The post-election rhetoric about the Wake County school board election results is pretty high now.

As noted in today's article, commentators on the left are exuberant. Those on the right are unhappy.

One of the challenges facing the new Democratic board majority is trying to bridge the gap. Or will it be two years of fighting before the 2013 elections?

Jamil Smith, producer of the liberal "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC, questions whether the Wake County school board election results "really matter" because the old diversity policy isn't being reinstituted.

In a post today on The Maddow Blog, Smith writes that the GOP board majority "has been pushing a nouveau-segregationist 'neighborhood schools' plan. He writes that "on its face," Kevin Hill's victory "would seem to spell the end for the idea of resegregating the county's schools."

But Smith then points to how Hill and other members of the new Democratic majority "aren't saying that they'll reverse what the Republicans did" when they dropped the socioeconomic diversity policy. He points Kevin Hill saying they'll only make a few tweaks to the new student assignment plan.

Rachel Maddow cheered the return of a Democratic majority to the Wake County school board election as "a small-sounding election tonight with really, really important consequences."

Tuesday on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show," the liberal commentator said that "Wake County schools' elections have had national implications and been of national interest ever since Republicans last year on that board moved to abolish one of the nation's most celebrated racial integration policies."

"The anti-integration Republican majority elected two years ago was supported by Americans for Prosperity, which as you know is the conservative activist group funded by the Koch brothers," Maddow said. "But as of tonight's election results in Wake County, North Carolina, that work has been overturned by the voters of Wake County. A small-sounding election tonight with really, really important consequences."

Liberal groups have argued that the 2009 election of a new Republican school board majority was the work of conservatives such as the Koch brothers. Supporters of the now-outgoing board majority have denied the charge.

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Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (8pm, Fox) - Celebrity guest tonight is Bethany Hamilton, a surfer who lost an arm in a shark attack in 2003. Also, a woman who woke from an irreversible coma in 2007.

Southland (8pm, NBC) - A repeat of the first episode of NBC's new (and very good) cop drama, which has been renewed for next season. It looks like NBC is showing episodes each Friday, so here's your chance to get caught up. "Southland" is from John Wall, the creator of "ER," and stars Regina King, Tom Everett Scott, and Ben McKenzie.

Dog Whisperer (9pm, NGC) - Cesar Milan (right) works with an aggressive five-legged miniature pinscher at the Venice Beach Freakshow.

Real Time with Bill Maher (10pm, HBO) - MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and CNN's Michael Ware are guests tonight. If you don't have HBO, you can download a free podcast of the show next week.

20/20 (10pm, ABC) - A report on "money disorders" includes a look at a clinic that treats people with money-related psychological problems, such as compulsive spending, money hoarding, workaholism, and financial enabling.

Air America radio host and MSNBC contributer Rachel Maddow will replace Duke University alumnus Dan Abrams in the 9 p.m. weekly spot following "Countdown With Keith Olbermann."

Maddow's new show will take over the spot currently held by "Verdict With Dan Abrams" on Sept. 8.

More here.