In their very frst test after Election night, Sen. Dem. "leader" Harry Reid plays the wilting rose..? FIGHT for that Majority leader job, Harry!

We here at C-dems wholeheartedly agree with Buzzflash.com's take this morning: Democrats have WON the SENATE RACES in MONTANA and VIRGINIA, which puts Democrats IN THE MAJORITY in the Senate!

TIME for the Democratic leadership to play by the Republican's own rules and DECLARE VICTORY and START RUNNING THE SENATE like a MAJORITY PARTY!

Note, this article by The Nation (magazine) also points out how the Democratic 'leadership' HELPED JOE LIEBERMAN's campaign against Ned Lamont, by the Dems FAILURE to demand that Lieberman withdraw from the Democratic caucus. As we explained in our previous post, we feel this failure is sure to bite the Democats where it hurts, when Lieberman becomes the FOCUS of Republican bribery./lobbying efforts more than he already is. In fact, we wouldn't be surprised to see Lieberman caucus with the Repugs right away.

BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN the Democratic leadership should RUN AWAY FROM THE FIGHT!

Here we bring to you Buzzflash's own ASSERTIVE headline, laboriously (but lovingly) transcribed by us as the Buzzflash headlines do not copy as text, but only as headline links (url's).

<< Tester and Webb have won their races BY WAY MORE - however slim the margin - than Bush ALLEGEDLY "won" Florida in 2000. The Repubicans SHOULD [today] CONCEDE DEFEAT as Bush demanded of Gore, and GET OUT OF THE WAY.
- The Voters have ELECTED A DEMOCRATIC SENATE, and the GOP should NOT ACT like a 'LOSERMAN'.
- The Dems SHOULD ANNOUNCE A TRANSITION TEAM to plan for DEMOCRATIC CONTROL OF THE SENATE. >>


Bravo, Buzzflash! And we can only add, "The day after MILLIONS of Voters DEMAND CHANGE IN OUR GOVERNMENT, is NOT the day for the Democratic leadership to GO BACK TO THEIR PASSIVE, "kick me," WILTING-ROSE WAYS!

PS: a friendly note to Buzzflash: "Time to move up in the world, there, Buzz!" #1. Start taking advertising to pay your bills and production costs, and even change your name to reflect a more "respectable" or (shudder) "Mainstream" look. You have already performed the "anti-drudge" function... we now need someone to perform the "anti-Fox/CNN/WaPost/NYTimes" function on a daily, 24/7 basis.
Buzz has to date refused advertising to avoid the pitfall of becoming DEPENDENT on advertisers, and thereby becoming less than impartial in editorial outlook. But there comes a point where you simply MUST TRUST YOUR OWN SELF, and if in the future some advertiser PULLS an ad because of Buzz's editorial stance, well, that company will have been supporting Buzz's publishing and outreach until that time....


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The Senate! UPDATED
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=138043

With an early morning win in the tightly-contested state of Missouri and results that seemed to show Montana and Virginia tipping toward them, Democrats ended one of the most intense election nights in recent American history with control of the Senate in their grasp.

Around 2 a.m., Democrat Claire McCaskill won Missouri for the Democrats.

As the night wore on, Democrat Jon Tester maintained a narrow but consistent lead over Republican incumbent Conrad Burns in the distant state of Montana. And in Virginia, Democratic challenger Jim Webb opened up a steadily wider lead in his campaign to oust Republican Senator George Allen.

If the Tester and Webb leads hold, which seems possible, it's a 51-49 Democratic Senate.

Here's how Democrats did it:

Every Democratic incumbent and Democrat seeking a seat currently held by the party was elected. That gave the party 45 seats.

Republican incumbents lost in the aforementioned Missouri, as well as in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. That gave them a 5O-5O split.

So it comes down to Montana and Virginia. Burns and Allen wins would have created a tied Senate, where Vice President Dick Cheney would tip the balance.

But Tester and Webb wins will put Cheney on the sidelines.

And it looks like that is where the vice president will be standing.

Early in the morning, Tester was up by around 1,5OO votes -- a small but credible margin in Montana, where the total vote in the Senate contest was around 4OO,OOO

Webb's led by around 8,OOO votes out of about 2.3 million cast in Virginia.

If the Tester and Webb leads holds and then withstand possible recounts, it's a Democratic Senate.

There will, of course, be speculation about what Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman will do.

The Democratic nominee for vice president in 2OOO lost his party's August primary to anti-war businessman Ned Lamont. On Tuesday, however, running as an independent, Lieberman beat Lamont.

Throughout the campaign, Lieberman pledged to caucus with the Senate Democrats. At the end, the senator teased that, "I would like to see this election today as a declaration of independence from the politics of partisanship."

That may have caught the ear of White House political czar Karl Rove, who was surely pondering the question of whether he might yet come up with an offer that Lieberman couldn't refuse.

But Lieberman quietly received assurances in October, as he opened a poll lead over Lamont, that Democratic leaders in the Senate would welcome him into their caucus and maintain his seniority. "Caucuses like to keep as many members as they can, not discourage membership," noted Lieberman.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, is fully aware that he needs Lieberman. Lieberman is fully aware that his commitment to caucus with the Democrats contributed to his reelection win on Tuesday.

Bottom line: It looks as if the voters have decided to give the Democrats control of both houses of Congress.