It was 14 years ago

I remember it well. I was living in a crummy grad-student-appropriate apartment in Chapel Hill with my roommate Glen Greenough. The previous national election (1992) had been a good one -- Clinton was elected, we got both houses of Congress -- and it felt like a nationwide change was underway. But Newt and his buddies were a political freight train bearing down that night in 1994. Watching Peter Jennings on ABC that night was gut-wrenching as they took over -- conquered, if you will -- the U.S. government, the same one I'd just gotten used to think of as "mine."

I talked that night with my friend Camille on the other side of the country. We marveled at how anyone could elect these people instead the guys in Congress that we thought were doing a bang-up job. I watched as even the most level-headed, thoughtful politicians like my own David Price were swept out and replaced by jackasseries like Fred Heineman. Even more than the people, the things I believed were repudiated by the majority of the country that night and replaced by the Fred Heinemans of the world.

Flash forward. Last night (Nov. 8, 2006) was the long-awaited revenge of all that. Last night, I was on the other side, the ally of terrorists who suddenly becomes the mainstream. It was our turn to toss out the known and replace it with the new. And this time we laughed as the Snows, Roves, Cheneys and Bushes saw their world upended. There's only one word for it: satisfaction.

But before this turns into a blogloat (yes, I just invented that word), there's one other thing that's different between 1994 and 2006. Today, I don't really have the time to sit back and appreciate the event. I'm writing this at 10:09 p.m., in between catching up on two different work projects. And by morning, we'll be up early tending to Sophie, then more work, and then another day is gone.

But something special did happen yesterday -- a war was repudiated, a president forced into accountability, and countless unchecked political egos brought to contrition. It's huge, and I just needed a few minutes to recognize all that.