A Brief Period Of Rejoicing

"We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead."
-Winston Churchill

I used that quote to end my last post, and I like it so much I am using again to start this post.

(If you are unfamiliar with it) it is something Winston Churchill said regarding the Allied victory of Germany in World War II. Now to be clear, I use this quote to remind Democrats, liberals, progressives, et cetera that we still have a lot of work to do following our success in the 2006 midterm election, but I am NOT comparing Republicans and conservatives to our enemies in WWII. (I say this because I know that there are people crazy enough to draw such a ridiculous conclusion.)

I allowed myself "a brief period of rejoicing" last week after the Democratic victory last week. I was burnt out from staying up late on election night, waiting to hear about who would control the US Senate, recovering from the shock of the news that Democrats would control both houses of US Congress (Happy Birthday to me!), and not knowing which candidate won the US Representative race in my district. It is now one week later, and I still do not know who won that race. Unless the Democratic candidate wins after they count all the absentee and provisional ballots, my rejoicing is essentially over. That is not because I will have to put up with my Republican Representative for at least another two years but because it is time to get back to work.

We have a lot of work to do. The Republicans still control Congress for the rest of the year, and there is a lot of damage they can do in the time they have left. There are still a few undecided races out there. If you cast a provisional ballot, be sure you do what you need to do to make sure your vote is counted. Iraq is still a horrific mess. Bush is still trying to legalize his law breaking and get the Senate to confirm John Bolton as our representative to the UN. There are still corrupt politicians in Congress which we still need to go after. Voter fraud and intimidation this cycle needs to be investigated and prosecuted to help ensure that it does not happen again. Our work is not anywhere near done.

Getting rid of corrupt Democratic Representaive William Jefferson (the guy with all the money in his freezer) is one thing we should work on right away. His race has yet to be decided because it is headed to a runoff election on December 9. Blue Majority is raising money for his opponent, Democrat Karen Carter. Do not ask me how there are two Democrats in a runoff election or even how they are having a runoff election (I personally think all our elections should go to a runoff elections if no candidate gets above 50%, but most areas of the country do not have them). I have no idea how they run elections in Louisiana. Regardless, visit the Blue Majority page for more information.

Remember, now is not the time to let our guard down. By succeeding in this year's elections, we have merely opened the door to changing our country for the better.

Now, the real work begins.