Update your bookmarks – Expat Yank has moved. Check out Robert’s blog for perspectives of a New Yorker living in London.

More post-mortems – All is well, declares Charles Krauthammer in “Only a minor earthquake”: all those Democrats were really conservative anyway and Joe Lieberman won too. And George Will flogs his “genius of the political market” theme again.

Election's over - And my traffic is way down. Come back for the exciting discourse on entitlement policy!

The grifters – New Yorker Ned Crabb reveals some of the new scams making the rounds. Dr. Mellville Killington wants his coins back.

Did I mention that Rutgers won last night?

Did I exaggerate when I said it was the greatest game ever?

In a game so electrifying that the Big East lead and other BCS considerations faded into the background, Rutgers upended third-ranked and unbeaten Louisville, 28-25, in one of the most astonishing games ever played since the first crude collegiate contest, played in New Jersey just four years after the Civil War ended.

Rah, rah, Rutgers rah!

Extra - John Cole is in disbelief.

Rutgers beats Louisville!


The #15 Scarlet Knights came back from an 18-point deficit to shock #3 Louisville beating them 28-25 in Piscataway, New Jersey. It was the greatest college football game ever. EVER!

The ESPN guys seem to be in a state of disbelief. They might as well cancel classes tomorrow.

New Jersey Star-Ledger: “Rutgers stuns Louisville, 28-25”
GOP and the City: “This is not my father's Rutgers Football team!”
Suck it, Sporting News: “Rutgers doesn't have the offense to beat Louisville” Wrong!
New York Times: “Rutgers upsets Louisville and remains unbeaten.” 9-0, baby!

EAL - Class of '91

Everybody’s a joker – By the way, I forgot to mention: my co-workers presented me with a sympathy card today. One of the signatures was from “Dick C.” who said not to worry and that he’d take me on a hunting trip. Ha ha.

Election 2006 - Trying to sort through all the post-mortems is like drinking from a fire hose. Michael Barone has some groggy pre-dawn “Thoughts from the wee hours of Election night.”

A quarter of Americans plan to eat cat food in retirement – From Dayton Business Journal: “While most people know that Social Security and company-provided pensions might not be available when they hit retirement, many still plan to rely on them. In the survey, a phone poll of 1,000 nonretired people throughout the United States, 23 percent say they intend to use Social Security as their primary income source in retirement.” The primary source of income! Good luck with that.

Get to the point – You seldom see reviews this direct. Writing about Microsoft’s IPod knockoff: “Zune stinks.”

Another election – Another problem with Chad.

The verdict on Rumsfeld

Here’s Victor Davis Hanson writing on Pajamas Media:

Here is the record of Donald Rumsfeld. (1) Tried to take a top-heavy Pentagon and prepare it for the wars of the postmodern world, in which on a minute’s notice thousands of American soldiers, with air and sea support, would have to be sent to some god-awful place to fight some savagery—and then be trashed live on CNN for doing it; (2) less than a month after 9/11 he organized the retaliation against al Qaeda in the heart of primordial Afghanistan that removed the Taliban in 7 weeks, when we were all warned that the U.S., like the British and Russians of old, would fail; (3) oversaw the removal of Saddam in 3 weeks—after the 1991 Gulf War and the 12-years of 350,000 sorties in the no-fly-zones, and various bombing strikes, had failed. (4) Ah, you say, then there is the disastrous 3-year insurgency—too few troops, Iraqi army let go, underestimated “dead-enders” etc.?

But Rumsfeld knew that in a counterinsurgency (cf. Vietnam 1965-71) massive deployments only ensure complacency, breed dependency, and create resentment, and that, in contrast, training indigenous forces, ensuring political autonomy, and providing air and commando support (e.g., Vietnam circa 1972-4) is the only answer—although that is a long process that can work only if political support at home allows the military to finish the job (cf. the turn-of-the-century Philippines, and the British in Malaysia). He was a good man, and we were lucky to have him in our hour of need.

This may be the most laudatory thing written about Rumsfeld today, as the prevailing opinion is decidedly negative:

Boston Globe editorial: “President Bush should have asked for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation a long time ago. Rumsfeld bears much of the responsibility for a costly and dangerous sequence of blunders in Iraq.”
And Slate with “A Catalog of Failure”: “It remains unclear whether Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld finally stepped down because he mismanaged the war on terrorism, failed in his efforts to transform the Pentagon, or became the scapegoat for the Republicans' loss of the House.”

The drift then the shift

Dean Barrett is spot-on with “An Overdue Reckoning”

Most importantly, we didn’t lose because our countrymen suddenly misplaced the virtues that make America great. It is a distinctly liberal trait to blame “the people” when they don’t vote as one would dictate. I’ll brook none of that from our side. The fact is, we thought our country would be better off with a Republican congress. We made a case to the American people. They didn’t buy it because they thought it was a weak case.

And you know what? They were right. In the closing weeks of the campaign season, I felt like I was a lawyer who had a bad client while writing this blog. That client was the Republican Party which had broken its Contract with America from 1994 and had become unmoored from its conservative principles. As its advocate, I couldn’t make a more compelling case for Republicans staying in power than the fact that the Democrats would be worse. I believed in that case, but when that’s all the party gave its advocates to work with, you can honestly conclude that Republicans got this drubbing the old fashioned way – we earned it.

I expressed a similar sentiment last night and Ace adds his own thoughts. Here’s the abridged version from the Corner:

The Democrats said: “Had enough?”

The Republicans said: “It could be worse!”

The voters said: “Let’s find out.”

Indeed.

Thrown on his sword – Rummy’s out and it’s a shame that somebody who served so loyally is going to be the goat of these elections. But then Rumsfeld hatred was the bulwark of the Democrats’ position on Iraq; now they have to come up with a real policy.

Extra - James Joyner has a roundup on Bush's press conference and the Rumsfeld resignation.

Comments - I don't know what happened to commenting. Sorry about that. Should be working again.

Perspective on the election

From my man, Aaaaaaaaaabe:

He said that he felt “like the boy that stumped his toe,—‘it hurt too bad to laugh, and he was too big to cry.’”

Yeah.

Well, this was just salt in the wound – Boston Globe: “Massachusetts voters reject wine in grocery stores” – “Massachusetts wine drinkers will not be able to pick up their favorite bottle of red or white while shopping for food after voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have allowed sales in grocery stores.” Hooray, we saved the package store monopoly. Lottery tickets for everyone.

Too late – How inept was Kerry Healey’s campaign? I got a “Healey for Governor” mailing…today. Deval Patrick romped all over.

Reality check - Hey, Bill Kristol, STOP calling for more troops! It's NOT going to happen!

For heaven's sake, haven't you seen that Americans don't give a crap?!? Pull back and let them kill each other, OK? Great.l

Democratic sweep - Well, it was everything we were warned about. The House was lost a long time ago but now it looks like the Senate is also lost, from Virginia to Missouri to Montana.

Montana! Virginia! Ohio!

Oh, congratulations, GOP, on capturing Tennessee [sarcastic clapping]

I'm beyond upset. I can't express myself adequately because I'm tired and filled with wine. But, be forewarned, the GOP gave this election away. HANDED IT AWAY. So stop sending me fundraising letters. It's bad enough we lost control, but we lost it because the GOP failed to hold true to conservative values.

Just. Like. That.