The high points in the past election for me center on the three states that I have called home throughout my life: Florida, Virginia, and Indiana. I’ve been a Floridian now for a little more than four years and am thrilled with Tuesday’s results here.

The whole nation was watching the Florida Senate race, wondering if Marco Rubio could succeed in a divided field—divided because current governor Charlie Crist, running as an independent, was attempting to take Republican votes away from him. While that might have been Crist’s original strategy, he had to shift over time to concentrate more on scraping together Democratic votes instead since most Republicans repudiated him and stayed loyal to Rubio. But hey, “shifting over time” is one of Crist’s talents:

If this signals the end of Crist’s political career, I will shed no tears. Rubio, meanwhile, is already perceived as a “rising star” in Republican circles. He needs to be careful and not let this go to his head. If he can remain as optimistic and as humble as he has been through this long campaign, his principled leadership can be a tremendous plus for the country. As long as he stays principled, he will continue to be effective.

The Florida governor’s race was extremely tight, but Republican Rick Scott pulled it out in the end. He had to overcome the challenge of a bitterly divided party after the primary. While some resentment remained, and he didn’t get the same level of support as Rubio, enough healing took place for him to eke out the victory by about one percentage point. The size of the victory doesn’t matter now, as long as he fulfills his promises. He wants to bring business expertise to the governor’s role and create a Florida that is business friendly. If he can do what is in his heart, state government will be leaner and more effective, and the state’s dismal unemployment figures will turn around. In my view, if anyone might be able to accomplish this, it will be Scott. His slogan for the campaign was “Let’s Get to Work.” Now he has his chance.

The Lakeland area also will be sending a man to Congress that it was an honor for me to support: Dennis Ross. I had lunch with him a few months ago just to get a feel for who he is. I came away convinced that his passion was for upholding the Constitution and maintaining integrity in government. It’s not often you have the opportunity to rally behind a person who understands the Founders’ concepts and who seeks to keep the federal government within its appointed boundaries. Dennis, I believe, is such a man. He not only will represent his district well, but by doing so, he will do what is best for the nation.

Honorable mention: Daniel Webster practically destroyed Alan Grayson, thereby kicking out of Congress one of the most obnoxious members ever to hold the office of representative. I will trade a radical, self-centered socialist for a Christian gentleman any day. Adieu, Mr. Grayson.  

On to Virginia, where my former state completed the transformation it began one year ago when it elected Bob McDonnell as its governor and Ken Cuccinelli as attorney general. This past Tuesday, three Democratic congressmen were given the door and replaced by conservatives who want to stand up to the Obama agenda.

Then there’s Indiana, which duplicated Virginia’s move by replacing a number of Democratic congressmen. In addition, it added a new old name to the Senate—Dan Coats. Coats had served previously in the Senate, then set aside politics for a number of years. He is a fine Christian gentleman who always served with integrity. New blood doesn’t have to come only from those who have never served before. Experience is also a valuable commodity.

Florida, Virginia, Indiana—all states that went for Obama in 2008. Now they are all overwhelmingly “reddish” in color. What a difference a mere two years can make, particularly when the president tries to fundamentally change the nature of America. Based on his press conference the day after the election, I still don’t think he grasps what really happened, and the part he personally played in this stunning defeat for his party:

If he stays the course and continues living in his fantasy world, 2012 could be just as devastating for him. If it is, I wonder if he’ll notice?

Today, I would like to single out those running for office who are so unacceptable that they truly deserve to lose their races. Of course, if I tried to list everyone I thought should be included in that category, this would be an exceptionally long posting, so I’ve decided to concentrate only on those who have a chance to lose. Consequently, you won’t find individuals such as Nancy Pelosi in this list; she is a mirror image of her district. However, if things go as I hope they do, she will lose as well—her post as Speaker of the House.

We can start, though, with her counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Reid used to be pro-life. At least that’s what he claimed. As the premier pusher of the Obama agenda, he scuttled whatever small amount of credibility he had on that issue. He also famously declared the Iraq War lost—then came the surge, which he still refuses to recognize as having achieved a measure of stability in that country. Reid has shown himself to be insufferable in his constant comments—”only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good”—and the Rush Limbaugh name for him, “Dingy Harry,” seems rather appropriate. Nevada needs to divest itself of this national embarrassment.

Barbara “don’t call me ma’am” Boxer is trying for her fourth term as senator from California. She is about as prickly as they come, which led to that comment above to a military officer during a congressional hearing. She really loves being a senator and having the perks of the office. Boxer also secured travel for the radical group Code Pink to go to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004 to give aid to the people who had killed 51 Americans that same month. Even the extremely liberal newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, refused to endorse her this year due to her undistinguished record. Her opponent, Carly Fiorina, a pro-life woman who has experience in the business world, would be a welcome relief to Californians who have had enough of Boxer.

Let’s stay in California for the Retread of the Year Award. Yes, Jerry Brown is running for governor again. He already had that job back in the 1970s, following Ronald Reagan and ruining most of what Reagan had accomplished. He was known as Governor Moonbeam back then for his New Age philosophy. He hasn’t changed much. When California voters rejected a referendum on homosexual marriage, Brown, who is currently the state’s attorney general, made it clear he wasn’t going to enforce that vote. A real attorney general cannot make a decision like that. Brown as governor would be a disaster—again.

How about a Republican? Well, perhaps a Republican. It’s a little hard to tell right now. Her name is Lisa Murkowski, and she lost the Alaskan Republican senate primary to attorney Joe Miller. Only Murkowski refuses to believe it, so she’s now spearheading a write-in campaign because … well, because she wants to stay a senator. She doesn’t exactly have a solid set of philosophical beliefs that guide her besides wanting to be a senator. She’s not pro-life, so she dilutes the Republican side of the aisle on that issue. How did she get to be a senator in the first place? Her dad, who resigned from the Senate to become governor of Alaska, appointed her to take his place. She really earned that job, didn’t she? The main thing driving her now seems to be that she is a sore loser. May she remain one.

Then there’s Massachusetts icon Barney Frank. He first hit the national radar many years ago as one of the first outspoken homosexual congressmen. Shortly afterward, the House ethics committee had to investigate accusations that a prostitution ring was operating out of his D.C. townhouse. Those accusations turned out to be true. Frank’s response? Gosh, I had no idea that was happening! A mere slap on the wrist later, he remained in the Democratic leadership. He’s been back in the news as one of the key proponents of forcing banks to give mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them, thereby triggering the massive econonic crisis we’re still experiencing. He also, along with Sen. Chris Dodd, has been the main supporter of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, blocking any real oversight of those corrupt lending institutions—which still march on uncorrected today as he helps derail any legislation that would hold them accountable for their actions. For the first time in his political career, he actually has a real race to run against a genuine opponent. Will Frank’s many sins catch up to him this year? It’s still a long shot, but it would be one of the most gratifying of all the races if he were to go down to defeat at last.

Let’s go to my current state of Florida for the final two who deserve most to lose. How can I neglect to mention Congressman Alan Grayson, the most obnoxious man in Congress—and that’s going up against some pretty stiff competition. I had an entire post on Grayson not long ago, so I won’t try to repeat everything again. If you don’t remember him, you can remember one of his most arresting moments when, on the floor of the House, he concluded that the Republican healthcare plan was for people to die quickly. May his tenure in Congress suffer the same fate.

Last, but not in any way least, is the winner of the Chameleon of the Year Award, Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Forcefully declaring himself to be a Reagan conservative who was proud to be a Republican and who would never leave the party to run as an independent, Crist thought he had clear sailing into the open Senate seat. Then he ran into a buzzsaw named Marco Rubio. When it became painfully obvious to Crist that he couldn’t win the primary, he cut his ties with the Republicans and ran as an independent. Over the past couple of months, he has changed his position on almost every issue as he attempts to get Democratic votes to go along with independents who are scared and not thinking clearly [thanks to President Obama for that brilliant insight]. Now he’s trailing Rubio badly in the general election. This may be Crist’s swan song; for the sake of all Floridians, and the nation at large, let’s hope it is.

Well, that’s my list of those who most deserve to lose. If they all do lose, America will be the winner.

Lakeland, where I live, is close to Orlando, where possibly the most obnoxious, nasty, and uncouth congressman in the nation lives. He’s so over the line that he became national news even before his run for reelection.

His name is Alan Grayson, who first received widespread media attention during the healthcare debate when he declared that the only plan for healthcare that Republicans had was for people to “die quickly.” Note the picture of Grayson with his chart on the floor of the House.

He seemed to relish the publicity because he then continued to make outrageous statements and conduct himself in a bizarre manner; apparently he enjoyed the national notoriety. What else has he done?

Appearing on Chris Matthews’s program, he claimed that he has trouble listening to Dick Cheney “because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he’s talking.”

Last April, he walked into a conservative meeting in an Orlando restaurant, uninvited, and started yelling at the group.

He has been accused of financially propping up a Tea Party candidate for his own seat in order to divide the Republican vote. Just yesterday, he was served with a subpoena. While he denies any knowledge of this, it’s rather obvious that he is involved.

His latest outrage is an ad he has run against his Republican opponent Daniel Webster, in which he refers to Webster as “Taliban Dan.” Why? Well, it seems that Webster is an evangelical Christian who doesn’t support abortion. That equates with being a Taliban. In addition, the ad takes a snippet of a sentence from Webster that gives the impression that Webster is telling his wife to submit to him—just like the dictatorial Taliban.

In fact, the Webster speech from which the phrase was lifted was one that he delivered to a group of Christian men where he was saying that men should not focus on the Biblical injunction that wives are to submit to their husbands, but that instead they should pay more attention to the rest of the exhortation where they are told to love their wives as Christ loved the church—He laid down His life for the church, so husbands are to do the same for their wives.

Challenged with the fact that he took Webster completely out of context, Grayson continued to claim that his ad was accurate. He even received a verbal rebuke from an MSNBC reporter for this falsehood. MSNBC! How often does that happen? This is a man out of control. I seem to remember Nancy Pelosi saying she was going to preside over a House of unparalleled integrity.

The sweet side of all this is that Webster, ever since this insufferable ad has started running, has reaped thousands in campaign donations. And a new poll shows Grayson seven points behind Webster in spite of the Democrat’s overwhelming money advantage.

If ever a man deserved to be kicked out of Congress, Alan Grayson is that man.