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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsG.O.P.’s Hopes to Take Senate Are Dimming
Next year was supposed to be a prime opportunity for Republicans to retake the Senate. And for a while, everything seemed to be breaking their way: a wave of Democratic retirements, a fluke in the electoral map that put a large number of races in states that President Obama lost, a strong farm team of conservative Senate hopefuls from the House.
Then the government shut down. Now, instead of sharpening their attacks on Democrats, Republicans on Capitol Hill are being forced to explain why they are not to blame and why Americans should trust them to govern both houses of Congress when the one they do run is in such disarray. Complicating the prospects, the grass-roots political force that has provided so much of the energy for conservative victories over the last four years the Tea Party is aggressively working against Republicans it considers not conservative enough.
As a result, many Republicans are openly worrying that the fallout from the fiscal battles paralyzing the capital will hit hardest not in the House, which seems safely in Republican hands thanks to carefully redrawn districts, but in the Senate. Republican infighting, they say, has given Democrats the cover they need to deflect blame and keep their majority.
The Tea Party benefits when the energy is focused on the Democratic Party and their agenda, said Brian Walsh, a Republican consultant and former strategist for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Whats concerning is a select few groups trying to turn that fire inward on the Republican Party. And that is not helpful.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/politics/gops-hopes-to-take-senate-are-dimming.html?_r=0
Chan790
(20,176 posts)If the nation hits the debt ceiling and the GOP is holding the bag...the Democrats will be holding 60 in the Senate and 219+ in the House on the last day of January 2015. It'll be all over for the Tea Party. The long knives will come out and several Tea Party Senators will be over before their Senate terms are even half-expired; biding out the days until they're booted from office.
The new favorite tee-shirts to be worn under Republican staffer's Brooks Brothers white Oxford shirts and Hermes ties will read "STFU Ted!" and "Who cares what Rand thinks?"
Turbineguy
(37,337 posts)they'll have a year to fix their brand.
cali
(114,904 posts)Turbineguy
(37,337 posts)"Remember us? We're the guys who graciously didn't destroy the world economy!"
cali
(114,904 posts)thanks for that.
LuvNewcastle
(16,846 posts)Lots of shit could happen between now and then. Something could happen in another country and we could get involved in that, or some one could attack us. Literally anything could happen. The GOP could change its strategy and become cooperative and appear sane to the electorate. We have to be careful how we play every hand in this game. Right now we're far ahead, but talking about big majorities in 2015 is very premature.
cali
(114,904 posts)has been damaged and compounding the damage incurred by the shut down/debt ceiling disaster is the fact that demographics have, and continue to change. The likelihood that the GOP will be able to pivot are rather slim and there are virtually no indications that it will be able to do so. I must have missed the part that mentioned "big majorities" in 2016, but I agree with the gist of the article which is simply that the odds of Dems holding on to the Senate are increasing.
LuvNewcastle
(16,846 posts)Don't misunderstand me; I'm glad to see where we are now after all we've been through. I don't have a problem with people enjoying the latest poll figures and being encouraged about the future. I just hope people don't feel too magnanimous toward the GOP. We can't let up for a minute. We have to keep hammering them until they're totally broken.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
Gman
(24,780 posts)ANYTHING can happen. The election is by no means over.