I had meant to post this as an addendum to my previous post, but Tom at BizzyBlog has a great analysis of the election as well, including some great points about Jean Schmidt: * She won an 11-person special election primary in June 2005 where the Christian Right’s fair-haired voting scofflaw tried to parachute in for a quick victory. * She survived a nationally-focused special election in August 2005 where her Iraq War vet opponent pretended to be a Bush-supporting Republican on TV while cursing her in personal appearances. * She survived a challenge in May 2006 from the same voting scofflaw who accepted the help of slash-and-burn artists while pretending to be “dignified” himself. * And finally, she has survived an opponent who got the help of a gullible (or co-conspiring) newspaper and, I believe, the active assistance of a write-in candidate who (as of this moment) received less than half of votes the non-illustrious David “Mr. 362″ Smith did in 2005 (with 4 times as many votes cast). With their help, she dishonestly played the nuclear NIMBY card in the 2nd District’s easternmost counties. For this reason, and others, Vic Wulsin, and not Jean Schmidt, should be the one wearing the “TLB” tag. I was fortunately able to vote for Schmidt in her oddly close election this cycle, next time I will be in OH01, however, represented by the Honorable Steve Chabot. As NixGuy puts it: Chabot showed suprising strength and uncanny political acumen. He let cranley pound on him for weeks on the “changed in DC theme” Then in the last week of the campaign he trots out the house and the old car. Not many other candidates would have had the patience and nerve to withstand that without fighting back, knowing they had a great answer. DeWine certainly didn’t. We're pretty lucky in this part of Ohio, with Steve Chabot, Jean Schmidt, and John Boehner in such close proximity as legislators. The renewal of the Ohio Republican Party should start here, in districts with real conservatives, the home of Ken Blackwell. The state party needs an absolute overhaul, ridding ourselves of anything Taft, DeWine, Voinovich or their ideological chums bring to the table. There are times I find Hannity palatable to listen to (more often than not, but less often than you might think), and yesterday was one of those days that he was really "on." His advice (or demand, as is his nature) was that Republicans not sulk, hold our heads low, or turn away from our noble goal. Rather, stand up and fight, get mad, understand why and how we lost, and turn it around in 2 years. This is the approach that I am taking. Some columnists, such as LaShawn Barber, are making the argument that Campaign 2008 begins NOW. I certainly do appreciate her zeal and energy, and applaud her decision to jump back into the fray so soon. Personally, and mostly because I did not anticipate Tuesday would go quite so badly, a month out of the game for some soul searching sounds about right for me. I'll still write and comment about various items on the political agenda, and hopefully bring more news to those that read looking for Catholic insight and analysis. In 1996, I left a comment on the USA Today message board regarding the Dole candidacy following the Republican primaries. Only recently it seems to have disappeared from the search engines, but I wrote that for Dole to win, the Republicans would have to unite in the face of adversity and focus on their goals and true values to defeat President Clinton. They did not, and as a result we were rewarded with another 4 years of Democratic policy in the White House. The time to unite is now. I'd recommend following Barber and Hannity's advice, and if you are feeling motivated, jump back into the fray today. We truly have not a second to spare, and now we have something to run against other than ourselves.