Posted on 08/28/2010 11:29:13 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON — The incumbent senator from Alaska is taken by surprise in a primary. A new conservative movement energizes Republicans in a furious response to a Democratic White House. Little-known insurgent candidates prepare to storm the Senate.
It is starting to feel like 1980.
While the 1994 Republican takeover of the House is regularly explored for insight into what might happen this polarized election year, parallels are emerging between the watershed Senate election of three decades ago and the campaign of 2010 as another conservative rebellion threatens to reshape the Senate.
In 1980, shocked Senate Democrats lost 12 seats in a rout that ended the Congressional careers of such notable lawmakers as George McGovern of South Dakota, Birch Bayh of Indiana, Frank Church of Idaho, Warren Magnuson of Washington and Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin.
Swept into office by the landslide victory of Ronald Reagan were a number of conservatives, including Jeremiah A. Denton Jr. of Alabama, Mack Mattingly of Georgia, Paula Hawkins of Florida, Steve Symms of Idaho and several others whose notion of the role of government and Congress was markedly different from those they succeeded.
They were labeled the “accidental senators,” candidates who won only by virtue of an extraordinary political environment. The culture of the Senate — and party control — changed overnight...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The repubs who get elected this cycle need to treat their power as if they were going to do their last act and deed on earth for America.
Obama is here to try and destroy three things:
The Constitution.
Capitalism.
The Idea Of America.
He is somewhat succeeding and I believed has garnered plans to be a one term President to get these things done. Now, IF the repubs win, they can't give a tinker's damn about what anybody says, especially the BSM, and go forward to dismantle this Obama albatross!
In effect, be ONE TERMERS! They know they will give themselves self imposed limits by tearing down the liberal bastions of ruin. People will be pissed, and most likely vote them out the next cycle. However, in order for America to survive the repubs HAVE TO re-institute the idea of America embracing STANDARDS again. This is a MUST or America is gone.
“But I don’t know if they will because the GOP or the RNC has not purposed a unified plan!”
The Contract for America was not rolled out until 6 weeks before the 1994 elections. There’s still time. The Dems have set such a low bar, there’s several no-brainer pledges all Republican candidates could make that won’t tie the party’s hands but will serve to remind people how outrageously Dems have governed:
1) We will not allow anyone who has violated federal tax laws to serve as chair of any committee in Congress.
2) We will not pass any legislation that increases taxes by more than $100 billion on a strict party-line vote.
3) We will never spend revenues dedicated to a special purpose, such as Social Security, Medicare and highway trust funds, on other purposes.
4) We will not allow any increase in the federal debt as a share of GDP.
5) We will abandon the use of earmarks so long as the Democrats agree to the same restriction.
6) We will never enact legislation requiring Americans to purchase something against their will.
Surely there are others, but I’ve tried to address the major issues that have most aroused the Tea Party to action.
Right! But the problem is it won't happen unless newbies understand running roughshod is they key. Nothing is going to get done if we elect career politicians...These people need an epiphany. Go in there and CLEAN HOUSE knowing they will be probably be voted out next term. Do you see this happening? I don't, but I hope I'm catastrophically wrong. Get in, tear down, and dismantle so much of it it will take the dems at least 50 years to build it back up if not more!
Obama knows it will take everything the repubs have right now just to put a dent in Obamacare, and that's if they win enough seats to effect anything.
Like anyone I mentioned was a career politician? We now have the momentum and just like in racing, don’t overdrive it.
These newbies just need to go in there and burn that place down and restore it's integral idea again! They have to do it, or many people who are republicans or even vote republican will no longer be...Mark my words!
Too risky in Washington. Payback is a female dog.
Look, you know what happens. They get there, they're wined and dined and then before you know it you start seeing their names hyphenated along with other liberals on some omnibus legislation.
Get in, burn that insipid place down knowing it might be the last political thing you ever do.
Rip it apart, and start to restore as it was intended...
How is the Senate more important than the House? All money is appropriated in the House. The House can starve the Obama entitlement programs.
“Build for 2012...”
And don’t forget your state and local races and SCHOOL BOARDS. At least here in NJ and other dem infested states, I hope & pray the tea parties will stay active forever, of course, but at least through our state legislative elections next year.
We must keep this movement alive and grow it until we take this country back from the stinking liberal elitists who have brought it to the brink of ruin.
At every level, right down to dog catcher.
Majorities are always better because you control committees, hearings and language in the laws much better.
But whatever power we have has to be exercised. letting RINOs call the shots will be self-defeating.
I would add one more tactic the GOP should (but probably won’t) adopt with a slim majority or minority in the Senate. Obama’s most poisonous effect on our government, in the long term, may well be his hyper-liberal court appointees. As soon as the new congress is seated, no Obama appointees should be confirmed to any court in the federal judiciary. Not. One.Republicans are going to pick up 10 or 11 senate seats, most likely. That will give them the slimmest majority of 51 or 52 seats.
Though we should avoid counting chickens which are still in the shell, it is hard not to look ahead to the 2012 Senate elections without happy anticipation. Democrats will be defending 23 seats, Republicans only 10. And look at the red state Dems who will be trying to get reelected: the two Nelsons (Bill in FL, Ben in NB); McCaskill (MO); Tester (MT); Conrad (ND); Brown (OH); Webb (VA). If an unpopular Obama is at the top of the Dem ticket, a big GOP year may be possible.
Iowa primaries are over. No serious opposition to Grassley.
http://iowaindependent.com/40936/poll-grassley-leading-conlin-55-35
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, holds a commanding 20 percentage-point lead over his Democratic opponent, Roxanne Conlin, according to the latest poll from Rasmussen Reports.
Fifty-five percent of respondents said they would support Grassley this fall, compared to 35 percent for Conlin. In June, Grassley held a similar 54 to 37 lead. The poll found that 81 percent of Iowa voters regard Grassley as a conservative, while 50 percent describe Conlin as a liberal. Another 24 percent view her as a moderate. The survey was conducted Aug. 5 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent.
During the Democratic primary, the Conlin campaign pointed to poll numbers that put her within 10 percentage points of Grassley. However, the company that produced those numbers — Research 2000 — has since drawn widespread criticism for allegedly fabricating stats.
In an interview with The Iowa Independent earlier this month, Conlin said the Research 2000 numbers were accurate in this race, saying, “My sense is that I’m still about that far from him.”
Grassley has never had a serious challenger for re-election, garnering at least 65 percent of the vote in each of his campaigns.
It won’t consist of Voinovich because he’s retiring at the end of the year.
Grassley is one I envision will die in office.
I thought he was retiring when his term expired. Is he retiring before then?
To name names, McConnell, Boehner and Steele must be gone from consideration on November 3rd. We can’t clean house with a dirty, dingy, and moldy mop.I'd like to see McConnell replaced with Thune, Boehner replaced with Pence, Cornyn replaced by DeMint as chairman of the NRSC, and Steele replaced by, I dunno, a ham sandwich.
Hehe
I know from hearing him in interviews that he does not believe in the constitutional restrictions on the federal government, and he's gotten more interested in pork as he's been longer in Washington, but he's a genuinely humble guy and I'd expect him to return to the farm before he needs adult diapers.
Well, it doesn't say much for Bush that he looks good in comparison to Obama.
That doesn't make him "good", it makes him "less bad".
BFD. Some resume enhancer.
Racist. Well, unless it is a Black Forest Ham sandwich.....
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