People, relax. The ONLY thing that has to change is the GOP run squeaky clean candidates -- and find some scandal on Democrats -- and the result reverses.
Pay attention to the exit polls. The #1 issue of voters was corruption scandals. Not conservatism. Not liberalism. Corruption.
Get squeaky clean and the rightward bias of the US as a whole will return Congress to the GOP.
We had clean candidates who lost.
You seem to be buying too much of what the Demmedia is selling.
Why do Americans only know about scandals of Republicans? Because Demmedia is complicit in hiding Dem scandals and beating the drum over Republican bad behavior.
Do you think Tom DeLay was justly hounded from his seat?
Do you think Mark Foley would have become the poster child of icky gayness if he were a Democrat?
Do you think there is any reason why Dems reelected a former Klansmen in West Virginia, while they painted as racist the candidate from Virginia for calling someone a word no American had ever heard before he said it?
Do you think the media would have stayed silent over the behavior of William Jefferson, La if he had been a Republican?
Gee, you mean like Harry Reid's NV land deals or the 90 K William Jefferson, D had hidden in his freezer that the MSM refuses to report??
When you are right, you are right. When 2008 comes, I believe we can achieve a filibuster proof US Senate.
All we have to do is to get rid of the following rinos, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, Warner, Lamar Alexander, Libby Dole, Smith from Oregon, that bridge to nowhere Stevens guy, Chuck Hagel, and Sununu, Domenici and McConnell in the republican primaries, then we need to hold all 21 of our seats and then we need to win 11 out of the 12 democrat seats (Arkansas: Pryor (D) Delaware: Biden (D) Illinois: Durbin (D) Iowa: Harkin (D) Louisiana: Landrieu (D) Massachusetts: Kerry (D) Michigan: Levin (D) Montana: Baucus (D) New Jersey: Lautenberg (D) Rhode Island: Reed (D) South Dakota: Johnson (D) West Virginia: Rockefeller (D) )
That makes 60 for us !
Yes, I think there was an element of 'throw the bums' out this election, although the only 'bums' thrown out were Republicans!
We lost in some close marginal districts that hopefully we can recapture in 08.
"People, relax. The ONLY thing that has to change is the GOP run squeaky clean candidates -- and find some scandal on Democrats -- and the result reverses."
I think you're partially right. The problem was mostly perceived corruption, and when it came to ideology DINO ended up trumping RINO.
The GOP does need to clean house and run some actual conservatives. The problem they're going to run into is that my (Democratic) party isn't going to just stand there and watch. Democrats are looking at this election and what worked and are going to try to duplicate those successes. I think part of the ongoing Democratic strategy is going to be to continue to portray the GOP as corrupt, inept and hypocritical. Another part of the strategy is going to be to run more conservative Democrats.
When you think about it, running more conservative Democrats is a good thing for conservatives. When the two political parties compete for the conservative vote, conservatives win.
Exactly right. I've been in some pretty good arguments with others about this, but I agree completely.
With respect to number 36:
"To: All
"People, relax. The ONLY thing that has to change is
the GOP run squeaky clean candidates -- and find some
scandal on Democrats -- and the result reverses.
Pay attention to the exit polls. The #1 issue of
voters was corruption scandals. Not conservatism. Not
liberalism. Corruption.
Get squeaky clean and the rightward bias of the US as
a whole will return Congress to the GOP.
36 posted on 11/10/2006 1:30:35 PM PST by Owen"
This won't work. Recall that both Tom DeLay and Trent Lott were brought down by "scandals" which were obvious fakes. These two were the two most powerful figures in Congress. No one is "squeaky clean" enough to prevent scandals, when the scandals can be obviously false charges brought by a corrupt prosecuter, or "outrage" which is proclamed against someone for the fault of a kind remark, when there was no "outrage" against the person the remark addressed.
By controlling the majority, Democrats are now in a position to issue subpoenas, hold hearings, and pass censures, which will give the phoney scandals more vermisilitude. If they've been able to fool the public in the past, they will be more able to fool people now.
Besides the complete fakes, there are bound to be some actual actions which can be made to look like scandals with a little lying. I did see a statement from someone speaking for the Democratic party (I forget who), which stated that the money paid by Abramov to Republicans was scandalous, but that the money he paid to Democrats was just fine. They've been able to sell this sort of absurdity in the past.
Plus there are bound to be a few actual scandals which can be found with dedicated investigation--which the Democrats will apply.
The Republican Party is in trouble. Get set for a blizzard of "scandals".
The situation is not hopeless. Recall the endless "scandals" of the Reagan administration. (Note also that the sum total of actual substance behind them all was that a Lieutennant Colonel actually lied to Congress [for good reason, but it was still illegal].) Republicans have been able to function in the face of a blizzard of phony scandals before--not without some damage, but without being totally disabled. The party may need to recover that ability.
The other factor which makes the current situation more favorable than the 1980s is that there are now news outlets and ways of disseminating information which are willing to circulate actual facts (this forum, for example). I expect that the Republican party will need to give much more attention to pushing information out through channels which haven't been so corrupted that they will refuse to spread it, but possible ways do exist.