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How Harry Reid Just Nationalized the 2014 Midterms
PJ Tatler ^ | November 21, 2013 | Bryan Preston

Posted on 11/21/2013 9:40:37 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

President Obama delivered remarks today supporting Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision to deploy the “nuclear option” ending minority filibusters of some judicial nominees. The Democrats tried to limit the effect of their action, stating that it only applies to nominees below the Supreme Court level.

But the damage done will go far beyond judicial nominees. Bipartisanship in the Senate is dead. Harry Reid and Barack Obama had already done grave damage to it by passing Obamacare. Today they finished it off.

Democrats currently hold a 53 seat majority, plus 2 Independents who tend to side with the Democrats. A loss of just six seats will hand the Republicans the majority in the Senate. After today, that majority means far more and will be far more consequential.

In the 2014 midterm elections, Democrats will be defending more vulnerable seats than Republicans will be. Several Democrats currently holding seats in GOP states were already vulnerable. They include:

Mark Begich, Alaska

Mark Pryor, Arkansas

Mark Udall, Colorado

Open Seat, Iowa (Harkin retired)

Mary Landrieu, Louisiana

Open Seat, Michigan (Levin retired)

Mac Baucus, Montana

Jean Shaheen*, New Hampshire

Kay Hagan, North Carolina

Tim Johnson, South Dakota

Joe Manchin, West Virginia

That’s 11 races, 12 if you count Al Franken in Minnesota, who won his seat very narrowly in what may have been a stolen election. Minnesota has become a competitive state for Republicans in recent years.

The trends in Alaska, Arkansas, Lousiana, North Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia have tended to favor Republicans in the Obama years. Manchin essentially ran as an anti-Obama Democrat to win his seat, only to turn around and support a controversial gun control measure that ultimately failed. Colorado has swung blue but this year Republicans knocked off a handful of Democratic state senators thanks to another gun control measure.

Reid and Obama are claiming victory today, but it’s a Pyrrhic victory. They will get 11 months to push their extreme judicial nominees into the courts without any input from Republicans. But this is more about politics than nominations. The move comes at a time when Obama needs some headline other than “Obamacare fails again.” He needed some way to fire up his base and give the media something else to talk about. He has accomplished that, for a day or two, and done away with rules that date back to the creation of the Senate along with it.

In 2014 Democrats will be running against a wave of public rejection of Obamacare, which has never been popular. A majority want it either overhauled or repealed. Thanks to today’s “nuclear” strike, Republicans can run all of the above races as “the 51st vote” to repeal Obamacare in the Senate. Landrieu is doubly vulnerable now, having voted for Obamacare and now having voted to support the nuclear option. Her likely opponent, Dr. Bill Cassidy, can run a two-pronged campaign against her as a tool of Obama, who is not popular in Louisiana, and a fool for Obamacare. She and Pryor, who voted against the nuclear option today, may be as good as gone. Udall, Begich and Hagan aren’t far behind them.

*I originally had NH as an open seat. My mistake.


TOPICS: Campaign News; Issues; Parties; U.S. Senate
KEYWORDS: 2014; 2014election; 2014midterms; 2016election; abortion; banglist; bryanpreston; deathpanels; democrats; election2014; election2016; endofsenate; harryreid; nuclearoption; obamacare; zerocare
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1 posted on 11/21/2013 9:40:38 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This guy must have been born last Tuesday. That’s the only explanation I can think of for his lack of knowledge about how Senate Republicans will react to this.

There won’t be any blowback. ‘Bipartisanship’ will still mean that the Dems get most or all of what they want. That’s because the guys who are supposed to be on our side aren’t actually on our side. Anyone who doesn’t know this by now is either dumb as dishwater or not paying attention.


2 posted on 11/21/2013 9:49:00 PM PST by perfect_rovian_storm
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of communist traitors.


3 posted on 11/21/2013 9:50:01 PM PST by LyinLibs (If victims of islam were more "islamophobic," maybe they'd still be alive.)
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To: perfect_rovian_storm

Don’t worry, McCain is on the case ahahahahahahaahahahhaaha


4 posted on 11/21/2013 9:50:46 PM PST by LyinLibs (If victims of islam were more "islamophobic," maybe they'd still be alive.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Reid REALLY screwed himself and the DEMs over - NEXT time the GOP has the Senate and the WH - well, they say that payback is a bitch ...


5 posted on 11/21/2013 9:51:11 PM PST by Lmo56 (If ya wanna run with the big dawgs - ya gotta learn to piss in the tall grass ...)
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To: Lmo56

What will they do then? Write a strongly worded letter? Complain about the media not being on their side? Cry about it in their tanning beds?

I’ll tell you exactly what they’ll do. Nothing. They’ll probably change the rule back and then cede MORE power to the Democrat minority in order to supposedly look like they’re being ‘fair’.

Wake up. It’s kabuki theater.


6 posted on 11/21/2013 9:56:02 PM PST by perfect_rovian_storm
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To: Lmo56

And you know all that will happen is Dems will whine ‘What about the rights of the minority’ and the Pubs will wipe their tears, pat them on the back and go “There, there.”


7 posted on 11/21/2013 9:57:45 PM PST by Safetgiver ( Islam makes barbarism look genteel.)
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To: perfect_rovian_storm

Since November 4th we have gotten call after call where I say “hello” then have to ask, “Who is this?” before the caller identifies themselves as “Republican National Committee”.

I reply “Not interested, thank you” & hang up. Screw ‘em.


8 posted on 11/21/2013 10:00:48 PM PST by elcid1970 ("In the modern world, Muslims are living fossils.")
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To: Lmo56

Yep, the moment we swear in a conservative president, assuming we own the Senate and the house... We run our agenda flat out. No limits, no compromise. None. If the rats don’t like it, they can go pound sand, even over the smallest issue. We give them nothing.


9 posted on 11/21/2013 10:03:19 PM PST by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: elcid1970

I think I’ve got all their numbers blocked at this point, so they don’t bother me anymore. If I am going to give anything, it’ll be to the SCF OR Freedom works.


10 posted on 11/21/2013 10:03:36 PM PST by perfect_rovian_storm
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To: perfect_rovian_storm
That’s because the guys who are supposed to be on our side aren’t actually on our side.

Anyone who doubts you need only look at the 2012 election's voter fraud. There was no call from the GOP leadership to investigate this fraud. No investigation, no protests, no nothing.

But I will tell you one thing the GOP leadership did do. They kept on collecting their paychecks.

11 posted on 11/21/2013 10:08:41 PM PST by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If the Republicans get a majority in the house and Senate they will not vote to repeal Obamacare mark my words…


12 posted on 11/21/2013 10:14:12 PM PST by ColdSteelTalon (Light is fading to shadow, and casting its shroud over all we have known...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think they’ve started sharpening the tines on their own fork today...


13 posted on 11/21/2013 10:22:10 PM PST by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s not Manchin’s seat in WV. It’s the retiring Rockefeller’s


14 posted on 11/21/2013 10:23:19 PM PST by Viennacon
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To: ColdSteelTalon

Yes, their bought off but for a handful.


15 posted on 11/21/2013 10:23:37 PM PST by Cen-Tejas (it's the debt bomb stupid!)
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To: ColdSteelTalon

Likely because doing so would be pointless. Obama will veto.

What they do have is a much better position to defund it, or at least parts of it. Without the senate, the president will be the lone defender of the Obamacastle, and we’ll put it under a damn good siege.


16 posted on 11/21/2013 10:26:13 PM PST by Viennacon
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To: Lmo56
Reid REALLY screwed himself and the DEMs over - NEXT time the GOP has the Senate and the WH - well, they say that payback is a bitch ...

Yeah. That'll happen.

On the off chance that the democrat vote fraud machine doesn't work in the 2014 elections and the republicans take the senate, the democrats will just whine about the unfairness of it all.

The republicans will roll over and give them back the filibuster.

Look up "power sharing" that the republicans always agree to when proposed by the minority party dems, but the dems always reject when proposed by the minority party reublicans).

17 posted on 11/21/2013 10:31:42 PM PST by Washi
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To: Lmo56

When all the powers are liberals, what makes you think we will ever see a GOP majority again?

They did this so they can absolutely pass anything and everything the senate votes on. GOP can’t do a damned thing to stop anything now.

What about those checks and balances now?

It’s called the second amendment.


18 posted on 11/21/2013 10:32:11 PM PST by FreedomStar3028 (Evil must be punished.)
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To: Viennacon

I admire your optimism.

I think the Republican Party will continue to roll over, play dead and fritter away freedom for perks and privilege.

I see no way out of this mess that doesn’t involve enormous tragedy.


19 posted on 11/21/2013 10:35:50 PM PST by M1911A1
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Joe Manchin, West Virginia

Joe Manchin, Jay Rockefeller, (retiring) West Virginia

I linked to the site.
Nobody has informed the author.
20 posted on 11/21/2013 10:46:35 PM PST by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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