Quote of the Day

Look, liberalism has a lot of problems. FDR isn't walking through that door. And so on. But America's liberal political party just scored an enormous political victory, taking back both houses of Congress from what was supposed to be an invincible GOP machine, and there are plenty of reasons - from electoral math to fundraising numbers to, well, the polls - to think that 2008 is going to be a banner year for liberals/progressives/whatever. The right had the left on the ropes for a long time, but for now, at least, it's the other way around. Public opinion is going liberalism's way on everything from gay marriage to taxes to health care to poverty to global warming, and the Iraq War has temporarily undone conservatism's long-running advantage on foreign policy. There's more money flowing into liberal coffers than ever before; the left is well ahead of the right in internet organizing; the rising generation is having its political views forged in the crucible of the Bush years, with predictable consequences - and for once, the right-wing coalition's intellectual contradictions are more pronounced than liberalism's divisions. - Ross Douthat

He's quite right, of course. That is the single redeeming virture of George W. Bush. Bush destroyed conservatism and right wing Christian theocracy. And yes, I also "feel warm and fuzzy with schadenfreude".

I'm very confident this isn't a political blip in the longer war. The war is over. The internet has empowered the "netroots", with this new thing called "accountability". Joe Lieberman was it's first victim, and the Republican controlled Congress it's second. It is the nature of the netroots to hold itself accountable. It's all about influence. If Duncan Black or Glenn Greenwald (et. all) suddenly lose their "reality based" credentials, the left will flush them just as quickly as they did Lieberman.

The third victim of the netroots will be the beltway media establishment... and through it all, I will gloat. I'll do it a lot.