Common Folk Using Common Sense

A continuation of my earlier post, “Are There Any Conservative Republicans Left?”

Trackbacked at Crazy Politico’s Rantings, Don Surber, New England Republican:

Democrats need a net gain of six seats to win control of the Senate, and 15 for the House.

Republican National Chairman Kenneth Mehlman went to Capitol Hill last Tuesday to warn the party’s House and Senate campaign staffers of dire consequences unless Republicans break the current legislative deadlock. Mehlman stressed the necessity to pass a budget resolution and an immigration reform bill, dealing with two issues that seriously concern the Republican base.

Word circulated around Capitol Hill that Mehlman warned 45 seats could be lost in the House on Nov. 7. High-level party sources close to Mehlman estimate the GOP loss could be 25 seats under a worst-case scenario. Either rumor is greater than the 15 needed to give the House back to the Democrats.

Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan “Rothenberg Political Report”, said his most expansive estimate classifies 52 seats as “unsafe,” 40 of them Republican, 12 of them Democratic.

“If the election were held today, I’d say the odds are 90% that we’d lose the House,” says GOP consultant Mike Murphy.

Democratic leaders, increasingly confident they will seize control of the House in November, are laying plans for a legislative blitz during their first week in power that would raise the minimum wage, roll back parts of the Republican prescription drug law, implement homeland security measures and reinstate lapsed budget deficit controls.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in an interview last week that a Democratic House would launch a series of investigations of the Bush administration, beginning with the White House’s first-term energy task force and probably including the use of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Pelosi denied Republican allegations that a Democratic House would move quickly to impeach President Bush. But, she said of the planned investigations, “You never know where it leads to.” Pelosi said 50 Republican seats are in play, while fewer than 10 Democratic seats face strong challenges.

A recent mailing by Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, warned that Democrats “will call for endless congressional investigations and possibly call for the impeachment of President Bush!”

To anyone who doubts the stakes for the White House in this year’s midterm Congressional elections, consider that Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the Democrat who would become chairman of the Judiciary Committee if his party recaptured the House, has called for an inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Bush over the war in Iraq.

Or listen to Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, who would run the Senate Judiciary Committee if the Democrats took the Senate. Mr. Leahy vowed in a recent interview to subpoena top administration officials, if he got the chance, to answer more questions about their secret eavesdropping program and what he considers faulty prewar intelligence.

“We are more and more confident that we are going to have the responsibility of leading the House, so we have to prepare,” said House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (Md.). Hoyer added that he would like to see investigations into the extent of domestic wiretapping by the National Security Agency, and the billions of dollars wasted by contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This year the usually dull midterm elections will take on great prominence. The Democrats have either promised or hinted at crashing Bush’s war on terror, raising the minumum wage, repealing tax cuts, raise taxes to handle the deficit, and impeachment of the President.

1. Will you get off your lazy butt and vote on November 7?
2. Will you get off your lazy butt and contact your Conservative representatives and demand that they get off their lazy butts and do something good for our country?
3. Will our elected representatives, still drunk with power from the 2000/2002/2004 elections, get off their lazy butts and listen to us instead of the New York Times editorial page?

Republican, Mehlman, GOP, Pelosi, Democrat, Bush, Dole, Conyers, Leahy, Hoyer

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