Kat with a K

So. Scott Brown. Now what?

(Yes, this is my refrigerator. The bumper sticker sized magnet was a Christmas gift, and I find it both delightful and inexplicably hilarious, partially because the friend who gave it to me lives in Texas and found it there.)

Like many liberals, I'm extremely sad about Coakley's loss last night. It's not that I like Coakley, specifically. I don't. But I believe that universal health care is the most important issue of our time, and Scott Brown says he will do whatever he can to block it. So. In addition, I will admit that the idea of a Republican in Teddy Kennedy's seat just - I don't know, it somehow shifts my general worldview, and I think we all need to take a little time out to accept it.

What we don't need to do is panic. That will not help anything. Democrats still have a huge majority in both houses, and this one loss doesn't mean doom. As an almost-local (I live in NH, but in the Boston media market) I have to say that I honestly believe that practically any other candidate would have won this for the Democrats. Coakley made a series of almost unbelievably stupid mistakes, including misspelling "Massachusetts" in one of her ads. And even aside from the mistakes, she was just - blah. She barely campaigned. She said she didn't want to stand outside in the cold shaking hands. What??

So, as I said, no panicking. So, then, what? This is the best I came up with: as soon as the race was called for Brown, I signed up to volunteer for Paul Hodes' Senate campaign. Then I donated to the New Hampshire Democratic Party. That seemed like the only reasonable response. Then I tossed and turned and basically got no sleep all night (although I'm not sure that's related) and then got up and made cupcakes at 5am. Which, frankly, also seemed like a totally reasonable response.