And suddenly, the government starts to look a little bit more like the people it is supposed to represent. The biggest gain is the new Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. For the first time ever, we have a woman third in line to the presidency. This is the closest we have come to the presidency so far. Previously, Secretary of State Madeline Allbright was fourth in line, but because she was born outside the country she was not eligible to take the president’s spot.
The future Madam Speaker shows us her scary side. This will come in handy during investigations into Republican wrong doing.It’s nice to see women getting ahead in the Senate too. We now have 16 Senate seats, which is not nearly the 50 we would need to be truly represented, but it keep increasing.
Claire McCaskill from Missouri thanked Rush Limbaugh after Limbaugh’s vitriol on the Michael J. Fox ads drove stem cell supporters to donate mass cash to her campaign. Yay- a win for Dems, women, and science!
Deval Patrick, first African American Governor of Massachusetts who won after his opponent ran a really disgusting commercial to scare women out of voting for Patrick. Huhm, black man running for governor and his opponent tries to swing women voters by scaring them with the idea that Duval supports rapists.
Keith Ellison, the first ever Muslim representative elected to Minnesota’s fifth district. I’m sure the right wing nutbags are declaring this a win for “islamofacists” while completely ignoring the fact that the right wing nutbags have more in common with the Taliban than with the rest of America.
Gabrielle Giffords, the new Rep from Arizona’s 8th district
For more on African American gains in the House check out this.
If I’ve missed someone (and I am sure I’ve missed plenty) let me know in comments.