Call me sentimental. Call me naive. But I can’t help feeling a ray of sunshine on my cynical old face as I survey the implications of Tuesday’s election. The way I see it, all that was dark and twisted in human nature lost. And the good guys won.
That toad Karl Rove, who is so unwholesome that his Pygmalion protege, George W. Bush, nicknamed him Turd Blossom, was thoroughly thrashed. He is left with the unenviable task of explaining to his billionaire donors why he lost the vast majority of the races in which he spent their billions. Including the Big One.
Alison Fitzgerald observes in Bloomberg News this morning that:
Rove, through his two political outfits, American Crossroads and Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, backed unsuccessful Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney with $127 million on more than 82,000 television spots, according to Kantar Media’s CMAG, an ad tracker based in New York.
Down the ballot, 10 of the 12 Senate candidates and four of the nine House candidates the Rove groups supported also lost their races.
Ms. Fitzgerald notes that:
Donald Trump posted a message on Twitter saying: “Congrats to @KarlRove on blowing $400 million this cycle. Every race @CrossroadsGPS ran ads in, the Republicans lost. What a waste of money.”
One of the races that gave me the most satisfaction was Sherrod Brown’s re-election bid. The Ohio senator (above, left) is a favorite of mine. He is populist and pro-labor – a throwback to the no-nonsense politicians of my youth. Naturally, he has a lot of enemies. Big Oil, for one. China for another. And, of course, Karl Rove.
Rove and his conservative allies spent $40 million on attack ads in their effort to defeat Brown. And they can kiss that money goodbye. Overwhelmingly outspent, Sherrod Brown is back in the Senate and his opponent, Josh Mandel, is off sulking somewhere.
Another of my favorites, Wall Street scourge Elizabeth Warren (above, middle), took down that sexist Scott Brown in Massachusetts. And a third, Alan Grayson (above, right), won back his seat in my Orlando back yard.
To further make my day, outrageous Tea Party congressmen Joe Walsh and Allen West were sent packing.
And that grand old senator, Bernie Saunders, was re-elected in Vermont.
I can’t help it. Gloat I must.
If only Dennis Kucinich were still in Congress. But I guess you can’t have everything you wish for.
Michele Bachmann (barely) kept her Minnesota seat, for example. And the Tea Party blight persists in the House as at least 51 of the 55 members of their caucus will be back.
But these belligerent, bigoted ignoramuses are not my worst nightmare.
It is the likes of Karl Rove that keep me awake at night. Slick, soulless and amoral, they would do or say anything to achieve and retain power. Their transgressions are far too numerous to list. But I’m sure you know them as well as I do – voter suppression, the Big Lie, dirty tricks, character assassination…
And lurking in their shadow are their donors – the Koch Brothers, for example, Sheldon Adelson, the casino owner whose agenda includes a war with Iran, and a legion of other rapacious billionaires let loose upon the land by a compromised Supreme Court.
But the American People proved invincible. They would not be bought. They would not be tricked.
They sent this message, loud and clear, to the slickest schemer of them all:
Money can’t buy you love, Turd Blossom.
