V I C T O R Y

Sorry my lads and lassies, but for Blogger's burps and indigestions I would have posted sooner. I daresay listening to "Glamour Profession" by Steely Dan is forcing me to fight off a growing temptation to lapse into Eustace mode, my babies. But I shall refrain to let the funk ebb and flow so freely. AGH! There, you see!!!

Anyway, guys, the last week has been quite a wonderful time. Hard work (little of it mine) paid off, and a sweeping victory and mandate for the conservative platform. I stayed up quite late on Tuesday night, until around 3AM when I decided to do what the pantywaist networks were afraid to do, and call the race for Bush. I celebrated with the 50ml bottle of Hine Triomphe cognac I had saved for months for the victory. The grapes used to make that finest of spirits were picked from the vine when Eisenhower (or perhaps Truman?) was president, and its age showed well, it is worth every penny of its exorbitant price which I will be unable to pay again for a good long while. Anyway, it was a glorious win. Bush of course swept with 51% and a nice electoral majority. He got more votes than any president in history. The electoral map was a swath of red, with only blue pockets on the Left Coast, the Northeast, and a few industrial states (unions) to the North. And Tom Daschle was tossed out of the Senate, decapitating their power there and sending a message that we don't care for obstructionism as a status quo method of doing business on Capitol Hill. We increased our majority in the House, and more importantly, got up to 55 in the Senate, giving us a better ability to defeat ill-used filibusters. And while we lost a couple Congressional races in Kansas City (to Cleaver and Moore), I expected that, and the defeat of McCaskill was much more important to me. Glad to have Blunty Boy in the Governor's Mansion.

This all spells great news for the Supreme Court. Hopefully we can replace the aging Supremes with a less aggressive, more constructionist Court that will simply do its job and enforce the Constitution. I don't want an "active" Supreme Court, I just want one that will stick to the letter of the law, and make decisions on what the Constitution says, not what they think is "right". Let's get them back to doing their appointed job...nothing else.

Well, the Dems are depressed and rightly so. It's difficult to understate the gravity of this election. It represented so much more than whether we have President Bush or President Kerry. It represents a defeat of an active liberal press doing everything it could to influence the election, within and without the bounds of ethics (Dan Rather!). It represents a defeat of the liberal elites who said that Bush was a numbskull and would be promptly tossed out (these same liberal elites now think the election represents the stupidity of Americans...there's just no losing gracefully for them, is there?). It represents an endorsement by the majority of Americans of conservative policies, foreign and domestic (and I might remind you "Democrats" that we live in a "democracy", like it or not). It represents an immense victory for conservative ideals.

Kerry deserves a mention...I respect him now more than ever. Whatever his faults, he was well-bred and brought up with some sense of honour it seems. His concession in the face of obviously insurmountable odds spared the nation a lot of headache. Thanks for calling off the lawyers, John. His concession speech was moving and noble, and his words of encouragement for Democrats to not let this embitter them, but to strive to unite and work together, were quite refreshing. No, I don't regret my vote by any stretch, but I am thoroughly grateful for his gracious and honourable conduct after defeat was obvious.

Although here's one funny thing to note...after the President won big, the next major question posed by liberal politicians and the press corps was "what will you do to heal the divide?" Bush is going to try, as he did in his first time, to make sacrifices and offer Democrats what they've been after (education bill, energy bill, health care bill). But the more important thing to realize is that they are the losing Party. It is up to them to get on board with the winners selected by America. You want the divide healed? Step a few feet in our direction...its your responsibility, not ours. If John Kerry was the one selected by America, would the Democrats have to adopt a conservative agenda to "heal the divide"? No, Bush has a mandate. The American people have spoken, so he has the responsibility to govern as he campaigned. Truth in advertising, you know.

I'm eating salsa I made, which is far too runny. I'll have to cook it down next time. Or use drier tomatoes. "Yes, I'd like some reduced-water tomatoes please." I'm worried I'm going to spill it into my keyboard. Oh well, keyboards are cheap. Here's a strange idea. They have things called Grapples at the store, pronounced "grape"-les. They are apples that are somehow injected with artificial grape flavour. Looks like an apple, tastes like a grape Jolly Rancher. If that don't beat all. I almost succumbed to the temptation to purchase them but the price (a whopping six bucks for four Grapples) kept me from giving in. What has the world come to, when we have to use inject artificial fruit flavour into FRUIT.

Ahhh, Bootsy Collins...your music brings out the funkiest in me. Groovytown.

Yes, the ambling randomness of this post has deteriorated into jumbled babblings on whatever passes the not-too-strictly-guarded doors of my brain.

Why does Hyvee not carry lamb? I wanted to make Irish Stew tomorrow. Now I've got to make some silly beef version. Oh well, it'll be good. I assume it will at least, because it has carrots, potatoes, and turnips in it. I don't know what turnips are and have never had them before. We'll see tomorrow. A natural pairing for such a meal would be Irish stout, but all I have on hand is Boulevard's Dry Stout, which is a reasonably nice brew but a overly thin lightweight compared to some of the better, heartier Irish/English ones (Guinness Extra and anything by Samuel Smith or Young's). The Boulevard is designed for American lager drinkers who don't like a thicker, wine-like mouthfeel...they want thin, crisp, and bubbly. Oh I could go on for you-don't-want-to-know-how-long but the pretentious meter just turned yellow (high alert, as yet uncritical) so I'd better shut up.

All in all, what a week for Republicans. Something to savour no doubt, but no time to slack off or get comfortable. To liberals, I'm sure your dismay is profound and painful, as long as your denial isn't insanely deep-rooted. I'd caution you, for your sake, against bitterly labelling Americans as idiots. You only show yourself the idiot, and manifest what liberals have believed all along, that Americans are dumb sheep that don't what is best for them, and it takes the guiding hand of a liberal government to run their lives for them. If you haven't sunk to that depressing level, then we'll see you on the field of ideas...the rematch will come soon enough!

One other note...Ann Coulter wrote a scathing criticism of Karl Rove this week that I found thoroughly unwarranted. She claimed in the wake of our victory that it should have been a much broader win but for Karl Rove. She wanted the campaign to focus on gay marriage and social conservatism instead of terrorism, and that that would have made our victory even larger. Bullca-ca. As one who enjoys reading her columns and agrees most of the time, this was a slipup in my opinion. The whole crux of the conservative view on gay marriage is that it is not a federal government issue. It is not a crucial issue to the country. Sure, in light of strong support for gay marriage bans across the country, it looks like a winning political issue, but those bans that were passed were state bans. It is a state level issue...irrelevant to the Presidency. Most people don't care about gay marriage like they care about terrorism. So Ann Coulter, you're usually pretty on target, but this week, well, maybe you had celebrated a bit too much and weren't thinking quite straight. It's happened before, when I disagreed strongly with my favorite columnist, Charles Krauthammer. So far Jonah Goldberg hasn't triggered an angry disagreement from me yet, though. Good job, Jonah.

OK, I'm getting terribly ranty and this is too long.

Have a good night ladies and gents.