The Morning After

Rand Paul has won in Kentucky, Arlen Specter has lost in Pennsylvania, and Blanche Lincoln down in Arkansas still doesn't know where she stands as of this writing. So what does it all mean?

The Tea Party folks will surely tell you that Paul's victory is a win for them, as it came against establishment GOP support for Republican primary challenger Trey Grayson. They may well be right. As to how far the ripples may be felt, only time will tell. But if in a generation we will have seen a turn back towards the more traditional libertarian conservatism of the American right, then the course adjustment will almost certainly have begun in the Bluegrass State.

Specter lost in part due to anti-incumbent sentiments, no doubt, but in part, we like to believe, because he was a turncoat. If there ever was an instance of perceived political expediency at work, it was in the Senator's switch to the Democrats as he felt he couldn't win Pennsylvania as a Republican. He would have been reelected had he stayed in the GOP, given the relatively moderate outlook of the Keystone State's electorate, but he bolted, thinking it the only way he could keep his power. It seems his little fiefdom didn't want him on those terms.

Blanche Lincoln was painted, by no less than traditional Democratic backers such as labor unions and progressive organizations, as too much of a Washington insider to be that good for Arkansas. Again, we don't know her fate at this point, but one cannot help but wonder at how even certain segments of the left are painting a hero of the Obama Administration as a pariah. Is that perhaps the Democrats' best strategy for the fall, to pretend that even the supporters of their poster boy are in fact dupes? To call the scene interesting is an understatement, but perhaps there are platoons of even liberals who see that they have overstepped their bounds and need to retrench. Or at least, as they so often do, reduce themselves to their latent hypocrisy and claim they are something they are not.

The bottom line is the anti-incumbent furor has won again. The Dems should still be quaking in their boots this morning. They have the most to lose, and are lined up to lose it.