Rand Paul Wins, Arlen Specter Loses, and Other Election Results You Should Know
Guess what happened while you were watching Lost on Tuesday night? A revolution! Dozens of people showed up to the polls to vote for change, and hope, and especially, Ron Paul's son, Rand. Want to know who won?
In Pennsylvania, poor Arlen Specter got edged out by Joe Sestak, for some reason. Specter, who used to be a Republican and then switched parties last fall, was pretty much a better Democrat than half a dozen Democratic Senators, but once he shook hands with George W. Bush, so, see ya, Arlen. Sestak, if he beats certifiable crazy person Pat Toomey in November, will probably vote in the same, mostly middle-of-the-road way that Specter did, despite the most fervent wishes of "the netroots."
The other Pennsylvania race being watched was the special election to replaced late Congressman Jack Murtha, which was won by his aide, Democrat Mark Critz.
Over in Arkansas, Democrat Lt. Gov. Bill Halter forced incumbent Blanche Lincoln into a runoff after neither of them received a majority of votes. Halter is probably genuinely more liberal than Lincoln, which means he doesn't have a great shot during the general election, but since Lincoln is basically a frenemy of the Democrats, the party doesn't have a lot to lose. The runoff election will be held on June 8, at which point four to six people may show up to vote.
And in Kentucky? Ah, Kentucky! Kentucky Republicans were voting for the candidate to replace the meanest senator of all time, Jim Bunning. And they chose hilariously! Rand Paul, the Justin Bieber of the Atlas Shrugged crowd, won big over his establishment opponent, Trey Grayson, which is essentially a big, fat middle finger to Kentucky's other senator, Republican Mitch McConnell. McConnell is the most effective minority leader in generations, scoring big concessions from Democrats despite going up against a huge majority, but no one seems to care, because his last name is not "Paul."
The "narrative" tonight, based on those election results, is "upstart insurgents beat establishment incumbents." Great narrative! In his acceptance speech, Rand Paul said he had "a message from the Tea Party": "We've come to take our government back." Which is good, because we had been wondering when conservative white men would arrive to wrest control of the government from Van Jones and Elena Kagan.
