Melissa Bean called and congratulated Joe Walsh a short time ago.  Walsh, who is in Washington, DC for orientation, officially wins the election by 291 votes.

Republican Joe Walsh (or Congressman-elect Joe Walsh, as his staff now call him) continues to lead Mellisa Bean in suburban Chicago’s 8th Congressional District.  By his lead has shrank from 750 on Election night to approximately 300 votes today.  The margin was shaved in part to 6 Cook County precincts that did not return ballots on Election night.  The ballots, from Hanover, Palatine, and Schaumburg somehow ended up in Cicero, and from there they floated around until they reached the Cook County Election board around 10:00 AM the next morning.

More from Jim Geraghty at National Review:

“We are in the fight of our lives as we count ballots in Cook County,” says Nick Provenzano, the campaign manager for Walsh who is now signing his messages, “Spokesman for Congressman-elect Joe Walsh, Illinois’ 8th District.” Provenzano offers a description of an exceptionally odd ballot-counting process: “On Election Night, there were six precincts that were still not counted at 1 a.m. We discovered that they had problems in the polling place and were moved to nearby Elgin, Illinois to count the ballots.  At some point in the middle of the night all six precincts  — representing thousands of votes — had been moved to Cicero, Illinois for “safe keeping”

This reminds me of the “safe-keeping” of ballots in Minnesota during the Coleman-Franken recount. National Review continues to detail other irregularities:

“Identifying potential mischief, the Illinois GOP dispatched volunteers to track down these voters to ensure no foul play was occurring with these outstanding ballots,” Provenzano continues. “What they found was alarming. They documented their findings on affidavits and they were submitted to law enforcement for review.” The affidavits describe one voter who had not lived at the listed address in the past 15 years; a voter who a caregiver said “could not respond to questions because of dementia,” and a group of ballots sent to a Clearbrook home for the mentally disabled in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

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From The Daily Herald:

Illinois’ top League of Women Voters official said “phony patriotism” is driving criticism over a moderator’s reaction when she was asked if the Pledge of Allegiance would be recited before an 8th Congressional District debate this week.

Executive Director Jan Czarnik said what happened at Wednesday’s debate and subsequent criticism directed at moderator Kathy Tate-Bradish was an attempt by supporters of Republican candidate Joe Walsh of McHenry and tea party members to bully the organization.

Czarnik said someone is not a better American just by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

“It’s a phony patriotism issue is what it is,” she said. “They must think it helps their campaign.”

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At a recent debate between lefty Rep. Melissa Bean and her GOP challenger Joe Walsh, the League of Women Voters didn’t want to begin the proceedings with the Pledge of Allegiance. The audience had a different view of things…(something is brewing, people)

Editors Note: This post is re-printed with permission from The Nation magazine, where it appears as the February 4, 2010 cover story. You can see a video interview with Professor Lessig about the piece here, or take action on issues raised in the piece by visiting FixCongressFirst.org.

We should remember what it felt like one year ago, as the ability to recall it emotionally will pass and it is an emotional memory as much as anything else. It was a moment rare in a democracy’s history. The feeling was palpable–to supporters and opponents alike–that something important had happened. America had elected, the young candidate promised, a transformational president. And wrapped in a campaign that had produced the biggest influx of new voters and small-dollar contributions in a generation, the claim seemed credible, almost intoxicating, and just in time.

Yet a year into the presidency of Barack Obama, it is already clear that this administration is an opportunity missed. Not because it is too conservative. Not because it is too liberal. But because it is too conventional. Obama has given up the rhetoric of his early campaign–a campaign that promised to “challenge the broken system in Washington” and to “fundamentally change the way Washington works.” Indeed, “fundamental change” is no longer even a hint.

Instead, we are now seeing the consequences of a decision made at the most vulnerable point of Obama’s campaign–just when it seemed that he might really have beaten the party’s presumed nominee. For at that moment, Obama handed the architecture of his new administration over to a team that thought what America needed most was another Bill Clinton. A team chosen by the brother of one of DC’s most powerful lobbyists, and a White House headed by the quintessential DC politician. A team that could envision nothing more than the ordinary politics of Washington–the kind of politics Obama had called “small.” A team whose imagination–politically–is tiny.

These tiny minds–brilliant though they may be in the conventional game of DC–have given up what distinguished Obama’s extraordinary campaign. Not the promise of healthcare reform or global warming legislation–Hillary Clinton had embraced both of those ideas, and every other substantive proposal that Obama advanced. Instead, the passion that Obama inspired grew from the recognition that something fundamental had gone wrong in the way our government functions, and his commitment to reform it.

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