Cat Fight! Brucie vs. Elsie

By Miss Kubelik

Quite an election in New York this week. Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Tish James both steamrolled to victory, and Democrats snagged supermajorities in the state legislature. And everyone's excited that Cait Conley ousted the weaselly Mike Lawler in NY-17.

In our neck of the woods, NY-21 is still uncalled by the AP, although the repulsive Trumpster Anthony Constantino, with his doughy, punchable face, is claiming victory. If Blake Gendebien, our candidate in that district, ends up losing, we hope he'll run again. Blake carried every one of the district's counties on the Canadian border, and with a 250-plus Democratic majority in the US House — maybe as many as 265 — Constantino won't have anything to do for the next two years except bomb-throw. (He certainly isn't going to DC to legislate.)

Meanwhile, the outgoing occupant of that House seat, Elise "Elsie" Stefanik, has caused a big kerfuffle in the New York Republican Party, which is in, um, disarray anyway. (Everybody hates everybody else, including party chair Ed Cox. It's a glorious sight.) Elsie poured gas on the fire when she told The New York Post that her GOP primary rival Bruce Blakeman's loss to Hochul is what happens "when you have a low-energy campaign with limited resources that lacked apparatus."

She added, "I know feelings are raw...so I will cut some slack because...I don't know from experience, as I have never lost any of my seven elections." Meeeee-OWWWWW! Claws out much, Elsie?

Blakeman went nuts.

"Elise Stefanik is a selfish, do-nothing politician that didn't lift a finger to help Republican candidates in New York this year," he tweeted in a rage. "She had one moment of glory in what was otherwise an unremarkable career."

We're obviously not fans of either Brucie or Elsie, but we'll give Blakeman this: He's absolutely right that Stefanik did nothing to help during the general election. Many times this fall, we found ourselves asking where Elsie was — she dropped her bid for governor, and basically disappeared. Is she even going to bother to show up in Washington for the House's lame-duck session? Keep an eye on that.

Alas, New York is probably not rid of Elise Stefanik — she'll come back like a herpes sore, maybe running for Senate in 2028. But her road will be bumpy: She's tainted by Trumpiness in a deep-blue state, and her failings are many. Her pet project in Congress was electing more Republican women to office. But come January, the number of GOP women will be down to 20 or fewer, while the number of Democratic women in the House will surge pass 100. Lame! We cats PURR. 

Thank God For Candidates Like Adam Hamilton

By Zamboni

Several versions of this image are going around the interwebs, but we like this one because it has Toto (even though, yes, he's a dog). An excellent way to celebrate the fact that Kansas will send a Democratic Senator to Washington for the first time in nearly 100 years.

Adam Hamilton is a pastor. And he was a perfect fit for his state — although he was obviously helped by how simply terrible his Republican opponent Roger Marshall was (and is). At the same time, observers need to acknowledge that despite the MAGAts' insistence that the Democratic Party is the party of anti-Semites and commies — Abdul El-Sayed's name comes up the most often — many, many of the candidates we chose to run in races across the country were moderates.

And in many cases, openly and unapologetically devout. A Canadian Anglican priest we follow had this to say: 

"One of the remarkable things about the midterms was the number of clergy elected as Democrats. It did my heart good to see progressive Christians like James Talarico being elected. The Right doesn't have a monopoly on Christianity. The Left isn’t against religion. We’re against the weaponization of it.

"As a Christian, I think it's beautiful to see Christians, Muslims, Jews, secular humanists, and atheists working together in government. It's what America was always supposed to be about. Christians like Talarico are more representative of the faith I was raised in than anything MAGA has shown me." We cats agree, and we PURR. 

CATABUNGA!

By Baxter

We cats need to catch up on our sleep. But first, here are some thoughts on the 2026 Blue Tsunami:

Dave Wasserman from The Cook Political Report, who is not given to overstatement, tweeted just a few hours ago. "I've seen enough," he said. "Generational wipeout." (Excellent!) 

Back in March, the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee boldly issued a list of 26 House seats they were targeting as ripe for the picking. Smugly, they insisted they would work to flip 'em all. The list included Democrats like Derek Tran in California, Jared Moskowitz in Florida, and Marcy Kaptur in Ohio. Well, guess what: They haven't flipped a single one. The Democrat either has won or is leading in the nine races that haven't been called yet. (#SAD!)

We are hearing rumors that Amy Acton did not answer Vivek Ramaswamy's concession call. (Delightful!)

It's hard to choose among the Republicans that we're happiest to have booted out of Congress, but North Carolina's Virginia Foxx and Indiana's Victoria Spartz are battling for first place on our list. (Cat fight!)

Finally, the most touching aspects of the election were the messages of support from other countries. People posted on social media from Canada, Germany, Norway, and the UK, to name a few. It's so nice that they understand that Benedict Donald is not us. (We cats PURR.)

Hat Check

While we're waiting for election returns, we'd just like to say that it was vastly amusing to see people dragging Haley Stevens all day for wearing a broad-brimmed summer straw hat to her polling place. (What's next? White shoes? It's after Labor Day.) The hat was so Scarlett O'Hara. We'd like to thank Haley for giving us the chance to upload this image of the ever-stunning Vivien Leigh in her famous "Gone With the Wind" chapeau. (We get our laughs where we can.) We cats PURR.

Your Vote, Your Voice

By Sniffles

Well, everybody, Election Day is almost here. There are lots of promising prognostications out there right now, from folks with long political resumes who are truly worthy of respect. But of course none of their predictions will come true if we all don't get out and vote.

Republicans like to make the process as endless, unfair and inefficient as possible. If you didn't early vote, please do it tomorrow, no matter how long it takes. Let's knock 'em off the table! We cats PURR.

November Surprise

By Hubie and Bertie

The New York Times and Siena University published new set of Senate polls today, and goodness gracious. Adam Hamilton in Kansas is up five points, James Talarico in Texas is up by seven, and Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Troy Jackson in Maine are leading by six. In Alaska, Mary Peltola is just ahead by one. (Come on, Mary, you can do it.)

And Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is leading Mike Rogers in Michigan by 11 points. So can someone explain why Haley Stevens chose today of all days to politically self-immolate?

El-Sayed has been ahead of Rogers by more modest margins in other surveys, so this one's a real eye-catcher. But whether El-Sayed's ahead by that much or not, the fallout for Stevens today has been epic. Her Congressional staffers are resigning, folks who worked on her campaigns are ripping her to shreds on social media, and people are telling tales that they had resolved to keep under wraps even as her long, drawn-out unraveling tested their patience.

A lot of the stories involve Stevens's fiancé, Jason Turkish, who she only met after Michigan's August primary. Now they're engaged, and he's the only one whose political advice she'll follow — all of it bad. Can you imagine throwing your entire career away for... this guy? Barf.

Stevens's behavior is inexplicable, of course, and would be in any year, but in 2026 — with the very survival of democracy on the line — it's unforgivable. But it helped El-Sayed raise $1.2 million in four hours this afternoon. Backfire of the year? You be the judge. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Happy Halloween, Everyone

We have our marching orders for Tuesday. Meanwhile, enjoy! (And turn those clocks back tonight.) We cats PURR. 

Mississippi? Yes, Mississippi.

President Bill Clinton went to Mississippi on Friday to campaign for our excellent Democratic Senate candidate, Scott Colom. Goodness gracious. If you had told us a year ago that our Democratic big dogs would be speechifying in places like Mississippi and Kansas, we would have told you to go outside and touch grass (or smoke it). Yes, there are lots of reasons to be nervous about Tuesday, and it ain't over till it's over. But take a few steps back and see where A) the money and B) the surrogates are going — in both parties. Those facts tell a tale, and we're happy that we're on this side of it. We cats PURR. 

The Wheels Have Come Off The Wagon

By Miss Kubelik

Advice to Fox "News" from former CBS correspondent Scott MacFarlane: Never interview the dude who seems really eager to talk. Because he's probably setting you up.

It makes you wonder how the Fox crew is vetting their stand-ups. Maybe they're not doing a very good job? Like Team Trump not being able to keep hecklers from getting into Benedict Donald's rallies? Or canceling in-person rallies and then rescheduling them again? What a bunch of amateurs. Clearly, the White House and the GOP are in chaos — and not just in the run-up to Tuesday.

The Trumpsters clearly don't know what they're doing. Which means the only thing between us and the total destruction of America is the fact that they're so terribly inept. Thank God for that! We cats PURR.

Jean-Luc Has Left The Planet

 

It can't be possible that Captain Picard, Sejanus, Ebenezer Scrooge, Professor X, Henry II, Henry V, Macbeth, Captain Ahab, King Richard, and most of all, Sterling from "Jeffrey" (see above) is no longer with us. The world owes Sir Patrick Stewart great thanks, not just for those and many other performances, but because he got us through the COVID pandemic with his wonderful daily readings of Shakespeare's sonnets. We cats salute him — in whatever galaxy he inhabits now — and we PURR.