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Streetcar Line
Things I Think About These Elections
Where national politics stand now.
I think that if somebody had told me six months ago that Republicans, led by conservatives, would gain more than 60 net seats in the House, I would have laughed at the absurdity of it and then, if convinced it were true, would have hyperventilated with joy.
I think if somebody had told me the same thing even three weeks ago, I would have said I doubted it was true — and if it did prove true, I would have smiled more inerasably than the Cheshire Cat. And if somebody had told me eight days ago, I would have still been skeptical.
I think, though, that the final Gallup generic poll made me greedy. Now I’m quite happy, but still keep focusing on races where conservatives fell short even though I suddenly had come to count on them winning. A 61- to 66-seat gain seems actually a small disappointment because Ryan Frazier in Colorado, Keith Fimian in Virginia (apparently, although it’s still not official), Van Tran in California, Charles Djou in Hawaii, and Jackie Walorski in Indiana all fell short. I really liked what I had seen about those five, in particular.
I am absolutely ecstatic that my friend Tim Griffin is a congressman-elect from Arkansas. I have known Tim ever since he came from Tulane Law up to D.C. for the first time in about 1994 or so, where even before I met him I was advised that he was very ambitious for office but in a way that was endearing rather than off-putting. The advice was right. There is something refreshing about somebody who is guilelessly open about his ambition while completely sincere about his beliefs. Tim, who did phenomenal work at the RNC and in the Bush White House before serving as a U.S. Attorney in his native Arkansas, is absolutely brilliant, and he will almost assuredly be a national political star before long.
Other particularly gratifying House wins were achieved by Renee Ellmers in North Carolina and Tim Scott in South Carolina (I liked both when I interviewed them for columns or blog features), by Allen West in Florida (an incredibly eloquent advocate for a strong defense posture), and by the very sharp former Rep. Steve Pearce in New Mexico. Ditto for Lou Barletta in Pennsylvania, who I really liked when I interviewed him in 2008, and for former Rep. Steve Chabot, a solid conservative who made a comeback in Ohio.
On the other hand, I think that if you had told me in February that Harry Reid would be re-elected, I may have wanted to crawl under a rock and cry for about two weeks straight. I also would not have believed that even the dysfunctional Nevada Republican Party could have found a way to lose that race. The loss by Sharon Angle, whose campaign was a mess, is a disaster. And U.S. Rep. Dean Heller should be widely castigated for declining a chance to run; he would have won both the primary and the general election with ease.
I think that overall the GOP Senate results were disappointing — good, but no better than I would have expected back in February or so. Ken Buck would have made a good senator, but he ran a flawed general election campaign and lost that race in Colorado which he should have won. Dino Rossi may go down to a third straight excruciatingly heartbreaking defeat (okay, two defeats and a loss by larceny), although there is still a chance as I write this that he might pull it out. A month ago I really thought Carly Fiorina in California, John Raese in West Virginia, and Linda McMahon in Connecticut all had almost even-money chances to win. And if Joe Miller lost to the insufferable Lisa Murkowski’s write-in campaign in Alaska (still up in the air), after several faux-pas moments in the past few weeks, then all conservatives should be both flabbergasted and extremely frustrated.
Nevertheless, I think Republicans have some superb new senators. Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, and Pat Toomey will be tremendous additions to the U.S. Capitol. And Dan Coats’ return to the Senate from Indiana is a welcome development, too: He’s a good man, and more conservative than the majority of the GOP caucus in the Senate. (Rob Portman from Ohio will be an establishment choice for vice president in 2012, by the way, and conservatives certainly could and have in the past done worse. And Kelly Ayotte from New Hampshire has real talent, although she may not be as solidly conservative as we would like.)
I think that bipartisanship will be even harder than before in the House. Not that I have anything against the Republicans who beat Missouri’s Ike Skelton and Georgia’s Jim Marshall, for instance, but if I had any two Democrats I would like to see continue in office (if I could pick up two GOP seats elsewhere, such as Fimian and Frazier), it would be Skelton and Marshall. Both are strongly pro-defense, and pro-life, moderate on fiscal matters, and men of integrity and decency. Marshall also had proposed a constructive plan for health care. People like that are needed to provide a bridge between the parties. Even if it is good that their replacements will provide more reliable conservative votes, the body politic is diminished when people like that are no longer in office. (Ditto, on the GOP side, for the sincere and hard-working Joseph Cao from New Orleans, who was shellacked after both major publications in New Orleans incomprehensibly endorsed his opponents and after the Family Research Council ran absolutely bizarre radio ads against him — thus helping defeat a firmly pro-life congressman on behalf of a pro-choice leftist.)
I think John Kasich’s victory for governor of Ohio is wonderful news. I don’t quite understand why Kasich’s race was so close when Portman won so easily for Senate, but Kasich will be a real asset for the people of the Buckeye State. The straight skinny on Kasich is that he can be annoying as hell to be around, because he is so headstrong, but he is a true conservative and a talented communicator. He also will be a real asset for conservatives in Ohio both in redistricting and for the 2012 campaign.
I think that Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina is one of the greatest conservative Senate heroes since Robert Taft. His colleagues can’t stand his stands on principle, but without his leadership the tea parties may have felt so disaffected from Republicans that they went their own way in third parties rather than worked to re-energize the GOP. And he was dead right about Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey when John Cornyn was playing footsie with Charlie Crist and Arlen Specter. Thanks almost solely to DeMint, the odds that a majority of new Republicans in both houses of Congress will be “co-opted” by the despicable Washington establishment, as per the offensive comment by Trent Lott, are far, far lower than they otherwise would have been. (Speaking of which: When did a body-snatcher take over Trent Lott’s earthly figure? The Lott of the 1970s, '80s, and early '90s was one of the best conservative legislators of his era; but by the turn of the millennium, boy-oh-boy, did he ever go wrong!)
I think California is a heart-rending disaster area for Republicans and conservatives both. Two decades ago, it was still seen as a solidly conservative state — but once it flipped overnight, it never went back. Carly Fiorina ran a spirited campaign against the unpopular and execrable Barbara Boxer, but still got flattened. Conservatives are no longer totally dominant in Orange County; they do worse among Hispanics than they should; they should do far better in entrepreneurial Silicon Valley than they do; they should do better in rural areas particularly, and among a populace statewide that should be smart enough to recognize that it is gagging on taxes and regulations. The man or woman who can pick the lock of California to get it back for conservatives will be in line to be the next great American president.
Finally, aside from all my “we-can-do-even-better” worry-wart warnings, and aside from the huge message that needs to be understood that the real, hard work hasn’t even started, it is important not to forget to marvel and rejoice at the wisdom of the American people and the Madisonian constitutional system. Americans love freedom. Americans resent big government. Americans want to forge their own destinies rather than have those destinies designed by central government planners. Americans remain a center-right populace. And Americans know how to react, through constructive civic action, when politicians forget or ignore these realities.
Tuesday’s elections were the biggest victory for constitutional liberty, and for conservatives, since Ronald Reagan swept into office, carrying a Senate majority with him, in 1980. Even though a statist Alinskyite now controls the Oval Office, the American people have shown, unmistakably, that they won’t easily let their beloved country be transformed into a leftist dystopia. The American people rose up on Tuesday, and the cause of freedom won.
About the Author
Quin Hillyer is a senior editor of The American Spectator and a senior fellow at the Center for Individual Freedom. Follow him on Twitter @QuinHillyer.
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Booger | 11.4.10 @ 6:22AM
From the desk of Congressman Bob Etheridge:
Who ARE you? Get over here and answer me! Who ARE you? I don't answer your questions, you answer MY questions! You think it's funny I didn't get re-elected? C'mere! Now! You want a piece of this? I will kick you *** up between you ears and **** down your neck. Who ARE you?
Where do you MORONS get off voting for that whiny little wanna-be nurse? I'll kick all you ****** from here to next year. Who ARE you people? Where do you think you get off voting for somebody else? This is MY district. Get over here you sons of *******, I'm gonna **** you up like you've never been ****** up before.
Hey! Turn that camera off! What? No, I'm just havin' a little friendly chat with one of my constituents. Hey, get your hands off me! You can't arrest me, I'm a Congressman. Well, I used to be. Hey, wait, no.....
http://beautifulletters-bls.blogspot.com/
John McG| 11.4.10 @ 9:17AM
Let's hope he remains ex-congressman, Booger. Etheridge has miraculously found 453 missing votes -- ALL FOR HIM! -- in Samson County (county seat, Clinton, a few miles west of Turkey) that puts him within the 1% needed for a recount. Will wonders never cease?
http://tinyurl.com/23vmxl6
John McG| 11.4.10 @ 9:24AM
Oops! Typo above. It's Sampson County.
Deborah D | 11.5.10 @ 5:11AM
Well, dang. I'm so sick of these people who lose and then keep counting until they win. NC has been a Dem state for forever (at least in the state legislature). We finally get rid of the majority of D's in the statehouse and we get sleezeballs like this guy trying to steal the election. Where does he think he lives? Chicago? or King County, WA?
Tim*| 11.4.10 @ 6:48AM
We tea Party rebels are urging Our Tea Party Kingmaker & The Senate Point Man Senator Jim DeMint to ruh for The Presidency in 2012,
The Tea Party Rebellion is now Inside Congress & Inside The GOP.
Carpe Diem.
Appleby| 11.4.10 @ 6:53AM
I hope the next election will not be a Punch and Judy Show, but instead will be at least in some areas a matter of civilized discourse. I would like to see the end of Liberal Broads spewing language that would make a sailor blush, when speaking of Conservative women. I would like less high school behaviour from everybody, please; Daddy told us way back before Governor Moonbeam was in his first incarnation in California, that *You Stink!* is not an argument. Neither, in these more profane times, is Eff Yew.
And by the way, I would like to see a comedian arise who could say three words without one of those words being either F**k or S**t.
c. j. acworth| 11.4.10 @ 7:45AM
Appleby, get yourself some CD's of Bill Cosby's old routines. He cracked me up in the 60's and 70's and he still does.
The Clintidote| 11.6.10 @ 4:47AM
Cosby's old standup is much, much better than that horrid mess of a TV show he did with the fake-cutsey "family". Man, that thing just reeks.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 11.4.10 @ 7:00AM
One thing is clear from the news coverage. The state run press was at first bewildered, then angry.
Anger is the first step of the grief process after you have lost loved ones.
The Republicans are in for the biggest battle of their political careers. It's already started.
Claims that Republicans are uninvited guests at the party by the press are bunk. If the Republicans have the gravitas that Karl Rove claims is necesssary to hold office, then they better start using it.
I know it's only been one day, but their responses so far have been tepid.
Claiming to roll back spending to 2008 when federal revenues have fallen to 2004 levels is dubious. They may not want to play their hand too soon and that's understandable.
They should declare the era of big spending is over and that the government is going to get out of the car business and the banking business. They also need to put a halter on the FED which is out of control.
In fact, there are many economists who feel the FED was a mistake and has contributed to the constant cycle of recession and recovery.
Siegfried X| 11.4.10 @ 7:15AM
"When did a body-snatcher take over Trent Lott's earthly figure? "
When the Republicans caved in to Democratic pressure by taking Lott's leadership away. From that moment forward Lott lived for only one thing: revenge (against Senate Republicans). In fact Lott's "co-op" comment shows the same deep smouldering bitterness..
a.m.| 11.6.10 @ 6:06PM
They had Trent Lott by the short hairs when someone discovered his rent boy--and no doubt coerced him to "share" the leadership (remember that?) when we had a majority. From then on he started voting much more liberal. Amazing what blackmail will do.
roadmaster| 11.7.10 @ 3:45PM
Lott began his career as a dem but changed parties in order to plot an easier route to office. He's about as conservative as Bob Dole, which isn't very. Just another go along/get along weepubican who is satisfied to suck hind teat behind the dhimmicrats.
Stormzeye| 11.4.10 @ 7:31AM
Watching Mitch McConnell last night gave me some hope. I think I detected a heartbeat and rapid breathing when he refused to back away from his WSJ quote that his goal was to deny Obama a second term. He may actually turn out to be a tough cookie. Now let's hope Boehner finds some serious resolve and commitment. The clear message they got from Americans all over the country hopefully will give them the confidence in conservative principles that the press attempts to erode daily with cynicism, lies and defeatism.
Siegfried X| 11.4.10 @ 8:19AM
It looks like Boehner / McConnell decided to play good cop / bad cop. Which makes sense since Boehner is the one with the majority.
JimH| 11.4.10 @ 8:27AM
I’d be careful about invoking the name of Robert Taft here. There are some readers who do not know the history of American Conservatism and would consider his non-interventionist stance to be isolationist an unpatriotic. On another point, the relative Republican failure in the Senate was largely due to the RNC’s failure to come up with strong conservative candidates on its own and was then left with moderate self financing candidates in California and Connecticut or ideologically pure but not ready for prime time candidates in Nevada and Delaware.
Intelligent Design| 11.4.10 @ 8:39AM
In addition to taking control of the U.S. House, Republicans gained over 500 state legislature seats, and many governorships: http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/results/governor
The Demo-Socialists are not in touch with reality. The people want the federal government to shrink. Congress should vote on the Fair Tax. The House should strip funding from Obamacare, assuming it can't be repealed yet.
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lost wax casting | 11.5.10 @ 3:43AM
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Oldefarte| 11.5.10 @ 2:45PM
Not to be overlooked, thank the Almighty that David Vitter of Louisiana was able to overcome not only the sleazy/traitorous attacks from his own state Republican Party operatives, but the Edwin Edwards cloned, cry-babyish Cajun assaults from the more sleazified Democrats of that state. Melancon is and would have been a typical Obama/Democratic mouthpiece, akin to the Louisiana Purchased Mary Landrieu who joined with other BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS in bringing about further distruction and embarrassment to not only the state of Louisiana but to the nation as a whole. Vitter was politically smeared for what was and should have been a private sexual indiscretion of his visitations with prostitutes. He did not steal taxpayer money or vote for socialistic welfare programs [as many Democrats of that state have done], and yet he was vilified for his private sin of shame [LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE]. This is comically ludicrous, since New Orleans
is/was akin to San Francisco in the percentage of amoral homosexuals and criminal murderers running its streets on a daily basis. Some morons conveniently forget the fact that that city's murder rate approximated that of Washington DC, and that same percentage only dropped/lessened when Hurricane Katrina flushed out the criminal elements from its neighborhoods and sent same to other parts of the country. In a POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK fashion, for political operative to lam bast Vitter for private indiscretions that neither hurt his constituents or the state he represents is [or should be] criminal, immoral and insane. What do these morons want, for a effective, intelligent, conservative representative to be replaced by a dumbass Cajun imbecile whose desire is to kiss the rears of the Pilosi's and Reid's of this country? Well, thank goodness, that intelligence and possibly devine providence intervened in providing for Vitter's overwhelming
re-election. As to Trent Lott, maybe he's just a tad pi&^ed off at so called [but actually RINO's] turning their backs on him [similar to some Louisiana Republicans over Vitter's issues] after his/Lott's birthday salute to an old man; and thereafter being politically crucified by the gutless Republicans that would not back him up. As one who VOTED THE STRAIGHT/ENTIRE REPUBLICAN TICKET [hey, if African Americans can vote for SKIN COLOR ONLY, then I'm justified, right?], I'll extend my congratulations to each and every Republican candidate of Tuesday, whether they won or not. The fight was/is good and I'm extremely proud of these patriotic Americans that are leading the charge in taking back out country. As previously stated folks, this is only the BEGINNING [not the END] and, as such does not call [as Boehner stated] for any celebrations. We still have a long long way to go before sanity is restored!!!!!
Kyle| 11.5.10 @ 4:05PM
Didn't Ike Skelton vote YES on Obamacare? He must have, because the only pro-lifer who voted NO was Lipinski from Illinois. Geez, Quin! Get a little basic background info, before spouting off that you wish we still had Ike Skelton in Congress because he is a pro-life Democrat who voted to fund abortions with tax money. Why are you still on this site, anyway? Amatuer!
Kyle | 11.5.10 @ 4:10PM
Mea culpa. I was mistaken. Skelton didn't vote for Obamacare. For some reason I thought he did. I should have checked. Sorry.
Yosemeti Sam| 11.6.10 @ 11:02AM
" ... I think that if somebody had told me six months ago that Republicans, led by conservatives, would gain more than 60 net seats in the House, I would have laughed at the absurdity of it ...."
But then, one cannot casually dismiss - BASIC INSTINCTS churning among the electorate.
An electorate LAUGHED AT: SCORNED and DISMISSED - why on Earth doubt at a reciprocative volcanic BLOWBACK?
emha_xp@yahoo.co.id | 11.6.10 @ 2:22PM
thank's i like your post
Occam's Tool| 11.8.10 @ 2:05AM
Hey guys: Jim Oberstar lost to Chip Cravaack. Oberstar had been Congressman from my district since 1974! He was an arrogant jerk, and he lost!