Yeah. It's SERIOUS, all right. [View All]

A virtually unknown Democrat, thirty points behind in the polls, comes back to win a dead heat against a twelve-year incumbent GOPpie on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court.

Don't let the whining from the GOPpie gallery fool you, brothers and sisters. This is big mojo.

Every part of that statement matters.

JoAnne Kloppenburg was NOT well known. She did NOT have a long and bright political resume--she'd never held ANY electoral office, much less a statewide office

Prosser had been Speaker of the State Assembly and served in the legislature for nearly twenty years before he became a Supreme Court Justice. In 2001 he received more than 99.5% of all votes cast, nearly 550,000.

The GOP and their corporate backers poured money into the Supreme Court race; they outspent the Dems by 2:1 or thereabouts.

And, while Wisconsin is home to some of America's proudest Progressive tradition and many, many wonderful, active, passionate grass roots liberals, it is also a state with an established conservative majority, and among that majority are a large number of fervent, rigid, terrified, highly-motivated troglodytes with access to plenty of money and mainstream media clout.

Of course it was a narrow victory. And I had very little doubt that she would pull it out, even in the wildly-seesawing final hours of the count. But I'm not at all disappointed that it was close. A well-liked incumbent in a conservative state with vast wads of money and media and national support is taken to the mat by a FIRST-TIMER Dem cobbling together a campaign from students, working folks, union activists, and (this is the biggie) ordinary independents and moderates pissed off at the Imperial behavior of their GOPpie Goob? For a Supreme Court seat?

Dang, people.

It's serious.

There are some GOPpie strategists double-clutching their pearls and trying to negotiate cheap one-way fares to small island nations right now, mark my words.

Now, does this bode well for the national scene? No idea, but it doesn't bode ill, that's for sure.

Will it force the GOPpies to re-examine their dependence on, and kowtowing to, the batshit-crazy wing of their own party? I sincerely and optimistically doubt it. That ship has sailed, that train has left the station, they are on a downhill grade with no brakes and a yawning precipice over Political Oblivion in front of them.

Enjoy it.

The naysayers are already warming up another couple of reasons we should bite our lips and clutch our own pearls and squabble among ourselves, even as I write this. They'll be back. But for now?


Party, party, party!

:party: :toast: :party: :toast:

happily,
Bright