Digby:

It's worth noting that the last time the House turned over, in 1994, Tom Delay beat Newt Gingrich's handpicked choice for majority leader and somehow the whole town didn't interpret that as Newtie's waterloo.

Newt Time's Man of the Year

. . . There are no honeymoons for Democrats. Remember that. And "moral authority" is about haircuts and Hollywood, not torture and illegal wars. It is not merely a fight against the Republicans or a fight over politics and policy. It is a non-stop battle with the press to cover events with seriousness and responsiblity. For some reason, when Democrats are in power the press corps immediately goes from being merely shallow to insufferable, sophomoric [jerks].

The 2006 election was nine days ago and this is what CNN had on their screen today:

Pelosi Damaged Goods?

These are Clinton rules, folks. Get used to it.

John is right. AP's caption describing Speaker-to-be Pelosi's wardrobe is blatantly sexist. They would never have done that to a male politician.

Atrios always finds the good stuff, this time from Eric Boehlert:

"If I were them [Democrats], I'd be scared to death about November's elections."

-- Mark Halperin, director of ABC News' political unit, June 22, 2006

My favorite article from the just-completed campaign season appeared in the October 9 issue of Time, in which Mike Allen and James Carney wrote a detailed piece about why Republicans were not worried about the upcoming elections. "The G.O.P.'s Secret Weapon," read the bold headline. "You think the Republicans are sure to lose big in November? They aren't. Here's why things don't look so bad to them," read the subhead.

The article went on and on about how an "eerie, Zen-like calm" had fallen over GOP operatives who, despite a mountain of public polling data, did not fear big election losses. In fact, they coolly insisted their own prospects were "getting better by the day." Why the tranquility? Lots of reasons, according to Time, including the party's "sophisticated, expensive and largely unnoticed" campaign to identify likely voters. Time also gave the GOP points for playing the expectations game better than Democrats and for having more resources. Time ended on this chipper note: "As long as they [Republicans] end up keeping control of both houses, they still come out the winner on Election Day."

Outstanding reporting no? The Liberal Media is something ain't it?

I have been known to write many a trivial diary. But this is hands down my most trivial - it is about John Tierney, the least impactful NYTimes columnist I could ever remember.

The irony is Tierney, the say nothing worth noticing columnist pens a farewell column urging the new Dem Congress to do nothing:

I'm afraid the election results still haven't registered in Washington. Democrats and Republicans keep making noises about working together to accomplish great things. But that's not what Americans voted for. They voted for gridlock.

They gave Congress a Seinfeld mandate to do nothing. The Democrats offered no bold new ideas, and they were rewarded with victory. Voters would like them to mop up the messes made by Republicans, but that's it. Find a way out of Iraq, and then avoid any more excellent adventures dreamed up by neoconservatives.

Um, great column John . . . But was Tierney the worst columnist of the past two years? I  would have to say yes.

Atrios points to this story:

Suddenly, everyone wants Olbermann. Last week, he and political veteran Chris Matthews teamed up to anchor MSNBC's midterm election coverage.

The result? Abrams called it "a major turning point for this network.'' Ratings were up across the board and the coveted 25-to-54 age demographic increased 111 percent from the 2002 midterm election.

What's next? Expect to see Olbermann in even more mainstream settings. The one thing he is resisting, however, is pressure to produce more "Special Comments.'' He has to feel them, he says. "Otherwise I will turn into a cartoon of myself.''

On Election night, I watched MSNBC exclusively because I really enjoyed the team of Matthews and Olberman together. I thought they brought out the best in each other.

Matthews benefitted from being away from the DC Gasbags and being able to air his own original thoughts without concern for the silly points of reference of his DC cocktail party cohorts. Olberman toned down his sometime over the top rhetoric.

Of course, Olberman is the new MSNBC star, but a Chris Matthews, unbound from his smallminded DC cohorts is an interesting watch. I hope to see that team again in the future.

Neil Young is releasing his Live at the Fillmore East show cd, recorded March 9 and 10, 1970.

Tomorrow we will get our first glimpse of his hidden library, a single-disc live recording of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, recorded about a year and half after they got together and recorded their first album, “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.” It is blaring, primitive and in parts very, very good.

Ann Althouse was there, I wasn't. So I've put it on my Amazon wishlist.

'On Meet the Press this Sunday, analyzing the electoral earthquake last Tuesday. With us this week . . . [Harry Reid? Nancy Pelosi? Rahm Emanuel? Howard Dean? Chuck Schumer? Jim Webb? Jon Tester? Heck, JOE BIDEN?]' . . . Noooooooo:

The 2006 election was defined by a) a repudiation of the war in Iraq and the current Iraq strategy, and b) widespread national victories for Democratic House, Senate, and gubernatorial candidates.

Yet, according to a press aide, this Sunday’s edition of NBC’s Meet the Press will include two interviews: one with Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), an Iraq war supporter who defeated Ned Lamont (D-CT), and one with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who recently called for 20,000 additional U.S. troops to be sent to Iraq, and who was not up for reelection in 2006.

In other words, the first post-election edition of Meet the Press will exclusively feature politicians who support the war in Iraq, neither of whom ran as a Democrat.

How pathetic is the Beltway Media. The two most irrelevant people in Washington, DC right now are John McCain and Joe Lieberman. McCain MAY become relevant in 2008. Joe will not be relevant unless he breaks his word on caucusing with the Dems.

Sad news to report today that CBS and 60 Minute correspondent Ed Bradley has died of leukemia at age 65.

Bradley was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago, but was in remission. He apparently took a turn for the worse two weeks ago, contracting pneumonia and succumbing to the disease.

The TL kid called laughing to tell me Jon Stewart did a bit on last night's CNN blogger party showing my interview. Colin at Scoophost (which now hosts TalkLeft) sent me what Jon Stewart had to say:

"Yes, apparently partying blog style means typing on a laptop while not partying. At one point, a blogger [you] was being interviewed about blogging while watching herself being interviewed about blogging. I wonder if she'll blog about that."

Not only did I blog about that, I'm blogging about this. And we did party, there was an open bar and many of us partook liberally after dinner. But, thanks, Jon, I appreciate the exposure for bloggers.

[And thanks to Atrios for posting the clip.]

Even good guys like Eugene Robinson write drivel like this:

The depressing nature of this endless campaign went beyond negative ads, however. Examine the messages that were delivered by the two parties and then try to find a reason to be filled with hope about the future.

. . . The Democratic Party had the advantage of having been out of power during the whole Iraq misadventure, which gave every Democratic candidate an even simpler message to transmit to voters: Look, I'm not George W. Bush.

In terms of politics, that was smart. But "not George Bush" doesn't qualify as much of a vision for America's future. At some point, it can't be enough just to list all the problems the Republicans have created or failed to address. What are the solutions?

"Not George Bush" is a very compelling vision of the future. The solutions will come in the GOVERNANCE, not the politics. This endless whining from a Media that does not even UNDERSTAND the issues, much less cover them (can we have ANOTHER story on John Kerry's botched joke please?) is the most sanctimonious hypocritical load of crap of all.

The "shrill" Josh Marshall:

Atrios has this right. CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and Fox are each ignoring the GOP's nationwide campaign of false-flag robocalls meant to harass voters and fool them into thinking the calls come from Democrats. If it were Dem on GOP, if it were on Drudge, the cable nets would be on it wall-to-wall. As it is, they're content to ignore it.

That's because the powers-that-be in the mainstream media are in the tow of the Republican party. The Halperins and Crowleys of the news biz are all part of the same corruption.

Like Halperin says, Drudge rules their world.

You have to understand that and absorb that before you can set about doing what's necessary to change it.

Well, we get to hear a bunch of "pundits" spout nonsense about the "state of the race." So newsworthy.

UPDATE: ABC covered it on its nightly news. I am sincerely shocked. Good for ABC.

Borderism is bad enough on the opinion page. It is unacceptable on the news page. But WaPo's Shaleigh Murray does a Broderist opinion piece disguised as a news story on the upcoming election:

Moderate Republican House members such as Bass, Christopher Shays of Connecticut, and Jim Gerlach and Michael G. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania often side with Democrats on environmental, social and budget issues. On the rare occasion when a vote fails in the House, they are usually the culprits. Ditto for internal dissent. After then-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was indicted on campaign finance charges in Texas, Bass helped launch a petition drive to replace the powerful House majority leader. DeLay gave up his post a few days afterward and later resigned from Congress.

But what of Bass' votes for leadership? Or Iraq? Charlie Bass is not a moderate based on those votes, the most important he casts. You know who else will side with Democrats on environmental, social and budget issues? Democratic congresspersons. Charlie Bass enabled the Rubberstamp Republican leadership and President Bush. He is part of the problem. He must go.