It’s a shiny, happy world in which the Democrats control the House for the first time in twelve years and Nancy Pelosi is two bullets away from being President. It’s 11:10 PM on the west coast and I’m doing my own version of little B’s happy dance on my living room floor. Democrat Claire McCaskill just unseated Republican Jim Talent for the Missouri Senate seat. Montana may go blue too before the night is over. Rick Santorum, the gentleman who likened being gay to having sex with animals won’t be reprising his role as US Senator representing the great state of PA. Bob Casey Jr. trounced his ass in one of the first Democratic victories of the evening. And in a very delicious upset, Virginia’s incumbent Republican Senator George “Macaca” Allen appears to be losing to Democrat John Webb by a very slim margin. But going into a recount it’s oh so much better to have the numbers on your side. In a month or so we’ll know whether the D’s have taken the Senate and meanwhile we get to watch that horrible racist squirm. B’s asleep right now but I’m tempted to wake him up to tell him we’re no longer going to hell in a hand basket.

Even if we don’t wind up with the Senate, isn’t it lovely to know we’re done with the ridiculous flag burning bills and the anti-gay legislation and the “let’s rape the earth and tax the poorest” fare that we’ve grown accustomed to from the House? I’m interested to see what the Dems propose in the first few days of the new cycle. I’ve got my money on something health care related . . .maybe prescription drug coverage. It’s a populist dream and a Republican nightmare.

I once shook hands with Nancy Pelosi. It was the summer of ’95 and I had gone to see the eminently forgettable pop singer, Poe, sing her seminal “Hello” at an early morning radio spot in San Francisco. (Ten points to anyone who can quote me a Poe lyric, or even another song title—you can’t do it.) Pelosi was there, no doubt championing an important cause. With so few people in the studio, I ran up to her and blabbered something about it being an honor. She was already late for her radio spot, and as I jumped out of her way to let her pass, she grabbed my hand for the second time and said, “Wait, it was very nice to meet you but you didn’t tell me your name. What’s your name?” I told her. She repeated it back, slowly and with feeling in her voice. She looked me in the eye and the weight of her hand on mine, her close body language, her general vibe all told me that she was not only a fierce liberal woman politician from San Francisco, but blessed with a natural diplomacy and grace (oh how I’ve missed diplomacy and grace these last six years!). Two minutes with Nancy left a lasting impression. Imagine two years. Imagine a decade.


Thank you Dan Savage, for doing your part to defeat Rick Santorum. Thanks Mark Foley. Thanks to the Republican in whatever state it was that had to kick off his campaign running TV ads that said something to the effect, “I did not choke my mistress.”

Thank you to the Democrats who finally, at this late hour, too many years too late but finally, inexorably, for Christ’s sake thank God you finally did it, you got some balls. Thank you for speaking up. Thank you to all the volunteers who picked up the phone—be they Democrat, Republican, Independent or Martian. Thank you to groups like MoveOn.org . . . you sent me enough emails that I finally caved and used B’s naptime to call people in New York, Pennsylvania and Arizona. It was such a treat to call random folks in PA, the state where I experienced my first kiss, learned to drive and marched my first protest march. I talked with a sweet elderly man in PA’s tenth Congressional District who, when I called to urge him to vote for Bob Casey, Jr, for US Senate, replied, “Honey, it’s the only reason I’m going to the polls tomorrow. You bet I will!” How much fun was it when he and I launched into a communal lovefest over the candidate’s father and much beloved ex-Governor of PA, Bob Casey Senior? People, it was so much fun. I got to relive the eighties in an inspired trip down memory lane AND I convinced the guy to call his entire family to do the same thing. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you try calling in ’08—it’s wickedly easy (you can sit at home in your Lazy Boy recliner and dial at your own pace) and it’s kind of fun. And with huge wins like this, you can feel really good about yourself having been a teensy weensy part of it. Tonight makes me inspired to run for office. What a foreign feeling it is--I actually feel good, hopeful even, about my party, about my government, about the world my son might grow up in.

Politics is sexy again.