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News/Politics 11-5-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. Ride the Wave.

From TheAP  ” Riding a powerful wave of voter discontent, resurgent Republicans captured control of the Senate and tightened their grip on the House Tuesday night in elections certain to complicate President Barack Obama’s final two years in office.

Republican Mitch McConnell led the way to a new Senate majority, dispatching Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky after a $78 million campaign of unrelieved negativity. Voters are “hungry for new leadership. They want a reason to be hopeful,” said the man now in line to become majority leader and set the Senate agenda.

Two-term incumbent Mark Pryor of Arkansas was the first Democrat to fall, defeated by freshman Rep. Tom Cotton. Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado was next, defeated by Rep. Cory Gardner. Sen. Kay Hagan also lost, in North Carolina, to Thom Tillis, the speaker of the state House.

Republicans also picked up seats in Iowa, West Virginia, South Dakota and Montana, all states where Democrats retired. They had needed a net gain of six seats to end a Democratic majority in place since 2006.

In the House, with dozens of races uncalled, Republicans had picked up 11 seats that had been in Democratic hands, and given up only one.”

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2. I’m kind of glad she won because she has some explaining to do.

From FoxNews  “Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was looped in on a plan with Lois Lerner and President Barack Obama’s political appointee at the IRS to lead a program of harassment against conservative nonprofit groups during the 2012 election, according to letters exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) did not want to publicly release 2012 correspondences exchanged between the IRS and Jeanne Shaheen at her personal Washington office: the agency delayed releasing the information to a major conservative super PAC multiple times, even threatening to see the super PAC in court, according to emails.

But the letter in question comes out now, on the eve of Jeanne Shaheen’s bid for re-election to the United States Senate.

“The IRS is aware of the current public interest in this issue,” IRS chief counsel William J. Wilkins, a White House visitor described by insiders as “The President’s Man at the IRS,” personally wrote in a hand-stamped memo to “Senator Shaheen” on official Department of the Treasury letterhead on April 25, 2012.”

This proves that it was a lie that this was just rogue agents in Cincinnati. Democrats and the White House orchestrated it.

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3. And in other election eve/night news dumps….

From NationalReview  “Justice Department officials provided House investigators with thousands of documents related to Operation Fast and Furious that President Obama had previously claimed were exempt from congressional review.

In an “election eve dump,” as House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) put it, DOJ handed over 64,280 pages of documents, a release that is still only a partial fulfillment of the committee’s request.

“This production is nonetheless a victory for the legislative branch, a victory for transparency, and a victory for efforts to check Executive Branch power,” Issa said of the release.”

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4. Now maybe some of those House passed bills will see the light of day in the Senate. Harry being bounced is an extra bonus.

From Politico  “Chuck Todd seems to believe that Harry Reid’s days as the top Senate Democrat are through.

“I don’t think — I will be surprised if Democrats keep Harry Reid,” Todd, the moderator of NBC’s “Meet The Press,” said late Tuesday night. “I think this is going to be an open question inside the Senate Democratic Caucus.”

Todd’s remark, made during a late night NBC News livestream, was among the boldest calls made by a member of the media on Tuesday, and certainly the most dire for the current Majority Leader. It’s not an unfair projection, either. As Nevada’s Jon Ralson recently reported, Reid’s “vaunted political machine” failed to drive Democrats to the polls this year, and Reid’s poor Senate stewardship has “induced senators and candidates he has helped to muse openly about not voting for him as leader.”

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32 thoughts on “News/Politics 11-5-14”

  2. Though the Republicans picked up the needed seats, I think they need a different leader than someone who has been in Washington too long. Sometimes I think Mr. McConnell is Democrat light.

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  3. I have not had much time to be on this thread lately. I did receive an email yesterday that Dr. Ben Carson will run if the Senate is taken by the Republicans. You may have already posted that.

    Considering what we have been through with healthcare lately, I hope Dr. Carson will play a major role in 2016.

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  8. Well, last night turned out about as well as Republicans/conservatives could have hoped. Now to see what they do with it.

    I don’t know much about Scott Walker but like the idea of a new face. I’m not, so far, very impressed by any of the rest who have been floated as presidential possibilities. Sigh.

    (I love Ben Carson but don’t think he’d be ready to be president since he’s never even held public office of any kind; vp or a cabinet post maybe, though.)

    Not that we’re planning ahead or anything …

    What a mess the country is in after 6 years, though. Do we now get to “blame Obama” for everything that goes wrong for the next decade+?

    Karma. 😉

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  9. And while last night’s results were somewhat heartening — at least the Obama administration will be restrained in some things over its final 2 years — I don’t have a lot of confidence in what it all means for the future. Conservatives remain in general, unfocused disarray and the electorate is generally, well, just ticked off with both sides. 🙂 Since the Dems hold the White House, they took the beating this time around.

    But approval ratings for the GOP aren’t so grand overall and that’s got to be somehow turned around.

    Conservatives — and this is where the libertarians & GOP will have to somehow get it together and heal that growing faction within the party’s own ranks — have their work cut out for them in the next couple years to better articulate a better, alternative vision for the country & to regain the trust of the average guy.

    And the emergence of a charismatic, fresh new leader or two wouldn’t hurt, either.

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  10. All the Democrat incumbents in Connecticut have been re-elected. (But still haven’t seen the final results of the governor’s race.) ;-(

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  12. Much angst on FB this morning. Post from a Dem friend, citing the Dow and other “positive” numbers under the ‘successful’ sitting president that voters somehow ignored:

    “It’s the politics of fear & the tyranny of the minority. Now that the minority is the majority maybe Democrats will wake up & help people see that Obama isn’t the problem. Congress, the right wing & Fox News are”

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  13. power line has a number of good posts this morning in the wake of the election, among them this one:

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/11/messages-and-messengers.php

    ” … Voters are obviously over their infatuation with President Obama, but it isn’t just that. They are looking for new leadership. Many have commented on how ineffective Bill and Hillary Clinton were on the campaign trail. Did they campaign for anyone who won his or her race? I don’t think so. Bill is looking more cadaverous with every day that goes by, and Hillary will be nearing 70 when she cranks up her presidential campaign next year. I don’t think the voters who pulled the lever for new-generation Republicans last night (along with, to be fair, old-timers like Roberts, McConnell et al, as no significant Republican incumbent lost) will be in a back-to-the-90s mood in 2016.

    “Republicans not only have won the issue war, at least for the time being, they are also well-stocked with a new generation of leaders. Whom can the Democrats, an increasingly geriatric party, stack up against Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, John Kasich, John Thune, Ted Cruz, and many more? …

    “… So for the next two years, Republicans need to show that they can govern. They need to turn the free market, limited government principles that voters instinctively embraced this year into effective public policy. If they can do that, they could be poised for an era of dominance over a Democratic Party whose ideological bankruptcy has been laid bare.”

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  14. My most political friend, alas, is not optimistic the current bunch of Republican leaders will do much different. We need to pray and focus on God changing hearts rather than expecting man to do so.

    Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.

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  15. michelle, good point.

    But good leaders can also provide a way for the people to see more clearly. I wouldn’t write off some of the new faces so quickly. I suspect there’s some talent and wisdom in some of those folks.

    And sometimes just the sheer momentum that comes from a win like last night’s can energize leaders to think more clearly and be bolder in their vision for the future. Of course, it can also lead to hubris & gloating & lording it over the “other” side in power plays.

    Let’s pray last night results in the former.

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  18. Well one thing will certainly change. The 200-300 bills passed by the House and sitting on Reid’s desk will now come to votes. Now Dems won’t be able to hide their positions, which is why Reid held most of them, so they didn’t have to choose a side.

    It will also show willfully ignorant Dems who the real obstructionists were.

    Or not. Probably not. But at least the voting public will notice. I would send each up after first reminding everyone who held these in many cases bi-partisan jobs bills up. Remind everyone that it could have passed sooner had Harry and Dems done their jobs. Point out at every opportunity who the real obstructionists were.

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  19. The liberals at our local propaganda outlet are awful quiet this morning. They posted one story about R’s taking the Senate, but the cowards closed comments. I wonder why?

    But they managed 4 stories on the Obama wannabe Wolf taking the gov’s job, and with comments open, of course. Liberals are such sore losers. 🙂

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  20. Ah, here’s another FB opinion (you are stupid, beyond help and everything that goes wrong is still and always will be Bush’s fault, just in case you were wondering): 🙂

    “Stupid continues to vote red. How poor do they wanna be this time? After the Bush years, how could any human vote red, ever again? Any women who votes red is beyond help! Anyone who votes red deserves the results! Once again, Canada’s looking good. Denmark is, too.”

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  21. Simple question for those of you who know.
    When does the new Congress sit?
    i.e. When does Harry Reid step down?

    pl. I hope Donna’s friend goes to Denmark. That is more to her liking.

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  23. Albert Mohler on Twitter just now:

    albertmohler ‏@albertmohler
    In leadership style, compare Pres Obama today with Bill Clinton in the same situation. The first thing Clinton knew to do was to smile.

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  24. Worth a read on why religious freedom is so central:

    ” … philosopher Luc Ferry, an atheist… wrote that ‘Christianity was to introduce the notion that humanity was fundamentally identical, that men were equal in dignity—an unprecedented idea at the time, and one to which our world owes its entire democratic inheritance.’

    “But Christianity’s contribution to our “democratic inheritance” was not limited to its ideas about human equality. It was Christianity that taught the West that there are limits to the state’s power and it made our ideas about human freedom possible. …”

    http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/26345

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  26. I’m talking to my self, but this is interesting from Chris Matthews, no less:

    MSNBC host Chris Matthews expressed dismay over President Obama’s post-election press conference on Wednesday, calling him entirely deaf to the millions of Americans who voted against his plan to grant executive amnesty for as many as 6 million illegal immigrants. ….

    “There’s something in this guy that just plays to his constituency, and acts like there’s no other world out there,” the MSNBC host lamented. “And that’s going to be a collision at the end of this year like you’ve never seen. I do believe it’s will be waving a red flag in front of the bull. I think Mitch McConnell’s headed for a fight with the president.”

    http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/392152/chris-matthews-obama-acts-theres-no-other-world-out-there-his-brendan-bordelon

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  27. I’m reading ya, Donna. 🙂

    The governor’s race in Connecticut has been decided, in favor of Dannel Malloy, the Democrat incumbent.

    It was interesting to me that when Malloy ran for governor back in 2010, he went by Dan. Shortly after being elected, he informed us that he wanted to be known by his real name – Dannel (not Daniel). I wondered why he didn’t use that name during the campaign. Did he think people wouldn’t vote for someone with a different kind of name?

    (I also wonder if Dannel was supposed to be Daniel, but his mom got it a bit wrong. Or maybe she meant for him to be Dannel.)

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