Posted on 09/08/2014 11:18:48 AM PDT by maggief
Congressional Republicans have a simple mantra as they take a brief break from the campaign trail and return to Washington: Do no harm.
Republicans believe they are on the cusp of capturing full control of Congress for the first time since 2006. They don’t want to squander the opportunity.
GOP insiders hope the next two weeks in Washington will be remembered for being, well, fairly unmemorable. The House leadership’s game plan is to play prevent defense: Keep the government open, temporarily renew some federal programs, pass bills that can buttress their message for the midterms, and sprint back to the campaign trail. One GOP strategist put it this way: “You’re heading toward the goal line, you’re at the 10-yard line and you want to score a touchdown. You don’t want to fumble the ball or create a self-inflicted wound.”
Stung by the backlash from shutting down the government a year ago, GOP leaders this time have moved to quash any talk about another shutdown or impeaching President Obama. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) hasn’t exactly displayed great zest for making his lawsuit accusing Obama of abusing his executive power a focus of the summer.
Such issues have the potential to ignite the conservative base in the final weeks before Election Day. But those headline-grabbing antics can also backfire, helping Democrats raise cash and alienating the independent voters the GOP needs to win back control of the upper chamber.
Republicans can feel the wind at their backs. Vulnerable Democrats have been bogged down by a president who has been polling poorly all year and struggling to define his strategy to fight Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria.
The lackluster jobs numbers for August undermined confidence about the economy, which was already tepid at best.
Veteran Senate Republicans have been warning their colleagues on the other side of the Capitol to avoid any distractions that could halt the GOP’s momentum and undermine candidates in tough races.
After its five-week recess, Congress returns for votes on Monday night and will be working through Sept. 19. If lawmakers can quickly wrap up their work, the House may not come back to town until after the election.
The biggest must-do item is perhaps also the most mundane: passing a stopgap measure or continuing resolution to fund the federal government before money runs out on Sept. 30.
The debate won’t be drama-free — there’s an election, after all — but Obama announced over the weekend he would punt executive action on immigration reform until after Nov. 4, removing a contentious issue that some conservatives suggested could trigger another shutdown.
“The big thing is just to get the job done,” House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told The Hill. “Mainly getting the bills paid and keeping the government funded is probably the paramount stuff.”
The 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, writing in his new book, even went so far as to call last year’s shutdown a “suicide mission.” And Ryan accused Democrats of ginning up talk of another shutdown for political gain.
“All the talk about shutdown simply comes from Democrats who wish for a shutdown for political advantage,” Ryan said in the interview. “We’re not talking shutdown; we’re not planning shutdown; we’re gonna do a CR.
“They’re the ones who want nothing more than to change the topic, change the subject with some mess in the fall,” he continued. “We like where we are and we want to keep moving on the same path we’re on.”
Renewing the Export-Import Bank is another potential minefield that House Republicans are trying to navigate. GOP leaders are negotiating with Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), a fierce Ex-Im critic, to extend authorization of the bank into early next year, giving the party more time to reform or scrap it.
The bank’s charter expires on Sept. 30.
A handful of messaging bills — those that have no chance of passing the Democratic-led Senate but help candidates make a point — will also be part of Republicans’ pre-election agenda. In a memo to his conference, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the House will take up a package of jobs bills and another comprised of energy bills.
Other legislation will shine the spotlight on the Obama administration’s IRS email scandal and condemn the prisoner swap involving five Taliban fighters who were released from Guantanamo Bay.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Republicans’s September agenda simply amounted to “yet another month of special interest giveaways,” including another vote to repeal Obamacare.
Americans, Pelosi said, “want us to spend September creating good paying jobs, raising the minimum wage, renewing emergency unemployment insurance, standing with students, and giving America’s women the respect of equal pay for equal work.”
A GOP leadership aide laid out what would be “a good September” for the party: “We are going to keep the government up and running and focus on jobs, energy, health care, and accountability – all issues important to the American people.”
Of course, there could still be a September or October surprise — a terrorist attack on American soil or other cataclysmic event that could change the dynamic of the 2014 race. And Boehner and House Republicans have little control over the types of unexpected scandals that have roiled tight races in the other chamber.
In 2012, then-Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) caused party leaders heartburn and killed his chances of unseating Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill when he talked about what he termed “legitimate rape” during a local TV interview.
Democrats actually picked up two seats in the Senate that year after Akin and other GOP candidates stumbled on the stump.
Translation: cooperate with Obama and the Democrats. Do nothing to upset the press. Remain silent…. do nothing.
They're obviously waiting until after they take the Senate to begin squandering opportunities.
Got that right, INVAR. The Rove prevent defense will once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I've watched many NFL teams lose when they switched to the "prevent defense" to protect their lead late in the game. The moral of the story is to never give up. Stay on offense until the end.
GOP’s Sept. goal: Do no harm
Democrat goal to plan Oct. surprise
GOP/E
GivingO'BamaPower/Everytime
So now The GOP thinks they are The AMA?????????????????
I didn’t realize the GOP had achieved its previous objective of finding their butts with both hands.
If they would give people a reason to vote FOR them, their control might be solidified.
We're circling the bowl, guys. You might think about stating an affirmative course of action for a nation in extremis.
Y'know, the kinds of thing leaders do.
The Detroit Lions have played prevent defense since 1958...
I'm not convinced the GOP actually wants control of the senate. To retake the senate will involve certain duties, to stand for the American republic, to stand against Obama and risk their cushy existences in the Imperial City.
The only thing the prevent defense prevents is winning.
> “Republicans believe they are on the cusp of capturing full control of Congress for the first time since 2006. They don’t want to squander the opportunity.”
And if and when they do capture “full control” of Congress, they will do the same thing they do now and the same thing they did in 2004 which is to “do no harm” which translates to lie low, tuck your tail between you legs and don’t make any sounds lest the voters think you’re extreme or something.
GOPe = Cowards = Losers
For Rove and the GOP-e, the definition of 'victory' is making sure Conservatives are defeated and government continues to grow - as long as they have a seat at the table of Obama's Great Transformation.
I do not think they do either. They make more money promoting Fascism (Mussolini style) in cooperation with the Chamber of Crony Corporatism and able to eek-out funds from hapless voters by campaigning on 'stopping the Obama Agenda' of which they actually enable.
When the GOP did have total control, they expanded government and spent us into debt greater than any regime before it, until Obama.
Imperial City indeed. We have a UniParty which is simply a Statist oligarchy.
What offense? The Republicans haven’t been on offense since 1994. Conservatives went on it in 2010 and handed them the House and they have played prevent defense with it just like they are doing now.
Lord God I would love to see some offense out of this bunch of spineless twits! Right now it’s elect us we are not as bad as the democrats...
Well, that’s why salvation of our republic will never emerge from DC. The people through their states offer the only means of rescuing the American Republic.
Give Obama everything he wants in clever clandestine ways, portray yourself to the voters as opponents to His Heinous' Transformation while remaining silent and passive in the face of one violation of the rule of law after another.
Want some recent proof just how 'clever' their SURRENDER to Obama is?
Nope, this is NOT a Democrat proposing this - it is a REPUBLICAN surrendering their Constitutional duty to Obama - (citing precedent in 2001).
The GOP is about to hand Obama the very rope his Beast will use to hang all of us.
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