Statistikhengst
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #101
Just on a side note: regardless who controls the Senate as of January 2015, the margin will be so slim that we will essentially be every bit as deadlocked in the legislative process as we are now.
Mitch McConnell, assuming he is re-elected and also elected by his colleagues to be Majority leader should the GOP take the Senate (and I think they will, indeed), could decide to completely nuke the filibuster and then also pass alot of stuff using reconciliation, but it only goes so far.
The HOR could be crazy enough to pass articles of Impeachment against our President, which would then die in the Senate, for there will never be enough votes to convict.
The Senate could try to defund parts of Obamacare, but that would end in disaster.
What a GOP controlled Senate CAN do would be to permanently stall any and all judicial nominations and of course, in the next two years, we could lose a Supreme Court justice, when you consider the age and health of a number of those nine justices.
I guess that's why I, as a Democrat, especially when considering the electoral history of US midterms, am less disturbed at a GOP takeover of the Senate. Plus, it could be very short-lived, with the real prospect of a Clinton prez landslide in 2016. To see what seats are up in 2016:
United States Senate elections 2016 - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
24 GOP seats will be up for grabs in 2016 and of the 10 DEM seats, only CO and NV (the same two where Democrats won in spite of a GOP wave in 2010 and also in spite of flawed polling) are somewhat competitive. The other 8 are very safe DEM seats.
So, I suspect that a GOP takeover of the Senate may be very short-lived and too much overreach would probably play right into Hillary Clinton's hands.
Mitch McConnell, assuming he is re-elected and also elected by his colleagues to be Majority leader should the GOP take the Senate (and I think they will, indeed), could decide to completely nuke the filibuster and then also pass alot of stuff using reconciliation, but it only goes so far.
The HOR could be crazy enough to pass articles of Impeachment against our President, which would then die in the Senate, for there will never be enough votes to convict.
The Senate could try to defund parts of Obamacare, but that would end in disaster.
What a GOP controlled Senate CAN do would be to permanently stall any and all judicial nominations and of course, in the next two years, we could lose a Supreme Court justice, when you consider the age and health of a number of those nine justices.
I guess that's why I, as a Democrat, especially when considering the electoral history of US midterms, am less disturbed at a GOP takeover of the Senate. Plus, it could be very short-lived, with the real prospect of a Clinton prez landslide in 2016. To see what seats are up in 2016:
United States Senate elections 2016 - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
24 GOP seats will be up for grabs in 2016 and of the 10 DEM seats, only CO and NV (the same two where Democrats won in spite of a GOP wave in 2010 and also in spite of flawed polling) are somewhat competitive. The other 8 are very safe DEM seats.
So, I suspect that a GOP takeover of the Senate may be very short-lived and too much overreach would probably play right into Hillary Clinton's hands.