I fully acknowledge that it's just not interesting anymore to sit around asking, rhetorically and incredulously, "Did (insert GOP/religious right figurehead here) really (say/claim/molest) (that/it/him)? I just can't believe it!"
So, well, I apologize in advance.
You see, the President came to Nebraska on Sunday and reassured his crowd that there's really nothing to worry about tomorrow. He declared, not only at his rally an hour from my home but at numerous stops on his what-the-hell-are-we-gonna-do-now GOTV tour, that Republican control of Congress is virtually assured when we all wake up on November 8.
"We have been through this before," Bush declared over the weekend. "We will win the Senate and we will win the House."
They've been through this before, he says!
Ahem. NE-03, a district that covers two-thirds of the state of Nebraska, elected its current Republican representative in 2004 with over 80 percent of the vote. Never have the people in this particular district elected a Democrat to represent them. Never ever. And as of last week, Scott Kleeb, a dead sexy (think Marlboro Man) Yale-educated ranch hand with absolutely zero political experience was running six points ahead of a two-term Republican state senator in one of the most unlikely races we've seen around here in a good deal of time. He's been endorsed by the state's two largest newspapers (two quite conservative newspapers) and now the Repubs are dumping something like a bajillion dollars into late attack ads. Not to mention panicking to the point that they had to call up the leader of the free world to come and try to take out Kleeb.
So by definition, no; they haven't been here before.
And judging by the Presidential weekend itinerary, things aren't much different up and down the farm belt. While I can't claim authority on Congressional races in Kansas, Montana, Colorado or any of the other places that are supposed to be sending Republicans to Washington, it's pretty clear that the big guy isn't just taking a pre-election vacation to Red America. Maybe it's just because he's become so universally disliked in saner corners of the country that they can't use George anywhere else. Maybe he wants to feel victorious again, just for a couple of days. More probably the men in suits who handle him sat down and thought, "Well, nothing else worked; we're running weak, half-bit morons against some real badass upstarts; one of them looks like the Marlboro Man ... to hell, better just send the President."
The fact is the GOP is in some serious trouble. And I know we've all been sitting around saying that for weeks, but the vibe over the last few days has been all about the horrible Republican GOTV monster that's going to jump out and eat every Democratic candidate tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, there's nothing you can do about the GOTV machine of a party that continues to have a monopoly on suburban organized religion and the entire concept of morality. But while GOTV works on the core voters, the independents are going to carry the day in NE-03 and across the nation.
And while it's true that the Democrats still haven't gotten cohesive enough to stand up as one party and take back those moral values or the trendily political religious right, no turnout operation is ever going to save the Republicans control of their Congress when they've blown it (no pun intended, Mr. Foley) in such colossal and varied ways over the last twelve years. The independent electorate and the peripheral voters in general haven't been this disgusted with the government in power in years, and tomorrow they're ours. How else can Nebraska be in play, for the love of God?
No, I don't really see a way for the President to be too optimistic. But George Bush, on a foray to save the few friends he has left in cattle country, says they've "been through this before."
So again, I'm sorry, but I've got to ask: How does he get to say that? How? Because when you've got to take time off from running a whole country to come and take out a political novice in Nebraska (before heading all over the Midwest to perform similar stunts), no; you haven't seen this before, Mr. President.
Until now.
So enough with the worrying. Get out and vote today, get out and do what you can to neutralize that GOTV monster with Democratic voters, and in 12 hours we'll have a good solid revolution on our hands. And add Scott Kleeb here in Nebraska to your hastily-scrawled upset lists. Sure, it's still unlikely, but if Kleeb makes it happen this can be up there with the big ones. It's time for 'Red-to-Blue' and the '50 state strategy' to materialize for us, and - for once - I'm an optimistic Nebraska Democrat.