Whew, what an election cycle!

 I previously wrote about a young man named Tyler Stearns, who has impressed me with his maturity, drive, and political wisdom.

 While Tyler didn't win, he came darn close. He trailed the winner by only 90 votes, and even beat the incumbent:

Bob Matheson (D) 496
Tyler Stearns (I) 406
Bonnie Ham (R-Inc) 383

While I'm not pleased that so many voters punched a straight ticket, the outgoing majority had fair warning: their core supporters have been telling them since 1996 that a platform of pork and appeasement was the exact opposite of the ideals that brought them to power in 1994.

I admit that I'm a GOP-leaning "small-l libertarian", but I've been so displeased with the GOP's fawning and pandering that I'm not sorry to see them go. I'll take pro-life, pro-gun Democrats over wishy-washy Republicans, any time. So, too, will Charles Schumer; he engineered the takeover by putting conservative candidates into key races against "moderate" Republicans.

 And so the pendulum swings.

Meanwhile... LawDog in '08!