Brits seem to have handed the most seats to Tories, but not enough to really get rid of Labour. This means that government will be really screwed up. Question: Will anyone in the UK notice the difference?

Hutaree case seems to have some problems – and so does the MSM narrative.

Democrats fear losing Murtha’s seat. Good. They also seem to be giving up on the Hawaii special election. Extra good.

Double dip? It isn’t just gloom and doomers like me saying it.

GOP dinosaur admits he’s in trouble. Now, if he’d just draw the proper conclusion, announce his retirement and campaign like heck for his replacement, he’d not only be a bit wise, but would make a bit of hero out of himself.

The battle for Jack Murtha’s old seat:

…the latest Daily Kos poll shows Republican Tim Burns now pulling ahead by 6 points in a hard-fought battle against Democrat Mark Critz. (National Review’s Jim Geraghty says, “And if DK/R2000 are still using the same 2008 turnout model that all their other polls have used, Burns is actually up by a few points more.” ) Despite the encouraging news, this should be a down-to-the-wire fight in a district where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1.

And, of course, if we win in PA-12, then the sky is the limit for November.

This race, coupled with Djou’s effort in Hawaii, will tell us a lot about where we are. Both seats have long been held by Democrats. Both have heavy Democrat registration advantages. Both are in blue States. Win here, and we can win everywhere.

I mean, you wanted DeLay’s head on a pike for a lot less than this:

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., steered millions of dollars in defense work to a campaign donor and the Pentagon went along with it, even though two convicted drug dealers had been deeply involved with the company.

Records filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh starting in 2005 raise questions about whether the government ever checked into the background of William Kuchera of Windber, Pa., a Murtha constituent who has been doing government work for over 20 years.

He’s corrupt, liberals – and he’s your hero. But it is time for you to hold your side to the same standard you hold ours. Unless, that is, you’re just a bunch of chicken-poop creeps.

Its getting to the point where we’ll have to start making a list of the things Murtha hasn’t done wrong, as its getting pretty short:

Talk about hardball politics.

Rep. John Murtha’s opponent in the 2008 election claims the Pennsylvania congressman’s chief of staff has threatened to have him recalled to active duty and court-martialed for campaigning while in the military, which is in violation of military code.

Bill Russell, an Iraq war veteran who served with the Army, told FOXNews.com that Murtha’s chief of staff, John Hugya, made the threat on two occasions — first to his former commanding officer and then to his face in March.

“It’s a terrible, terrible threat to make,” said Russell, a Republican who lost to the Democratic powerhouse in November but plans to challenge him again in 2010. Asked if Murtha is trying to bully him out of a rematch, Russell said: “It was a direct intent to intimidate.”

Still waiting for even one Democrat to call for Murtha’s resignation…

Geesh:

The Federal Aviation Administration, after reviewing concerns about a project at a regional airport named after Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), has decided to go forward with plans to use $800,000 in stimulus funds to repave the airport’s alternate runway.

Late this afternoon, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation confirmed that the department had completed its review and would be releasing the funds for the Johnstown, Pa., airport project.

DOT spokesperson Jill Zuckman said the review was undertaken after a “senior policy” official at DOT decided he wanted to reconsider the project, but she declined to identify who that was or detail the reason for the reconsideration. She said the runway’s concrete hasn’t been replaced in many years and is in need of repaving.

“The bottom line is it deserved the money based on the merits,” Zuckman said. “It’s not an earmark.”

The FAA had notified the John P. Murtha-Johnstown airport authority that the project was under review, and authority board members said press reports about other federal funding steered to the quiet regional airport was leading the FAA to reconsider the repaving project.

Shouldn’t a Congresscritter be dead before we allow anything to be named after him? Also, what sort of self-absorbed creep do you have to be to even allow something to be named after you while you’re alive? Is there anyone out there, finally, who thinks that Murtha shouldn’t resign?

You expected something different?

With the ethics troubles of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) continuing to make headlines — and headaches for Democratic leaders — Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday again deferred any action on the matter to the House ethics investigators.

“I’ve historically said and continue to believe the ethics committee should, in fact, look at any specific allegations of rules violations that have occurred,” Hoyer told reporters at his weekly press conference.

And I’m sure that cracker-jack ethics committee is right on this.

Keeping in mind that there is no love lost between Hoyer and Murtha we can still see that Democrats circle the wagon when one of their own is in trouble. The only thing which will possibly move House Democrats to force Murtha out is if a poll comes out showing Murtha would be defeated next year – as we saw with the Jefferson case, even an indictment isn’t sufficient for Democrats to call one of their own to account. This from the party which called for Republican Foley’s head because he wrote a few dirty e-mails! I love the stench of hypocrisy in the morning.

Or be now and forever the party of corruption:

The headquarters of Murtech, in a low-slung, bland building in a Glen Burnie business park, has its blinds drawn tight and few signs of life. On several days of visits, a handful of cars sit in the parking lot, and no trucks arrive at the 10 loading bays at the back of the building.

Yet last year, Murtech received $4 million in Pentagon work, all of it without competition, for a variety of warehousing and engineering services. With its long corridor of sparsely occupied offices and an unmanned reception area, Murtech’s most striking feature is its owner — Robert C. Murtha Jr., 49. He is the nephew of Rep. John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has significant sway over the Defense Department’s spending as chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

Robert Murtha said he is not at liberty to discuss in detail what his company does, but for four years it has subsisted on defense contracts, according to records and interviews.

Democrats: Jack Murtha, your anti-war hero of yore, is stealing the taxpayer’s money to enrich himself and his family. There is absolutely not doubt of this – only a purblind idiot can’t see what is going on here. So, you have your choice: be complete idiots, or call for Murtha’s resignation. You ran in 2006 with a promise to end the alleged GOP “culture of corruption”. Matt and I warned you – in Caucus of Corruption – that you’ll get nowhere fighting corruption unless you hold your own side to the same standard you hold the GOP. This is plain as a pikestaff – this doesn’t take any deep thought or intense investigation of a tangled web: Murtha is corrupt as the day is long.

What will you do?

All of you liberals out there who actually think the Obama spending plan will do anything worthwhile – take note:

Some locals call the Johnstown airport “Fort Murtha” because of the stream of wartime projects at the facility. Although its runway is capable of servicing the largest airplanes in North America, the airport now is used only by small commuter planes that make six trips a day back and forth to Washington Dulles International Airport.

Many of the commercial flights, which are subsidized by federal transportation dollars, carry only a handful of passengers. On a recent visit, all of the departing flights were less than half full, and one had only four passengers — screened by seven federal airport personnel.

All told, Murtha has steered about $150 million in federal funds to the airport. This spring, it was among the first four in the country to receive stimulus money — $800,000 for a runway-widening project.

The alleged rationale for this is that we need a back up military airport just in case … shoot, I don’t know; the Canadians invade?

Its pure, unadulterated porkbarrel BS and it is run of the mill government spending. This is what we get for our tax dollars – swag so that a leech can keep himself on the public gravy train for another two years. I’ll bet that a full audit of government will show that only one in five dollars actually does something (a) useful and (b) necessary. The rest of it is just crap – from crap airports no one needs to crap over payments for services the private sector could provide at half the cost. Obama is going to spend trillions on this sort of nonsense, and we’ll end up completely bankrupt and with hardly anything worthwhile to show for it (and, please note, Obama’s pledge to reduce the deficit – not a hard task if your first year’s deficit is nearly two trillion dollars…the FY 2012 deficit could be a trillion and Obama could crow about a 50% reduction…and he will, because he knows his base is servile enough to buy it).

People vs the powerful – that is all that matters at the moment. We, the people, have to find a way to pry the powerful away from our money, our government and our way of life.

More news from the most ethical Congress, ever:

Democracy 21 and other good-government groups are expected to ask the House ethics committee next week for an investigation into lawmakers with close ties to defunct lobbying firm PMA Group, Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer said on Friday.

The request will seek a probe into whether the millions of dollars in campaign contributions the firm generated for favored Members of Congress influenced the tens of millions of dollars in earmarks those lawmakers secured for PMA clients.

Outside groups are barred from filing complaints with the ethics committee, but the panel can initiate probes on its own and the request is sure to pile political pressure on an already strained House Democratic leadership team.

Democratic leaders have remained in a defensive crouch in the wake of reports that federal investigators are probing the earmark empire of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the defense-spending chief in the House and a close confidant of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

But that position is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Since news broke in February that federal agents raided the offices of the PMA Group and the home of its founder, former House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense aide Paul Magliocchetti, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) has kept the issue front and center by calling votes on whether to force an ethics probe. His first attempt gathered 17 votes from the majority party, but Democratic defections on subsequent votes have mounted, reaching 27 on his seventh and latest attempt before the spring recess.

Remember back in 2006 how Her Majesty, Nancy I and her Democrats were running against an alleged GOP “culture of corruption”? Well, that wasn’t really the case, now was it? I mean, if we’ve got a Speaker so divorced from morality that she’ll claim to be shocked about interrogation techniques she was briefed about years ago, just where would she draw the line? Certainly not a Murtha’s various scandals.

It is good to keep in mind that one of the things Matt and I discovered about Nancy Pelosi is that she learned very early on that political corruption pays. In the very first campaign she was involved in, she illegally failed to report some printing work by a union as an in-kind donation – the work was worth something like $90,000; the fine for not reporting the work was $7,000. Nancy was $83,000 to the good and she’s never looked back (and you can read all about her in Caucus of Corruption). She got into politics to be a mean, bitter attack-dog against Republicans; she rose in politics via corruption (including the use of illegal PACs to engineer her rise to Minority Leader after the 2002 elections) and she runs the House just as one would expect a corrupt, partisan hack would.

We’ll have to see if anything comes of this – no one thought the House “check kiting” scandal would lead to much. Certainly, the Democrats never did, but it played a large role in their defeat in 1994. Pelosi can’t clean house – she’d have to start with herself. So, look for Democrats to attempt to smear GOPers and just confuse the issue any way they can in hopes of turning people off to politics…make it seem, that is, like both Democrats and Republicans are hip deep in this stuff and hope that independents sit 2010 out in a “pox on both your houses” fit. Our job is to keep it front and center – not because it helps the GOP, but because until Democrats are held to account, we’ll never get politics cleaned up.

The GOP house has been cleaned up – our corrupt members are gone and we’ve learned our lesson, at least for a while. It is time for Democrats to learn theirs.

And I defy anyone to say they are surprised about this:

Even as news of the investigation into mega-lobby firm PMA Group grows, Democrats are fighting efforts to check the tarnished group’s influence.

The FBI raided PMA’s offices last November, as well as the stately exurban mcMansion belonging to the firm’s founder, Paul Magliocchetti. The probe appears to center on suspected phony campaign donations tied to the group. (A spokesman for the group declined to comment.)

In what could politely be described as a rearguard action, Democratic lawmakers have defeated an effort to start a congressional ethics investigation into the firm.

Why are Democrats being so brazen?

1. Because Democrats know that their own people are too servile and incurious to hold them to account.

2. Democrats believe they have a lock on power for another 60 years, and thus only have to please their own servile and incurious people.

Its already quite toxic in DC these days – everything is for sale and no one is calling the corrupt to account. Obama’s talk of honesty is long been proven the most laughable of lies; its got so bad in the Administration, with tax cheat after tax cheat being nominated, that its clear Obama never for a minute intended to conduct the nation’s business honestly. As for Pelosi’s long-forgotten pledge for the most ethical Congress, one might as well pine for the Moon as expect that to happen.

We’ll have to see if Democrats are right about their immunity – with their attempts to silence the critics, they might be able to make it happen. Personally, I don’t think they will be able to do so, but anything is possible with people this corrupt.

The democrat-controlled U.S. House has just killed an investigation into lobbyist-lawmaker ties.

The House voted Wednesday to kill a resolution calling for an ethics investigation into potential quid pro quo between lobbyist campaign donations and lawmakers.

Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., sponsored the proposal that would have forced the House Ethics Committee to launch a probe into ties between the source and timing of campaign contributions by lobbyists and subsequent legislator requests for special projects or earmarks.

While open-ended, Flake’s resolution was a direct response to the ongoing federal investigation into the PMA Group, a lobbying company accused of making fraudulent donations to lawmakers using names of people who did not exist.

The firm, which has contributed millions to politicians in the last decade, has close ties to senior Democratic appropriators including Reps. John Murtha D-Pa., and Pete Visclosky,D-Ind. The FBI raided PMA’s headquarters in November and is investigating the group’s founder and president, Paul Magliochetti, a former Murtha aide.

“Whereas numerous press reports and editorials have alleged several cases of influence peddling between members of Congress and outside interests seeking federal funding the House of Representatives should respond to such claims and demonstrate integrity in its proceedings,” the resolution read.

The House decided to set aside the proposal by a mostly party-line 226-182 vote, though 17 Democrats joined Republicans in support of considering the measure.

Which is, coincidentally, pretty close to the margin of democrats in the House who voted against the Spendulus bill.

Promises, promises, promises.

Of course, we’ll have to see if Obama’s Justice Department allows this to move forward:

Media outlets in Pennsylvania are reporting that federal agents have raided the offices of a defense contractor with close ties to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.).

The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat reported Thursday afternoon that Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service agents raided the offices of Kuchera Defense Systems and Kuchera Industries in Windber, Pa.

Murtha has provided millions of dollars worth of earmarks for the company, and company employees have provided tens of thousands of dollars for his campaign.

There is no indication what investigators are looking for and no suggestions that the investigation in any way involves Murtha.

Murtha’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The mid-terms, they are a-coming…and Democrats won’t need attention brought to the rampant corruption on their side of the aisle. This will be an early and crucial test for Obama – if he’s really there to change the way things are done in Washington, then this investigation will move forward briskly, especially if Murtha is discovered to be hip-deep in it.

It has long been known that PA-12 Democrat Congressman Jack Murtha has been living high off the hog with regard to earmarks that have been given to his military contracting buddies. As a matter of fact, he’s making such good money from his beneficiaries that he wants to streamline the earmark process: He plans to bypass advice by members of the military altogether:

The House’s top defense appropriator has pledged to help strengthen the role of the Pentagon’s comptroller in an effort to curb lobbying by the military services for their controversial programs.

Why should he listen to the military, as the military itself doesn’t provide Jack with campaign contributions.

As I’ve stated before, Jack Murtha does nothing without there being something in it for Jack Murtha. To Jack Murtha, the military is merely a tool he uses to keep his fat backside in power, or to advance his political career, a/la his slanderous declaration of guilt toward the Haditha Marines.

I don’t know; perhaps I’m a bit too cynical. I’m absolutely positive that there is no lobbying going on when Concurrent Technologies receives a taxpayer-funded porkbarrel contract to the tune of $200 million dollars… or is there?

Yet, the Murtha situation is very troubling when you look at CTC’s Form 990. With the exception of three individuals listed on the schedule of officers and directors, all have contributed to Murtha’s congressional campaigns since 2002.

[SNIP]

The Times also notes that CTC has paid somewhere around $500,000 to a lobbying firm. The lobbying firm’s executives and clients have contributed over $1.2 million to Murtha in campaign contributions (the Times refers to these as donations) since 1999, according to the Times.

So we have a congressman who was a driving force behind the creation of this tax-exempt entity. That same congressman is earmarking significant amounts of money to that organization. Those who are in control of the organization (several of whom receive significant salaries from CTC) contribute large amounts of money to the congressman’s campaign. We can only wonder how the entity distributes the federal grant money within the local community.

I mean, with sweetheart deals like that, why should Murtha even bother to take the time listen to those pesky military folks who actually know what they need?

I mean, there’s gold in them there earmarks, right, Jihad Jack?

(Cross-posted at Murtha Must Go!!)

I think that, this time, we’ve got him:

Veteran Democratic Rep. John Murtha (Pa.) has sent out a last-minute plea for $1 million to save his hotly contested seat, endangered by his own remarks describing his district as racist.

In an e-mail sent to potential donors, Murtha’s campaign asked his supporters to maximize all campaign contributions.

“We need to raise another $1 million to compete,” his campaign fundraiser Susan O’Neill wrote in the e-mail obtained by The Hill. “We need money immediately.”

O’Neill blamed Republicans from outside Pennsylvania for Murtha’s problems. Polls show Murtha, running for his 18th term, ahead of his GOP opponent by just a few percentage points.

“Congressman Murtha is in a brutal reelection campaign,” O’Neill wrote. “The Swift Boaters have put up a candidate from Virginia and have raised millions of dollars against Congressman Murtha. In addition, other 527s and the [National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC)] have spent millions to smear Congressman Murtha on TV, radio and in newspapers.”

The definition of “swift boat”: Telling the truth about a Democrat. Murtha called our glorious Marines cold blooded murderers, and he’s called his own constituents a bunch of racist rednecks. No, Ms. O’Neill, it isn’t EVIL REPUBLICANS doing your man in, but his own idiocy.

As an aside – if you’d like to help turn Murtha’s seat over to a patriot, go here.

In a powerful, unanswerable video which, it is hoped, will actually recall to Jack Murtha a sense of honor.

Pork over Principle.

The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, truly living up to its name, has once again thrown its scruples (if it had any to begin with) under the bus to try to resuscitate Jihad Jack Murtha’s sorry political career. After falsely labeling William Trower Russell as a "carpetbagger," the two-bit call-girls on the editorial board of the Tribune-Democrat go on to say,

• He is virtually a one-issue candidate, repeatedly attacking Murtha on his comments concerning Marines in Haditha, Iraq.

Yeah, I know… it’s no biggie that Jack Murtha put 8 Marines and their families in a state of living hell for over two years with false accusations (for his own political aggrandizement), without so much as a subscription to the Jelly of the Month Club for the trouble he put them through. It’s no big deal that he, an elected official sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States, threw their Constitutional right to the presumption of innocence out the window. Yep… the same guys who put their lives on the line to defend that very Constitution. But yes, I know. Pork over Principle. The lemmings at the Tribune-Democrat go on in a lame, rambling attempt to rationalize their "principled" decision to back Jihad Jack:

For some politicians, “experience” simply means too many years drawing a comfortable salary and nice benefits on taxpayer dollars without giving much back. That is not the case with Murtha, who has provided leadership and sparked the development of new programs in key areas, especially in the health-care arena: • He helped increase funding for Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where service personnel returning from combat are treated for their injuries.

Yep… Jihad Jack cares so much about those who defend our country that he refuses to apologize to the Haditha Marines–not even to Justin Sharratt, who just happens to be Murtha’s constituent!

They go on to say, • He has increased awareness and helped fund programs aimed at two of our region’s deadliest afflictions: Breast cancer and diabetes.

Pork, pork, pork, and more pork. There are beyond a doubt more pork projects with Jihad Jack’s name in the Johnstown area than there were buildings with Caesar’s name during the height of the Roman empire. The Tribune Democrat then employs some feigned indignation at Murtha’s arrogance against his own constituency:

We have been troubled by Murtha’s statements in recent weeks about racism in his district. He first said that “western Pennsylvania is a racist area,” then tried to clarify that a week later by saying there are a lot of “rednecks” in the region. We would like to see our congressman use better judgment and not attempt to lump all of his constituency into one category.

Yeah, I know. Pork before Principle.

And, beyond all of that, Murtha’s social positions reflect those of his region much more so than those of his party. He opposes gun control and is pro-life, both positions that put him in step with most voters in our region.

Yep. Pro life and anti-gun control. I wonder if that’s why he was pal-ing around with the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Code Pink. If Jihad Jack Murtha is so "in step" with how he sees most voters of PA-12, I wonder if he sees a "racist" or a "redneck" when he looks in the mirror. Likewise, I wonder if the editorial board at the Tribune-Democrat see the same thing when they take a shave in the morning.

Further, would most voters in PA-12 have the temerity to play judge, jury and executioner to those who defend freedom without the benefit of due process? Somehow I doubt it.

But then again, Pork over Principle, right?

Once upon a time, when there wasn’t an election on the line, the editorial board at the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat wrote:

We can’t accept the congressman’s earmark dollars with one hand and brush off his alleged transgressions with the other. When he steps in mud, or when others throw mud at Murtha, we all get dirty. That’s why, when questions are raised about possible improper activities at a Murtha-created organization, we get anxious. And when a watchdog group rates our local congressman as being among “the most corrupt” lawmakers in Washington, we are embarrassed. We don’t like being characterized as folks who support questionable activities, or who endorse troubling behavior by our elected officials.

Yet when the rubber hit the road, the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat found it fit to swallow their embarrassment and sell whatever remained of their principles to once again endorse a decidedly crooked politician to represent their readership in Washington.

Pork over principle, I guess.

(Leo Pusateri is the founder and editor of Murtha Must Go!!)

Its important – he called our Marines murderers, he’s called his fellow Pennsylvanians a bunch of racists. The man is a corrupt barnacle on the body politic and he needs to go.

Mark Hemmingway has the scoop on the man trying to save the United States Congress from two more years of the shame of Murtha.

First it was our glorious Marines, now it is the good people of western Pennsylvania:

Democratic Rep. John Murtha said Wednesday his home base of western Pennsylvania is racist and that could reduce Barack Obama’s victory margin in the state by 4 percentage points.

The 17-term Democratic congressman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a story posted Wednesday on its Web site: “There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area.”

Murtha said it has taken time for many Pennsylvania voters to come around to embracing a black presidential candidate, but that Obama should still win the state, though not in a runaway.

In a separate interview posted Wednesday on the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Web site, Murtha said Obama has a problem with voters’ racial attitudes in western Pennsylvania that could trim his winning margin on Nov. 4.

Did you catch all that, Pennsylvanians? Obama thinks you’re a bunch of bigots who cling to God and guns, and the one of the corrupt Democrats who represents you in Congress thinks you’re a bunch of racists.

Are you going to vote Democrat on November 4th?

And a good thing, too:

In May 2006, six months after 24 people were killed in a small Iraqi town, U.S. Rep. John Murtha made a startling accusation.

American soldiers, he contended, had killed innocent civilians “in cold blood.”

Now, less than six weeks before the longtime Johnstown Democrat is up for re-election, a Marine involved in the now-infamous Haditha incident is suing Murtha for slander.

Justin Sharratt of Canonsburg, Washington County, left the Marine Corps last year. But he claims Murtha’s statements have caused “permanent, irreversible damage to his reputation.”

“What Murtha did is outrageous, and I am seeking punitive damages,” said Noah Geary, a Pittsburgh attorney representing Sharratt.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in Pittsburgh.

If there was any way to get Murtha to see the inside of a jail over this, I’d advocate it – “treason” is not too strong a word to describe what he did.

Glad we followed the advice of John McCain:

Marines with Company C, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, met with school officials in Khalidyah recently to discuss any essential services the school may need. During their meeting, the Marines donated backpacks and school supplies, which teachers handed out to students.

“Our children are our future,” explained Hamda Fauil Metap, the Khalidyah school’s headmaster. “They see everyday, how Iraq is growing and they will be the ones to make the advancements to the community as they grow older.”

Khalidyah’s community joined together during the last few weeks to clean the school’s grounds and make repairs in preparation for the start of the new school year.

Students also took part in their schools’ cleanup, sweeping rooms and organizing desks.

“It is important that the children have a clean and adequate place to learn,” explained Metap.

Metap has been teaching for 25 years and in that time she said she has never seen a brighter future for the children than in recent months.

“Everything [the Marines] and the Iraqi community have done for us, we are extremely grateful,” she said.

That would be the Marines that Democrats – like Jack Murtha – called cold-blooded murderers; the other people who accused our Marines of being that go by the name of “terrorist”….though, given that they fought the Marines, they most usually go by the name of “dead terrorist” these days.

Never, never, never forget that Obama and his Democrats wanted the United States of America to lose in Iraq – and they wanted us to lose because they felt (and still feel) that America’s defeat is the Democrats’ victory.