Romney takes Michigan.

Huckabee third.
McCain second.

Per NBC

It’s hardly just begun, but let’s review for a second the rather stunning impact of the Democratic congressional takeover. Not all of these advances have been won through legislation, but it’s safe to say none of them would have happened without the ballance provided by a Democratic House and Senate.

• Rumsfeld’s gone.
• Bush has backtracked on his warantless domestic spying, placing the extra-legal NSA program under the watchful eye of the FISA courts.
• You can now apply to be removed from the government’s No-Fly list.
• Chuck Hagel is openly clashing with Condi Rice on the war, in Senate hearings demanded by Democrats.
• Legislation to address the climate crisis is on the docket.
• The House has increased the Minimum Wage, decreased costs of Rx drugs bought by the government, sliced the interest on student loans, beefed up air-cargo security, implemented new ethics rules, and is about to revoke corporate welfare to the oil companies.

Not bad for three months after election day.

What else am I overlooking?

It’s going to be a good day for many millions of American workers when the 110th Congress raises the minimum wage.

But why not pass something durable: A minimum wage increase with a cost of living adjustment built in, adjusted every three years in a way that’s predictable for small businesses and protects the meager purchasing power of those unfortunate enough to have to toil for the nation’s lowest acceptable salary.

Why not solve this problem once and for all? Because, alas, the Democratic party loves to bask in solving it time and time again. See you again in 2017, you great, grandstanding champions of the little guy.

Make it 3 for 3:

Democrat Mike Arcuri, who campaigned on bread-and-butter economic issues in Upstate New York, has cleaned the clock of state senator Ray Meier, himself a very capable candidate. Read all about it: Wagering on Wages

DISTRICT: New York’s 24th (Cooperstown)
THE REPUBLICAN: State Sen. Ray Meier
THE DEMOCRAT: District Attorney Mike Arcuri
TOP ISSUE: Minimum wage

“Every cycle, there are a handful of races where it’s as if the parties are looking at two completely different contests,” says political analyst Stu Rothenberg. New York’s 24th is one of them. “The Democrats look at this race and think they’re going to steal a Republican seat,” he adds. “And the Republicans look at the same race and say, ‘What are they talking about?’ ”

To wit: Earlier this fall, the NRCC was touting a survey showing Meier leading by eleven points, while Democrats pointed to a poll that has Arcuri up by fifteen.
Partisanship aside, this open seat is a blue-chip race between two capable candidates. Meier is a technocrat of long standing in New York’s state senate – more conservative than departing Republican incumbent Sherwood Boehlert, but not a zealot. “He’s got great name identification up there,” says Republican spokesman Carl Forti, who says the 24th the second-strongest GOP district in New York. “This is one that we think we’re going to win and, in the end, win pretty easily.”

Democrats believe that Arcuri has the edge in charisma – and is a better ideological fit for the district. (more…)

DISTRICT: North Carolina’s 11th (Asheville)
INCUMBENT: Rep. Charles Taylor (R, eight terms)
CHALLENGER: Former NFL QB Heath Shuler (D)
TOP ISSUES: Ethics, jobs

Shuler, a former first-round draft pick for the Washington Redskins, is no stranger to the recruiting process. But he was unprepared for the ferocity with which he was courted to run for office by Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the DCCC.

Shuler was eager to serve the district where he led his high school team to the state championship in 1990, but he had concerns about the strains public office would place on his family. So Emanuel kept calling – from his backyard barbecue on Sunday, while dropping his kids at school on Monday morning, then again while picking them up on Monday afternoon. “He not only did this one day, he did it for, like, two straight weeks,” Shuler says in his West Carolina twang. “He is probably the most persistent person I’ve ever met.”

(more…)

DISTRICT: California’s 4th (exurban Sacramento)
INCUMBENT: Rep. John Doolittle (R, eight terms)
CHALLENGER: Retired Air Force pilot Charlie Brown (D)
TOP ISSUES: Corruption, veterans

If the Republican culture of corruption is truly on the ballot in November, it’s likely to make the difference in this northeastern district of California. What has long been a red bastion in a deep-blue state is suddenly up for grabs, as Brown has pulled within points of the scandal-tarred incumbent.

Doolittle has been linked to not one but two major scandals. He accepted more than $64,000 from Abramoff and his patronage network – and helped the corrupt lobbyist secure a contract with the Norther Marianas Islands, an American protectorate that Doolittle has helped preserve as a haven for sex slavery and sweatshops by exempting them from immigration and minimum-wage laws.

Doolittle also intervened on behalf of defense contractor Brent Wilkes – the man who bribed former Rep. Duke Cunningham – earmarking $37 million in the Navy budget to buy superfluous sonar equipment from Wilkes.

Brown, by contrast, served as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam and finished his career in Air Force intelligence, coordinating reconnaissance flights over the Iraqi “no-fly zone.” His son Jeff is now on his fourth tour of duty as a pilot in Iraq. A pro-gun, pro-choice conservative who serves on the police force in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, Brown was a lifelong Republican – until the Bush administration abandoned any pretense of fiscal conservatism.

“Charlie Brown has magnificent credentials,” raves Pelosi. “If we had Charlie Brown in many more races in the country, we would be guaranteed a victory in November.”

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Who is the most effective progressive politician in America? I’ve got news for you, he’s not a Democrat.

Who else can trump this record:

• Negotiated an informal climate accord with Great Britian — after comparing those who doubt global warming to members of the flat-earth society — committing the world’s 12th largest greenhouse polluter to Kyoto-like cuts by 2010, all while echoing Al Gore: “You can build a great economy and you can take care of the environment at the same time.“
• Signed a landmark bill to put solar panels on one-million roof tops statewide, forcing utilities to buy back excess power, and mandating that developers offer solar on all new homes by 2011.
• Worked accross the aisle to negotiate a hike in the state’s minimum wage to a highest-in-the-nation $8 an hour.

And that’s just the last month. From a politician who brought the state back from the brink of bankruptcy, is now overseeing the strongest economic expansion since the dot-com boom, and has taken the lead in the push to rebuild the state’s levies and other degraded infrastructure. Oh yeah, and a commander-in-chief who told Bush to shove it when asked to deploy even more National Guard troops to the border to shore up the president’s support with his xenophobic base.

(more…)