The squeal that roared - Ernst blazes to historic win

First, let's acknowledge the history.

Joni Ernst's victory tonight in Iowa's U.S. Senate race is a big moment. The Red Oak Republican is the first woman in the state's history to win a Senate seat. That old stone around the state's neck, the one that anchored us with Mississippi as the only states to never send a woman to Congress or the governor's office is gone. Good riddance.

'Well, Iowa we did it,” said Ernst after clinching the win, noting that it's a long way 'from the biscuit line at Hardees to the United States Senate.”

Ernst is a trailblazer, to be sure, who turned a squeal into a political roar. She brought together the often feuding factions of her party into an energized and ultimately victorious coalition. She deftly capitalized on voters' anger and discouragement, defined herself as a pork-slicing agent of change and defined her opponent as part of the problem. Ernst followed the right track to win in an election fueled by voters convinced America is on the wrong track.

Democrat Bruce Braley was, too often, a big help. When the autopsy on his once favored, promising campaign is conducted, it should start in that hotel conference room in Texas, where Braley stood next to a bar cart and detailed the horrors of letting some Iowa farmer with no law degree chair the Senate Judiciary Committee. Now, Braley and his fellow defeated Dems have handed Chuck the gavel. Somebody hand Bruce one of those bottles.

And let's face it, love it or loathe it, that 'Make ‘em Squeal” spot is the most successful TV ad in Iowa political history. Before it went viral, Ernst was little-known and hardly headed toward history. I can't think of another spot that created a contender in 30 seconds flat.

So history. But you also have to acknowledge the infamy.

This was an $80 million campaign. Let that sink in. And more than $60 million came from a list of groups from outside Iowa as long as your arm, with deep pockets and meaningless names. And most of those dollars were spent on some of the most negative, cringe-worthy ads ever seen on Iowa screens. A good-sized chunk was spent by groups that don't disclose any or all of their donors.

The result was a campaign that unleashed a barrage of attacks, from outrageous and misleading to tedious and trivial. Wandering chickens, fatty biscuits, and billionaire boogeymen all made appearances. Anyone hoping to hear serious ideas for solving serious problems from serious candidates were instead left to sift through hollow, shallow appeals designed to stoke their anger and fears.

So it was a disillusioning circus, bankrolled by folks who could not care less what Iowans care about and what sort of senator represents us. And now we'll find out if its ultimate winner can emerge to become a serious, hardworking senator.

I hope so. I think that's what the Iowans who support her hope as well. But as of tonight, Ernst becomes a major media star on the political right. It was her win, after all, that handed control of the Senate to Republicans. How will she handle that role? Will she become a divisive Fox News fixture delivering fiery sound bites to the faithful, or will she smartly veer away from the excesses of the national spotlight and focus on the work she's been sent to do for Iowans?

Ernst's willingness to float impeachment, vaporize whole agencies, nullify federal laws, erase the federal minimum wage and vastly expand limits on abortion and birth control aren't exactly signs that Iowa is sending a consensus-builder to Washington.

But that was the campaign. And, thankfully, it's now history. Ernst deserves congratulations and a fair chance to show us how she'll deliver on her promise to bring those famous Iowa values to the U.S. Senate.