Republican Control of the Senate Hangs by a Thread

[babylonsister]

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/21/republican-control-of-the-senate-hangs-by-a-thread-216156

Republican Control of the Senate Hangs by a Thread
A series of freak circumstances could change the course of politics in 2018.
By JEFF GREENFIELD
December 21, 2017


Only one Republican senator ultimately didn’t vote for the tax bill—and it wasn’t because of concerns about the debt, or the tilt of the bill toward the wealthiest Americans. It was because John McCain was back home in Arizona, battling life-threatening brain cancer.

Mississippi’s Thad Cochran did make the vote, after missing votes throughout the fall, due to a persistent urinary tract infection. The health of the 79-year old Cochran has raised questions about whether he will be able to serve out his term, which has three more years to run.

Should the health of these two senators force them to step down, the political consequences could be hugely consequential. Arizona would have two Senate seats in play in 2018. Democrats have already targeted the seat of retiring Republican Jeff Flake, finding encouragement in the narrow results of Arizona’s presidential contest (Trump won with a 3.5 percent plurality, contrasted with Mitt Romney’s nine point win in 2012). Capturing both seats could be enough to put Democrats in control of the Senate (assuming they hold all of the seats they’re defending next year—10 of them in states Trump won).

While Mississippi is deep red, Cochran barely survived a 2014 primary challenge from State Senator Chris McDaniel. The Tea Party favorite actually ran slightly ahead of Cochran in the first primary, then lost the runoff by only 7,500 votes. An open seat in Mississippi could trigger an intense fight that could wind up with a fringe candidate sufficiently unappealing to put that safe GOP seat in play. Just ask Alabama.

This speculation might seem morbid, but there’s a point that has to be kept in mind as the 2018 midterms loom. Beyond the traditional measurements—generic ballots, the president’s approval rating, the state of the economy—there are matters of fate that can and have played decisive roles in who takes the reins of power. And in a Senate so narrowly divided, those matters loom especially large; everything from a Supreme Court nomination to the future of heath care to the scope of financial and environmental regulation may hang on a single vote.

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https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/21/republican-control-of-the-senate-hangs-by-a-thread-216156

[DeminPennswoods]

1. Persistent UTI

might mean that Cochran now has at least some antibiotic resistent bacteria. At his age, sepsis is a real possibility.

[babylonsister]

2. He looks very ill. nt

[DeminPennswoods]

4. Sepsis

My dad kept getting UTIs from a catheter and wound up with sepsis. He had IV treatment and it cleared up, but, in retropsect, that was the beginning of his end.

[mercuryblues]

3. And they are hanging themselves with that thread.