The first wednesday after the first tuesday after the first monday in November

Well! What an interesting day. First, the good:

* A breakup of the one-party government! That's gotta help, right?
* A woman Speaker of the House! That means there's a woman, what, third in line for the presidency? Quick--to the Pocket Constitution^^! Yep. Third in line. That's pretty cool.
* Illinois is the bluest damn state ever!
* The Greens garnered extremely respectable votes; in my precinct, Whitney and Blagojovich were exactly tied for the governor's spot. And they got the 10% overall they needed, so that next time, they don't have to get a written permission slip from each and every Illinois citizen to get onto the ballot.
* Mike Frerichs won! Here's hoping he pulls through for labor.

^^ Did you know that the order of succession isn't spelled out in the Constitution after all, but was delineated in the Presidential Succession Act of 1792, and then was changed in 1886, and then again in 1947?

The bad:

* HOW does Tim Johnson get elected? What exactly has he done in his three terms? I mean that honestly--maybe there's something the state senate has pulled through that really does benefit farmers and rural areas, but I don't know what it could be. Our school funding is pathetic and the tax system hurts rural areas the most. I don't know any rich farmers. Gill clearly had it all over Johnson on health care. The roads are shameful and the funding to fix them goes to Chicago (who, to be fair, also has terrible roads). Gas prices have to be hard on people running tractors all day (or driving their SUVs and big-hip trucks into town to hit the Wal-Mart). I posit this as a rural thing, because Gill did quite well in the cities, but plenty of people IN town voted for Johnson too. Why? Oh, why?
* Blagojovich. Hmmm. I like his 100% pro-choice, pro-contraceptive voting record (compared to "pro-choice" Topinka's, who's record is about 17%). But I still think he's a chauvinist and kind of a jerk, and it does bug me that he won't live in the governor's mansion because it's downstate, and I do think he's got old Chicago croneyism and all that. So...you just watch it, Rod. Cause I'm watching you.
* Speaking of watching...the one good thing about having Rick Santorum in Congress was that it was easier to keep an eye on him. At least voting records are public. Now that he'll be a private citizen, he'll have loads of time to raise hell (and money) for conservative extremist groups. We need an eartag system or something, because once they're released to the wild, it's hard to keep up with what the little devils are doing.
* Bush's assish comment about recommending some "Republican interior decorators" to Nancy Pelosi. Even if he didn't mean it as a "you're a chick!" comment--which, come on, he totally did--it's still kind of jerky.


Okay, Democrats! Make sure you don't fuck it up worse!