\nTax-cutters are calling evangelicals bullies. Christian conservatives say Republicans in Congress have let them down. Hawks say President Bush is bungling the war in Iraq. And many conservatives blame Representative Mark Foley\u2019s sexual messages to teenage pages.<\/p>\n
With polls showing Republican control of Congress in jeopardy, conservative leaders are pointing fingers at one other in an increasingly testy circle of blame for potential Republican losses this fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is one of those rare defeats that will have many fathers,\u201d said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, expressing the gloomy view of many conservatives about the outcome on Election Day. \u201cAnd they will all be somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In reality, it’s likely All of the Above, and still more. Certainly it’s not because the Dems have offered any sterling, inspirational leadership; if they take one or both houses of Congress, it will be because the electorate decided to recall the GOP (or, in the case of disaffected, grumpy Republican voters who stay home, because they decided just not to support the current batch), not because they really want the Dems in charge.<\/p>\n
The question is, if the Dems take one or both chambers, is that a Good Thing or a Bad Thing? I tend to think it good, if only for the reasons noted above. The GOP one-party rule over the last six years — restrained only by occasional, timid foot-dragging and threatened fillibusters — has led to all sorts of bad policy, blank checks to the White House and to lobbyists, and limited discussion of ideas. It’s been partisanship run mad, at a time when, if we really are under the threat we’re told,
\npartisanship should be taking a back seat.<\/p>\n
The problem is, this is a mid-term election, which means any results need to be weighed with the look ahead to 2008. If the Dems get a toehold back of power, can they keep it? Will anything that goes wrong from January 2007 on be blamed on the Dems (fairly or not) for obstructing the President and preventing needed decisive actions being taken? Will the Dems themselves show any sign of having leadership ideas that can actually resolve some of the problems we face (economically, militarily, diplomatically,
\nsocially, etc.). And, if they do, will they be able to move them forward with only a slim majority (and against a White House that might finally get around to exercising veto power)?<\/p>\n
If the Dems are going to win largely because they’re not the ones in power, what happens in two years when they are the ones in (at least partial) power?<\/p>\n
It’s a calculated risk, but one neither the party nor the nation can afford not to take … if they can hold things together for another three weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m hoping (maybe — see below) that the Dems will take back at least one house of Congress, if not both, in the coming election. In my opinion, government works…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2006","category-elections-2008"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12934,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/04\/maps_a_plenty.html","url_meta":{"origin":9852,"position":0},"title":"Maps a-plenty","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Sep-08 4:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Is it too soon for me to start obsessing over polling and electoral maps? Electoral-vote.com: President, Senate, House Updated Daily Election Projection: 2008 Elections - Polls, Projections, Results FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9831,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/25\/well_duh_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":9852,"position":1},"title":"Well duh …","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 25-Oct-06 6:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Although we cannot find that a fundamental right to same-sex marriage exists in this state, the unequal dispensation of rights and benefits to committed same-sex partners can no longer be...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2006"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2006","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2006"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31109,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/01\/yeah-ohios-going-to-be-a-mess-this-election-year-again.html","url_meta":{"origin":9852,"position":2},"title":"Yeah, Ohio's going to be a mess this election year. Again","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-Nov-12 5:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Swell. Embedded Link Ohio\u2019s Ballot Woes Could Delay Election Results For Weeks Pollsters and pundits have trained their eyes on Ohio, where President Obama maintains a narrow lead over Mitt Romney just days before the election. According to exit polls, Obama\u2019s lead is even stron... Google+: View post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6360,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/09\/15\/map_the_vote.html","url_meta":{"origin":9852,"position":3},"title":"Map the vote","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 15-Sep-04 9:41am","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a fun map that (a) charts current electoral votes to Kerry or Bush based on the most recent polls in each state, and (b) represents each state in size...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2004"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"electoralmap.gif","src":"\/blog\/images\/electoralmap.gif","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":128661,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/09\/really-just-ignore-the-presidential-polls-at-this-point.html","url_meta":{"origin":9852,"position":4},"title":"Really, just ignore the presidential polls at this point","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 9-Nov-15 1:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We're a year from the actual election. We don't even know who the candidates are actually going to be (though Clinton seems pretty darned likely). A war, a terrorist attack, a downturn in the economy, an upturn in the economy, a dozen different national crises, personal scandals, or on-stage gaffes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12609,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/03\/12\/republicans_for_hillary.html","url_meta":{"origin":9852,"position":5},"title":"Republicans for Hillary","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 12-Mar-08 7:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"Cross-over, dirty trick, or what? Exit Polls: Clinton draws Republican\u00a0support\u00a0 Thirteen percent of the voters in today's Democratic primary identified themselves as Republican; they voted for Clinton, 78 percent...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/voting-butterfly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}