J.D. concedes (finally).

Well, it looks like something I said late last week was right.

Congressman J.D. Hayworth, whose race in the fifth district against Harry Mitchell was called fairly early in the evening by the networks, insisted that he wouldn't concede until all the votes were counted.

[Note: consider this post a response to Richie Rich's comment on the 'three guys I won't miss' thread.]

Now I am happy about J.D.'s new found conviction for making sure that every vote is counted, but I also knew that Democrats here in Arizona have outhustled Republicans this year, including on absentee ballots. So I knew the networks were making the right call.

And sure enough, after several days of counting what J.D. thought were mostly his votes, Mitchell's lead had grown from 5,900 votes on election night to 6,600 votes by today. So Hayworth finally conceded.

So the new Congress will begin without one of its most loud and obdurate partisans. With the regular angry, and increasingly nasty and vitriolic attacks on Democrats that J.D. unleashed during his twelve years in Congress as a member of the majority party, one can only imagine how he would go after them in a Congress run by Democrats.

On second thought, I don't have to imagine that. Because it won't happen.