Posted on 11/08/2002 3:02:32 PM PST by Jean S
It wasn't Bush, it was Bush's "message."
Dan
They will have to construct a massive vault to even begin to hope have a place to store Dubya's political capital. Dubya invested every cent he had in the 2002 election and the last I looked it payed 3,000 percent interest.
They talk about Bush having problems in the Senate. There are 19 Democatic senators up for relection in 2004. Cross Dubya and they will find Karl Rowe and a candidate to be named later who will give the Senator the same treatment Max Cleland got in Georgia.
It is not normal for a president to pick up senate seats in an off year election. Bush picked up seats. It is very normal for a president to pick up 8 or 9 seats in his on year election. Bush just might pick up 10 or 12 seats Depending on who he decides to target. Do you think it has occured to any Democratic Senators that NOT being a bush TARGET in 2004 might be a good thing?
If Daschle says to his caucus let's stand up to bush. Let's not vote for CLOTURE. Lets make this filibuster stick.
Bush then calls up that same senator and says, "You going to give me reason line up a candidate and have Karl take you out in 2004 Senator?"
The prefered answer will be NO Mr. President. If you would be so kind as to dictate what I am to tell Mr Daschle I'll read it to Tom so I am sure to get every word just the way you want it.
Daschle will be very ineffective at holding his causus together. He needs 40 of his 48 senator to prevent Bush from doing what ever he wants to do. Daschle will not get them very often ...if at all.
I know Zell is on board.
There must be a few Dem senators up for reelection in conservative states who are going to be very obedient as well!
Bush was very active inselecting candidates that could win.
Coleman is a former Democrat Mayor of St Paul. He is a HUGE RINO. He will also get us a lot of conservative judges confirmed.
Jim Talent is a RINO as is LIBBY DOLE and John Sununu.
That is what it takes to govern and change America. It is what the democrats did for nearly 2/3 of a century.
We have turned the tables.
But don't buy the crap that it was our issues. We took this election by wining liberal states with RINO candidates. New Hampshire, North Carolina, Missouri, and Minnesota were won with RINOs. They were not the only ones. That is how we did it. And if we are not so stupid as to forget how it is done, we may keep on doing it for a long time. These RINOS's will help us defeat Sadam, change our tax laws, put jugdes on the courts who will reafrim all our rights.
For Democrats, the end result was far worse than just the numbers.
Either he will accept the veep nomination in 2004 (unlikely, since we are a small state and don't bring much clout) or he will be running for reelection.
The Indiana Republicans, who finally have a new chairman, have been very quiet about who will run against Bayh. I would guess the next few months Bayh is going to be very careful, since he would not like to have a Norm Coleman appear and run against him. HA!
That is just the class of 2004. There will be some in the class of 2006 who will sweat a bit too and even some 2008 guys who just won a close one.
Most likely it will be CMA types. The group will shift on various issues. Some will be with bush on one issue and against him on the other. But Bush will always get the 9. It is typical CMA. In the primary against a liberal the Senator will want to name 15 times he stood up to Bush. In the General election he will want to name 15 times he stood with him. They will take turns.
Coleman is a RINO? He has a reputation as a moderate mostly based on the fact that he talks nicely and used to be a Democrat. But his positions, except for on ANWR, were rock solid conservative.
Saxby was also hand picked. Hardly a RIBO.
Liddy Dole, you are right.
But you labelled way too many people there as moderates.
How do you account for the Senate losses that ocurred in 2000? I agree that they don't want to be in the crosshairs come 2004. I would also look for them to get along the first year and pass some things so that in the following election year they can be more true to their democrat party line. just a guess.
It might also be noted that most RINOs vote more conservative than most "conservative Democrats" (a mostly mythic species). Susan Collins's lifetime American Conservative Union rating is 58; Snowe's is 50; they have gone up as high as 76 and 80 respectively; John Breaux's lifetime rating is 47 and 48 is the highest annual rating I could find for him. His rating was 17 in 1998 and 21 in 1999.
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