Score one for the Reality-Based Community

Everyone's taking their Friday swings at summing up the Election. What can I say that everyone else hasn't or isn't saying? Let's see.

Iraq swayed the middle enough to throw things entirely away from the GOP. The Bushies were castrated. Dubya and Cheney are facing the two toughest years of their lives. Can't really see how they rescue their legacies, certainly not while they're still in office. The current/past GOP leadership are now tainted beyond recovery. Look for Guiliani, Pataki, McCain and the handful of remaining successful GOP Guvs to represent the class ascendant. Boehner's more dated than crack jokes - his time is done. Hastert will probably soon have that overdue heartattack. Just try and name a GOP House figure worth mentioning as a Party leader. Just one. On the other hand, the Dems look smart. Surprisingly disciplined. Nancy Pelosi is very good with the bright lights on her and she's the smartest person in the room almost every moment of the day. Harry Reid looks like a pharmacist or barbershop quartet First Tenor. But he's really so stealthy and Nevada sneaky smart I'd check his boots for a weapon every time he came in the room. If the Dems keep it focused and find that shining star (Obama, anyone?) to run for Prez in '08...well, they could become incredibly powerful people.

Who deserves blame in all this? Hell, all of us get a smidge. Living is crime enough in some enlightened cultures to feel reverence and blame at the same time for surviving. But the leaders that took us to "War" deserve the real blame. And by pandering to their evangelical base yet again without delivering the goods the Bushies just may have peed in the entire punchbowl for the GOP. Now that we've got split rule, what sort of bones do you expect to be thrown to the Dobsons of the political barnyard? Zilch. More on this historic shift as it occurs to me and naptime permits.

Hope your weekend includes heaps of fun to jump into. Rock on.