by Mike Memoli
A panel of Democratic party officials in South Carolina Thursday reluctantly accepted results of a June 8 primary won by a complete unknown candidate who's become something of a national embarrassment. The candidate expected to win, Vic Rawl, protested the results as he and other Democrats suspect foul play. But the consternation obscures one undeniable reality: the party never realistically felt it had a chance to give incumbent Republican Jim DeMint a real challenge.
The situation in the Palmetto State speaks to a larger problem for Democrats. In two election cycles, the party went from minority to supermajority in the U.S. Senate. But now, the party is leaving as many as a dozen Republican-held seats on the table with either no credible challenger, or no candidate at all.
Initially, things looked bright for the party. The leadership was confident for most of 2009 that most, if not all of its incumbents were seeking re-election and mounting strong campaigns. Meanwhile, Republican incumbents in Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio and New Hampshire headed for the exits. Though recruiting efforts stalled in North Carolina and Illinois, the party felt strong about its candidates in the newly-vacated GOP seats, as well its challengers in places like Louisiana.
But Scott Brown's victory in the special election in Massachusetts started a chain of events that now has pundits looking at the possibility, albeit a slim one, of Republicans forcing a 50-50 Senate next term. With little notice, Senators Evan Bayh, Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan decided against seeking re-election - in the latter case with no clear candidate to run in his place. Beau Biden, expected to run for his father's former seat in Delaware, chose instead to seek re-election as attorney general. And once-safe incumbents in Arkansas, California and Washington began to seem increasingly vulnerable as the Republican fields grew.
For Republicans, the field of play moved almost completely to Democratic terrain. Of 11 seats where the party's incumbent is still eligible to seek a new term, eight are ranked as "Solidly Republican" by the respected non-partisan handicappers at the Cook Political Report, meaning that they are not considered competitive. The other three are ranked as "Likely Republican," not considered competitive now but with "the potential to become engaged." No seat now held by a Republican, even the open seats, is ranked any worse a Tossup, while four Democratic-held seats are either ranked as Lean, Likely or Solidly Republican.
In the case of the Republican-held seats, many are like South Carolina - lacking any major Democratic challenger. That Democratic futility is surprising considering that just six years ago, some of the very same races were major battlegrounds.
- Jim DeMint's own election in 2004 proved to be something of a blowout, but then-state Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum was one of the Democrats' prized recruits.
- In South Dakota, John Thune is now unopposed, quietly plotting a future in national politics. But in 2004 that state featured the marquee race in the country, with then-Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle ultimately losing.
- Former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles (D) had heavy national support as he ran against Lisa Murkowski, dogged by controversy surrounding her appointment to the seat by her father. Now, even as Sarah Palin is backing a Murkowski primary challenger, Democrats field no significant candidate.
- Tom Coburn and Brad Carson battled in a close race in Oklahoma, though Coburn ultimately prevailed thanks in part to President Bush's dominating win over John Kerry in the state. Now, Coburn faces just token opposition.
Comments
What a freaking joke....
I love how the Wingnuts have already been dancing in the end zone and pouring champaign on themselves thinking they're going to win everything this fall.
The minority party (Repub) always wins some seats back during the first midterm after a Prez election, this is no big deal. And when all is said and done, the Repubs will still be the minority party come this fall.
Right wing ideologes like Mike Memoli here can cheerlead all they want for their Repub heroes, but it won't do any good because the American electrorate may be unhappy with the Dems right now but they still hate the Repubs more.
Posted by: former Republican | June 18, 2010 3:07 PM
Hey Republicans: When Is Tom Price (R-Ga) Going To Apologize To The American People?
Republicans in Congress want the public to believe that they were furious with Joe Barton for apologizing to BP and calling the $20 billion compensation fund a "shakedown," but the reality is that most of them agree with what Barton said.
Take, for example, these words from GOP congressman Tom Price, the head of the Republican Study Committee:
"However, in an administration that appears not to respect fundamental American principles, it is important to note that there is no legal authority for the President to compel a private company to set up or contribute to an escrow account. BP’s reported willingness to go along with the White House’s new fund suggests that the Obama Administration is hard at work exerting its brand of Chicago-style shakedown politics."
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/house-conservatives-call-escrow-account-chicago-style-shakedown.php
Aside from the apology, the substance of what Price said was no different than what Barton said, yet no Republicans have raised their voice in protest of Price. None of them have demanded an apology from him, nor have they demanded apologies from other Republicans like Haley Barbour or Michel Bachmann who made similar comments. The reason is simple: Republicans, like Joe Barton, hate the idea of the compensation fund.
Oh, sure, they know it looked stupid for Joe Barton to apologize to BP for being pressured to establish the fund. And they wish he hadn't done that, because they hate looking stupid.
But they agree with him. They think he's right.
They desperately hope that forcing Barton to issue a transparently bogus "apology" for apologizing to BP will make the issue go away, but their unwillingness to demand a retraction from Tom Price is all the proof you need of their utter insincerity.
Posted by: Hal Johns | June 18, 2010 3:27 PM
America,
Tell Republicans To Stop Apologizing To BP!
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LmwbRjezh4&feature=player_embedded
.
Posted by: LonesomeRhodes Beck | June 18, 2010 3:58 PM
Nov. is going to be so fun!!!
Posted by: Crooks_In_ DC | June 18, 2010 4:02 PM
To you brain dead liberal drone why do you think that Democrats have a majority right now. It's because many conservative Republicans were sick of the free spending ways of the Republicans before Obama took office. The problem is Obama took over and not only has he shown himself to be a child president but even a bigger spender than anybody before him. He enacts a socialist healthcare program modeled off of European and Canadian systems. The only problem with that is both in Europe and Canada they are now trying to privatize part or the whole thing because it is busting their budgets. Something the brain dead liberals do not understand is when you have less than 100 million for your population health care is easier. No country in Europe has a population that America does. Brain dead liberals drool when one of your comrades in the drive-by media doesn't report on healthcare in Switzerland touting how good it is, they don't even have a quarter of the population that we do here. You roll out the line about the majority party picking up seats in the off year election. Fine we know that happens but the real story is the number of possible seats that may be picked up by conservative candidates. In the myth about a surplus is just that a myth. We never left a surplus in reality only in the way Washington DC does accounting is there a surplus. Let's not forget that Congress was taken over six years ago by liberals and the numbers provided by the Treasury Department shows that the deficit started to soar right after that. And since Obama has taken office the deficit has hit warp speed and is well on the path to making America the next Greece or Spain. Everybody with a thinking brain (meaning non-liberal) knows this is just another sales pitch from America's greatest snake oil salesman Obama.
Posted by: Crooks_In_ DC | June 18, 2010 4:36 PM
Deal if you tell the Dems to stop interfering with all efforts to contain and minimize the effects of the spill
America,
Tell Republicans To Stop Apologizing To BP!
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LmwbRjezh4&feature=player_embedded
.
Posted by: LonesomeRhodes Beck | June 18, 2010 3:58 PM
Posted by: Libtard | June 18, 2010 11:02 PM
I've been saying this forever. The Rethugs have been beating their chests about this falls elections for so long now that if they don't at least win back the House it will be considered a huge failure on their part.
Posted by: Just sayin' | June 19, 2010 8:13 PM
Barton was right to apologize, just not to BP
The POTUS has unilaterally called in a private entity and demanded that it turn over a large sum to his chosen management.
No legislative or judicial action. No preexisting authority. Just a ukase.
This kind of one man rule was what the founders feared above all else.
So to Mr. Franklin, thank you for the republic. Sorry we couldn't keep it.
Posted by: Miri | June 20, 2010 12:46 AM
President Obama is handling the BP oil spill disaster in a smart way. He has succeeded to arrange the compensation to the effected people in a timely manner. The containment and stopping the spill permanently are highly technical. President Obama has assembled the team of best scientific brains and coordinating with BP that has the technical know-how.
News-Media and TV commentators are making the general public very up-tight. If Chris Matthews of MSNBC has his way, he would contol the leak - send BP CEO 5000 feet belw water and have him wrap his arms around the pipe at the point of leak and then have President Obama kick the CEO's butt.
Posted by: Shiva Gangal | June 20, 2010 6:02 PM
I know he got Kevin Costner (Water World) and James Cameron (The Abyss) what else do these mean old Repubs want? Geeeeeeez!!!
President Obama has assembled the team of best scientific brains and coordinating with BP that has the technical know-how.
Posted by: Shiva Gangal | June 20, 2010 6:02 PM
Posted by: Libtard | June 21, 2010 11:02 AM
Democrats are running away like criminals from a crime scene. They're coming to the realization that by supporting obama, they cut their own political throats.
For obama supporters, most have realized they were fooled, and are now thinking,as the Who once said,
"we won't be fooled again!"
Change, transparency, bipartisianship, all lies,
as the country continues to be divided, obama's oil spill the worst disaster in history, unable to control borders, the
obama recession, 10% unemployment and all obama is worried about is Cap & TAX
Change is coming - embrace it!
Posted by: worsethanever | June 21, 2010 11:13 AM
* * * * *
Posted by: Hal Johns | June 18, 2010 3:27 PM
.
Mr. Johns,
.
The answer is: Never. Price should never apologize. In fact, Barton was yellow. He shouldn’t have apologized either. Both were correct in describing our President-dictator’s actions as a shakedown. It was just that. Given the combination of Holder’s threats of criminal prosecution and Obama’s strong-arming, one couldn’t call it anything else. If you or I did the same thing, we would go to jail for extortion.
.
Price’s comments were especially well made. The President has no statutory or constitutional authority to strong-arm a foreign company to make it pay a penny before the judicial system has acted to find liability. BP did not waive its right to invoke the judicial branch to adjudicate liability as a condition of doing business here. The Constitution separates the powers of the various branches of government for the very purpose of insuring the power of one isn’t usurped by another. Obama overstepped his constitutional limitations by pretending to act in the place of the courts. We aren’t Bolivia or Venezuela, but we can be turned into a banana republic dictatorship in a jiffy with actions like Obama’s.
Posted by: John W. | June 21, 2010 6:15 PM