One of the sad stories of the last 2 years has been how Blue Dog Democrats have sabotaged the Democratic "majority" by voting along with Bush most of the time and acquiescing to unreasonable Republican demands. What's worse, is it damages the Democratic brand, bogging us down with defeats that were Republican inspired and being the fall guys for Republican election propaganda.

Their party ended Tuesday, and not just because of a change in President. As Chris Bowers points out, Blue Dogs stayed even while various real progressive groups made gains. In a heavily Democratic House, they've just pushed themselves into irrelevance. No great love lost, think of them as Lieberman's love children in the lower house, hopefully having more time to spend with their families.

But instead of everyone thinking so admirably about "rising above party lines", perhaps we can think of it as sinking or slinking below the lines, below obligation, betraying a contract. I support Democrats to act like Democrats, and while that may have some shades of divergent meaning, it's not as Claire McCaskill seems to think, that Bi-partisanship 'R Us. I can split my ticket if I want to - I don't expect the Party to do it for me. That doesn't mean riding roughshod over the opposition, but it also doesn't mean simply splitting the difference Dutch Treat. Quite frankly, we've taken a lot of shit over the last 8 years, and we're not just going to gladly toss back lots of thanks and free bennies and consolation prizes. In short, we should govern as Democrats in a respectable, responsible fashion for the conditions at hand. Where that means reaching across the aisle and engaging cooperation, fine. Where it means simply respectfully informing of intentions without too significant opposition input, fine as well.

Matt Stoller at OpenLeft is also hoping for the more accomodating, less abrasive Van Hollen as Rahm's replacement at DCCC. I'm a bit worried about Emmanuel - he was a bit to suited to the prevailing wisdom of the old politics and going along with the views of the punditocracy in Washington, along with ruffling a few feathers. (I don't mind ruffling feathers for the right reason, but Emmanuel for one wasn't a strong supporter of the 50-state strategy). But hopefully this is the right place for Emmanuel and Van Hollen.

On the Senate, Georgia goes into runoff (uphill, but now that they know what the stakes are?), Merkley takes Oregon, and Minnesota is bunkered down into recount with lots of spoiled votes. I take it that Stevens barely stands in Alaska - WTF? - and will be replaced by some GOP schmuck by Sarah Palin.

I'm chuckling over the anecdotes that are coming out now that the race is finished - Sarah didn't know who was in NAFTA (3 whole countries, that's tough), that Africa wasn't a country, that she went even crazier on clothes than reported - something like the Beverly Hillbillies and Rodeo Drive/Nieman Marcus? I've been reluctant to criticize on clothes because of the sexist discrepancies on what's required for a woman vs. a man, but when your clothing expenses start hitting the $10,000/day mark for a 2-month campaign, perhaps this really is some kind of psychological problem. I'm afraid (*not*) that she's hit the Dan Quayle level of parody without managing to actually win the job. (But did manage to declare war against Iran in the process - you go, girl). She may be around to rally the base in 4 years, but that would mean an increasingly irrelevant base if true.

Update: I should be much more careful buying the pile-on on Palin. I've seen way too many stories like this about different candidates Rep and Dem that were nonsense at base, and especially once the campaign ends, everyone wants to show how witty and top-notch they were and how it was the *other* people that screwed up. I still think she's become a bit of a larf, but then I'm biased, and over 4 years she may manage to redeem herself quite a bit. For all the complaints about her, McCain simply sounded old and winded, superficial and uninteresting every time I listed to him over the last 6 months or so, and what can she do to spruce *that* up? He chose her, she didn't choose him, and considering where she came from she did a pretty bang-up job. If you can get past that *you* are not her audience.