<p>I don’t think bi-partisanship is the most imminent hurdle facing the Democratic Party. They are going to have to get their act together internally. Overwhelmingly conservative issues were affirmed in this latest election despite the loss of conservative leadership in Congress. And things are getting a little testy among the House Democrats already. Pelosi is encouraging Murtha to make a move on Hoyer for the number two spot. She has also promised to oust fellow Democrat Jane Harman from the House Intelligence Committee, but that will leave Alcee Hastings, who was impeached for bribery, in charge…and most Democrats aren’t gonna go for that.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see her herding cats as she tries to appease the far left progressives while honoring the demands of the people who have clearly their more moderate to conservative wishes known.</p>
<p>First up. The ‘fence’ and the guest worker program. We’ll see.</p>
<p>SJMom, why do you expect to receive more consideration than your party has given for the past six years? Your party will actually receive more, not that you necessarily deserve it. But the whine from the GOP ranks for a spirit of bi-partisanship now is laughable and disingenuous. As ye have sown, so shall ye reap, know what I mean?</p>
<p>LDMom, one of the vulnerabilities of the Republican party is the insistence on lock-step robotic behavior. I think Democrats are more big-tent and things will be a little more chaotic and a lot less disciplined…and I’m okay with that.
Better that then the Stepford Congressmen (and women) on the other side of the aisle.</p>
<p>I don’t think “the fence” is happening. There will be posturing and rhetoric, maybe token amounts of construction for a few hundred yards, and then budget priorities will kick in. Aw, gee, that’s too bad.</p>
<p>Is this the official election decryption thread?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The dems gained lots of ground (duh), but it’s far from a fundamental shift in political power. Most of those races were tight. If 50,000 votes had shifted in the right districts, the repubs would still control both houses. Out of something like 200,000,000 voting-age citizens, that’s tight.</p></li>
<li><p>The repubs lost ground in every single micro-constituency. Fundamental shifts in political power don’t work like that. Go back and look at races like 1968, 1980, and 1994 to see what real shifts in the body politic look like. Since the repubs lost ground evenly across the electorate, it is pretty clear that this was more of a current-events election than one which demonstrated a fundamental shift in political power. Unless Bush retains his now-legendary political tin ear, I would expect fairly sizable repub gains in the 2008 congressional elections, and another brutally close presidential election. </p></li>
<li><p>The next two years are going to be fun to watch.</p></li>
</ol>
Stocks are an inspired idea. I was just thinking of regular ol’ prison. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cable stock but it does sound pretty sturdy.;)</p>
<p>I do think there will be lots of politeness to Bush from the Republican operatives during the dead-duck session. Everybody will be saying “Pardon me”. ;)</p>
<p>OK, then, here’s another prediction based on nothing much: the dems will not haul leading Bush administration officials through anything resembling impeachment procedings. The electorate doesn’t really like witch hunts, and I think Pelosi would rather be remembered as the architect of the New New Deal than as the Leader of the NeoHUAC. There will be a certain number of teevee-heavy hearings, I suppose, but I doubt it will go anywhere.</p>
<p>"LDMom, one of the vulnerabilities of the Republican party is the insistence on lock-step robotic behavior. I think Democrats are more big-tent and things will be a little more chaotic and a lot less disciplined…and I’m okay with that.</p>
<h2>Better that then the Stepford Congressmen (and women) on the other side of the aisle."</h2>
<p>Wow you are pretty testy TD, or may I say…snarky. ;)</p>
<p>I suspect you haven’t met very many real Republicans. We too have our issues…and no, we aren’t all in the boat, rowing in the same direction, singing kumbayah to each other. Yesterday, I listened incredulously to some far right Republicans claiming Bush sabatoged the elections so he can push through his more socially liberal ideas …like the guest worker program. Say what? And then you have the Rush-lovers who call middle of the road Republicans every name in the book and claiming this particular segment of our party are frauds and the true enemy. Meanwhile back on the farm, there are those of us who consider ourselves reasonable and wonder how our party got hijacked. Not unlike those moderate Democrats who cringed everytime Al Gore went off on another far left wing pandering tangental.</p>
<p>Nope…‘lockstep’ is definitely not the word to describe Republicans. That’s just liberal laziness at work.</p>
<p>Btw…I’m not crying about the fence. It’s a dumb idea. Border security needs to be enhanced, but in other, smarter ways. And a guest worker program works for me, especially if we can get these workers to pay taxes to cover all those social services consumed.</p>
<p>LDMom, I actually know quite a few Republicans…an occupational and social hazard. As individuals you may not be all in agreement, but the Republicans in Congress have had a party-loyalty record in excess of 90 percent in the House, an artifact of Hastert’s “the majority of the Majority” doctrine. Democrats always lag Republicans in cohesiveness on party-line voting but the spread has widened. </p>
<p>Of course, I think some Republicans may start bailing as Bush becomes an even lamer duck and they look to their own fortunes in light of yesterday’s election results. </p>
<p>Plus it’s virtually certain that Democrats, controlling the agendas on both sides of Capitol Hill, will start bringing up many votes that will be just painful for Republicans to vote against…or the President to veto. Fine with me. We may lose some battles but the illuminating differences will help us win Act II.</p>
<p>NMD (not to be confused with WMD): not only did we do the trifecta we may have done the unique…not having lost a single seat on any of those levels. That’s never been done before by a party, not even the GOP in the 1994 wave. The GA-08 hasn’t been called yet but Barrow (D) is up by 888 votes, there are only three counties outstanding with 11, 10, and 2 percent of the vote remaining to be counted, and Barrow is leading in two out of the three with the Republican-leaning county having a fairly small number of votes…a long-winded way of saying, “I’m on it and I think we do it.”</p>
<p>LDMom, many illegals pay taxes and then don’t dare show up to collect services they’re due. The “illegals are a drain on services” tends to be vastly overstated.</p>
<p>But the proof will be in the pudding and I look forward to Republican shills and enablers having to wipe it from their faces while they go looking for a new set of talking points.</p>
<p>Some other points very pleasant to digest at this point:</p>
<p>1) Republicans touted 2006 as the Year of the Black Republican. Swann, Blackwell, and Steele, all down in flames. Suckers. (The GOP, not SBS.)</p>
<p>2) As has been reported elsewhere, the South takes it in the chin. For the first time since the days of FDR, a majority of Southern seats are not with the controlling party on either side of Capitol Hill.</p>
<p>3) Conversely, as a result of this election, the GOP becomes both more Southern and even more conservative on the the elected level. I forget whether I first twigged to this in '96 or '98, but the inroads the GOP made into the South starting with 1968 and culminating in 1994 moved the GOP’s center-of-gravity into the South. They assembled national legislative majorities by gaining the South while holding on to their previous bases in the Northeast and Midwest. But time is taking its toll as the old GOP officeholders retire or are defeated. I think Chris Shays will be the only GOP Congressman left in New England, Gov. Carcieri had a very close call in Rhode Island, and the seats of the Maine Senators would be heavily favored to go Democratic when Snowe and Collins retire. </p>
<p>The Midwest is also trending Blue. Illinois, which used to be a bellwether state, turned Blue long ago. Pennsylvania just suffered the Night of the Long Knives and I think a lot of the changes in Ohio may be permanent as well…certainly the GOP bench in Ohio has been eviscerated. Colorado is not only Purple but a bluish-purple at that and I won’t be surprised at all if Colorado goes Democratic in 2008. Montana, Nevada, and even Arizona have prospects of bluing as well.</p>
<p>4) Arnold notwithstanding, California is becoming impregnable against conservative Republicans on a statewide level. Even with a no-contest in the Governor’s and Senate races at the top of the ticket, Democrats swept the rest of the statewide races except for Insurance Commissioner, where a lot of us agreed that the Democratic candidate was an unethical hack. The Republicans have probably picked up one State Senate seat in Orange County…important because it will drop Democratic control of the Senate under the 2/3 needed to pass budgets and stuff.</p>