Sen. McCain & the Senate GOP
April 12th, 2008 at 02:39am Geoff
The priority for Sen. McCain and his supporters is obviously winning the election for President of the United States this fall, but it must also be remembered that lonely victories can be and usually are very hollow victories. To be more specific, the Senate GOP is in danger of losing enough seats this cycle to cripple or negate their ability to filibuster Democratic bills and/or to use the inevitability thereof to influence legislation.
Sen. McCain has a role to play in preventing this, part of which is self-evident. By running strong in November, and hopefully winning, he solidifies the political standing of Republican candidates down ballot and terminates the possibility of a Democratic landslide.
But in addition to this, two Republican seats are open in New Mexico and Colorado, Southwest/Mountain West states where Sen. McCain, hailing from the similarly-situated Arizona, can be of particular assistance. His appeal in this region is strong and he can boost the Republican candidates in these races by appearing with them on the trail and in television and radio spots. These are already battleground states for the presidential election so he already has incentive to appear there and doing so will not be a diversion.
If the Republicans win these contests and GOP losses are minimized in the Senate nationally—and he wins the presidency—Sen. McCain will have provided himself a stronger legislative hand entering the White House. If he loses his bid but Republicans still maintain the general nature of their status quo position, then he will still have helped prevent a potential massive liberal transformation of the federal government, which is not in the country’s interest
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2 Comments Add your own
1. congressive | April 12th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Senate GOP is in danger of losing enough seats this cycle to cripple or negate their ability to filibuster Democratic bills and/or to use the inevitability thereof to influence legislation.
Why is that?
Personally I think it would be a very prudent idea for Republicans to get together NOW and impeach Bush and Cheney for their horrific abuse of executive privilege and power and especially for their recent “we tortured - So?” confessions, or all the precedents set by them will be passed on to Obama and he will be untouchable, which even I, as a SuperLiberal, think is a very very bad idea. No branch of government, regardless of party, should be untouchable. Ever.
But you just couldn’t do it, could you?
2. congressive | April 12th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Hmmm, about that “preview” button…
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