Midterm Midweek Wrap Up

I woke up early Tuesday morning to vote before work, and spent the day listening to the talking heads talk on the radio. Tuesday night was a "second date" with a lady I met off of e-harmony, somewhat late because she worked until 8:00. So I went over to her place at 8, and we sat and watched the results and chatted.

Dork date? Yes, in all honestly, not my finest hour. And it was my idea - we wanted to see each other, but dammit I'm an election junkie and I didn't want to miss what I knew would be a nail-biter. And one of my minimum requirements is an intelligent woman with opinions that interest me, and I suspected this would be a night when I had a chance to learn what she thought about issues, how current she was on the issues of the day, and how her mind worked. Also, if I do say so myself, it was a chance for me to impress her as well with how wicked mega smart I am.

So from 8 to about 10 we hung out and flipped between NY1, CNN, and Fox news. My all-time favorite election commentator Tim Russert was no where to be found so we settled for a solid number 2 - Lou Dobbs. CNN's coverage I felt was brilliant, and while NY1 had local races, there really wasn't anything local worth watching once it was clear that Alan Hevesi was cruising to re-election. Not sure how I felt about him, though I did vote for him. It was a combination of the evil you know vs. the evil you don't, and all things being equal I'll take his sort of political scandal over the looming unknown scandal that a new politician was sure to spring on us. Hevesi has done a terrific job even if he couldn't do the job without stepping over the line a bit, so I was happy the voters appeared to forgive his indiscretion. Though the question remains, is it that people can not wield both power and integrity at the same time, or are our laws so complex and our expectations so high that it's impossible for even a good person to stay on the straight and narrow?

Despite the Hevesi business, New York didn't provide much in the way of excitement but how about Virginia huh? Man, I was riveted by that one... even before control of the senate was at stake, I was watching this race closely because I'm a serious anti-Allen man, and seeing it flip back and forth all night between Allen and Webb was so frickin' exciting I couldn't stand it. The icing on the cake of Allen's concession today was that it completed the trifecta of glory when teamed with Santorum and DeWine losing their seats as well. As my current favorite Jew likes to say... VERY NICE!

In other news, my good friend Amy has a cousin who ran for Congress and he won his district. Now, this isn't just anyone, her cousin John Hall just happens to have been the lead singer of the 70's band The Orleans, who sang the song my parents chose as their song - Still the One. (Congressman-elect Hall is the topless man in the middle...)

For several reasons I'm a big fan of the newly minted Congressman, but as if he needed further cred he showed up on The Colbert Report last night and had a terrific appearance, singing the National Anthem with Steven. I'm a fan of a well-sung National Anthem, and the two of them just killed. Not to mention, it was all funny and what-not being The Colbert Report. November just gets better and better.



Oh, and the date part of Tuesday night? Ehhh, so-so. She's nice and all, but I'm not particularly moved. I think one more date to see how it goes... Since she tolerated my election geekiness, I'm spending next Monday watching a hockey game with her despite no interest whatsoever in hockey, and sadly waning interest in the lady herself.