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************************ Winners & Losers First, Happy Birthday J.T.! Now... In Little League, they would have invoked the "slaughter rule." That's how completely and totally the Democrats were devastated on Tuesday. It was unpredicted. It was unheard of. Heck, it was impossible. But we pulled it off anyway. There were a LOT of winners and losers this election day, with the most obvious losers being - in no particular order - Tom Daschle, Dick Gephardt and DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe. All three should be shown the door by the Democrat base, but considering the results on Tuesday, I kinda hope they stick around. The current President, Mr. Bush, was an obvious BIG winner; the former president, Mr. Clinton, - who made no difference anywhere he appeared for candidates in the country - was a BIG loser. As was his vice-president, Al. But there are some not-so-immediately obvious winners and losers to take note of. For instance, not only were Clinton and Gore losers this election, so were the majority of their administration minions who were trying to stake out political careers of their own. I believe two former Clinton/Gore cronies were successfully elected, while seven of them were tossed away like a cheap White House intern by voters. Pretty pathetic record. Ditto the Kennedy clan. They went 0-for-3 this cycle, with the most stunning defeat coming in Maryland, where Bobby Kennedy's kid, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, had her hat handed to her in the gubernatorial race despite the state's overwhelmingly Democratic electorate. Florida was a big winner for a few reasons. One, they actually pulled off an election without major ballot snafus. And in the process, Florida dispatched the Wicked Witch of Waco, Janet Reno, as well as re-elect the President's kid brother. And just to put some icing on the cake, they sent Katherine Harris (yes, THAT Katherine Harris) to Congress. Among Republicans, there were some pretty big losers as well, starting with Sen. Bob Smith. This was very unfortunate. Smith was a committed conservative. But two years ago his head got a little too big and he decided to run for president. Republicans didn't want him for president, and said so in the primaries. So he famously quit the Republican Party, trashing his colleagues in the Senate in the process, and ran a losing presidential campaign as an independent. He then groveled his way back into the GOP tent. But elephants don't forget. And New Hampshire voters nominated Rep. John Sununu over Smith in the senatorial primary there. Smith pouted and refused to support his fellow conservative Republican, hoping to cost him the general election - which would have resulted in a Democrat pick-up. It's rumored that the White House offered Smith everything under the sun, including an ambassadorial position, if he would just stand next to Sununu and say a kind word. Smith refused. Sununu won anyway. And Smith is now a political non-person. Talk about dumb. But perhaps the biggest Republican losers of all were the Republicans-In-Name-Only . . . better known as the RINOs. In Maryland, Rep. Connie Morella - who many Republicans genuinely adore as a person but loathe as a Republican because of her horrible voting record - lost. The Democrats came home and voted for one of their own, and Republicans sure weren't enthusiastic about keeping her in office. And up in New Jersey, another nice RINO, Rep. Marge Roukema, retired. She also refused to support the conservative candidate who was nominated to take her place, Scott Garrett. Garrett won in a landslide anyway, and in doing so, laid to rest the argument that one had to be a liberal Republican to get elected in that district. But perhaps the biggest RINO loser on Tuesday wasn't even on the ballot: Sen. Lincoln Chaffee. Chaffee has been threatening for over a year to bolt the GOP if the Senate ended up in a tie again - thus doing a Jim Jeffords to Republicans a second time. Alas, the victory on Tuesday was so complete, poor Lincoln is relegated to complete irrelevance. Good. Maybe he'll leave anyway. Gotta catch the train. More later...
