REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL, PART 3-- OH, YES, A VERY GOOD NIGHT LAST NIGHT

The election results last night tended to confirm Tom Schaller's thesis that the GOP is rapidly devolving into a small, racist regional party of the Deep South. Countryclub Republican hack Haley Barbour, despite the rumors about closets and corruption and his miserable record on health care and education, cruised to a big win in Mississippi, winning almost as big a victory there as Democrat Steve Beshear won in Kentucky. Barbour defeated a reactionary and useless Insider Democrat who failed to even interest the Democratic base.

But outside of the Deepest and reddest part of the Old Confederacy, it was all bad news for the Republicans, even on the fringes of the South. Kentucky, of course is the story of the day, where Steve Beshear won a landslide victory over incumbent right-wing extremist/corruption poster boy Ernie Fletcher.

The election was clearly a repudiation of Fletcher, who was seriously damaged by a scandal over his administration's hiring abuses in the state merit system. Fletcher refused to testify before a grand jury, was indicted on three misdemeanor counts-- later dismissed-- and pardoned those around him who had been charged.

...Beshear won traditionally Democratic counties that he was supposed to win and made it close in those where Republicans have typically run well. In Boone County, for example, where 63 percent of the voters are Republican, Fletcher won by less than 2 percentage points, and he won only by a small margin in heavily Republican Oldham County.

In all, Beshear carried 92 of the state's 120 counties. Four years ago, by contrast, Fletcher won 86 counties.

Most of the counties Fletcher carried this year were in south-central Kentucky. He even struggled in Republican-performing Northern Kentucky, where he won only Boone County.

Beshear carried Eastern Kentucky, which normally votes Democratic, and Western Kentucky, which has been trending Republican in recent years.

In Jefferson County, where Fletcher lost by just 5,536 votes in 2003, Beshear won by roughly 67,000 votes.

So as Bush officially tops Nixon as the most hated president in history, it isn't just borderstate Kentucky that is abandoning his narrowly-focused party, but even Virginia, until recently a stalwart bastion of somewhat kooky Republicanism. Virginia Republicanism is still somewhat kooky but the state has taken a decided turn towards political moderation, leaving the right-facing and religionist GOP in the lurch. Last night they lost control of the State Senate, even after considerable efforts by the Republicans to turn the campaign into an exercise in xenophobia. That failed miserably, according to today's Washington Post. So, as Pat Robertson hypocritically embraces Rudy Giuliani in a marriage of convenience between authoritarianism and profit-driven Elmer Gantry-style religionism, even Robertson's own state is turning away from the politics of extremism.

Even if the DCCC's policy makers are lost in an insider power game against grassroots Democrats, many of the folks who work there do an excellent job and I owe them for pointing out several cases of how last night's victories auger so very badly for GOP candidates in 2008-- even in traditionally Republican areas. Last night Ohio's 16th CD signaled that the Republicans won't be the party residents turn to when replacing retiring rubber stamp Ralph Regula. The district's largest city (and the only big city in the state that had a Republican mayor), Canton picked a new mayor, Democrat Bill Healy who won with 53% of the vote. No one is calling next year's race for Congress a lock for Democrat John Boccieri, but you'd have to not care about your money at all if you bet against him.

And, like I mentioned last night, Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) should probably start tidying up his resume and strengthening the ties that bind over on K Street. After solid wins (by 56 and 57%) against two state Senate Republican incumbents in NJ-02-- giving the Democrats all 3 state senate seats in LoBiondo's district-- his re-election prospects look particularly dim today. Same in VA-11 where rubber stamp Republican Tom Davis saw his wife lose her state Senate seat to Chap Petersen (55-45), in a race the husband ran. But Jeanmarie Devolties Davis, plagued by ethical lapses and corruption charges, wasn't the only Republican to lose and contribute to the Democratic takeover of the state Senate. Jay O'Brien and Nick Rerras both were defeated and Tricia Stall lost in a bid to win an open GOP seat.

One last thing about Kentucky, though. Larry Forgy, the 1995 Republican gubernatorial nominee, blamed Fletcher's catastrophe on Senator Mitch McConnell. There may be some truth in that but McConnell hardly wanted to see Steve Beshear win the governorship just before his own election, which looks like it will be, at best, a cliffhanger. Freshman Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth pointed out that the disaster that befell the Republicans yesterday in Kentucky was "more than just Ernie Fletcher, but he didn't blame McConnell per se. "I really do think it was part George Bush and part a rejection of neocon Republicanism." And ex-Senator Wendell Ford said Beshear's trouncing of Fletcher bodes poorly for McConnell's chances to be re-elected. "I think it makes it tougher" for McConnell, he said.

And for Blue America and our allies, the sweetness of Beshear's victory is even better savored in the light of how early and concerted action against the Insider Establishment's determination to nominate reactionary and corrupt Republican-lite Bruce Lunsford was thwarted last May. Ironic that just as Beshear was being declared the winner, grassroots Democrats successfully countered the Insiders Club's ill-advised attempt to force the re-election of another reactionary and corrupt Democrat, Maryland's the telecom and banking industries' Al Wynn. Nancy Pelosi may have been able to help Emanuel and Hoyer squeeze more K Street lobbyists for donations to Wynn's campaign last weekend but last night Blue America and several other bloggers plus Color of Change crashed through our $100,000 goal for Donna Edwards' campaign. Her ActBlue total for 2007 now stands at $206,615 and our counter-Pelosi effort brought in $101,665 (so far).


UPDATE: EVEN UTAH...

Yep, even in one of the last bastions of non-Confederate GOP power, Utah, an overwhelming majority of voters rejected the GOP plan for school vouchers, one of their fondest hopes in their mad dash to abolish "socialist education." Utah's state School Board Chairman Kim Burningham said "Tonight, with the eyes of the nation upon us, Utah has rejected this flawed voucher law. We believe this sends a clear message. It sends a message that Utahns believe in, and support, public schools." Utah voters recently joined the rest of the country in giving Bush failing grades for his overall-- and Iraq-- job performance.