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 haven’t thought about it,” Grassley said. “I think it’s a very slim possibility.”
Grassley hasn’t 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 haven’t turned into any concrete plans.
“I have a lot of thoughts, but they’re not crystallized. We’ll 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 what’s 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 can’t 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 it’s clear the Senate is very much in play for Republicans,” said Brian Walsh, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “It wasn’t 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 didn’t 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 I’m certainly not going to be on it for 2011,” said Bond, who will retire at the end of this year.
“Like tet68 said, if by chance they do win the majority, then what?”
We’ll have a repeat of 2000-2008. A GOP controlled congress that has it’s snout only slightly less wedged in the public trough than the overt socialists. We as conservatives will win a largely meaningless battle and continue to lose the larger war.
Maybe if the GOP wins both houses, the GOP will convince Dennis Hastert to come back. I mean if we’re going to have useless leadership with a mock conservative label, we might as well have incompetence as well.
IMO, we’re focusing way too much energy on the partisan political part of what has been a much larger cultural shift. We’re worrying about symptoms, not causes.
Boehner and Mitchel adopted a stupid strategy. No, No, no every time wins no adherents—it is all negative. Voters will always go, ultimately, for a more positive outlook.
Crucial time in the survival of our Republic.
It’s now or never and I think WE, THE PEOPLE, will have to lead the elected by forcing them to do what has to be done.
“Rebellion is brewing” as Jim says, and he’s right.
So while technically correct, “since 1995” is a little misleading.
This is why we must do all we can to see true
conservative/constitutionalists into office and why
if we get into power we not allow those who usurped
the voice of the people and their constitution to go
unpunished. There, I’ve said it. It’s time someone
paid for their crimes instead of being allowed to continue
their subversion.
And Bill Frist, too? Oh, happy days!! Personally, I'm hoping to see Traficant make a comeback. At least he was entertaining and he might have been one of the most honest crooks in congress.
I want The Hammer back.
....and I know he wasn’t in the Senate.
I listed all the republican senators for the purposes of full disclosure, not to berate all of them. Coburn has been one of the better ones at times. But we all know why the Republican Party is the Stupid Party and the Senate makes us all want to claw our eyes out. Look at these guys. If they were in the military they would have been put out to pasture a long time ago with a cute little pension and a flag and a letter signed by the President.
Cochran - 1973
Grassley - 1974
Hatch - 1977
Inhofe - 1987
Kyl - 1987
Lugar - 1977
McCain - 1983
McConnell - 1984
Roberts - 1981
Shelby - 1978
Snowe - 1979
Yeah, that's what we need - the Angel of K Street. The man that could squeeze lobbyist money out of a block of marble.
It is always so great when we have the White House megaphones weighing in on an FR thread. Thanks for your interest.
He could also squeeze the balls off of a buffalo nickel.
So you want us to elect Republican Senators who either sellout and vote the Dem agenda or Maybe you want them to just vote present.
We need to elect Conservative senator that want sell out the US constitution or the Legal American People.
If they dont want to lead then stay the Frack home.
I would like to see FReepers grow up; to see FReepers educate themselves about the country and the way Congress works.
Without gaining the leadership positions in the House and Senate, almost nothing can be done to affect legislation of any type. Like it or not, at this time, that requires that conservatives make nice with GOP moderates. Those moderates will never be reliable conservative votes, but we need them to get anything at all done.
Adults realize they can’t always get their own way and work to expand the pool of “marginally conservative” congressmen who it is possible to persuade to vote the “right” way. Bellyaching about NorthEast Republicans voting like NorthEast Republicans is useless. Enjoy that they vote for GOP leadership and be happy for the times they vote with conservatives. Reality is that a Jim Demint can’t be elected in Maine. Adults instead concentrate on electing Jim DeMints in Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana and a slew of other states that are not deep blue. Instead of focusing on the impossible task of gaining 51 “solid” conservative Senators to ram something through, focus on gaining 70 moderate and conservative GOPers who will take part in shifting coalitions to advance conservatism.
You know that you are hurting the cause of conservatism, and so do other “pure conservatives”, but like children they would rather throw temper tantrums than to work with reality. The only effect is to move the progressives’ agenda ahead more rapidly. It is just what this White House wants to see more of.
Great idea. This has managed to elect Obama and give him a filibuster proof Senate and solid House to “teach a lesson”. Result: Czars, Kagan, economic stagnation, and ZeroCare. Congratulations.
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