Jeffrey Miller

In addition to the war, which he called a key factor in the losses of fellow Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum and others, Specter said his party will have to become "a lot more progressive and a lot less ideological."

Specter commended Santorum for his candor, but said Pennsylvania’s junior senator paid the price at the polls.

"Rick took a lot of controversial positions," Specter said. "You saw the results yesterday."

I do wonder if Sen. Specter campaigned for Rick Santorum as much as he had done for him? Somehow I doubt it. I truly will miss Sen Santorum in the Senate and I doubt if Senator-Elect Casey is going to be all that pro-life.

I thought this quip to be rather funny over at The Corner.

In the Senate, he will impress few and function as a wholly owned subsidiary of Chuck Schumer, except when he is occasionally given dispensation to cast a pro-life or pro-gun vote. –John J. Miller

I quipped previously that if Missouri passed Amendment 2 that they should be called the Snow Me state. With the measure unfortunately passing by 50.3 percent you do have to wonder just how many with the intention of actually banning cloning voted in favor of it. It is a wonder though in the modern climate that it passed by so little of a margin. That the pro-cloners spent 30 to 1 in money with support continuing dropping in the polls. The modern medicine show rolls on from state to state guaranteeing miraculous cures and spouting lies. After the con scientists count their grant money and dream of one day patenting the results of embryonic stem-cell research. Since you can’t patent adult stem-cells ESCR looks much more lucrative – not in cures, but cash.

Disappointing also was the rejection of the South Dakota abortion ban. In a mostly pro-life state you have to wonder if Roe v. Wade is overturned how many states will actually ban abortion in all cases? What we will probably get is abortion restricted in most cases with what have become the normal (though still wrong) exceptions – though this is much preferable to what we have now.

I do hope that one day aborturaries and embryonic stem-cell research centers will be seen in the same way as concentration camps. That these places will be seen as places where horrible evils occurred.

I happily found myself this morning much more detached from the election results than I have previously been. I am still a political junkie, but the phrase "put no trust in princes" keeps echoing whenever I start to get to upset. Even Speaker Pelosi evokes more a smile than a grin for me – though maybe that is just the happy thoughts of punditry ahead. Watching elections is like reading the Book of Judges with all of the cycles of good judge/bad judge. Or like reading Kings I and II with the same cycles of mainly bad kings with few exceptions. I just have to remember the Book or Revelations to know that everything turns out good in the end. This does not remove the need of both prayer and action in the world, it just makes it easier when kept in mind.

I voted earlier today and used a touchscreen voting machine for the first time. Unfortunately it had no Voticons. One thing that is always annoying is voting for judges. All you usually have to go by is some short quip in a voting guide that basically tells you nothing. I lucked out this year between the choice of two judges since one of them made it very easy for me. In her short blurb she quoted Anthony Kennedy, which pretty much calls for a slam-dunk decision to vote for the other person.

Unfortunately my representative, Corrine Brown of Jacksonville, ran unopposed. I suppose nobody from my district was corrupt enough to replace her. She once referred to the Bush Administration as a "racist" "bunch of white men" and told a Cuban-American Representative that "you all look alike to me". She is good for comic relief though and she keeps some people employed just as long as they are ethics investigators.