Posted on 07/15/2010 10:40:54 AM PDT by onyx
Senior Senate Republicans are not optimistic about their chances of capturing the upper chamber in the midterms and have not put together a legislative strategy in case it happens.
While House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) has started to plan how he would run the lower chamber if he became Speaker, Senate Republicans dismiss their ascendancy to power as a long shot.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) would have his pick of chairing the Finance, Judiciary or Budget panels. But he has not given much thought to the legislative policies he would push as chairman, because he thinks the chance of Republicans winning control is almost zero.
I havent thought about it, Grassley said. I think its a very slim possibility.
Grassley hasnt even thought about what committee he would chair if Republicans captured the Senate.
I would wait until November to make a decision, he said.
Senate Democrats will count 59 seats in their majority after West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) appoints a successor to the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.). Republicans control 41 seats.
Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, has mused about how he might run the panel with jurisdiction over the financial-services industry. But those thoughts havent turned into any concrete plans.
I have a lot of thoughts, but theyre not crystallized. Well have to wait and see what happens, Shelby said. The trends look good at the moment, but to take control of the Senate is a heavy lift.
Shelby said taking back control of the Senate is more difficult than winning the House because only a third of the 100 senators face reelection in November. All 435 members of the House must face voters this year.
Republicans would have to pick up 10 seats, winning three times as many Senate races as Democrats, to become the majority party in the Senate. Thirty-seven Senate seats are up for reelection this year. Republicans would have to win 28 of the races to take control of the chamber.
If Republicans were to perform a minor miracle and flip control of the Senate, lawmakers would have to scramble to figure out what to do with their new power.
Shelby said he would use the Banking gavel to restrict the government regulations that are likely to be authorized by the Wall Street reform bill.
I would first be looking at the oversight of this so-called financial reform package and see whats wrong with it, which I think a lot of things are, Shelby said. That would be one thing we would really look at, but you cant really plan an agenda yet.
Shelby said he would also scrutinize the actions of the Federal Reserve, which many conservatives say has become emblematic of the power of unelected government officials to shape fiscal policy.
Shelby said he would discuss his concerns on Thursday when the Banking Committee considers three nominees to the Federal Reserve Board. They are Janet Yellen, who was tapped to serve as vice chairwoman, and Peter Diamond and Sarah Bloom Raskin, who were nominated to serve as members.
Republican political strategists acknowledge the chances for capturing the Senate are not as good as winning the House but say the possibility exists.
Just as Robert Gibbs has looked at the math and made clear that the Democrats have a real possibility of losing the House, many others including ourselves have looked at the math and see its clear the Senate is very much in play for Republicans, said Brian Walsh, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. It wasnt at the start of the cycle.
In March of 2009, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rated only two Democratic-held seats as toss-ups between the parties. It rated the rest as lean Democratic, likely Democratic or solid Democratic.
This month, Cook updated its ratings and placed six Democratic seats in the toss-up column. It rated three others in Indiana, Delaware and North Dakota as more likely to be won by Republican candidates.
Jennifer Duffy, senior editor for the Cook Report, said Republicans could capture the Senate if the anti-Democratic wave turns into a tsunami.
If the wave is big enough, they could carry all those states, Duffy said.
She predicted a GOP gain of four to six seats is more likely.
This is going to be one of those elections that sort of proves the old adage that candidates and campaigns matter, she said. If the wave is there and not huge then Republicans have the states where they didnt get strong candidates.
Duffy said these states, such as Nevada, could help Democrats keep control.
Sen. Kit Bond (Mo.), the senior Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said Republican voters are fired up in his home state. But he thinks it will likely take two elections to wrest control from Democrats.
I hope by 2013 it happens, but Im certainly not going to be on it for 2011, said Bond, who will retire at the end of this year.
Senate Dim-bulb-crats are stupid and sleazy.
Senate Repulsicans are slightly less sleazy, but way more stupid.
See what happens when there is no IQ test for “public service”.
That's the problem! Unlike Byrd, they *are*. LOL.
If they’re trying to prove they’re lame and stupid, they’re effective.
FILIBUSTER KAGAN.
” This shouldnt surprise many people, because with very few exceptions the Republicans hadnt determined how to govern by 2006, after taking control of Congress in 1994. “
You know, I have known for 20 years that the Republicans didn’t like confrontation. However, their behavior since the dictator took over leaves me with little hope anything will change. The Republicans in the House & Senate, with maybe 10 exceptions, act like they don’t even care if our country is destroyed or not. I swear, they don’t even care.
Castle, Kirk and Fiorina would be the new RINO’s in residence joining Snowe, Collins and Brown. The good news is we would be the majority party.
Obama is on the ropes, and a Kagan fillibuster could REALLY hurt him. So of course, the Republicans will do nothing.
Plus, she has no business on SCOTUS and it’s not a give away seat!
There’s no guarantee our guys will live through his term.
Idiot senators.
To tell you the truth, I’m without words at this juncture.
Bingo!!!
They never did, even when we did have control, they did not want it and had to get rid of NEWT. From there they just played with the Dems. so as not to dirty their hands, and GET ALL THE PORK and GIMMIE's they could walk away with.
Pretending they were the good guys, while getting to blame the DEMs for the dirty deeds. THEY DON"T want control, that would make them accountable.
BUT, come NOV., (can't wait), there will be a NEW BREED of Republicans in town, how will the old ones handle that???
Regulate them to the back of the room, no committees, will be interesting to see if the NEW BREED puts them in their place.
As much as I hate & despise the demoRAT socialist commie pigs - 0b0z0, Pelosi & Reid, I wish that we had Repubs especially in teh Senate to be as hard ass & ideological as the socialist bastards. If so, maybe we could fire up the people to come out & vote & support. Instead when most of Repubs are measily talking about winning a few elections, etc, no wonder the demoRATs play them for fools. What a bunch of pandering idiots.
Nor should they be. House Dems may not want to reserve their U-Haul truck to take their junk back home just yet, either!!
But, just for fun, let me play devil's advocate. What if the 'Pubbies take control of the Senate AND the House??? What then?? If history is any value, their stewardship of these houses of Congress will be no better than the Dems' has been. They did okay in the early days of the Contract with America, but the bloom was quickly off the rose when they allowed themselves to be seduced by their lust for power.
As we all know, their abandonment of their conservative roots led to the losses in '06 and '08. So, what has changed in the last 2 years in the GOP (aka Stupid Party) to make us believe that a return to power of the GOP is going to be America's saving grace!!??? They are as bereft of ideas as the Dems and all we are going to do is repeat the acts of the past in hopes that they will yield a different result in the future. They won't. The 'Pubbies will simply lift a corner of the carpet and sweep the dirt under it because it's easier and won't interfere with Happy Hour at the club at 5 o'clock!! IOW, NOTHING will get fixed. The 'Pubbies are NOT the good guys on white chargers coming to rescue us.
In short, they are gutless politicians (like the Dems) whose sole concern is their next election (like the Dems) and being overpaid (like the Dems) for screwing the country (like the Dems) that they have no devotion or dedication towards (like the Dems) and growing their power (like the Dems)!! So, in truth, what are we REALLY expecting them to do???
“WIMPS! Sarah Palin takes on Obama on every issue and when one of the Senators gets around to speaking up, he sounds like a weak and watered down echo chamber of her, IF she hasnt taken too much heat from the WH for ripping The One and his Marxist policies.”
Exactly this yellow bunch tip toes around the filthy rats,When they should be yelling and screaming and telling it like it is.
The choice of the cartoon was very good. That explains it pretty clearly.
I am sick and tired of a goddam go-along-get-along Repub Senator talking about how we gotta work together, cooperate, meet in the middle. Screw the goddam opposition, screw those Republicans! They are nothing but a bunch of bullshit chickens too comfortable with their trappings of second tier power. No ambition, no drive, no morals, no patriotism, no HONOR. Screw them all.
In Washington since:
Alexander - 2002
Barrasso - 2007
Bennett - 1992
Bond - 1986
Brown 2010
Brownback - 1994
Bunning - 1987
Burr - 1995
Chambliss - 1995
Coburn - 1995
Cochran - 1973
Collins - 1997
Corker - 2007
Cornyn - 2002
Crapo - 1993
DeMint - 1999
Ensign - 1995
Enzi - 1996
Graham - 1995
Grassley - 1974
Gregg - 1993
Hatch - 1977
Hutchinson - 1993
Inhofe - 1987
Isakson - 1999
Johanns - 2009
Kyl - 1987
Lemeiux - 2009
Lugar - 1977
McCain - 1983
McConnell - 1984
Murkowski - 2004
Risch - 2009
Roberts - 1981
Sessions - 1997
Shelby - 1978
Snowe - 1979
Thune - 1996
Vitter - 1999
Voinovich - 1996
Wicker - 1995
Remember, most of them were on the public payroll for years, if not decades, before getting to Washington. 29 of them have been in Washington more than 12 years, which is the point where the odds of any common sense remaining becomes mathmatically impossible.
The Senate is almost, if not literally a total write off.
There are some bright spots in Congress, but even then, more than at any other time that I have seen, even those are sometimes willing to go native on us.
I share your outlook concerning bright hopes for the future.
If "republican" Mark Kirk wins in Illinois, he will outSnowe, outCollins, outBrown and outRINO generally, the entire senate.
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