Susan, Scott and Stealth

About 13 Months ago, an ex News anchor and board member of the Seattle based Discovery Institute lost an election For King County Executive, home of the Liberal city of Seattle.
About 13 days ago, a onetime Nude model and Lieutenant Colonel in the Army National Guard took a seat in the US Senate that was held by the Liberal Lion Ted Kennedy for over 40 years.
As noted by Ms. Tarico at Huffington Post, Susan Hutchison and Scott Brown were part of the not so new Republican strategy called the stealth campaign:

As the Right Wing base sinks to new levels of insanity taking the Republican brand with it, “going stealth” has become the campaign strategy of choice in districts where an all-out, Teabagger Town Hall, Palin-Beck, froth-mouthed feeding frenzy would just turn stomachs. The Right’s agenda isn’t evolving, just its tactics…

They still want to drown government in a bathtub…They still think that some hubba hubba god made women “separate but equal"—men with brains and biceps, women with vaginas…They still think we can teach creationism in schools and…They still think we can end drug use by jailing addicts. They still think that guns don’t kill people..They still think the problem with their marriage is my brother. And they still think that you can give the free market absolute power without it corrupting absolutely.

But in some of the best run Republican and Religious Right (Rebiblican) campaigns in the country, you’d never know it.

Scott Brown and his counterpart in Virginia Bob McDonnell succeeded. Susan Hutchison and TEA Bagger extraordinaire Doug Hoffman went down in Flames. And the Main Stream Media (with the exception of McClatchy Newspapers) stuck to its script (AKA Republican Talking Points):

Brown said his win in a solidly-Democratic state, along with the interest in the Q&A session President Obama and House Republicans had on Friday, is proof that voters want more transparency and less backroom dealing.

"What it means is that now there will be full and fair debate," Brown said of his 41st Republican vote in the Senate that erased a Democratic supermajority. "And there will be no more behind-closed-doors actions."

Transparency? Yeah right. Ms. Hutchison and Mr. Hoffman received a lot of transparency, but it sure as hell was not from Gods Own Party (the blog, yes. The GOP, not so much) or the media lapdogs. Again from Ms. Tarico:

What’s interesting is that the same stealth strategy failed miserably in Washington State. Palin-wannabe Susan Hutchison was defeated by fourteen points after being ahead in the polls just weeks ago.

What happened? It’s very simple: Word got out about who she is, and it made King County’s voters a bit queasy... By November 3, the voting public knew who Susan Palin Hutchison is, and for a stealth campaign, that’s lethal…When Rebiblicans pose as moderates and change agents, they have just exposed soft tissue.

But can those of us who dream of a more progressive society cut the rotting tissue away? With Less then 11 months to go before the midterm elections of 2010, I will not give up hope, but I will equally not succumb to self-delusion: the Corporate Bastard's funding the GOP/TEA Party/Anti Health care ads have won big bidness a number of victory's.

The Supremos have handed the Corporates the ability to buy any Candidate of their choice (Chief Justice Johnny the Robber is a lying corporate hypocrite shill. Strip search Sammy is the same; and with his behavior at the SOTU he is now a political (rather than judicial) hero to Republicans and a political enemy of Democrats [hammer on the nail Mr. Greenwald]).

And finally we have the greatest asset toward a GOP sweep in November, a 24 hour News Channel that has dropped all attempts at impartiality and is now a fundraising Political Action Committee of the Republican Party.

The D's are running scared, the R's are crowing, and it's 1994 all over again (at least according to my local paper). Meanwhile, those of us in the reality based community are pissed off that my Democratic Party has the power, but is afraid to use it. Stinks.