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Posted on 11/06/2014 2:11:00 PM PST by SeekAndFind
In the wake of Tuesday’s drubbing, soft Democrats in Congress are pledging to stand with the president’s party… for now.
So-called independent Sen. Angus King (I-ME) backed off his pledge to caucus with the majority party in the 114th Congress on Wednesday. He was joined by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) who represents a state which is shifting rapidly from blue to red without the requisite stopover into purple territory.
The story is not the same on the state-level. As the fallout from the 2014 tsunami settles, a wave of party jumpers is sapping the Democrats of authority on the legislative level.
In Manchin’s home state, Democratic state Senator Daniel Hall announced on Wednesday that he would shed his party identity and join the Republican Party. “The Senator, who was not up for re-election on Tuesday, told Eyewitness News over the phone, that the people in his district voted in large numbers against the Democratic Party and he made the change, to best represent their interests,” a local West Virginia CBS outlet reported.
Surely, Hall’s own interests will also be served nicely by the flip. His switch reverses a 17-17 member tie in the state Senate which was to be broken by the state’s Democratic gubernatorial administration. Republicans are now the majority party in West Virginia’s state Senate. The GOP also took control of the state’s House of Delegates on Tuesday night for the first time in 83 years.
Hall was not the only soft Democrat on the legislative level to abandon the president’s party. In Missouri on Wednesday, Rep. Linda Black shed her party label and determined to become a Republican.
“With the addition of Black, Republicans now hold 118 House seats, nine more than the 109 needed to override the governor on a party line vote,” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. “They also hold 25 Senate seats, two more than the 23 needed to override the governor on a party line vote.”
Black ran unopposed on Tuesday and was reelected by her Desloge constituents as a Democrat, promoting the state’s House Democratic minority leader to call her flip a “deceptive bait and switch.” No matter. Certainly, the majority Republicans in the Show Me State’s legislature will see to Black’s interests.
While this phenomenon seems contained on the legislative level, cautious observers say it is a good bet to watch the Congress. No one likes serving in the minority, particularly if joining the majority is a viable option.
An earlier version of this post identified the next Congress as the 115th Congress
Changing the rules on goal is not so simple because the rules were set by the EPA, not by Congress. I don’t how easy it would be to over rule the EPA regulations. Maybe it wouldn’t be that difficult.
Eye on the ball. The goal is not to shorten Obama's final term by 3 months. The goal is to win the Presidency in 2016.
If Manchin had decided to switch a few months ago, he could have written his own ticket...as far as committee assignments, and getting credit for his seniority. However, the GOP faces a tougher Senate cycle in 2016, so adding another seat to the caucus is a good thing..
I know that McIntyre would have won if he were a Republican, but I am GLAD to have David Rouzer as my next Congressman, Great guy, and actually I helped him in the Republican Primary!
Blue Dog Democrats. They are now extinct.
Nancy Pelosi’s caucus is ideologically leftist. There is no moderate leavening.
Congress has the purse strings now. EPA is going back in its bowl. Believe me.
IRS is probably quaking in its piss-filled boots too.
Good advice.
Lets hope that the official law enforcement investigation by Sheriff Joe’s team on Obama’s birth certificate and related info can gain some ground now. They have been looking for someone in congress to investigate the information they have.
Jumped ship to become a Democrat and lost his re-election bid.
If Joe Manchin wants to switch, he should resign and ask voters to re-elect him as a Republican.
No one likes a turncoat.
Nothing much is going to change. The GOP leadership has no interest in any serious reductions in federal spending, entitlement reform, etc. Once again, grassroots conservatives will be betrayed and become disillusioned. The GOP elite will pull out all the stops for Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney or some other “safe” candidate.
Want to prove your loyalty? Be the 60th vote.
I fully concur.
I saw no reason to vote. I’m not voting Republican at any price.
When Republicans govern like Democrats, the Democrats have already won.
Dems switching parties is old hat and now mostly meaningless.
If the election had been a tepid one, I would agree.
This was a ‘last chance’ election for this system of government. Period.
If they don’t get this, someone is going to end up dead. That’s what happens when 1 in 5 to 1 in 4 people in the US can’t find work. More true when the work is going to illegal immigrants bearing Polio.
This is why I fervently pray the GOP starts with such a bill, as their test of Obama's vaunted pledge to work with Congress.
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