Friday evening links

Whew! What a day – week, in fact. Thank goodness it’s over. Now it’s time to focus closely on my site design, which has really come together this week. Mucho thanks for the contributions that have come in over the last several days. For those who haven’t yet done so but would like to, please click the PayPal link below (you do not have to have a PayPal account to contribute). At this point, thanks to generous donations, my (upcoming) site design is paid for and hosting is taken care of up til June of next year, but it sure would be nice to get enough to pay for hosting for the rest of next year. Even $10 here and there goes a long way. (Update: Thanks to Dan Collins for the shout-out!)

I’ve got a lot to catch up on this evening, so I thought I’d try and condense the big stories of the day into one post. Here goes.

—– First and foremost: Michael Yon reports in from Iraq and in a phone call to Instapundit states, “The war is over and we won.” That is music to many an ear tonight. As Glenn notes, Transterrestrial Musings points out:

No thanks to the Democrats, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who tried to keep it from happening. I see that they still can’t bring themselves to utter the word “win” with respect to the war. They continue to talk about “ending” it. Well, it looks like George Bush did that for them, and he won it as well. But winning wars is bad, you see, because it just encourages the warmongers.

Not only that, but most liberal Democrats would be willing to give credit to our current Commander in Chief and the military he commands only when and if hell ever froze over.

—– The rebirth of the GOP continues, with Michael Steele officially announcing yesterday, after a week of rumors speculating as to whether or not he would, that he was running for Chair of the RNC. He participated in a conference call with bloggers earlier today (a call I wish I could have joined in on, but 8-5 constraints wouldn’t allow for it), and talked about the 2008 campaign and about conservatism in general. You can read some highlights from the call or listen to the call in full here.

—– BTW, Steele isn’t the only GOPr to declare his interest in becoming GOP Chair. Read about SC GOP Chair Katon Dawson here. Michigan GOP Chair Saul Anuzis has thrown his hat into the ring as well.

—– There’s a tug of war going on with Senate Democrats over whether or not Joe Lieberman should continue to chair the Homeland Security Committee. Some want to strip of him of his leadership post over his support for John McCain. Sources say that President-elect Obama hasn’t weighed in on the leadership post issue, but has expressed to Senate Dems that he doesn’t want them to oust Lieberman from the Dem caucus. Apparently he’s smarter than they are on the issue of Lieberman’s core liberal beliefs. Liebs may be hawkish on foreign policy, but on domestic policy – which will be focused on intensely over the next 4 years of the Obama administration – he’s a solid lefty.

—– And speaking of McCain, he and Obama are scheduled to meet in Chi-town on Monday in an apparent attempt to “heal the wounds” of the general election campaign. I look for Mc to, unfortunately, go overboard in showing how willing he will be to work with Senate Democrats to help Barack Obama’s agenda pass.

—– More bailout mania news: Mayors of Philadelphia, Phoenix seek bailout share. One question: Where the hell’s my share? Hey, as long as everyone’s got their hands out …

—– Scott Hinderaker has the latest details on what’s going on in the not-yet-decided Senate race in Minnesota between Al Franken and Norm Coleman. Franken and the Democrats are, as you might expect, pulling out all the stops, including pulling some pretty underhanded stunts, in an attempt to help get Obama the magic number of 60 he needs in the Senate. Jack Coleman at Newsbusters notes how MSDNC is – as expected – carrying Franken’s water.

—– Related to that, the Alaska Senate race is still undecided, but the Anchorage Daily News is reporting that the absentee ballot tallying taking place there favors Democrat Mark Begich to replace disgraced Alaska Republican Senator Ted Stevens. The Begich campaign hasn’t broken out the party hats just yet, as the ADN writes that there are Stevens “strongholds” still left to be counted. Stay tuned.

—– Regarding the only other undecided Senate race – in Georgia – the runoff between incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss and Democrat challenger Jim Martin is scheduled to take place on December 2nd. Chambliss may be our last hope to stop the Democrats from having a filibuster-proof 60 member majority. Chambliss is facing that runoff because he was in a three-way race for his seat (his other challenger was a Libertarian candidate) and just missed getting the 50% required to avoid a runoff.

—– Michelle Malkin is keeping a close watch on what’s turned into what Tammy Bruce has called in the past a “gay gestapo” of Prop 8 opponents who are viciously targeting supporters of Prop 8, which is a pro-traditional marriage amendment that passed in liberal CA last week. Roseanne Barr, for example, is calling for a gulag of sorts for Prop 8 supporters. Ah, such tolerance for differing opinions and the democratic process.

—– More fall-out from the invasion of Joe the plumber’s privacy: The Akron Beacon Journal reports that half a dozen Ohio state agencies accessed his information after he became a household name late last month. Where’s the liberal outrage? Out there chirping alongside the crickets: