*LIBERAL ANGER: Obviously furious about the outcome of the elections, liberal Helen Thomas, dean of the White House press corps, last Wednesday asked presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer if the election gave Bush a "mandate" for "war with Iraq, privatizing Social Security, weakening the Civil Service Commission and so forth?" Responded Fleischer, "Helen, you sound like a commercial that didn’t work."
*NO SIMON SURPRISE: Conservatives did not get the miracle they had hoped for in the California governor’s race, but Republican Bill Simon lost far more narrowly than had been predicted, particularly given the many disasters that buffeted his campaign. Democratic Gov. Gray Davis-often called the "most unpopular governor in America" - who was supposedly ahead by double digits, beat Simon 47% to 42%. There was an unusually low (48%) turnout of California voters. Although disappointed, top California Bushman Gerald Parsky, who did not back Simon in the GOP primary, told HUMAN EVENTS’ John Gizzi that "we did far better against Davis than four years ago [when he won his first term by 58% to 38%]. Bill carried just about everything south of Monterey and did so after being outspent by two-and-a-half to one and facing a nine-point Democratic advantage in voter registration. Now we have to figure out how we take this to a win in ’04."
*McCLINTOCK ON THE ROPES: Led by Davis, California Democrats appeared to take all statewide offices last week. If they do, it will be the first shut-out of a party from statewide office in California since 1947. There is still some uncertainty, however, because late last week conservative Republican State Sen. Tom McClintock trailed Democrat Steve Westly in the race for state conroller by only 25,000 votes out of more than 5.7 million cast, with nearly 500,000 absentee ballots left to be counted. Should McClintock emerge on top, he would be an instant GOP prospect for governor in ’06, when Davis must by law step down.
*FALLEN IDOLS: Along with the defeats of Walter Mondale in Minnesota and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in Maryland, heirs to two other revered names in the Democratic Party suffered losses at the polls last week. The grandsons of past Democratic presidential nominees Adlai Stevenson and Hubert Humphrey were beaten in their first races for office in Illinois and Minnesota respectively (see "Politics 2002," page 14).
*KILLER CANDIDATES: Were it not for third-party candidates on the right in Oklahoma and Wisconsin, Republicans would almost surely have had two more gubernatorial victories. Onetime Republican U.S. House candidate and former U.S. Attorney Gary Richardson took more than 146,000 votes in Oklahoma, most of which local analysts feel would have gone to the GOP candidate, former Rep. Steve Largent, had Richardson not been in the race. Largent lost by 6,866 votes. In Wisconsin, Ed Thompson, the brother of HHS Secretary (and former Republican Gov.) Tommy Thompson ran as a Libertarian for governor and drew 185,085 votes. Again, pundits agree, the vast majority of these votes came at the expense of the GOP candidate, Scott McCallum, Tommy Thompson’s successor, permitting Democrat Jim Doyle to by 68,175 votes.
*BURTON’S DAUGHTER: Twenty-six years after the late, far-left Rep. Phil Burton (Calif.) lost his bid for House Democratic leader by one vote, his prot??©g??©, ideological soulmate and successor to his San Francisco district is trying to take that position. When Richard Gephardt (Mo.) announced last week he was giving up the leadership post following his party’s setbacks in the midterm elections, current Democratic Whip Nancy Pelosi (American Conservative Union lifetime rating: 2%) immediately declared for the job. First, however, she has to defeat Rep. Martin Frost (Tex.), the slightly less liberal (ACU lifetime rating: 16%) chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. If she wins, onetime California Democratic State Party Chairman Pelosi would be the highest-ranked woman in the leadership of either party in the House or Senate.
*PARTIAL-BIRTH RETURNS: Careful not to neglect social conservatives, Senate Minority (soon to be Majority) Leader Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) made the passage of the partial-birth abortion ban one of his top priorities just one day after Republicans’ stunning election victory. Lott said in an interview with American Family Radio, "I will call it up, we will pass it, and the President will sign it. I’m making that commitment-you can write it down." The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act has passed Congress in the past, only to be vetoed twice by Bill Clinton. In the latest congressional session, it passed the House but was bottled up in the Democratic Senate (along with many other major pieces of legislation).
*GIZZI HAD IT RIGHT (ALMOST!) One of the pundits who came the closest to accurately forecasting the historic returns last week was HUMAN EVENTS own Political Editor John Gizzi. "Gizzi Predicts: A Republican Senate By 51 to 49" was the conclusion of his analysis of all 34 Senate races (see HUMAN EVENTS, October 15). That’s exactly what the line-up in the new Senate will be unless Republican John Thune wins the recount in South Dakota and hikes GOP Senate ranks to 52.
After painstakingly going through all 435 House races, Gizzi in our October 22 issue predicted a net gain of ten seats for House Republicans. With one race still up in the air (Colorado 7th, where the Republican candidate is narrowly ahead) and assuming the GOP takes Louisiana’s very Republican 5th District in the December 7 run-off, the net gain for the GOP is six seats so far.
*AND GOOD JUDGES: Now that Tom Daschle and his obstructionist colleagues are about to be pushed-gently but firmly-aside, the nation’s federal benches will once again be filled. In a press conference November 7, President Bush mentioned that he hoped his plan for efficient Senate consideration of judicial nominees would soon be adopted. Not even waiting for this, however, Senate Republicans plan to move soon to confirm a large number of Bush’s appeals court nominees held up by the Daschle Democrats-including two rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles Pickering and Priscilla Owen, and another not voted upon, Miguel Estrada.
*GOP STATE GAINS: Republicans scored a net gain of about 200 seats in state legislatures nationwide. The GOP gained complete control of state legislatures in Texas (by gaining 16 seats in the state house), Wisconsin (two or three state senate seats), Arizona (one Senate seat), Colorado (one senate seat) and Missouri (14-seat gain in state house). They nearly took Indiana’s statehouse as well. Pending final vote tallies, Republicans may have also won chambers in North Carolina and Washington, ending total Democratic rule in those states. Democrats took control over only one legislature, Illinois-the legacy of a scandal-plagued, liberal Republican governor.
*HOMELAND SECURITY NOW: Giving new impetus to Bush’s desire for a Homeland Security bill, CNN reported November 7, "The area of South America known as the tri-border region, which drew the attention of antiterrorism experts after September 11, has again become a point of concern. CNN has learned from coalition intelligence sources that several top terrorist operatives met recently in the area-where the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay intersect-to plan attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets in the Western hemisphere. Sources said the meetings, which took place in and around Ciudad del Este [in Paraguay], were attended by representatives of Hezbollah and other groups sympathetic to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network." The triborder region is largely controlled by leftist narco-terrorists and is home to many people of Arab descent.
