It is with great sadness that I learned just a few hours ago of the passing of one of the truly great screen presences of the last sixty years — Jack Palance. While he is well known for his Oscar-winning role in 1991′s City Slickers, movie buffs recall his taciturn turn as villain Jack Wilson in Shane. While he was not fond of such roles, he was truly one of the great villains of Westerns.

I may have more to say about the passing of this classy man later, but am off to the one of the few places where I can be an openly conservative film buff — the Liberty Film Festival. And I’m sure we’ll all remember this great actor and the contributions he made to a past time we all so enjoy. While we mourn his passing, we are ever grateful that through the magic of movies, his great performances will last long after he is gone.

I don’t think Shane would have succeeded as it did, easily becoming one of my favorite Westerns, without Palance’s brilliant performance as the level-headed heavy. Jack Palance, thank you for your contributions to motion pictures — and for the spirit which animated your life.

Two years ago, after the reelection of President Bush with increased Republican majorities in both Houses of Congress, I enjoyed this nice feeling which lasted for some time after the election. (I wasn’t alone; Peggy couldn’t “stop being happy about the election result.”) With it became apparent Tuesday night that the GOP would lose in the Senate as well as the House, it seemed I might become as despondent in the aftermath as I had been joyful in 2004.

I did not sleep well the night after the election, but fewer than twenty-four hours after realizing how complete had been the GOP defeat, I was returning to my natural good cheer and boundless optimism. (In contrast to the previous night, I slept very, very well Wednesday night.) While I wished the GOP had done more to save the three Senate seats which could have been saved (Missouri, Montana, Virginia), I realized that sometimes defeats are necessary in politics. It seemed almost the the very closeness of the 2004 presidential election meant that the winner that year would see his party lose two years thence.

And if I had to pick between winning in 2004 and in 2006, well, I’d rather we had won in the presidential year. And while I can detect a sense of sadness on certain conservative blogs, only on one have I found any bitterness. Instead, I see a sense of recognition, conservatives acknowledging the Democrats’ winning strategy and the quality of their candidates while our party failed to hold true to its principles.

I also see a sense of resolve. Instead of blaming others for our failures — or suggesting the elections might have been stolen — conservatives as well as some Republican congressional leaders are looking forward, putting forward ideas on how our party can be an effective force in opposition and considering what we need do to win back our majority.

Apparently this attitude has upset some of the left. After visiting a few sites and receiving a few e-mails, the Anchoress finds:

the weirdest fallout I’ve seen from the election is that the far left folks seem to be annoyed…angry, even at the right for not being more pissed-off, for being mostly philosophical instead of enraged about the results. I think they were hoping to enjoy watching us flip out, and they’re not seeing it. Instead of ranting and carrying on about “leftards” and spewing venom and hate and charging “stolen, stolen,” the righty blogs are thinking things over and talking and even – fer heaven’s sake – daring to laugh in real amusement as they watch the strangely positive headlines which have surfaced in the press since Tuesday.

No, we conservatives haven’t flipped out as did the left two years ago. And the initial sadness that some on the right have experienced seems, as mine, to have quickly been replaced by a resolve to find a means to move forward despite our party’s loss.

I agree with the Anchoress that the “weirdest fallout” has been the attitude of the left. Despite their party’s victory, they are as angry as they have ever been. They still dwell on their negative attitudes toward conservatives.

Anger does not well suit the party in the majority. They need show that they are prepared to govern. We conservatives have, on the whole, have shown that we intend to press forward despite Tuesday’s results.

Perhaps, I’m not as sad as I was Tuesday night because I’m old enough to realize that setbacks are only temporary. (And not only in politics.) Just two years after losing the White House in 1992, our party won majorities in both Houses of Congress for the first time in forty years. When one faces adversity with the right attitude, not only can one work on in despair, but can only find that that attitude — and the continued effort — can turn adversity into opportunity.

I see opportunity for my party — and my principles — in this defeat. And perhaps we should build on that attitude, realizing that whenever we sufffer setbacks in life, that they are only temporary and that even our missteps and misfortune contain seeds of opportunity.

Back in 1992, when George H.W. Bush was running for reelection, I became so frustrated with his Adminsitration’s betrayal of the Reaganite record on which the current president’s father has won election in 1988 and the emptiness of his reelection campaign that I had framed an old poster-size picture I had of the Gipper to hang above my mantelpiece to remind me why I was a Republican, indeed, why I was involved in politics.

A few weeks later, at a “victory” party for the local GOP, a reporter for Charlottesville’s Daily Progress interviewed me, wanting to know my thoughts on the election. I commented that the incumbent “had betrayed the Reagan legacy and that’s why he’s losing tonight.” And as I have noted in previous posts on this election, the outgoing Republican Congress similarly betrayed the Reagan legacy and that’s why they lost earlier this week.

Twelve years ago, House Republicans put together a conservative platform, the Contract with America based on principles the Gipper had been articulating for the preceding three decades. They won an impressive victory. But, once in power for several years, they lost sight of those principles, as had the president’s father.

Twelve years after Ronald Reagan’s election, the American people voted his successor out because he had forgotten the reason the Gipper had won so handily, electing a centrist Democrat promising “change.” Twelve years after the Contract with America election, the American people voted out a Republican Congress that had broken that Contract and elected many centrist Democrats whose party leadership promised a “New Direction.”

Among those centrist Democrats was a former member of the Reagan Administration who, while leaving his old boss’s party, never distanced himself form the man himself and, as I noted in a prior post, used that great man’s image in campaign ads. The use of Ronald Reagan certainly helped him sway a few votes, certainly enough to tip such a close election.

Eighteen years, after he left office, Ronald Reagan’s ideas still resonate with the American people. Polls show the American people, by comfortable margins, want smaller government and lower taxes and favor judicial restraint. In their spendthrift ways, particularly with earmarks, House Republicans ran away from many of the ideas which accounted for their rise.

But, there’s still hope. All the candidates for House GOP leadership have made clear that the party needs to return to those ideas. Two years after the American people voted out the man who betrayed the legacy which helped him win the White House, they elected the first Republican Congress in forty years. So, perhaps, two years after the American people voted out that Congress, they will elect a new Republican Congress and President, committed to the ideas and vision of the man who helped our party return from the wilderness in which it had wallowed for the first few decades after World War II.

As congressional Republicans return to that wilderness, they should also return to those ideas and that vision, the only way show them the way back into the good graces of the American people and back into power. As we Republicans look forward, we could do no better than to remember Ronald Wilson Reagan whose ideas were vindicated this week even as his party went down to defeat.

-B. Daniel Blatt (AKA GayPatriotWest)

**UPDATED BELOW**  Al-Qaeda Endorses Democrat’s “Cut & Run” Plan…..

Just as I said it would happen, our enemies around the world are celebrating Speaker Pelosi.

Al-Qaeda In Iraq Hails Democrat Victory…

A statement purportedly from the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq hails the defeat of Republicans in the US mid-term polls.

The audio message, whose authenticity has not been verified, was published on Islamist websites and was said to be the voice of Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.

The Democrats’ victory in Tuesday’s Congressional elections was a move in the right direction, the speaker said. “The American people have taken a step in the right path to come out of their predicament… they voted for a level of reason,” the voice said. Muhajir, also known as Ayyub al-Masri, has been identified by US forces as the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed in a raid in June 2006.

Iran Calls Democrat Victory a Win For Iran….

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called U.S. President George W. Bush’s defeat in congressional elections a victory for Iran. …”This issue (the elections) is not a purely domestic issue for America, but it is the defeat of Bush’s hawkish policies in the world,” Khamenei said in remarks reported by Iran’s student news agency ISNA on Friday.

“Since Washington’s hostile and hawkish policies have always been against the Iranian nation, this defeat is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation. … The result of this election indicates that the majority of American people are dissatisfied and are fed up with the policies of the American administration,” the IRNA state news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Khamenei said military maneuvers in the Gulf this week in which Iranian forces tested new missile systems showed Iran was ready to face any threat.

But, he said: “With the scandalous defeat of America’s policies in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Afghanistan, America’s threats are empty threats on an international scale.”

It really tells you something when a terrorist group and an Islamist-run nation — both bent on the destruction of the United States — praise the Democrats’ election win.

**UPDATE** – Here’s even more from al-Qaeda on their celebration of the Democrats’ win….. reminding the world of the synergy of AQ’s talking points and the Democrats’ talking points. 

“We will not rest from our Jihad until we are under the olive trees of Rumieh and we have destroyed the dirty black house — which is called the White House,” al-Muhajir said.

Describing George W. Bush as “the most stupid president” in U.S. history, the Al Qaeda leader reached out to the Muslim world and said his group was winning faster than expected in Iraq.

The U.S. president’s policy had enabled the militant group to achieve their goal of fighting more Americans, said the Al Qaeda leader.

“We call the lame duck (Bush) not to hurry up in escaping the same way the defense minister did,” he said, referring to the removal of Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary following the Democrats’ victory in Midterm elections.

“They are getting ready to leave, because they are no longer capable of staying,” the Al Qaeda leader said.

“Remain steadfast in the battlefield you coward,” he called on the U.S president.

Were these statements uttered by al-Qaeda or Howard Dean, Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore?  It is simply astounding that it is hard to tell the difference!

[Related Story - Still Think A Democrat Win Wasn't Cheered By Terrorists? - IowaVoice]

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

One of the greatest losses as a result of Tuesday’s Republican debacle is that of the last sane voice in the United Nations, recess-apointed John Bolton. Ambassador Bolton has been a voice of reason and sense, speaking truth to a corrupt organization while still holding true to the original precepts of that once-great insitution.

Alas, loser Lincoln Chafee (one Republican I’ll say who actually did desrve to lose this year) has put the kibash on the re-nomination announced by the White House the other day.

The great shame and embarrassment for Captiol Hill Republicans (okay, well, one of them) is that it was in deference to Chafee himself that the renomination was earlier tabled. The reasoning was that, to better endear himself to voters in far-left Rhode Island, the leadership should not put him on record as having supported this sage man, which he did last year, but for some reason (perhaps not having the sniveling George Voinovich’s dress behind which to hide this time?) flip-flopped on support.

It’s anybody’s guess what drove this pathetic man to change his opinion on a man for whom even leftists Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton had shown support. Was it sour grapes for Chafee that he decided, as one of his last official actions as a Senator was to stab America in the back by denying us this most qualified UN Ambassador we’ve had in my lifetime? Was this a parting blow to a President or conservative establishment who Chafee might have thought didn’t support him fervently enough against an actual conservative, Steve Laffey, in his state’s primary?

Whatever the reasoning, on behalf of the Nation and Freedom-loving people everywhere, thanks, Senator Chafee, for the slap in the face. Enjoy your retirement, and choke on it.

You know, it just dawned on me (thanks, Jim Treacher). I’m not sure why it took me two whole days to realize this: Now that the Democrats have won, and (as any of them will tell you) sent a strong message about the war, the World will now be on our side again. So I guess that’s the end of terrorism, then? I imagine now the Iranians and Syrians who are in Iraq killing Americans and Iraqis will lay down their arms because we once again have responsible folks at the helm on Capitol Hill?