Hat Tricks

I like hockey. Despite growing up in a winter wonderland like upstate New York, I didn't really become a fan until I met my husband. I vividly remember watching the Detroit Red Wings getting spanked by the New Jersey Devils 4 games to zilch in 1995. That was depressing, although led directly to the turnaround that gave the cup to the Wings in 1997 and 1998.

Before becoming a Red Wings fan, I couldn't have told you what in the hell a "hat trick" was. It's when a player scores three goals in one game. Sometimes Wings fans would throw Octopi out on the ice after a hat trick, but that's long been banned by the NHL, probably because it's so disgusting to pick up a wet, slimy octopus from the ice.

Why am I writing about hat tricks? 'Cause the Democrats scored one last night with Travis Childers' decisive win over Gregg Davis in the Mississippi 1st Congressional District. In a district that's +10 Republican (meaning there's 10 percent more Republicans than Dems), that went for George Bush with 63% of the vote in 2004, that re-elected former Congressman Roger Wicker (who Gov. Haley Barbour appointed to fill out Trent Lott's seat when he up and left to make money as a lobbyist before the rules changed) with 66% of the vote, where the RNC ran ads tying Childers to Obama, Pelosi and Jeremiah Wright, Travis Childers beat Davis 54-46.

The Republicans have lost three straight special elections, first in former House Speaker Denny Hastert's seat in Illinios, then Don Cazayoux wins in a district that was held by the Republicans for thirty years, and now in deep, deep Red Republican territory in Mississippi.

I'm never one to look optimistically at my party to do well in any election, but I like our odds in November more with each passing day.