Some thoughts

The current Doonesbury Straw Poll asks "which election loser will you miss the most?" One of the possible choices is "Lincoln Chafee. The most liberal Republican in the Senate, and the only one to vote against the Iraq war: Our newly-bipartisan world could have used a guy like that, even though losing him helped make it bipartisan. Curse you, irony!" The sentiment is similar to one found in the Daily Princetonian, discussing Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA): "Leach, one of Congress's most liberal Republicans, who has been a vocal critic of the war in Iraq and supports abortion rights, lost a closely fought race against Democratic challenger David Loebsack, ironically becoming a victim of nationwide ire directed toward a policy Leach himself had opposed."

Though I am obviously pleased with the Democratic takeover of Congress, it is still a sad state of affairs when principled Republicans - probably those most true to the Eisenhower/Nixon mold - have to be voted out of office in order to stem the hijacking of our democracy.

In other news, we have now been in Iraq longer than we were fighting in World War II.