SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:51 P.M. ET:

LOUISIANA – As expected, Republican Representative Bill Cassidy has buried incumbent Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu in the Louisiana runoff.  From the Washington Examiner:  "Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy trounced Sen. Mary Landrieu in Louisiana’s Senate runoff Saturday, picking up one last seat for Republicans in a 2014 midterm election season that saw commanding gains for the GOP.  When the Associated Press called the race, Cassidy led Landrieu by nearly 30 points with 1 percent of precincts reporting. Cassidy's victory will give Republicans 54 seats in the Senate, with Democrats controlling 46."  No time for rest.  Prepare for 2016.  I want to see 60 friendly faces in the Senate.

POLITICAL COST OF OBAMACARE – From the Washington Examiner:  "On Dec. 24, 2009, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed President Obama’s healthcare law with a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority, triggering a massive backlash that propelled Republicans to control of the House the following year. On the Senate side, going into this year's midterm elections, 25 senators who voted for Obamacare were already out or not going be part of the new Senate being sworn in next month. After Democratic losses on Nov. 4 and Saturday's defeat of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., the number has risen to 30. In other words, half of the Senators who voted for Obamacare will not be part of the new Senate."  True, not all went down because of Obamacare, but the unpopular health plan clearly affected the careers of most. 

JUSTICE – From the New York Post:  "WANA, Pakistan — A top al Qaeda operative wanted for plotting to bomb the New York subway system died in a predawn helicopter raid staged by Pakistani troops in remote South Waziristan.  Adnan el-Shukrijumah, 39, had a $5 million FBI bounty on his head and was believed to have once been al Qaeda’s external operations chief. He died in a house in Wana, South Waziristan’s capital.
Shukrijumah spent some of his teen years in Brooklyn. Later in his teens, in 1995, he moved with his family to Florida, where his dad took a job as an imam in a mosque."  Maybe Hillary Clinton, who this week got into hot water by saying we had to respect our enemies, can do the eulogy.

December 6, 2014