Well, you learn something new every day. Looks like you CAN link to a specific comment. I don't think you guys have an easy way to do this in the future, but here is the link you should use in this case, which should put Michael Gass' comment front and center:

http://www.chrisweigant.com/index.php/2008/11/05/rerun-happy-days-are-here-again-so-dont-screw-it-up/#comment-4088

I didn't know the blog engine could do that, but live and learn...

You're welcome.

-CW

Thanks, but there's too much to cover to take weeks off! I did take a week off from answering everyone's comments, and I already feel guilty about that...

Michael Gass -

Wow! My no-word-limits policy was made for people like you with a lot to say.

I am heartened by bloggers pushing back on the "we're still a center-right country" spin coming from Republicans, but even they don't seem to have their hearts in it. They've got some house-cleaning to do, so they're understandably a little busy right now. The question, as I see it, is: Will the GOP become a regional (South) party, or will it examine itself and relaunch as a more populist-oriented party? Time will tell, but the Sarah Palin folks seem like they really really want to drag the party into some sort of purity contest, which will lead to a generation in the minority-party wilderness.

Heh heh. You noticed Boehner's comment too. But did you catch the FOSIL acronym? See Friday's column, FTP [54].

I love your paragraph on accountability, just to let you know. I think the main thing the GOP lost sight of is that Americans of all political stripes value competence above all else. Bush's approval ratings weren't all that bad... until Katrina drove them into the ground for good.

Good point about the SCHIP kid (in Delaware? I forget) -- I just saw "Frontline" about Lee Atwater, and am even more astonished that the usual Atwater/Rove/Schmidt slime just DID NOT WORK this time around.

After finishing your piece, I have to say I'm glad I don't have word limits. And, furthermore, that you posted this here, instead of emailing it to me. Well done, sir!

Osborne Ink -

Excellent literary effort, once again. Boy, this election is bringing out the best in everyone!!

Michale -

First usage of "W.W.O.D.?" on ChrisWeigant.com! I bet we'll see more of this in the future, personally.

BLaws -

Here's a trick to help. Go to the main CW.com site (click on Home in the top menu). Find the article you want on the main page, then go down to the bottom and click on the "Comments" link. This will give you a URL that will auto-scroll to the comments section. Sorry, individual comments don't get marked this way, but if you're forwarding the link to others, then they'll see the comments first if you do it this way.

Thanks to all for commenting!

-CW

Be my guest... no blog link.

Excellant post. Summed up my feelings exactly. Do you mind if I forward that to a few friends? And do you have a blog or some way I can credit you easily for it?

I wrote about a week before the elections that it will be interesting to see if Democrats choose to look towards the future and all the good and promise that their new-found power will allow them to achieve. Of if Democrats will wallow in the mire and muck of the past, trying to settle old scores with no thought to what's best for the country.

It's a shame to see that some so adamant on the latter..

W.W.O.D.??

Michale.....

Remember, remember,
On Fifth of November,
Mudslinging and derision.
I see no reason
Why catcalls of "Treason"
Should ever be forgiven.

Joe Plumber and Palin, t'was their decision
To raise a cry of "Socialism!"
Three-score stories of ACORN on Faux
To call Obama's election a hoax;
Through Wright and Ayers, Barack was curs'd
As unpatriotic and liberal first.

House of Reps, Senators, majority Dems.
When elephants holler, just ignore them!

A simple fact, to Murdoch's News,
Is an item sure to choke them.
Never shout O'Reilly down,
Just turn away, ignore him.
Burn them with irrelevance.
Publicize their decadence.
"Bush," the word for how they've led.
That way will GOP be dead.

Instead of emailing you this personally, I decided to post it here so all could read it. I hope you don't mind since we are discussing the new Presidency and GOP v Dem strategy:

After 8 long years of our country being run into by President Bush, six years of which were with a Republican dominated Congress, our country can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, there are still some GOP spinmeisters, politicians, "Conventional Wisdom" village media voices, and supporters who still don't "get it".

In 2006, after 6 years of unfettered GOP control of our government, the people of America spoke during the midterms turning both the Senate and House over to the Democratic Party. For the next 2 years, the Republicans threatened to filibuster every move by the Democrats in the Senate to the point that a 60 vote standard was instituted. The results of the 2008 election are not finalized, but, to date, the Democratic Party has increased its majority in the Senate now to 54 Senate seats with 2 independents (who caucus with the Democrats). With the outstanding races in Georgia, Alaska and Minnesota, the Democratic Party could possibly gain up to 3 more Senate seats. There are still 6 Congressional races uncalled, but, the Democratic Party has already picked up 22 seats in the House giving them a clear majority with 257 House seats.

Senator Hutchinson from Texas understood what this election meant: "The people have spoken. We hear the people and now it's time to come behind our president," Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, told "The Early Show" on CBS on Wednesday. "The Senate is going to have to work things out in a bipartisan way, and I think the test is going to be right there."

The Republican Party, for 2 years, became the poster child for "obstructionist" politics. The American people spoke; we are tired of it and if you will not allow our government to function, you will be voted out if possible. There are those who just don't get it, however, like Sen. DeMint of South Carolina: “Americans have again rejected the Democrat-lite strategy of higher spending and bigger government, and it’s time for Republicans to chart a new, more principled course,” DeMint said. “Democrats didn’t run on their true liberal agenda ... They ran against President Bush and congressional Republicans whose image was tarnished by scandals and broken promises.” Sen. DeMint blamed Republicans for abandoning their principles, yet, they surely had no problem abandoning those principles when they held power.

Right. The GOP lost even more seats simply because the GOP just wasn't radical enough! Electing a Democratic President, extending the Democratic majority in the Senate and the House even further, was simply because the Democrats lied to America about their "true" agenda. It's not like there wasn't 20 months of campaigning for the people to figure it out.

People seem to forget that the Supreme Court refused to block the redistricting that favored the GOP in Texas in 2004. The Supreme Court upheld the GOP redistricting in Pennsylvania in 2004. GOP operatives and partisan state officials worked vigorously to purge voter rolls in numerous states prior to the election. Yet, despite trying to "stack the deck", the overwhelming repudiation of the GOP governing tactics and policies rang through this election.

People seem to forget that the past 8 years were not a "divergence" from conservative principles; it was GOP principles and policies allowed unfettered access to government. In 2000, George Bush was installed as our President by the Supreme Court and for 6 years, the GOP ruled and got everything they wanted. Once given power, the true "conservative" agenda was unleashed; deregulation, corporations first, the rich get breaks while the middle class gets squeezed. The foreclosure and credit crisis, while decades in the making, finally came to pass once the GOP opened the flood gates with their policies.

As with the election in 2006, the American people have once again spoken, and once again, the Republican Party suffered the backlash for their obstructionist, hate-filled, screw the middle class attitude of running the government. Just as in 2006, the GOP has yet to learn the lesson. Rep. Boehner stated: “The American people want and deserve accountability from Washington Democrats, and Republicans will stand on principle to ensure they get it,” Boehner said Tuesday night, adding that the party would resort to its principles of “freedom, opportunity, security and individual liberty.”

The American people wanted the same level of accountability we deserved from Washington Republicans and never got it. When Monica Goodling admitted that she broke the law in hiring for the Department of Justice, there was no accountability. When Alberto Gonzales perjured himself in front of Congress, there was no accountability and he was allowed to slip out the door. When it was revealed that President Bush ordered the domestic wiretapping before 9/11 in violation of the law, there was no accountability. When it was shown that all justifications for invading Iraq, a soveriegn nation, were false, lies, or distortions of the truth, there was no accountability. When it was shown that Halliburton, KBR, and other federal contractors were raping our treasury and profiteering from the war, there was no accountability. But, now that the American people have spoken once again, taking away even more power from the GOP, now they believe that the American people deserve accountability? Sen. Stevens from Alaska is a convicted felon, yet, over 100,000 conservatives in Alaska voted to send him back to Congress. If, or when, Harry Reid fulfills his promise to have Sen. Stevens ousted from the Senate if he should win the election, how many conservatives will whine and cry about how unfair it is that he be held accountable for his actions? So much for the Party of "values" and the "rule of law".

This election saw the most vile, hate-filled campaigns coming from Republicans we have ever seen. Democratic politicians and supporters were called unpatriotic, un-American, terrorist sympathizers, socialists, Marxists, and Communists. When a conservative voice dared to speak up with the truth, such as Kathleen Parker, they had that same anger directed at them that they helped stoke against others. When the media dared to point out the lies coming out of the McCain campaign, Gov. Palin whined about how it was stifling her First Amendment rights, yet, the GOP had no problem trampling the rights of the American citizen whenever they could.

The GOP put up Gov. Palin as an "everyday hockey mom", then went into a frenzy when it came out that she went on a $150,000 shopping spree at upscale stores calling it "gotcha politics". The GOP put up "Joe the Plumber" as the average middle class conservative, then went into a frenzy when it came out that he hadn't paid his taxes and wasn't even a licensed plumber decrying the invasion of his privacy. Yet, it was the GOP and their smear agents who went after a child and his family, digging into their finances and what type of counter tops they owned because the child was helped by SCHIP and had the gall to state that in a national forum. But the GOP and their supporters don't get it. This election did not just see Democratic supporters voting in record numbers, it saw independent voters supporting the Democratic agenda, and, it saw previously conservative voters voting Democratic in repudiation of the Party they once supported.

John O'Conner writes at The State newspaper in South Carolina that there is no pity party for Republicans, that conservatives in South Carolina were now looking forward to 2010 and 2012. In a time when our economy is the worst it has been since the 1929 crash, when people cannot afford health care, when families are not earning a decent wage to afford food, that anyone would be looking ahead to the next election instead of focusing on the problems we face now is astounding. The State newspaper, in one of the most Orwellian pieces I've ever read, actually tries to make the case that South Carolina helped Sen. Obama win the election simply because Democrats in South Carolina voted for Sen. Obama in the Democratic primary. Let's forget, like most conservatives are want to do, the facts; South Carolina's electoral votes went to Sen. McCain and The State newspaper endorsed Sen. McCain over Sen. Obama.

Mr. Warthan, the Editorial Page Editor and VP at The State newspaper, wrote that now is the time to put partisanship aside. He writes: "For 16 years, we have grown more and more divided and embittered, as first one huge chunk of the nation and then another refused even to acknowledge the legitimacy of the president. Clung to that anger and resentment for eight long years, and then took delight more in the other side’s loss than their side’s victory." The problem with this statement is that it conveniently overlooks the history and facts.

The GOP truly went after President Clinton with a witchhunt until they finally found something in which to prosecute him; lying under oath about an affair. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were used to investigate everything from who had access to the Lincoln bedroom to his Christmas cards. Even after starting impeachment hearings, the GOP couldn't bring itself to convict President Clinton in the Republican controlled Senate. As for the legitimacy of the Presidency, it is a fact that President Bush was not elected President in 2000, he was installed as President by the Supreme Court who ordered all recounts stopped in Florida. Because of that one decision by the Supreme Court, our nation has had to endure 8 long years until we ended up with a wrecked economy, our moral standing in the world in shatters due to the torture we inflicted on detainee's, our snubbing of the Geneva Conventions, our invasion of Iraq based on lies and distortions, over 4200 dead American men and women in a war that never should have been fought in Iraq, and government agencies so politicized that the Department of Justice, FEMA, and other agencies that barely function.

The State newspaper endorsed Sen. McCain and South Carolina, as it has in the past, once again got left behind as the nation said "enough." But, the conservatives and the GOP just don't get it. There are people in America who have seen beyond the lies and spin. There are people in America who remember the past and don't wish our future to be the same. While there are many who still believe that the end is coming because Sen. Obama won the Presidency, there are many of us who know better. While Bill Clinton was not my favorite President, he did preside over a booming economy in which every year unemployment rates dropped and he left our government with a surplus. In 8 short years, the GOP under President Bush wrecked all of it. There is no reason to believe that President Obama, with a Democratic Congress, cannot restore the prosperity we once knew as a nation.

If the Republican Party and its supporters decide to fight that, to be shrill, vile, obstructionists, then they are making the conscious choice to keep every American in poverty, to keep food from your table, to keep you from being able to afford medical care for you and your children, and to watch more people become homeless. If that is the path the GOP decides upon, in 2010 the GOP will lose even more seats in the Senate and House. Two elections have past and the people have spoken; enough. We are tired of the hate, the vile smears, the obstructionist ways, the lack of accountability, the lack of action, and the "screw the poor" mentality. It is up to the GOP and its supporters whether or not they "get it" this time.

If I were you, I'd take a few WEEKS off for a much needed and well-deserved rest.

We'll miss you - but we'll muddle through and hold down the fort, so to speak.