Hey Connolly - Beware the Ides of March

Well, here it comes. The e-mails are pouring in around noon as Fairfax County tries to decide who really won yesterday's election in the 11th Congressional District. Of course all the messages I'm receiving are from democrats who know me, and the rumors they're spreading is that Gerald Connolly has won the race fairly and squarely, even though votes are still being counted, and will probably be counted again and maybe a third time because the race was so close when we all went to bed last night. So much for smugness on the part of the democrats here in Northern Virginia. Symptomatic of the all the smugness, were all the yahoo democrat predictions that Connolly was a shoe-in and would beat Keith Fimian easily in this current election. Surprise, surprise! Connolly even had the audacity to make a pre-emptive (and stupidly mistimed) victory speech before the 11:00 pm news aired. The facts are clear no matter which party wins this contested race. Fairfax voters were split right down the middle on who they wanted to represent them in Congress for the next two years. And there was the great unknown - the independent voter - wouldn't politics be a wonderful adventure if both parties could figure out how he or she is going to treat them at the Polls? In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the warnings about the mentality of the Mob are always lurking in every line. Don't let your smugness carry you away. You might wake up the morning after with a big surprise waiting for you. This is Connolly's "Ides of March." Only half the voters wanted Connolly in - the other half wants him to go away.