A Grimm Win In Staten Island

Tides ebb and flow. Some items, tossed up at high, remain beached forever, slowly withering in the glaring sun. Others are instantly taken back by the sea, never to be seen again.

And such was the fate of Democratic Rep. Michael McMahon (NY-25), who took the "Staten Island seat" so long held by Republicans, one of their last outposts in New York City. Washed in by the 2008 tide that also brought us the driftwood known as Barack Obama, he was just as quickly washed out yesterday by Tea Party favorite Michael Grimm.

Grimm won despite the asshats that run the NY GOP - they actually begged disgraced former rep Vito Fosella to run again, and when he refused, they backed Grimm's primary opponent. But Grimm was too tough for the Democrats and the pussies who run the NY GOP:

Grimm, 40, of New Springville, a Queens native and one-time FBI undercover agent, who seemingly came out of nowhere to take a shot at McMahon, was underfunded from the start and mounted his campaign without much backing from the party's rank-and-file or its leadership, which had gone with another candidate in a September primary.

It didn't matter: Grimm's compelling life story, affable style and a series of costly missteps on the campaign trail by McMahon propelled Grimm to the winner's circle...

This, after facing down one of the dirtiest tricks in campaign history:

But the most damaging McMahon goof came last week, at a debate co-sponsored by the Staten Island Advance, when the McMahon camp sat Grimm's ex-wife in a front row seat [wearing a McMahon pin] hoping to psych him out. It didn't work; rather, Grimm took the high road, delivering an unflappable performance and later saying his former wife "looked as beautiful" as the day he met her.

How tough is Grimm? He let us know at his victory rally:

If I was Nancy Pelosi, I'd be scared," roared Grimm to ecstatic supporters in the Renaissance, Grant City, shortly after midnight. "But I'm not Nancy Pelosi. I am a Marine. I was FBI. And I am the new congressman for the 13th District. They said Mike McMahon was popular. They said Michael Grimm came out of the woodwork. They said Mike McMahon had $2 million. But on Staten Island and Brooklyn, we got heart. This is our country and we are taking it back.

You lead, Mr. Grimm, and I will follow...