As a Steeler fan for the last 36 years or so, I love Lynn Swann. He was a fantastic receiver who could hold on to fingertip catches while going down fully stretched out. He is an intelligent man with strong leadership qualities. What he lacks, IMO, is experience.

I think if he had had some strong experience, he would have fared even better than he did in his first political race. He was reaching, though, to aspire to the governorship of a large state with no experience. Swannie should run for the House, but if he wins, he should stay there a few terms. He's a young man, and we need to be seeding the future. If he won a House term but then lost a second statewide race only two years later, his political career would be finished.

Given the tendencies of Philadelphia "voters" (see John Street), this indictment may be just what the state senator needs to propel himself into national office...

Penn. is probably lost to the Republicans, Santorum probably saw to that. When are Republicans going to learn that Democratic fortunes are immune to scandals?

I heard Swann speak before the Pres. last year when they came to Pittsburgh. He gave a good speech.

But it turns out that it doesn't really matter in Pennsylvania. The Democrats have managed to figure out how to pork-buy both Philly and Pittsburgh while completely BS'ing the "Alabama" parts of the state.

It's not really possible to just blame the Dems here, though, as we have one of the most blatantly corrupt state governments in the country -- a systemic corruption that spans both parties.

So why do I bother to even vote Republican as a PA resident? Well, the R's are corrupt, but at least they won't raise my taxes. The D's will.

Another 1% sales tax to pay for property tax reform that Rendell promised in his first gov. victory years ago but failed to deliver, then re-promised to do based on gambling revenues that have yet to materialize? I'd be okay with it if I could pay that portion of the tax in fake dollar bills emblazoned with pictures of my butt.

Yesterday, Fuomo's lawyer had a press conference. And surprise, surprise, said his innocent client was a victim of the evil Bush administration. A witch hunt against influential Democrats. This excuse for any and all misdeeds and crimes by Democrats is really getting old.

When will you guys wake up and realize that the GOP totally blew it? Santorum didn't lose Pennsylvania for you all by himself.

Allow me to offer a list of other states where your party won't soon be heard from again:
-Arkansas
-Maryland
-New Hampshire
-New York
-Ohio
-Washington
-Wisconsin

And then there are the places you're begging to be humiliated in 2008:
-Colorado
-Maine
-Minnesota
-New Mexico
-Oregon

Sure, the Democrats are worried about Louisiana and South Dakota, but I'll take that bargain any day. Things are looking far bleaker for the GOP. Time to roll up your sleeves for another four decades or so of perminority. Am I too optimistic? Probably. Are you in denial? Absolutely.

I fear Justin might be correct. The GOP is running as if it wants to fight all its battles with leftist PC virtues!! Pa. , NJ, NY all have corrupt Dems but they keep winning. The media is just too accomodating to these thugs and uninformed voters want to ignore serious issues like the generational war against Islamofascism and the Dems sponsorship of a new pacifist socialism which is behind all its bills in Congress supported by lefty blogs and guys like Justin. Still, still, in '08, say Rudy G wins the GOP nomination with a conserv VP. He might, just might sweep some lower ticket people in like Swann and Meehan. He could even do well in NJ and Pa. And even in Her Highness NY soviet republic. It could happen and the disaster Justin predicts just might not be Apocalyptic.

It's amazing. These guys win ONE election in a row, and all of a sudden they are sure they can never lose again.

For the record, I am neither a pacifist nor a socialist, as Glenn implied above. Sure, I oppose the war in Iraq and support raising the minimum wage, but that just puts me squarely in the American mainstream. Ironic that you mention corrupt Democrats, because corruption is the primary reason that I couldn't bring myself to vote for a single Republican candidate last November, for the first time in my life.

I know I'm being overly exuberant about the Democrats' electoral outlook. But if you just keep wringing your hands over how the media reports that your leaders are inept and sleazy, rather than holding them accountable yourself, you're going to make our job a whole lot easier.

P.S. If you're seriously pinning your hopes on a philandering, pro-choice, pro-gay, anti-gun, big government liberal like Rudy, then you must think the GOP's prospects are even worse than I do.

Jeez, sounds like the Dems problem with Rudy is he's an even better Clinton than Clinton. ....Bubba sure didn;t make squeegee men get lost....he'd be afaid of hurting their self -esteem

Folks, I'd vote for Courtney Love over any of the named Democrat candidates. Please

Justin,

Before you get to giddy about the coming domination of politics by the Democratic Party, I suggest you look at areas where the Democratic Party is already totally dominate.

Look at the District of Columbia. High crime, pathetic schools that not one Democratic Congressman or Senator would ever send their children to, corrupt unions, no show jobs, a court system that cannot find many murders guilt.

The public transporation system had record ridership and lost 100's of million.

My fear is that when the two party system collapses, corruption will skyrocket. If you look at the ten bluest counites in the U.S., they are all incredibly corrupt and none is very good at delivering government services.

Ironman, Bill Clinton wasn't a big government liberal. I don't find your comparison very apt.

Superdestroyer, I'd be interested in seeing the metrics used to define corruption in the "ten bluest counties in the U.S." Do you have a citation?

At any rate, I'm not advocating the end of two-party rule. I think divided government serves an important role in keeping our leaders in check. I'm merely making the point that the GOP has been vanquished across the country, and the best you all can come up with is putting up a RINO from New York City(!) for President rather than contemplating the possibility that your congressmen, governors, and state and local politicians have lost touch with the American people. All I hear from your camp is how awful those pacifist socialist Democrats are; it's like a race to the bottom. If you started caring more about the welfare of American families than your precious gospel of tax cuts and fighting "Islamofascism" by spying on honest citizens, you might win back some credibility.

By the way, dominate is a verb, not an adjective.

Justin,

I doubt if you really care about two party divided government unless it gives you a reasons to oppose Republicans.

If you look at the demographic changes in the United States, there will soon come a time when over 50% of the voters will not vote for a Republican no matter what. There is nothing that Republicans can do to get increased votes from blacks, hispanics, gays, or jews.

You should also look up the corruption of Chicago, Philly, Boston, NYC, LA, SF, and DC versus some of the red counties such as Harris County. In almost every place in the United States, the deep blue urban government is much more corupt than the more Republican suburbs. Do you think that middle class white Republicans would tolerate their schools in the way that the very Democratic big cities run their schools?

First of all, I believe that Hispanics were very much in play until the Republican Congress and conservative talk radio abandoned President Bush in his noble effort to reform immigration. It will take some time to repair this damage, but it is not insurmountable; the Republican Party better reflects the social values of this ethnic group.

Second, you don't know much about Washington if you aren't aware that there are a substantial number of gay GOP staffers and -- gasp -- lawmakers. My more enlightened Republican friends assure me that their party's relentless attacks on the civil rights of this particular group reflect a generational gap that will evolve over time, similarly to what we have witnessed vis-a-vis African Americans.

Finally, don't you think you're making a leap of faith when you talk about "deep blue urban government?" Are urban governments corrupt because they're run by Democrats, or are they corrupt because they're urban? To your other point, I would note that schools in poor areas generally underperform, whether they are urban or rural. Suburban Republicans don't tolerate bad schools because they are wealthy, not because they're Republicans. I come from a wealthy suburb myself, with arguably one of the finest school systems in the nation. Guess what... as of this year, there is no longer a single Republican elected official in my entire county, and there haven't been many for as long as I can remember.

Justin,

The crime rate of Hispanics is 5 times that of whites. The illegitimate rate for Hispanics is 50%. I assume that the Hispanic culture is much more like Democrats than Republicans. The Hispanic vote will trend more to Democratic candidates due to promises benefits. The Democrats keep telling Hispanics that they will get free health care, free housing, and free education and that the Gringos will pay for it. If the Republicans try to go open borders, the Republicans will lose many more conservative voters than they will gain from Hispanics.

It does not matter how many gay/bisexual staffers you allege the Republicans to have. Homosexuals vote Democratic much more than even Hispanics. If you look at the homosexual friendly occupations, they overwhelmingly trend to Democratic voters. The Republicans probably have more chance getting more black votes than getting the votes of rich, white gays.

And your Congressman was Republican as little as four years six years ago with Connie Morela in Montgomery County. Of course, your school system is a creation of a few great schools that are overwhlemingly white and Asian and a several pathetically bad schools full of blacks and Hispanics. Because even the bluest, most progressive school district the liberal white parents know to not send their children to schools filled with black or Hispanic children. (see the recent article in the Outlook section of the Washington Post) Of course,even if the school district is great, it is almost certain that the Democratic elected leaders still send their children to private (probably religious) school. Look at where Chelsea Clinton, Karenna Gore, Vanessa Kerry went to school.

In the near future, there will not be enough middle class and blue collar white voters to overcome the huge demographic advantages that the Democrats now enjoy. The future of the U.S. is the one party state. See Mass. or D.C. as prototypes for the future.

Justin: I did not denote you as a pacifist socialist as much as I was describing your Party. In fact, you make good points but at the expense of our national security and economic strength. The Dems are socialists in the European manner. They are pacifists in the European manner. They have, indeed, gone back to the 1960's for their inspiration and I find that horrid, un-American and certainly not good for our protection from this generational war against Islamofascism which both you and your party ignore to our nation's detriment. Your party reminds me of Stanley Baldwin or Neville Chamberlain. Not one Churchill among them. They acted and mewed the same way during the Cold War and surely now. Perhaps you are too young to remember that. I lived through it , in fact through the Depression, WWII et al. Sorry, but historically, it has not been since Truman or Scoop Jackson than anyone with half a mind could trust the Democrat Party on national defense. They were too busy praising the enemy and fearing our own military! That the uninformed in America are unsure, confused and hollow enough to not remember history or the stakes in this present day gives your Party an edge. But, that should not give you as a fairly sane American any comfort.

Superdestroyer:
Feel free to provide some evidence in regards to the promises of "free health care, free housing, and free education," because quite frankly I don't think you know what the hell you're talking about. By the way, you're just unabashedly racist, aren't you?

Clever of you to figure out where I hail from, but I'll have you know that Connie Morella was more liberal than I am. And you couldn't find a politician who worked harder to represent the consensus of her district. It's not exactly like we elected Marsha Blackburn or Marilyn Musgrave.

Glenn:
I appreciate your pragmatism, but with all due respect, I think you're reading straight from the talking points. Just because we don't agree on how to best defend our nation, doesn't mean that the Democrats aren't concerned about security. In fact, I submit that our government's overall national security strategy of recent years has come at the expense of homeland security. For my part, I can't begin to fathom how refereeing a civil war on the other side of the world helps protect us from the threat of terrorism. Let's start with securing our borders, ports and infrastructure.

As far as the economy goes, again, reasonable people can disagree on what defines success. I use a fairly simple barometer myself: how many people are better off this year than last year, and by how much? What I'm seeing today is a swiftly growing economy with low unemployment. Meanwhile, our public indebtedness and household savings deficit have broken the mold, and the distribution of wealth reminds me of the feudal system in the Middle Ages. Please don't even get me started on the disaster of agricultural subsidies or our absolutely perverse energy policy. This is your idea of economic strength?

Justin,

What do you think the talk of single payer health insurance, college for all, social justice, guaranteed is but a pitch to blacks, hispanics, professional students, full time activist, etc? It is always sold as that they will get government benefits but that the rich (read upper middle class whites) will pay for it.

Also, look at your home state. Three counties are overwhelmingly Democratic and two of those (Baltimore City and Prince Georgee County have corrupt local government with pathetic schools, high taxes, high crime, and local government that just are not capable for providing services.

In reality, Maryland is a picture of the future in the United States where blacks and Hispanic vote for elite whites and the middle class is screwed. Look at the migration patterns for Maryalnd and you will see that middle class whites are leaving but Hispanics are moving in.

I'll reiterate: I don't think you know what the hell you're talking about. If you want to have a debate on ideology, fine. But I'm just not going to respond if you're going to misrepresent the positions of the Democratic Party and disguise your opinions as facts and statistics (which as far as I can tell, you make up as you go along).

Scroll up just a little bit and you'll recall that I was simply making some observations on how grim the GOP's electoral map is looking right now. You managed to devolve the conversation with your accusations and bigoted statements. I won't play that game with you.

I will leave you with this FACT about Maryland: our state government is inreasingly diverse, and we as Democrats are proud of it. Our former Republican governor, however, was known to say things like "multiculturalism is bunk."

Justin,

Even though you are totally correct on the collapse of the Republican Party, I believe that you are totally wrong on the reasons. It has little to do with corruption, with the minimum wage, or with leadership. It has more to do with the changing demographic of the United States and the ability of the Democratic Party to function with groups that take opposing views on issues. All you have to is look at the 2004 Presidential Election map that the Washington Post. The Democratic Party totally dominates in very urban area. And what do all of those counties have in common: a shrinking white population.

You need to work on your credibility. You claim I do not know what I am talking about but you forgot that your former Congresswoman was Connie Morella (R-MD). Of course, I guess that you attended one of the few very white high schools in Montgomery county instead of one of the ghetto schools in Silver Spring. Or maybe you attended Georgetown Prep with all of the other elites? It is interesting that someone from Montgomery County is screaming racism when your county is the one that refused to assign Asian students to a magnet program because they were Korean instead of Black. Of course, I bet you do not realize that Montgomery County does not have any blue collar whites in it. No wonder you think that white Republicans are all rich and moderate. Who else could afford to offset the cost of living in Montgomery County?

You also claimed to know about homosexuals because you hang around with a few rich, elite white gays who work in government. Look up the exit polling data and you will see that homosexuals vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. The only way the Republicans could improve their support among homosexuals is to abandon all of their social conservatives.

You also have no credibility discussing the effects on demographics on election since you did not realize that Hispanics are trending more Democratic instead of less. You also need to listen to politicians like Rep. Wynn when he is speaking at a black church or Rep. Sanchez when she is speaking at a La Raza. Single Payer Health Care (See http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/SinglePayer/BR5), minority set aside contracts (http://blackenterprise.com/cms/exclusivesopen.aspx?id=1914) , HUD Housing, Affirmative Action in schools (See the Gratz V. Bollinger) , free college (See http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2002-11-20-edwards_x.htm) is always sold as something that is great because the rich, white (evil) whites are going to be the ones paying the price.

I am still waiting for you to explain to me how Baltimore or Bowie benefits by the total domination of the Democratic Party. Where is the leadership to improve people's lives in cities where families who call the police are mass murdered? Of course the Democratic Party is "diverse" in the traditional Democratic party method of blacks and Hispanics voting for elite, rich whites.

Also, Have you ever looked at the corruption of Chicago, the District of Columbia, Boston, or Philadelphia? Of course all of these areas are deep blue, do not have competitive elections, and are one party government. Of course, this is just a reflection of what is going to happen on the national level as soon as 2012 or as late as 2020.