A day or so after Tuesday's election, I was talking with a co-worker about fallout from the vote when she mentioned that she hadn't seen any snippets from Marilyn Musgrave's concession speech, and I realized that I hadn't, either. Even so, it didn't seem possible to me that Musgrave had skipped making such remarks. Her 4th Congressional District race against Betsy Markey had been exceedingly vicious, but it's an American tradition to at least try to be classy and gracious in defeat. (John McCain's concession speech was a model of this form.) So I figured I'd simply missed it -- at least until I did several Internet searches and found no reference to such a speech.
In an attempt to solve this mystery, I phoned Musgrave's campaign office yesterday morning and left a message asking for a spokesperson to return the call. A few hours later, after hearing nothing, I tried again and reached someone named Kyle, who confirmed to me that, indeed, Musgrave hadn't delivered a concession speech on election night. I then asked if she planned to make any public remarks about falling short at any point in the future. He said he didn't know, but he'd have someone else from the campaign get in touch and give me the details.
I'm still waiting for this call -- and I have a feeling I'll be waiting for a long time. Maybe Musgrave will be like one of those soldiers stranded on a remote Pacific island during World War II, who thought the battle was continuing decades after peace was declared. Keep on fighting, Marilyn! Never say die! -- Michael Roberts
