Talk about fear mongering!
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| Sun, 10-17-2004 - 2:00pm |
The very thought is the stuff nightmares are made of!![]()
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20041016-115126-5219r.htm
Going into next month's elections, the Republican Party maintains a razor-thin majority in the U.S. Senate. The 100-member Senate, which fancies itself as "The World's Greatest Deliberative Body," has 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and one independent, who operates as a de facto Democrat: Vermont's Jim Jeffords. Notwithstanding the narrowness of their majority, Republicans, of course, maintain a 100 percent monopoly on committee and subcommittee chairmanships, where so much in the body's power is wielded. Thus, if the Democratic Party captures a majority in the Senate on Nov. 2, the biggest prizes will be the powerful fiefdoms of the chairmanships and majority status on committees and subcommittees.
The conventional wisdom holds that Democrats are facing an uphill struggle in the increasingly Republican-dominated South following the retirement of five Southern Democratic senators this year. Nevertheless, recent history offers two major examples of unexpected senatorial developments during presidential-election years. In 1980, contrary to all expectations, the Democratic operational majority of 59-41 was obliterated, as Ronald Reagan's expansive coattails helped Republicans defeat nine incumbent Democrats, capture three open seats vacated by Democrats and retain control of all the GOP seats up for grabs. In a breathtaking victory, Republicans replaced the 18-seat Democratic majority with a six-seat majority (53-47) of their own. More recently, Republicans enjoyed a 54-46 majority before the 2000 election. Defeating five GOP incumbents in Michigan, Minnesota, Delaware, Washington and Missouri helped put Democrats in a position to snatch control of the Senate in the spring of 2001 when Mr. Jeffords bolted the GOP.
While President Bush will almost certainly roll up significant majorities in four of the five Southern states (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Louisiana) now being represented by retiring Democrats, it is by no means certain that his coattails will be Reaganesque. The upshot could well be a Democrat-controlled Senate, the consequences of which would be profound.
In the midst of the war on terror, Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, a former Secretary of the Navy, would be replaced by Carl Levin, who voted in 1991 and 2002 against authorizing the use of force against Saddam Hussein. Over the past 10 years, Mr. Levin has received an average "liberal quotient" score of 94.5 percent from Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), virtually indistinguishable from Ted Kennedy's 95.5 percent over the same period. Mr. Warner's comparable score is 11.5 percent.
Iowa's Tom Harkin — one of the staunchest liberal ideologues in the chamber — would take over the Senate Agriculture Committee. Delaware Democrat Joe Biden, who has a lifetime rating of 14 percent from the American Conservative Union (ACU), would become chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, replacing Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, whose lifetime ACU rating is 79 percent.
Liberal stalwart Paul Sarbanes of Maryland (1994-2003 average ADA rating: 97.5 percent) would become chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, replacing Sen. Richard Shelby, whose comparable ADA average rating is 8.5 percent. Meanwhile, Mr. Kennedy, with his aforementioned 10-year 95.5 percent ADA score, would become chairman of the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee in place of Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, whose 10-year ADA rating is 6 percent.
Should Democrats recapture the Senate but fail to win the White House, Republican senators could console themselves with the thought that John Kerry would become chairman of the Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee, where his potential to do damage would pale by comparison with what he could could have achieved in the Oval Office.
Renee ~~~
| Sun, 10-17-2004 - 6:34pm |
