Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Randi Rhodes: Bagger Smackdown

HOUR ONE GUEST: The Nation's John Nichols on yesterday's wave of anti-Tea Party victories.

The big message of yesterday’s elections across the country was: Tea Party’s over, folks. It’s last call on Lipton! Squeeze your bag and toss it, teabaggers! You’re about to go down! Though, I admit I will miss the double-entendres. These results bode well for 2012. Usually a bad economy is a death knell for the party in the White House, but voters seem to recognize that, while the economy is bad, the Republicans are far, far worse.

In Ohio, voters rejected a harsh new law that denied collective bargaining rights to public employees. Ohio is a major swing state, and that’s a major swing in the right direction. Even Republican Governor John Kasich seemed stunned by the magnitude of the defeat. He said the voters “might have said it was too much too soon.” No. They didn’t say they want less of this at a later time. They said they don’t want any of this ever.


We also got a big victory in Mississippi. And progressive victories in Mississippi are about as rare as blizzards in Mississippi. Well, we’re looking at a little political climate change. Mississippi rejected a law that would have given “personhood” to an embryo at the point of fertilization. Conservatives think fertilized eggs are persons. They think corporations are persons. They think everybody is persons except for people.

In Maine, voters rejected a Republican law that did away with same-day voter registration. It was one of those cases where you could actually vote yes on voting itself. Maine has had same-day voter registration for four decades without any problem. Well, they elected the Republican governor who tried to get rid of same-day registration, but that wasn’t the fault of same-day registration.

After their victories in 2010, Republicans all over the country over-reached. Now all Republicans are learning that you can’t get too grabby—just like Herman Cain. When you think about it, Herman Cain’s sexual harassment problems are just par for the course for Republicans. Every time they see an opening, they lunge for it.

Today’s Homework | Discuss

Arizona recalled the champion of the state's anti-immigrant legislation, GOP State Senate President Russell Pearce, yesterday...

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