Kimberly Strassel knows what happened on Tuesday — and so does all of Washington:

The White House and the congressional leadership saw this coming, and it is why Speaker Nancy Pelosi is force-marching her health bill to a vote tomorrow. She’s not about to give her members time to absorb the ugly results, or to be further rattled by next week’s Veteran’s Day break, when they go home for a repeat of the August furies. If not now, she knows, maybe never.

But remember — Tuesday’s election results weren’t indicative of anything. Nope, nothing at all. Merely local contests with no national implications. You’re getting very sleepy… you’re totally relaxed… when I snap my fingers, you’ll wake up and be back in love with The One…

Comments

The new transparency… it’s… uh… it’s poopy.

Sorry, but metaphor fails me.

Comments

Things are a bit different again on today’s Trifecta. I’m playing host, guest star Dana Loesch co-hosts, and the two of us grill Scott Ott on the latest developments in his run for County Executive.

Hint: He still hasn’t conceded.

Comments

Finally got a chance last night to watch this week’s Mad Men. Season 3 has had a slow build, but it’s really starting to pay off in the last two episodes. Ed Driscoll has the rundown.

Comments

Related item to last night’s “Terminator” post. From the Wall Street Journal‘s John Fund:

That the bill would be a job killer isn’t the only concern. Democrats worry about a backlash from the one-fourth of seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage — a program that faces steep cuts in both the likely Senate and House bills.

But Speaker Pelosi isn’t about to step back. In fact, she plans to force her troops to vote on health care just one day after Friday’s jobless numbers are due, which are likely to show unemployment still growing. “When I take this bill to the floor, it will win,” she proclaimed earlier this year.

One Democratic House moderate says the leadership has mislearned a lesson from the 1994 collapse of Hillary Clinton’s health care bill. “They believe they lost the elections that year because they failed to pass anything,” he says. “But they forget it might have been even worse if they’d passed the wrong bill.”

Fund’s story relies on a couple of Democrats who didn’t want their names used. We’ll know this thing has been killed — and that Pelosi ought to turn in her gavel — when sane Democrats start talking like this on the record.

CORRECTION: According to Speaker Pelosi, that gavel belongs to “the children.” PJ Media regrets the error. And laughs at the Speaker.

Comments

Back to Iran, where the protests continue without support — or even comment — from the White House:

Not a few Western analysts remain skeptical about the staying power of the Greens and their ability to bring about a political transformation of the country.

They point to the lack of a distinctive opposition leader in the face of a robust security-intelligence apparatus. The realists in Washington note that neither street demonstrations nor increasing internal divisions within the regime have brought about a significant change in behavior.

But this is a superficial and impatient reading of the internal situation in Iran. Iran is less stable and secure than at any time in the past 30 years, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government has been forced to fight on several fronts simultaneously.

It’s a good article, although a bit frustrating due to a bit of wishful thinking. Read:

[Tehran] is battling over the nuclear program with the international community, which is starting to coalesce on sanctions.

Wake me when Russia and China even look like they’re pretending to consider to possibly think about appearing to get on board with a tough sanctions regime.

Comments

I’m pro-choice and I find Nancy Pelosi’s latest gambit repugnant.

Honestly, is there nothing from the far left wishlist that Pelosi won’t hide under the banner of “health reform?”

Comments

Has the White House surrendered [ahem: "preconceded" -ed.] in its War Against Fox News? Probably not, but –

David Axelrod, an ex-newspaper reporter but one of the lead Obama attackers against the Fox News Channel in recent weeks, actually granted an interview to the Fox News Channel.

And later in the piece:

Virginia’s Gov. Tim Kaine, who’s also the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, spent extra national money there and still can’t deliver his own state against a tide of voter dissatisfaction.

Also, they’ll note that Gov. Corzine couldn’t even approach winning New Jersey with that state machine, all the money in the world, a mediocre, overweight Republican opponent, a third-party guy to siphon GOP votes and five presidential appearances in an historically Democratic state that went big for Obama in 2008.

Ouch.

Comments

Busy morning here — I’ve got two radio segments to record and a TV show to write and tape. So if you’re looking for something to read, check out Pulp Engine. It’s a new magazine from my buddy Will Collier and his partner-in-crime, Lein Shory.

It’s good stuff.

Comments

KFTK’s Dana Loesch sits in Bill Whittle’s chair, and hosts her first-ever Trifecta.

What are we talking about? Tuesday’s elections, of course. And we give it to the GOP a helluva lot better than the Democrats did yesterday.

Comments

They’re not Democrats. They’re the Terminator party. Read:

Undeterred by Republican election triumphs in Virginia and New Jersey, Democratic leaders put the U.S. House on a path to vote as early as Saturday on the most sweeping overhaul of health-care policy in four decades.

The election of Republican governors in New Jersey and Virginia won’t affect how the House proceeds on legislation to extend insurance to 36 million people and create a government- run program to compete with private insurers, lawmakers said.

Win? Lose? It doesn’t matter to these power-grabbing bastards.

You still don’t get it, do you!? They’ll pass a giant bill! That’s what they do! It’s all they do! You can’t stop them!

Comments

From The Hill:

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who serves as deputy GOP whip, told The Hill that the number of Republicans supporting the sweeping legislation will be “very, very close to zero.”

“I don’t know of a Republican out there advocating it,” the lawmaker said.

Meanwhile, on the Senate side, Harry Reid is hinting he hasn’t got the Democratic votes to pass a bill.

Comments

Usually we tape PJTV’s Trifecta on Tuesday afternoon, and get the first segment up that evening or early on the next day — but not this time. We’re shooting this afternoon, now that the election results are in. It would’ve been silly to sit on a story like that for a week.

Also, Bill Whittle is “on assignment” this week, so we have a special guest star sitting in his chair. I’m not telling who it is, but you won’t be disappointed.

Also also, I’ve been assured that “on assignment” does not mean “shuttered up in a Vegas motel with two or three hookers and a jacuzzi full of malt liquor.”

Comments

Another protest turns violent in Iran.

Comments

Results won’t start coming in for a while yet, but here’s where you can track results for Scott “Scrappleface” Ott’s race for Lehigh County Executive. He’s got an uphill battle tonight, but here’s to hoping…

Comments

Also from New Jersey:

I want to preface this by noting that all of this is based only on the early voting, and is based on about a half-dozen polling places in every county in New Jersey; some known as historically Republican districts, some known as historically swing districts, and some known as historically Democratic districts.

A trusted source tells me that as of noon, total turnout in the GOP the swing districts in NJ is significantly outpacing turnout in Democrat districts. The turnout ratio is not quite two to one, but it’s not that far from it.

Now, this should NOT be interpreted as ipso facto evidence that Chris Christie is going to win. Democratic districts may have more voters show up later in the day. This isn’t an exit poll, and we have no idea how the folks in any of these districts are voting; we just know that they’re showing up and voting.

That’s Jim Geraghty at NRO. The reason you might want to stay on top of NJ today is this: It’s going to be perhaps the hardest win for a conservative candidate today, what with Corzine digging deep to buy himself an election. Again.

Comments

Remember, undecideds typically break for the challenger.

Comments

TIme for this week’s Hair of the Dog on PJTV, where I play Monday morning quarterback to the Sunday morning chat shows. We’ve got:

Speaking truth to short people.

The secret connection between weasel words and Groucho Marx.

It’s nice to be right these days.

Plus, Rush Limbaugh gives Obama ye olde single finger salute.

Check it out.

Comments

Lamest. Political memoir. Ever.

Comments

Now that’s a sore loser:

Republican Dede Scozzafava, who unexpectedly backed out of a tough, three-way House race on Saturday, announced this afternoon that she was endorsing Democrat Bill Owens for the job.

Her decision not to back Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the contest to fill former Rep. John McHugh’s open seat is likely to enrage party leaders, who rallied around Hoffman almost immediately after Scozzafava announced she would suspend her campaign.

If the GOP has a future, it’s with genuine conservative/libertarian types like Hoffman — not with DIABLOs like Scozzafava. And judging by the polls, the folks in NY23 may already know that.

Comments