The US Congress; Congressional races

[DougMacG]

“Address Records Show Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) Still Lived With Her (divorced) First Husband Throughout Marriage To Her Apparent Brother.”

https://pjmedia.com/davidsteinberg/address-records-show-rep-ilhan-omar-d-mn-still-lived-with-her-first-husband-throughout-her-second-marriage/
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/10/ilhan-omar-the-family-that-stays-together.php

Isn't citizenship based marriage fraud a federal crime? This case is most egregious and involves a public figure.  Yet not one Democrat has denounced her and not one newspaper has reported this.  A deplorable lack of curiosity.  I wonder if the new MN Attorney General (Keith Ellison?) will take it to the Feds for prosecution.

[ccp]

the thought of all these dirtballs back in power with adoring MSM and the DEm propaganda machine in full force is just horrible to me.

The heartburn  I felt during Obama yrs .  Here we are about to go again ......only worse .

Thanks Ryan and the rest of you rinos who did nothing for yrs with all the immigrants flooding the country and predominantly voting crat .

Trumps crudeness only made matter worse too though.

[DougMacG]

Republicans have been fighting to save two suburban House Seats, MN 2 and MN 3.  Now it looks like Republicans have the possibility of flipping 3 Democrat seats, MN 1 and MN 8 will flip to R and now the MN 7 Dem seat has moved to toss-up.

Mm7 has the last conservative Democrat holding on to a seat. He is the only Democrat to vote against Obamacare . He will be chair of the Ag committee if they win.  During his terms, farmers and rural areas flip from the democratic-farmer-labor party two Republican. Romney won the district by 10 and Trump won the district by 30. RealClearPolitics just move this to toss up.

Congressional incumbents used to have a 98% reelection rate and here we have five out of eight seats that could flip in different directions.

Democrats need to gain 23 seats to take the majority, two that they are counting on are in the suburbs of Minneapolis-Saint Paul. For each they lose of their own, in this case possibly two or three in one small state, the bar gets just a little bit higher. If this is happening here, I assume it is happening somewhere else too.

In a room full of liberals after sports last night I listened to all the hate Trump talk and at the end I asked if anyone had any predictions for Tuesday and the room that had all predicted Hillary with certainty two years ago went silent.

"Interesting times".

[DougMacG]

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/11/01/what_a_republican_hold_might_look_like_138532.html

Tomorrow he posts a Blue Wave scenario.

[DougMacG]

Unemployment rate in my congressional district MN3, south and west suburbs of Minneapolis: 1.9%, lowest in the nation.

Because of that, economic issues are NOT the top concern of the centrist, liberal voters in the district.  Incumbent Republican trails badly in the polls.  If he pulls this out, R's win the House.
----------------------------
Senate:
One day to go and the polls are mostly done.  Best reading is that R's will pick up -1 to 6 seats net.  There are 6 they could win and two they could lose not counting Texas and Tennessee.  That is a very wide range.  
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/414658-the-top-senate-seats-most-likely-to-flip

A reasonable bet might be R pick ups in North Dakota and Missouri and unknown in Indiana, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Montana, West Virginia.  Of the 6 unknowns, Trump carried 5 of them.  It's not unrealistic to guess R's will win 3 or 4 of them but that is to expect results better than polls.  It's possible but far from certain.
-----------------------------
House
Generic ballot average Dem +7%, CNN 13%, Rasmussen -1.
Dems need 23; their expected win from polling is 26.5 is tossups split evenly.  Advantage Dems but not by much!  If Dems under-perform expectations by 4 seats, they lose.  Republicans need to win the seats where they lead and where they trail in polls by only one point..  They don't need to win any districts where they trail by ten, five or two points, just prove the polls wrong by one mere point.  From Blue Wave, 'experts' are now hedging that to toss up.  The election will be decided by tossups.

Most optimistic indicators [from my last Trump post].  One poll shows Trump with 40% Hispanic approval.  One poll shows Trump with 40% of Blacks approve.  These are outliers but if there is some trend developing there, Democrats will be disappointed by their  minority lack of support.  People in most of the country don't like the way Brett ,Kavanaugh was treated and the caravan, Trump's reaction to it and border issues favor Republicans in many divided districts.  If R's hold the House, look back to those factors.  I put the House at slightly worse than 50-50 chance for Republicans, very possible but not the most likely scenario.

This will be a so-called wave election only if Dems take the House, Senate and make state level gains. 
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/11/05/what_is_a_wave_election_anyway_138555.html#2

Everybody VOTE!  And make your strongest influence with all the people where you have any influence.  Challenge your independent Dem friends who say they vote for the person not the party to demonstrate that independence.

Doug's rule: margin of victory or loss matters even in non-competitive races.

[DougMacG]

Writing with nervous energy for the last time before results prove us wrong, or right?
US Senate, RCP no tossups says R+2 which makes 53R - 47D.  That doesn't count POSSIBLE wins in Florida, Indiana, West Virginia and Montana, so IF today is a really great day that makes 57-43!  In 2016 there was perhaps a 3% Trump vote denial where they just wouldn't tell the pollster but they would pull the lever.  If something like that is true this year and you have to pick one race that no one saw coming, one poll just put John James within 3 points of Debbie Stabenow in Michigan.  Flake, Corker (and McCain) gone, nothing would take the pressure off of Susan Collins like a 58-42 Senate.  Worst case for Republicans is to lose all these close ones, AZ, NV, MO and the states above makes 50-50, assuming R's hold TX and TN and none of the others.  VP Mike Pence breaks a 50-50 tie.

House average poll split of tossups is D+27, 23 puts them in the majority, Nancy Pelosi Speaker and Maxine Waters and Adam Schiff running committees.  R's gained 63 in 2010 so 23-27 is not a big reach especially with 38 R retirements.  One key to the House result will be the Republican pickups that raise the bar for the Dem pickups certain to happen.  The map is shifting; Republicans need to win new districts too.  In the strange, strange world of politics, what a win a 22 seat loss would be!

Here is Rush L 10 minutes in Cape Girardeau, MO, warmup speaker for Trump's final rally.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Erz55hr_7w    
Trump video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9pCpyXgSZM  
Long video 1.5h, vote BEFORE you watch it.
They are most certainly trying to nationalize the race and bring the turnout of Presidential election.

We all have our big local elections too.  Go vote.  Margin of victory or loss matters.  

[ccp]

it I don't believe the suburban "white educated voters" voted for crats because they are losing sleep over the caravans.  I don't believe for a minute they really want endless immigration most of illegal and chain and anchor babies.

But it could be due to Trump's combative personality.  I don't recall him ever trying to woo the middle of the road fence sitters. For 2 yrs we hoped he would but he never did.  He ignored at his own peril, and now we sit here looking forward to a  2 yr horror movie with directors and producers  CNN NYT WP  and their cast of actors  that includes  Pelosi Schiff Nadler Booker Harris Cardin Lewis and the rest of the conga line (borrowing form Mark Levin)
 

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/democrats-will-take-the-house/

[DougMacG]

I don't believe the suburban "white educated voters" voted for crats because they are losing sleep over the caravans.  I don't believe for a minute they really want endless immigration most of illegal and chain and anchor babies.

But it could be due to Trump's combative personality.  I don't recall him ever trying to woo the middle of the road fence sitters. For 2 yrs we hoped he would but he never did.  He ignored at his own peril, and now we sit here looking forward to a  2 yr horror movie with directors and producers  CNN NYT WP  and their cast of actors  that includes  Pelosi Schiff Nadler Booker Harris Cardin Lewis and the rest of the conga line (borrowing form Mark Levin)
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/democrats-will-take-the-house/

Right.  Trump is right on immigration and he's right on the economy.  He can't afford bad optics like the broken families [or if the military opened fire on the caravans].  His combative personality is necessary to overcome his press disadvantage but his over-speak and sloppy speak needs to be reigned in.  I actually think he's getting better at that, but certainly too little too late liberals who hate all his policies in the first place.

The loss of the suburbs is a result of our education system so long ago that the teachers and professors were all raised in liberal drivel.  Examples: In AP-US History they teach how America's past is so shameful.  In Econ they teach how America is so unfair.  In Science they teach how America led us to destroy the globe.  In pre-K through grade 11 they indoctrinate this dogma and turn kids against their more conservative parents and prepare them for a college system where you cannot graduate or even socialize without sharing their views.  Gender relativity is important than bridge structure.  Capitalism is evil and socialism is benevolent.  The more "educated" you are, the more Democrat you are, but only if educated is defined as how far you went in the socialist teachers union based indoctrination system as opposed to learning through real world experiences.  People who learn a skill and perform a needed service for a fee are uneducated. They control the information flow in all but about two colleges and all but about two newspapers.  I don't how you unlearn what everyone around you agrees with.

Reagan put it this way:  (7 seconds)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAgURdLJobU
"The trouble with our liberal friends... they know so much that isn't so."

As President with the only conservative podium in the country, maybe in the world, he needs to teach more and rub their noses in it less.

[ccp]

Doug wrote:

"As President with the only conservative podium in the country, maybe in the world, he needs to teach more and rub their noses in it less."

perfect way to describe likely why the House was lost.

We are on losing end of tide.  Even many of the races we won were close.
Now with ex cons now voting and the endless immigration from people who are for free stuff etc and as you rightly point out it is inevitable the Right will lose ,

( yea sure ex cons are going to vote for family hard work earning on honest living etc - that is a joke)

Then the country sinks to the depths and only then can we re arise

I know I sound morbid, so to speak, but the trend is simply obvious to me.

The left will not stop till they bring this cuontry down  - my opinion - very dejected but not surprised

Saying this is not a blue wave" is not re assuring to me."

[ccp]

To Trump and not to Trump - that was the question apparently:

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/midterms/article221170485.html

[ccp]

But it could be due to Trump's combative personality.  I don't recall him ever trying to woo the middle of the road fence sitters. For 2 yrs we hoped he would but he never did.  He ignored at his own peril, and now we sit here looking forward to a  2 yr horror movie with directors and producers  CNN NYT WP  and their cast of actors  that includes  Pelosi Schiff Nadler Booker Harris Cardin Lewis and the rest of the conga line (borrowing form Mark Levin)
 
Perhaps I could add the scriptwriters are the academics and DC lawyers and the deep state actors (they know WHO they are and they do exist those pricks)

BTW i didn't watch last night the results.  I got up ~ 2 am to go to the BR and flipped on TV going to CNN.  I knew the fastest way to find out the House was to look at the expressions on their faces.  The first one I saw was Andrew Cuomo and he was smiling from ear to ear.  I then turned of TV .  All I needed to know.
I am simply one of the many people that simply do not matter.

[DougMacG]

Montana Senate went to Testor the Dem, numbers flipped while I was looking at it yesterday morning.  (

In the Florida Senate, Rick Scott won by 0.4%.  Machine recount, if called, rarely changes an outcome.

Arizona is McSally ahead by a very small margin with more votes still coming in.  More updates today at 5:00 today.  Some Flake fans voted Dem to spite Trump.  Green party candidate took 2% of potential Sinema votes.

Mississippi Senate is going to have a runoff; the Republican is heavily favored.

Too early to call Arizona, but Republicans have the potential to take all 3 of those making the total 54-46.  Best case for Dems (IMHO) is 47-53 if Arizona flips in the final precincts.

A dozen House races are still coming in, mostly Calif mail in votes.  No final tally for a little while.  Democrats already have 4 more than needed to take control.

This was not a blue wave.  In the House it was a typical mid-term.  In the Senate it was the opposite with the President's party gaining enough to effect control for more than 2 years.

Divided government mostly favors Trump unless House investigations uncover something criminal.  I only wonder what such a wide divide will mean at budget / shutdown time.

[DougMacG]

Gridlock is the next best thing to constitutional government.   - Steve Hayward

WSJ Editorial Board: "[Pelosi will try to lure Trump into bad deals] Hope for two years of gridlock"
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-nancy-pelosi-method-1541635347

Someday maybe we return to constitutional government.

[DougMacG]

The celebrated John McCain blocked Republican Healthcare reform and turned it into the biggest Democratic talking point of the 2018 elections.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/midterm-exit-polls-2018-n932516?mod=article_inline
------------------------

How can the federal government do more to help the healthcare system?  What a stupid and misguided question IMHO.  Hows can we get the federal government do less to screw up our healthcare system might be a better question.  Why is everyone's healthcare a federal issue?  Once again, letting Democrats decide what are the issues allows them to win the debate.

To be fair to Democrats, Republicans had their shot at this and failed.

In contrast, nothing makes healthcare more "affordable" than massively rising incomes and prosperity is the number one force in healthcare advancements.   These are arguments you never heard in the election.  Healthcare was twice as important as the economy in this election - only because of skewed messaging. 

[ccp]

Trump has been pushing for lower prescription prices

Not a single peep about that in the MSM, by design.  Those bastards .

[ccp]

we keep hearing the nonstop ocasio youngest person with a vagina elected to Congress at age 29

go to wikipedia and look up youngest members of Congress and one can count ~ 118 members who were under 29 since inception
youngest I think was 24 .

[DougMacG]

Close contests in Texas, Arizona and Florida indicate a serious border problem, people coming in across their northern borders.

I don't know where these close races and / or recounts are headed in AZ and FL etc. but I wrote too soon on this thread about results and counts.  Democrats have a serious advantage in willingness to cheat to win.

I stand by my main point coming into the election, margin of victory (or loss) matters.  Direction of the country does not come from winning by a single vote.

Those pointing to a larger national vote for one party or the other in Senate races sure miss the point of the constitution, the Senate and the name of the country, a union of states.  People in smaller less populated states don't want and didn't consent to be ruled by majorities of people in large urban states.

[DougMacG]

Observations from the inside that we didn't see from the outside.
https://ricochet.com/572300/5-reasons-why-sinema-won-arizona/

Flake and McCain did a lot of damage. (Also Trump's fight back against both.) Sinema was known in Phoenix, McSally known in Tucson, two very different sized markets. McSally didn't fight for it. Cinema made an image for herself as a moderate. We'll see if she is.  And then what?  Run negative ads again?

Another factor is that Arizona is not Arizonans anymore. But Gov Ducey won.

[DougMacG]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/midterm-election-precinct-results/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.eb1ea2a179e2

[Crafty_Dog]

Thanks for that ricochet article, helps me understand what happened in AZ.

[DougMacG]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trumps-tax-cuts-hurt-gop-americas-wealthy-suburbs-143541623.html

[Crafty_Dog]

Had not thought of that-- interesting idea.

[DougMacG]

"We can't get blue state Republicans [in the House to support tax reform] because of the state and local fix."
"Screw this up now and we will have (President) Bernie Sanders' tax plan and the economic 'growth' of Venezuela."
https://dogbrothers.com/phpBB2/index.php?topic=1791.msg107152#msg107152


"The Republican bills attack two of the three largest “tax expenditures,” by limiting or eliminating the deductions for home mortgage interest and state and local taxes. The dollar benefits of those deductions are hugely concentrated on “wealthy Americans,” especially in high-tax, high-housing-cost states where people vote heavily Democratic. These progressive changes could only be made by Republicans, who have few House members and zero senators from such constituencies." - Michael Barone
https://dogbrothers.com/phpBB2/index.php?topic=1791.750

Not mentioned in the debate was that neglect of those "few [Republican] House members" in high tax states would swing the power in Washington from R to D.

Look at the income and tax data in the districts that flipped.  Examples:
Virginia's 2nd: Democrat Elaine Luria beat out incumbent Republican Scott Taylor.
Virginia's 7th: Democrat Abigail Spanberger beat incumbent Republican Dave Brat.
Virginia's 10th: Democrat Jennifer Wexton unseated incumbent Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock.
New Jersey's 11th: Democrat Mikie Sherrill won against Republican Jay Webber.
New Jersey's 7th: Democrat Tom Malinowski ousted incumbent Republican Leonard Lance
New Jersey's 2nd: Democrat Jeff Van Drew defeated Republican Seth Grossman
New York's 11th: Max Rose defeated Republican Dan Donovan,
New York's 19th: Democrat Antonio Delgado edges out incumbent Republican Rep. John Faso
Pennsylvania's 5th: Democrat Mary Gay Scanlon won against Republican Pearl Kim
Pennsylvania's 6th: Democrat Chrissy Houlahan beat out Republican Greg McCauley for the open seat.
Pennsylvania's 7th: Democrat Susan Wild defeated Republican Marty Nothstein for the open seat.
Minnesota's 2nd: Democrat Angie Craig unseated Republican incumbent Jason Lewis
Minnesota's 3rd: Democrat Dean Phillips defeated incumbent Republican Erik Paulsen.
Illinois' 14th: Democrat Lauren Underwood unseated incumbent Republican Randy Hultgren.
Illinois' 6: Democrat Sean Casten defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Peter Roskam.
California's 25th: Republican Rep. Steve Knight concedes to Democrat Katie Hill.

In our district MN3, median income is 85k, (half are above that).  The unemployment rate is less than 2%, for the upper half of earners it's zero.   The state income tax rate for the group above the median is 7-10% in our state and similar or higher in other high tax states.  Voters in the upper half of income pay $7000 and up in state income taxes and double that to include property taxes.  Figure ten-fold more for the rich.  Perhaps 50% of voters in our district (and all similar districts had a major tax deduction taken away from them in the Republican tax reform where the individual tax rate was barely lowered.  If just 5-6% change their vote partly over that, it is a 10-12 point swing in a swing district.

We lose the votes of the poor, we lose the votes of the median to rich and we can't understand and we can't understand how we lost the House seats.  Add to that that in these RINO seats they don't support reducing the size of government so we lose the conservative vote too!

Taking away S.A.L.T. deduction was the right thing to do for a number of reasons but it was done wrong and messaged horribly.  Because of the inability of taxpayers to respond to it, the limit should have been phased in. 

If the only perceived value in tax reform is dollars returned in your own current, static paycheck and not the economic health of the country, you aren't going to support it anyway.  Did anyone see Republican House member make the case during the election of why tax reform was needed, why it was structured the way it was, how it succeeded and what is left or next to do?   <crickets>

People can't easily get up and move out of a high tax state when a law changes (or they would have already).  People can't lower the tax rate in their state (or they might have already) and they can't instantly downsize their house or downscale their neighborhood when a law passes in Washington with no notice.  Instead they punish the party that did it.

Trump and the Republicans doubled the GDP growth rate for the nation but the message received is that it's no better than under Obama.  The reaction to the great economic news, record hiring, rising tide, etc. is blah blah, ho-hum. 

But take away one of our largest tax deductions - those are fighting words!

[Crafty_Dog]

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/415331-dem-ben-mcadams-defeats-gops-mia-love-for-utah-house-seat?userid=188403

[DougMacG]

Journo-lists, Sunday show hosts and others are trying to make Trump admit this was quite a loss, a pummeling?

Obama took a shellacking in 2010.  Bush took a thumping.  Clinton faced a revolution. But Trump won't admit he lost because the results were mixed.

This was not a wave:
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/11/16/so_was_it_a_wave_138677.html#2

But as more and more close House races in Calif and elsewhere fall to the Dems (Mia Love down today, Orange County lost), this election at least in the House was very bad for Trump and the Republicans.  The echo chamber of a media is making it the loss more and mare clear.  I wonder if they notice that the more clear it is this was a Democrat win, the more the market falls.

We were told Democrats and divided government are great for the economy.    The markets are saying something else.  https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/20/stock-market-dow-futures-negative-as-tech-stocks-sink.html

[DougMacG]

From RealClearPolitics:
2018 Generic Congressional Vote
Democrats 49.7
Republicans 42.4
Advantage Democrats +7.3

Keeping this alive because the lessons learned still stuck at roughly zero.  Before we look to 'The Way Forward', we need some work on our hindsight, IMHO.

On the margin, Republicans needed between one and two points had chosen R over D.  My guess is that if this poll average had been 48-44 Dem, only a one and a half point move on both numbers, Republican could have held the House, gained two more in the Senate (and held the White House) and had an amazing win.

That didn't and couldn't happen because:

1.  Tax reform, their biggest accomplishment, was a hodge-podge with no messaging theme.
2.  Repeal Obamacare failed and Republicans had no answer to the Democrat charge of pre-existing conditions.  People cared about that.
3.  Let Trump be Trump but maybe 10 or 12 fewer unforced errors would have helped.
4.  The scandals of the Left were never made coherent enough to reach past the right side of the news divide.  Adam Schiff lying about reports for example, now he will chair the committee.  Menendez in NJ: If that was a Republican scandal they would have tied all of them to him.
5.  There never was a compelling agenda offered going forward.  "Elect us and we will do this ____ ."
6.  Further to the previous point, there was no national campaign.

In short, Republicans were (mostly) a non-governing, non-coalition with no plan going forward and no excitement, baffled that not everyone jumped on board.

We sit here like victims in a relatively free, technology exploding society.  Why don't we buy the news media or buy the airtime needed, open our own facebook, keep our internal differences a little more private or do whatever it takes to put out a coherent and compelling argument?

Good riddance Corker and Flake (and McCain RIP) but we still don't have a leader other than Trump, or a message.

[Crafty_Dog]

Excellent analysis.

I would add one more variable-- the end of the deduction for certain state taxes-- very unpopular with well to do Dem voters.

[ccp]

"the end of the deduction for certain state taxes-- very unpopular with well to do Dem voters."

I actually got a refund this past tax yr .  I think it was the first time in a couple of years .
However for Repubs in the crat states who didn't they were not happy.
Would they have stayed home because of it - some may have.

I do relish the idea of sticking it back to the high state tax states like NY and NJ though with the end of the state income tax deduction . 

[ccp]

I agree with Costello about the tone of trumps rhetoric otherwise he has his ass where his head is.

Dear Ryan , it would have helped if you and the rest of your lacky's in Congress would have dealt with health care .
It would have helped if you did something about the "f" border (now of which nothing will likely be done anytime soon and maybe forever)
It would have helped if you gave taxpayers not just the business types some more tax relief
If would have helped if you backed  Trump more.

How about you taking some blame instead of pointing just to Trump.

So there
https://www.breitbart.com/video/2018/11/23/gop-rep-costello-i-think-voters-want-congress-to-hold-trump-accountable/

indeed if it not for Trump can anyone tell me if they think ANYTHING would have gotten accomplished?

[Crafty_Dog]

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/417918-puerto-ricans-may-have-elected-rick-scott-and-other-midterm-surprises

[DougMacG]

With the 7.5% win in Mississippi.  Disappointing in a few ways, the small margins in Texas, Florida, even Mississippi.  The losses in AZ and MT.  But barely enough to have a 50-50 shot to hold the Senate in 2020.

Democrats don't lose inner city House races - in Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Houston, San Francisco etc.  In the divided country we inhabit, Republicans need to stop losing Senate seats in places like Montana.  We got back North Dakota, Indiana, that is a start.  They control the big population centers. If or when we don't win in a majority of the states, it is no longer a divided country.

[ccp]

"We got back North Dakota, Indiana, that is a start. "

don't forget Missouri !  )

[Crafty_Dog]

Yeah, we "won" in Mississippi but at a cost of affirming the Reps are closet racists meme.  "Public hanging", going to school set up to avoid a court ordered integration, the picture with the Confederacy stuff, , , , ugh.

[ccp]

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2018/12/02/democrats-its-time-to-remove-the-181year-ban-on-religious-headwear-on-the-house-floor-n2536846

we didn't make concessions to singhs or orthodox jews
oh but for Islam suddenly we need to change rules?

Funny how the left demands separation of Church and State  when it suits them but now it is the opposite

And we have a Muslin , first Somali in the House ( no problem)  but her first action is to demand we break 181 rule to please her !!

Watch the crats will do it.

 

[ccp]

Rush L had a good segment yesterday about the Senate and Congress literally having a taxpayer financed slush fund to pay off sexual harassment claims:

https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/12/10/congress-has-a-slush-fund-to-pay-off-sexual-harassment-claims-and-nobody-calls-it-a-crime/

[ccp]

If Susan Collins , er ah, ...  I mean Chuck Schumer is for this it can't be good:

https://www.conservativereview.com/news/susan-collins-votes-with-democrats-to-restore-rule-that-allowed-obama-admin-to-target-conservatives/

[DougMacG]

Reverse that and Republicans hold the House.  This is a closely divided country.

Also, Republicans must start winning ALL Senate races in so-called Red states.

The leadership, the elected representatives, the candidates, the party officials, the donors and the voters have to quit f'ing around or we are going to lose the whole thing - and this is all winnable.  The facts are on our side.

[Crafty_Dog]

"The leadership, the elected representatives, the candidates, the party officials, the donors and the voters have to quit f'ing around or we are going to lose the whole thing - and this is all winnable.  The facts are on our side."

Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor upon it!

[DougMacG]

Paul Ryan farewell speech nicely details what they accomplished and what is left to do.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/12/19/watch_live_speaker_paul_ryan_delivers_farewell_speech_ahead_of_retirement.html

WHY DID HE WAIT UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION TO TELL US??!!

We couldn't buy a word of this from a contested district before the vote and we only needed to move 60,000 key votes out of 100 million cast.

[ccp]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-says-congressional-184312719.html

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.govtrack.us/?utm_campaign=govtrack_email_update&utm_source=govtrack/email_update&utm_medium=email

[DougMacG]

Trump took ownership of the shutdown, he shut down non-essential government agencies and services over funding for a security barrier at the border. 

Now it is Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer proudly keeping the government shut down.  While Trump offers concessions and compromise, both have stood proudly with no compromise, no funding, zero, nothing!

Good for them but they own it now.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15h8DecnOJk

[ccp]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashida_Tlaib

she is for one state solution - in other words Israel should be wiped off the map.
Mostly likely she is anti semitic as well

She only won her district by a less then 900 votes out of 86,700 total .

" early supporter of the movement to abolish the Immigration Customs Enforcement agency" 

" She supports domestic reforms including Medicare For All and a $15 minimum wage"

"Tlaib, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, aligns politically with the left wing of the Democratic Party"

second generation Palestinian who has it better here than in any other Arab country and then wants to bring this country down .
I hope the crats will oust her in 2 yrs . 

[Crafty_Dog]

https://israelunwired.com/new-congresswoman-surrounds-herself-by-hardcore-antisemites-at-ceremony/

[DougMacG]

I've often thought Republicans have a charisma challenge in leadership but Dems aren't doing much better:


-------------------------------

I read the transcripts from last night and didn't see it.  Reports say Trump isn't at his best reading a scripted teleprompter, he started slow and finished strong at least on content.  Was Presidential and serious, kept it to 8 minutes.  No one has reported that Pelosi and Schumer put on the best possible faces for the opposition.

Very hard to say what was accomplished.  Maybe Pres.Trump planned to declare an emergency when he called for the prime time appearance.  Maybe they are officially passing the ownership of the shutdown over to the Democrats as a necessary step to get them to compromise.

[ccp]

I like the post on the internet about them looking like American Gothic .

Even better then my impression :    I said to Katherine they look like Herman and Lily Munster :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Munsters#/media/File:Fred_Gwynne_Yvonne_DeCarlo_The_Munsters_1964.JPG

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/rep-tom-mcclintock-how-cloture-killed-the-115th-congress

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jan/25/air-pelosi-watchdog-revisits-house-speakers-hefty-/?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=manual&utm_campaign=weekend&utm_term=newsletter&utm_content=weekend&bt_ee=GVngyRWlMkIsOJWgnwnrNbGi9pcCe7dOtLWaDal63r2TA%2FeNbNfP%2B4603ATQlkjE&bt_ts=1548586925331

[ccp]

https://www.gobankingrates.com/net-worth/politicians/nancy-pelosi-net-worth/

It is all very murky.  Perhaps we need a special counsel to investigate how she seems to be a genius at real estate :

https://moneyinc.com/nancy-pelosi-net-worth/

Does anyone think for one second there would not be interesting behind the scenes politics involved?