Posted on 01/12/2009 3:27:57 PM PST by americanophile
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The 111th Congress has just barely begun as Senate Republicans brace for more grueling elections in 2010 which threaten to further weaken the party's influence in Congress.
The latest setback for the party came Monday, when Ohio Sen. George Voinovich -- the 72 year-old two-term GOP senator -- announced he will not seek reelection in 2010. That leaves Republicans with a highly vulnerable seat in a perennial swing state that has drifted Democratic in the last two elections.
Voinovich's decision sent Ohio Republicans and Democrats scrambling ahead of what will likely be a competitive primary on both sides, and virtually guarantees the GOP will have to spend significantly more money defending a seat that otherwise would likely have been a safe bet.
"Republicans are starting the cycle on the defensive once again, it's a familiar but uncomfortable position," said Nathan Gonzalez of the Rothenberg Political Report.
Voinovich is the most recent in a string of Republican senators -- some from crucial battlegrounds states -- to announce his retirement, rattling Republicans in an election cycle that already promises to be difficult.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Good points, but it just points that what is bad for Republicans in 2010 may not necessarily be bad for CONSERVATIVES over the long term.
Voinofavitch!
Two years is an eternity in national politics. The environment could be as bad as the story predicts (or worse), or it may be a whole heck of a lot better.
IMHO, the single biggest thing the GOP, *especially* the Senate Republicans, can do to improve their chances is to finally learn the lessons of 2006 and 2008:
-We don’t want big government conservatism.
-We don’t share the mentality and sensibility of the culture inside the beltway. Sarah represents far more of us than Peggy Noonan ever will.
-We DO want fiscal discipline, protection of our individual liberties, and the law enforced on our borders. And we want a conservative in office who’s willing to fight for all of them!
NO. MORE. WEENIES.
>> They cut off campaign money to my conservative congressman because he was a “lost cause”. He ended up losing by 2% in a 4 way race.
Well, incompetent RINOboy Mike Duncan’s never-ending stream of pleas for money to “beat Obama’s agenda” are falling on deaf ears in this household.
The only reason I even open ‘em is so I can send the postpaid envelope back to the RNC — empty.
Payback’s a beyotch.
If that bunch of Brooks-Bros. Bandits in Washington REALLY had the country’s (or their constitutents’) best interests at heart, they wouldn’t need to fear election time. What a bunch of mangy, skraggly coyotes. There’s probably not ten members of the Senate or 100 in the House who have more than one honest bone between them. I am so disgusted with them, I’d like to turn a firehose on them.
Sounds like more fearmongering from the Democratic Party’s propaganda wing to me...
I won’t soon forget that Joe Schwarz was rooting for the democrat after Walberg defeated him.
Sessions just got reelected for six years. So, no worries about him for now. My Senator and one of the VERY very few conservatives left in the RINOcrat party.
“If you ask me, by then this whole mess will belong to the Dems, I mean, how long can the centerpiece of their policy be to blame Bush?”
They can blame Bush for as long as GOP remains as passive as they have been, from Bush on down.
The GOP needs a RNC Chairman, a Senate Minority Leader, and a House Minority Leader ho will calmly, firmly, at every opportunity lay out what is WRONG with dem plans and actions.
It will also help if other prominent GOP spokesmen give it a good shot. People like Gingrich, Romney, McCain, Thompson are the ones the media will be inviting to their weekend news shows.
They're off to a good start. Everything they've touched since Nov. 4 has turned to crap.
The difference between Democrats and Republicans is the former will take the country towards socialism at 100mph and the latter at 95mph.
Look at Orrin “Booby” Hatch. Case closed.
Sorry...meant to include the word, “Republican/RINO” in there somewhere, but it slipped away when I wasn’t looking.
Perhaps instead of kissing the butts of Lanny Davis, Al Sharpton and assorted other rats we can convince Hannity to actually allow a forum to some of our conservative republicans.
Where’s the surprise ? Schwarz was always a liberal Democrat. Remember he was quite happy to help cripple Dick Posthumus for the Canadian Trash in ‘02.
Don’t care. About the “consequences,” the retirement, or their so-called analysis. If the American people decide to further commit suicide, so be it.
CNN's prediction sounds reasonable. After all, the GOP is infested with RINOs and leftists like McCain, Voinovich, and others.
It will get worse. Much worse. I believe that the system is beyond repair, and requires a reboot.
The ONLY midterm election in recent history where the party in the White House gained seats in Congress was 2002 and that was primarily because Bush had great support for the war on terror.
The ONLY way that the ‘Rats pick up seats in 2010 is if the recession not only ends (which is probable) AND the economy starts booming (which is far less likely).
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