Today: Cleve Jones, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, and one or two ballot measures you may have heard of.
Decision ’09
Rachel started off the first of the night’s two shows absolutely geeked for election night.
It was clear early on that Republican candidate Bob McDonnell, who in his graduate thesis argued against working women and said that governments should “protect” traditional marriages by legislating against gays and fornicators, was winning in Virginia.
And that in spite of a substantial population of fornicators.
Fringe and Purge
Rachel moved on to a look at New York’s District 23 Congressional race, in which pressure from far-right Republicans knocked the actual locally chosen Republican candidate out of the race in favor of “Conservative” candidate Doug Hoffman.
The oddly creepy metaphor “the tip of the spear” got bandied about, indicating that there are more plans to knock reasonable Republicans out of the race in favor of candidates the loonbats like Glenn Beck prefer.
Rachel’s old pal Dick Armey stuck the tip of his spear into the race (see?), and seems like he’ll be doing so more often.
But he probably won’t be appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show any time soon, since he just got called on some bullpuckey and one or two lies about Rachel’s reporting.
Get ready for some Wrath of Nerd.
Maine Squeeze
Rachel noted that some of the jerks from California’s Prop 8 campaign helped bigots in Maine get organized for what looks like a successful effort to repeal civil rights.
Way to spend your lives, you craven stinkheads. Did this ballot victory make those secret, shameful gay feelings go away? Didn’t think so.
Before the outcome was at all clear, Rachel welcomed human rights activist Cleve Jones for a little perspective.
Decision ’09 VA
Rachel welcomed the always sharp and insightful Melissa Harris-Lacewell to talk about Virginia’s lurch back into the 1950’s.
Harris-Lacewell noted that exit polls can only get the opinions of people who decide to go vote, and that the voter turnout was older and whiter than the 2008 election.
Remember that certain population of Obama fans who were voting for the very first time and were sooooo proud about it? The ones who were pushing 30 and so pleased with themselves for having finally found a candidate who was inspiring enough to prod them into actual political action?
If you live in Virginia and you know that one of those smugballs stayed home because Creigh Deeds wasn’t sexy enough to inspire getting his or her ass to out to vote, you are allowed to swear at them all day today.
‘Busted
Rachel looked at the probable continued delays with health care reform, and at the minor kerfuffle over reports that Senator Joe Lieberman (I — Obstructicut) privately agreed not to filibuster and his subsequent loud denials that he did any such thing.
She also apparently managed to ask Al Gore about Lieberman without the word “dipwad” coming up even once.
Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake.com dropped in to do a little health care handicapping and talk about the baffling phenomenon of people swearing that Joe Lieberman is secretly going to do totally different things than he says he’s going to do.
Decision ’09 New York City
Whoo, exciting! New York’s mayorial election was initially called for incumbent mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) but then that was withdrawn. To be continued at the second show!
Decision ’09, now at 11:00
Rachel started off the second show with the news that challenger Chris Christie had unseated New Jersey’s incumbent Governor Corzine (D).
New Jersey resident and Corzine fan Melissa Harris-Lacewell returned with a few philosophical words before we had to listen to the Republican crowd at Chris Christie’s acceptance speech chanting “Yes we can!” Which, as numerous friends on Twitter pointed out more eloquently than I did, is really freaking irritating.
Question 1
Rachel spoke with Governor John Baldacci on the Question 1 nail-biter-turned-heartbreaker. Let’s take comfort in the fact that the margins on these things are getting closer and closer, and that good people like Baldacci are increasingly moved to take principled stands.
And that it looks like the good people of Washington may have passed Referendum 71.
And that the population of crazy, older loonbats that organizations like NOM so count on are inevitably dying off. Yes, there’s no better clue that you’re spending your life well than that millions of people are quietly waiting for you to die.
Decision ’09 — New York
Hey! Ready for some more tangible good news?
Enough voters in New York’s District 23 were skeeved out by the heavy-handed attempts to get Glenn Beck’s protégé Doug Hoffman in that Democrat Bill Owens is, as of this writing, in the lead.
Thanks for your hard work, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin! Stop by my election anytime!
Oh, and could y’all take more of an interest in gay rights ballot measures? That would be swell.
Decision ’09 New York
OK, Mayor Bloomberg won for real this time.
After spending a pittance of somewhere between $85 million and $100 million dollars on this year’s campaign alone.
Good call, sir! Why waste that kind of money on something frivolous like revamping your state’s entire public school system?
