White House: We've made history (Media - Coup D'etat)

CNN ^ | 11/6/02 | John King

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush and the Republican Party have made history, making key gains in congressional midterm elections, the White House declared early Wednesday.

Around 1:30 a.m., White House spokesman Ari Fleischer announced that for the first time in U.S. history the president's party gained seats in the House during the administration's first midterm elections. He also noted that the same Republican coup d'etat was accomplished in the Senate.

[jerod]

The White House is supposed to be a gloat free zone. LOL

[Kev-Head]

I am proud of how GW he has handled this great victory. Even the media is saying that he is NOT gloating. They are impressed with how GW has handled himself with such a great victory in Congress.

[ClearCase_guy]

"I think he's done something that I think President Clinton did not do in midterm races or even in his own re-election," said former Clinton White House Chief Of Staff John Podesta, "which is to use all of the authority of the White House to try to get some kind of electoral advantage.

"That's something that I think is within the bounds of the laws and regulations there are, but still I think it really is a first in American politics."

Gee, it always seemed to me that Clinton engaged in non-stop campaigning for 8 years. I assumed that was what he meant by "getting back to the business of the country."

[ChadGore]

Today's democrat party is disconnected from leadership power at every level of government.

1) The democrat party doesn't have the White House.(1R-0d)
2) The democrat party lacks a majority in the Senate.(51R-48d-1)
3) The democrat party lacks a majority in the House of Representatives.(226R-209d)
4) The democrat party lacks a majority of Governors seats across the 50 states.(25R-25d)
5) The democrat party lacks a majority of State Houses across all 50 states. (25R-22d)

Today's democrat party doesn't enjoy majority leadership at either the state or federal level.

[Aeronaut]

Today's democrat party doesn't enjoy majority leadership at either the state or federal level.

Ooooh, I love it when you talk like that!

[Tallguy]

The White House is supposed to be a gloat free zone. LOL

I suggest you re-read the article. The negative comments were either provided by a Democrat (Podesta) or the author of the article (as commentary).

The quotes attributed to Fleisher are the same as reported elsewhere and they are not inflamatory.

[Verginius Rufus]

If Ari said that this was the first time the President's party picked up seats in the House of Representatives during the first term mid-term elections, he's wrong: it happened in 1934 (Democrats increased their numbers from 310 to 319). The Republicans increased their numbers in both houses in the 1902 elections, but that doesn't really count because the House was enlarged and proportionally the Republicans had a smaller majority after 1902.

More unusual is the President's party recapturing a house of Congress it has not held before the election--the last time that happened was in 1794.

[MinuteGal]

Coup D' etat - "the sudden, forcible overthrow of a government".

Yeah, sure. CNN never gives up, never!

Leni

[uncbob]

If it wasn't for fraud in LA, MO , Coverdell dying in GA and a dem gov appointing a dem senator and Jumping Jim the senate would have been GOP along with the house since 94

Part of this election is Bush's popularity but most is still the remnants of the Clinton fall out in 94 when gun owners and Christian Conservatives cleaned the democrat's clock in the house and senate

GOP better do something about the fraud. It kills them in close races

SD is a good place to start

[jerod]

There's nothing wrong with gloating. W won and he deserves to gloat, all Republicans deserve to gloat.

Let the gloating begin.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Thanks for all the numbers. I hope the bottom line reaction by the media as well as Leftists remains as long as possible.

[uncbob]

Officials refused to release the list, a reflection of White House sensitivity to Democratic criticism of the administration's level of political activity.

They have some nerve
Clinton just about wore out Air Force One flying to fund raisers

[prognostigaator]

Clinton made political trips, too ....
Africa [with his secretary who hid Monica's gifts under the bed.]

[shrinkermd]

Are we so sure the President won the election? A switch of roughly 29,000 votes in Minnesota, 11,500 in Missouri and 9,500 in New Hampshire would have produced a Democratic Senate and we would be hearing how the President screwed up.

If we didn't win this election by divine intervention then we won it with the social issues and the working class. I did not see the cognitive elite streaming to the Pubbie banner.

Time for some real common sense here and forget all the puffery. After a battle sometimes you are not sure whether your victory was sheer luck or the sacrifice of your dead and dieing cohorts. Usually, it is both.

[Stand Watch Listen]

"I think he's done something that I think President Clinton did not do in midterm races or even in his own re-election," said former Clinton White House Chief Of Staff John Podesta, "which is to use all of the authority of the White House to try to get some kind of electoral advantage.

"That's something that I think is within the bounds of the laws and regulations there are, but still I think it really is a first in American politics."

No, Clinton not only used/abused all the authority of the White House, he also used /abused all the IRS/FBI/SS authority of the Executive branch and enabling by the media. Clinton's second mid-term election cycle was an endless round of fund raising, vacations, fund raising, vacations (El Coronado, Vail, Aspen, Mrytle Beach, Hamptons, Martha's Vineyard etc).

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Hallary takes over and Bill hangs on. Hopefully the woeful will never surrender their chains.

[an amused spectator]

an expansion of MinuteGal's post:

...especially : the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group - Merriam Webster's Collegiate

Yeah, all 2 of us. ;-)

[an amused spectator]

You should have put in the journalist designation:

John King (D-CNN)

[Marie Antoinette]

I disagree with your sentiment, or assessment. I'm sure the President won. We had to win 60% of the senate seats just to stay even. We did better than that, wouldn't you say? Historically losing seats in the midterm election, the President's party managed to increase seats in the house.

An average election would have seen us losing BOTH houses in midterm with the seat numbers going into the election. We did much better than average.

It's a big win.

Mr.M