of the Republican party.

    Enjoy it, suckers, you did it to yourselves.

  4. Galahad
    Posted November 10, 2005 at 9:45 am | Permalink

    Notice how quiet Esod has gone on this one?

    Hehehehehe . . .

  5. TRACY
    Posted November 10, 2005 at 12:44 pm | Permalink

    Why bring that thing up?Shame on you G.Enjoy.

    Bush would trade Virginia for Alito?What, you mean the Bushes own Virginia too?I guess it is possible, heck it’s kind of in the same neighborhood as the great state of DuPont.