Free Republic

Democrats are finally taking full control of the Senate after a power-sharing agreement has been reached between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. 'I am happy to report this morning that the leadership of both parties have finalized the organizing resolution for the Senate,' Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. 'We will pass the resolution through the Senate today, which means the committees can promptly set up and get to work with Democrats holding the gavels.' The announcement comes after two weeks of deadlock between the leaders.

Republicans winning at this time

The average American just isn’t behind the party of defund the police, 'democratic socialism,' and higher taxes. Who would have guessed?Republicans have good reason to be optimistic about the next ten years.While the chaotic presidential race has been its own beast, Republicans had what should have been an impossibly good night in November 2020, according to corporate media pollsters. Senate Republicans knocked out a wave of overpaid and overhyped challengers, state legislative chambers and a governorship were taken, and the Democratic House Majority was cut to the bone by a wave of red upsets.This upset, just like the surprise of...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Republican Party must control Congress in order to solve national problems like immigration, Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, said Wednesday during a fundraiser for the South Carolina Republican Party. Despite recently being indicted on two felony counts of abuse of power, Perry visited the Palmetto State - the first Southern state to hold a primary during presidential elections - right after spending a few days in New Hampshire, which holds the second nominating contest in the country. In addition to the fundraiser, Perry had time to watch Texas A&M, his alma mater, take on the University of...

............[Mary Matalin]urged that Akin drop out, to be replaced by Ann Wagner, a former co-chair of the RepublicanNationalCommittee, who is the GOP nominee for Akin’s vacant House seat. Akin “may be dug in, but he’s not going to have a shovel to continuing digging, because he’s not going to have any money,” Matalin told ABC. “We’re going to win Missouri. Ann Wagner is going to end up being our candidate. The party is going to get Ann Wagner in.” Wagner aides hotly dispute that their candidate is involved in any negotiations about switching races. But sources close to Akin acknowledge...

A Public Policy Polling poll released Sunday evening reports Ted Cruz has a 52 percent to 42 percent advantage over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on the eve of Tuesday’s Texas GOP Senate runoff. From PPP’s analysis: Cruz's victory is driven by 4 things: the Tea Party, the enthusiasm of his supporters, a generational divide within the Texas Republican ranks, and the lack of regard the party base currently holds for Rick Perry. Cruz is ahead by a whooping 75-22 margin with Tea Party voters, more than making up for a 56-39 deficit to Dewhurst with voters who don't consider themselves...

For the last two days Washington, D.C. has been all atwitter over the possibility that Dems might lose control of the Senate before the first minute of the first 100 hours in which they planned to enact every single recommendation made in the 9-11Commission Report, raise the minimum wage, enable the government to negotiate drug prices directly with the pharmaceutical companies to lower costs for senior citizens, halve the interest rate on student loans and undo President Bush’s ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The political calculus is that if Sen. Tim Johnson’s (D-SD) health problems prevent...

Am I the only one who thinks Bush should invite Vice President Cheney, Senior Frist, Speaker Hastert & Rep. Delay into the Oval Office...pick up the phone and call Senators Chafee, Specter and Snowe and tell them to come to the White House ASAP to join the meeting. When the show up, I think that they should be given the option to come on board and fall inline or leave the party effective ASAP! We have the seats to spare and we can target Snowe in 2 years!

THE QUESTION no longer is whether Democrats can win back the Senate, now controlled 51-49 by Republicans. The prospect of a Democratic takeover was always remote and has recently become more so. The question now is how much can President Bush, should he defeat John Kerry by 5 percentage points or more, help Republican Senate candidates, assuming there's a coattail effect. And that leads to the more important question of how many seats Republicans might pick up. As many as four or five, or none at all?The trend at the moment is favorable to Republicans, but nothing is guaranteed. Of...

It turned out to be a great night, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott said Wednesday morning, as he pronounced the midterm election a referendum on President Bush's leadership. "I think the fact that everywhere he went - he didn't talk about the Democrat opponent, call them names or be negative -- he talked about what we need to do for the country, what we need to do to work together." Lott, who was with Bush as the election returns came in, said the president was very excited and "fired up." "It was fun to watch him, actually. He was making...

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura's choice of longtime ally Dean Barkley as temporary successor to the late Sen. Paul D. Wellstone (D-Minn.) gives the Senate a second independent member and adds to the uncertainty over which party is likely to control the narrowly divided Senate in a post-election session scheduled to start Nov. 12. Barkley, 52, is one of Ventura's closest advisers and a co-founder of the state's third-party movement. He helped persuade Ventura to run for governor in 1998 and managed his campaign. He ran twice for the Senate as an independent and, while losing, drew enough votes to put...

What happens to senate control after elections with the new Ventura appointee?

Used and Violated in Minnesota "I Feel Used. I Feel Violated" So says Jesse Ventura following his being snookered into attending what was supposed to be a memorial for the late Senator Paul Wellstone and by all accounts, even Democratic ones, turned into a Democrat Campaign rally - an appalling display by our account and that of many others. As Governor of the great state of Minnesota, Ventura has the power to even the score. He can appoint a replacement to fill the seat of Wellstone and he has now said he will do just that. Conventional wisdom says any...

<p>The four-page letter from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was pleading. Democrats may lose control of the Senate on Nov. 5, she wrote in desperation. The bottom line? Send money to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Lots of money.</p> <p>Hard-fought campaign-finance rules limiting soft money (the unrestricted money that national parties have been raising) go into effect at midnight on Nov. 5 - after polls close in an election in which 36 governors’ seats, all the House seats (about 35 are being hard-fought), and 34 Senate seats are at stake.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON - Republicans in key election contests around the country haven't shared in President George W. Bush's recent popularity surge as he made the case for invading Iraq, new polls show.</p> <p>Instead, the White House focus on war and terrorism may be compounding voters' nervousness about the economy, and in the process fueling anti-incumbent sentiments that threaten sitting Republicans and Democrats alike.</p>

Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi called the committee action "a slap" at his home state. And Miller, who has frequently broken ranks with Democrats on Capitol Hill, suggested on Friday the sting may be felt across the South. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, brushed off Miller's warning, saying, "I don't look at judicial nominations through a political prism." Leahy said his job is to help determine if nominees are "qualified or not." In opposing Pickering, Leahy said during 12 years on the federal bench, the judge often put his own beliefs above the law....