Yeah...my guess is that Boehner is going to have to step in and shut Issa down
If Boehner steps in and stop Issa, it will humiliate Issa and cause the republican’s to doubt his (Boehner) ability to lead and cause the people of the United States to doubt anything and everything produced by Issa’s committee. - Win for Democrats
If Boehner does not step in, Issa continues and causes the “select” committee to fail. Win for Democrats.
Either way, Kerry’s move is smart and will cause a major case of heartburn in the republican side of the House.
No doubt, the Republican base voters are fired up and eager to exact revenge on the Democrats, which might “nationalize” the races.
However, I feel there might be mitigating factors that could play to the Democrats’ advantage and hopefully drive up turnout:
Several unpopular GOP governors are up for re-election;
More than 20 GOP-led states refused to expand Medicaid, which might lead to a voter backlash;
Millions of people are now insured thanks to the ACA, which could blunt some of the “ObamacareGhazi!!”-style attacks coming from the Right;
The Moral Monday movement in North Carolina has the potential to go viral;
Continued voter suppression attempts could backfire and fuel the determination of minorities, students, etc. to vote;
Continued attempts by state legislatures to restrict abortion rights could lead to a female backlash;
Rep. Burr’s insensitive letter decrying some Veterans’ groups for not being sufficiently supportive of a Secretary Shinseki ouster in the wake of troubling news at some VA clinics – and the rapid condemnation of Burr by said Veterans’ groups – could peel off some normally-reliable veterans’ and senior citizens votes from the Republican column;
Some states will have a medical marijuana referendum on the ballot; which could boost youth turnout;
and, the wild cards: the potential impact of the involvement of Bill & Hillary Clinton and the group Organizing for America in this year’s campaigns.
I don’t know how all this will wash out, but it could lead to unpredictable results.
In 2012 Democrats received more than 1 million more House votes than Republicans did, and they still didn’t take the House. I seem to remember seeing an analysis around that time that posited that Dems would need to secure about 57-58% of the House vote nationally to offset the 2010 gerrymandering of House districts.
In a midterm year I just don’t see it happening. Even though we’re starting to see that ObamaCare is working, and it’s slowly gaining popular support, the MSM will go all-in with their Democrat bashing (or simply repeating GOP lies) and whitewashing of the abysmal accomplishments of the GOP during this congress.
I almost never talk to Republican voters, or if I do, we don’t touch politics, so I don’t really know what they’re thinking right now, but if they’ve come this far and were still voting GOP as recently as the GWB years, what could possibly make them change their minds now?
Perhaps - but I think even republicans have a tipping point.
And I suppose I am wondering about the non-big mouth Republicans - they do exist.
Case in point - in Kentucky primaries last Tuesday:
Republican candidates in the Senate race got 355,000 votes. Democrats got 404,000 votes.
And that is not taking into consideration some Tea Party voters who will not vote for McConnell come November.
Boy I don’t know if it is just wishful thinking on my part -
but I sense some big surprises come November as to
the “conventional wisdom” concerning Gerrymandering.
Reminds me of every Young Republican on campus – the ones always with a thuggish aspect to them. They liked to bully, but when challenged, turned into little girls.
If you check out the real story (not the “Swift-Boat” slander!) of Kerry as a US Navy lieutenant in combat in Vietnam, you will get the sense if his ability as a tactician — which he does not seem to have lost.
Interesting statistic re: primary vote tallies in KY.
I have my own wishful thinking (in KY, GA, NC) that I’m nervous to even acknowledge at this point.
I suppose we simply don’t know what the narrative will be in a few months regarding ObamaCare, GOP intransigence, GOP witch hunts, the GOP rejection of the medicaid expansion, unpopular GOP guvs, etc. so anything is possible. I’ve got my fingers crossed for a huge number of GOP scandals in the meantime.
JACK: Chloe, the fate of Free America depends on us! We’ve got to help Senator Gowdy nail Kerry to the wall!
CHLOE: Like chill out, Jack. Everybody knows Benghazi is a scam.
JACK: I don’t care about your geeky facts and stuff! This is enough scandal to blow up half of Washington! You’ve got to hack Kerry’s GPS and redirect him to that hearing!
CHLOE: Like, I can’t, Jack. He’s already gonna totally talk to Issa and say nothing.
