Tuesday, January 24, 2006 2:45 P.M. EST

Best of the Web is off today. In its place, we offer a free sample of Political Diary, the editorial page's daily, subscription e-mail newsletter on American politics (subscribe here). James Taranto returns tomorrow.

In today's Political Diary:

• Michael Moore Can Relax...
• Northern Limbaugh
• Cindymania Goes on the Road
• Anybody for Term Limits? (Quote of the Day I)
• Reagan Defeats Another Empire (Quote of the Day II)
• His Secret Weapon Was the Phone (Quote of the Day III)
• Cheesehead Election Law

The surprising thing about Canada's election yesterday was the extent to which the country's ruling Liberal Party was NOT decimated. Beset by scandal and running a sloppy campaign that never saw it come out on top in any single 24-hour-news cycle, the Liberals nevertheless won 31% of the vote, only about six points behind the winning Conservative Party.

Canada remains a far more collectivist country than its giant neighbor to the south. The Liberals and the socialist New Democrats together won more seats in parliament than the Conservatives. Stephen Harper, the new prime minister, will now to have to form a minority government that will depend on tacit support of at least one opposition party to survive. Far from being able to implement its own platform, every major piece of legislation will have to be negotiated. Luckily, this time the separatist Bloc Quebecois won only 40% of the vote in Quebec and for a while will be unlikely to use its 50 seats in parliament to bring down Mr. Harper's government.

As for Mr. Harper, U.S. conservatives are likely to be disappointed in what he will be able to accomplish in the short term. An economist and policy wonk, he is steeped in free-market theory and personally remains committed to a less intrusive government. But he has greatly modified his view of what is possible in Canadian politics. His party now backs less reform and more spending in dealing with Canada's creaking nationalized health care system. Maclean's magazine reported last year that "whispers about Mr. Harper becoming too soft have replaced those that he is too brittle" and an inflexible ideologue.

That said, Canada's election is a watershed. The Liberals have so dominated the country's politics that they were in office longer during the 20th Century than even the Communists in the Soviet Union. The country was in danger of becoming a permanent one-and-a-half party state. Having been chastened by the voters for their rampant corruption and insider dealing, the Liberals will now have a chance to clean up their act. For his part, Mr. Harper will end the gratuitous America-bashing of recent years and at least make a stab at more sensible economic policies. Grading on a Canadian curve, yesterday's result amounts to a welcome political revolution.

Canada's election featured one big surprise in Quebec. In a move akin to a U.S. Congressional district electing Rush Limbaugh or even a toned-down version of Howard Stern, voters in the Quebec City area elected shock-talk radio host Andre Arthur to parliament yesterday as an independent.

Mr. Arthur, 62, is despised by Quebec politicians for the coarse language and insults he directs towards them. But his huge ratings over the years demonstrate that he strikes a chord with many an average Jacques in the province. His campaign for parliament continued his tradition of blunt talk. "The voters of this country know they are run by crooks in both parties," he would say. He called members of the separatist Bloc Quebecois "dynamiters" for trying to blow up the country.

Mr. Arthur believes he will have a strong voice in parliament as the lone independent because reporters will know he is speaking his mind rather than from talking points put out by a party leadership. One of his crusades is likely to be Canada's broadcasting laws, which are far more restrictive than in the U.S. A few years ago, Mr. Arthur was working at Quebec City's CHOI-FM when the national government actually yanked the station's license because of the blistering way he and other hosts criticized politicians and Canada's diversity policies. At least whatever Mr. Arthur chooses to say now in parliament will be protected speech.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez now rivals Fidel Castro as the Western Hemisphere's most visible symbol of anti-Americanism, which explains why "peace activist" Cindy Sheehan is climbing abroad the Venezuelan firebrand's bus. She has announced plans to attend the World Social Forum in Caracas, which kicks off today and will celebrate, among other things, Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution.

The annual "forum," which began in Brazil in 2001 as an anti-globalization conference, is also sometimes referred to as the "carnival of the oppressed." Like most events of its kind, it has become flypaper for the planet's kookiest activists, including many who still espouse the "armed struggle" against capitalism, the "North," whatever. Perhaps the grieving Ms. Sheehan, an avowed peace lover, has been so busy with the makeup artists and the cameras to pay attention to the violence-prone types she's now embracing. But the name of one of the forum's organizers -- Ernesto "Che" Mercado -- could have given the anti-Bush publicity hound a hint. A Latin American revolutionary who takes the moniker of a legendary Cuban executioner is hardly a follower of Gandhi.

Indeed, the Sheehan tour to Caracas belongs in the "you-can't-make-it-up" category: A bitterly outspoken American citizen who has made a career of lambasting her president, she travels abroad to celebrate with a dictator who has thrown his own critics out of work and even put them in prison, stripped the press of its freedom, destroyed property rights and militarized the government. His political supporters are known to be armed and dangerous and many Venezuelans in poor neighborhoods have reported that they are afraid to dissent from the Chavez agenda. Venezuela's arms build-up is frightening his neighbors and threatening regional stability.

We're glad Ms. Sheehan has the freedom to travel abroad. Many of Chavez's critics are denied that right, as are the critics of Castro. But she shouldn't wonder why, when she opens her mouth in the U.S., nobody takes her seriously.

"I can confidently say I saw this train coming years ago. The arrogance factor among some [Congressional] leaders, members and their staffs who were smitten with power and arrogance was starting to run amok even six years ago. By the way, if there are ever term limits on members of Congress, we might consider term limits on staff as well. It's all about access to power, and that access morphs quickly into greed" -- former Republican Rep. J.C. Watts, writing in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on the scandal-plagued Congress.

"[Liberal historian Richard Reeves'] new book 'President Reagan: Triumph of Imagination' marks a surrender of sorts. The establishment has, for the moment at least, given in and decided that Reagan was a great historical figure after all. That Reeves arrived at such a conclusion is particularly notable. Twenty years ago, in 1985, he published The Reagan Detour, arguing that 'the Reagan years would be a detour, necessary if sometimes nasty, in the long progression of American liberal democracy.' As it turned out, Reagan's America was neither coldly conservative nor intractably hawkish, and we are still living in the nation he seduced and shaped" -- Jon Meaham, managing editor of Newsweek, writing in the Washington Post.

"Reagan spent the better part of his rather short workdays calling, or calling in, Democrats from states he carried. Conservative Democratic senators and congressmen were a key to his success. The man understood how to be President. He talked with more members of Congress in his first 30 days than Carter had in four years. And that paid off in one close House vote after another" -- Reagan biographer Richard Reeves in an online chat at WashingtonPost.com.

Wisconsin is one of the few states that allow voters to register and vote on the same day as an election, thus creating an incentive for dubious registrations and other kinds of political hanky-panky. After the 2000 election, a Park Avenue heiress working for Al Gore pleaded guilty to plying the homeless in Milwaukee with cigarettes as an incentive to vote. If anything, the 2004 election appears to have featured even more dramatic violations of law.

Last week, four local workers for the John Kerry campaign pleaded no contest to charges they slashed the tires of 25 vehicles that Milwaukee Republicans were planning to use to get out the vote on Election Day. Two of the guilty come from prominent local political families: One is the son of former Milwaukee mayor Melvin Pratt and another is the son of current Congresswoman Gwen Moore. A fifth man who was not directly tied to the crimes was acquitted after his four fellow defendants abruptly entered no-contest pleas while their trial was already underway.

Prosecutors agreed to accept the no-contest pleas during the second day of jury deliberation in the case, after the presiding judge was informed the jurors might deadlock. In exchange, prosecutors pledged to recommend the four men receive only probation if they agreed to pay restitution for the slashed tires. Given how much the four campaign workers tried to subvert the electoral process, here's hoping the judge rejects the bargain and imposes some jail time. The charges the four pleaded guilty to carry a maximum penalty of nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine.