Posted on 05/03/2014 6:38:21 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
There are precious few sure bets in American politics, but if Nate Silver starts giving you a 60% chance at something you generally pay attention. And that’s the odds Nate is laying out for the GOP to retake the Senate. But for a group of people who seem so entirely hell bent for leather on getting this done, we don’t really know what they plan to do with it if they get it. Over at Outside the Beltway, Doug shares some predictions from Michael Tomasky, who is not particularly optimistic.
Let’s start with the bleak view. “If the Republicans win the Senate,” says Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, “the conclusion they’re going to draw is ‘obstruction works,’ and they’re going to double down on it. So they’ll be thinking, ‘Why go out of our way to do stuff and why compromise when in two years we can win it all?’”
Ornstein’s frequent collaborator, Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution, thinks that while it should make sense that Republicans eyeing a 2016 White House win would want to have some accomplishments to point to, we shouldn’t bet on it. “The interests of the party in ’16 are clear, but whether that proves sufficient to produce something positive out of the Republicans in Congress is a big reach,” says Mann. “They almost have an incentive to keep the economy going at a more tepid rate.”
Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, agrees. “A GOP Senate takeover would be terrible for Obama’s presidency,” Tanden says. “It would spell the end of any progress on any legislative action and with GOP control of both houses of Congress, Republicans would set up debates to help their presidential candidates in 2016. And of course, investigations of the administration would double.”
What about the senators themselves? New York’s Chuck Schumer predicts: “It would let loose six years of right-wing frustration. The potential for gridlock is enormous.”
Doug doesn’t have much more of a chipper outlook, but I have to wonder if some of these folks are relying a bit too heavily on recent history repeating itself. It’s easy to look at the current lay of the land and assume that with Barack Obama in office for the next two years, nothing much will change. But the ability to get bills out of committee in both chambers and send a finished piece of legislation to the President’s desk has a particular value all of its own. In the current configuration, Democrats can simply point to the divided nature of government as a reason for a lack of progress. But if Congress can begin shoveling finished legislation, approved by the elected representatives of the people, the picture changes.
It would be worth drafting up a number of bills and sending them to Barack Obama’s desk. If he simply vetoes them all, then he is the bottleneck for the next two years. And if he somehow manages to sign something in the spirit of bipartisanship? Bonus.
They’d have a dinner party, pat themselves on the back and round-table discussions on how to further discredit the ‘Tea Party’.
Ya know...the group that poses the greatest threat and all...
/s
Depends on who is in charge. Give me Lee or Cruz and pop some popcorn!
Renew club memberships and tremble at the reins in their hands.
IT DEPENDS….if they won the Senate, but McConnell was beaten in Kentucky, it would usher in a whole new era. if they win the Senate, and McConnell wins in Kentucky, then probably not much.
“Chuck Schumer predicts: “It would let loose six years of right-wing frustration. The potential for gridlock is enormous.’”
I’ll take gridlock over the crud your party have been wrecking the country with the past six years, jerk.
What they SHOULD do and what they WILL do are two entirely different things. The GOP has a history of pissing away any advantage that they might have.
Repeal Obamacare?
Basket ball court?
Pass an amnesty bill. Raise the debt ceiling. Fund Obamacare again.
They would do whatever Dingy Harry and Chucky Schumer tell them to.
Otherwise they will be called racists and homophobes and haters of chirrun.
Bingo.
Probably just “get along” with the commie libs and surrender to any demands, aka “compromise”, they have.
It’ll take a hundred years to fix the six years of liberal destruction unleashed on us by these people.
They would get right to work, on helping the rats regain power. We have seen this dog and pony show before.
Judging on their performance of the past 6 years, I am sure that they would step up their attacks on real conservatives, like the Tea Party adherents, and join in the stuck-on-stupid attacks on legal immigration, reduced taxation and reduced national spending.
What price have they paid for continuing to be the National Eunuch Party?
Yep.
I too agree we have a good chance at retaking the senate and this will be a big help, but don’t expect too much. Don’t forget, the dims had the perfect storm for a couple years where they had huge senate numbers, a majority house and the presidency, which is how we got the ACA.
The same thing they did under Jorge Arbusto el Segundo: NOTHING. We had it all and the pubbies threw it all away. No second chances when the Republic is on the line.
Doesn't matter.
Appoint the right Attorney General with balls, and it's party time with Executive Orders, Baby!
The precedent has been established and, if nothing else, the eternal progressive Constitutional Criminal Crooks might actually teach Republicans how to frustrate the next round of Unconstitutional elected and appointed criminal public servants.
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