Minority Party

As in “the Republicans are the minority party.” What a sweet sound that has. We had champagne last night, and apple-cranberry sparkly this evening, to celebrate. And Charlie joined in the celebration by breaking into an unopened bag of cat food and having a bit of a feast.

Here in California, two victories were especially significant and gratifying. First, Congressman Richard Pombo, who was in my mind the most vile member of Congress from the environmental point of view — having taken it on as his mission to eviscerate the most important environmental laws of the last half-century — was defeated in an upset by Democrat Jerry McNerney. McNerney’s victory was basically a grass-roots effort, for which we thank a large number of Bay Area activists who travelled over the hills to canvass for him.

The second was the defeat of California’s Proposition 90, which was something of a libertarian stealth bomb that received relatively little attention. It was marketed as a measure to limit the eminent domain rights of government, but it contained provisions that would have effectively made it impossible to do any land use planning in California. The measure didn’t lose by that much (47% to 53%), and California definitely dodged a bullet.

Let us hope this week’s victories really are the turning of the tide.