When all is said and done, the national electorate put both political parties on
probation. Now, they both have two years to demonstrate what they can do and not just carp from the sidelines.
The message was clear.
The Senate has a Democrat margin of 51-49. The difference between 49 and 51 is Jim Webb and Joe Lieberman.
The House election has given the Democrats sufficient votes (231) to rule but the added votes are in the form of
moderate to conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats and not in the hands of the radical Left.
In other words, the electorate hasn't done anything that can't be undone in a single election. Both sides have
two years to show whether or not they have listened to the voters - stop sniping and get things done.
The early evidence is that they still have not listened.
In the U.S. Senate, the Republicans unanimously elected Sen. Mitch McConnell who immediately announced in a speech
at the Federalist Society that the only way Democrats would receive Republican cooperation would be if they guaranteed
that all the President's judicial nominees would get an up-or-down vote. McConnell is a master of the filibuster
and, in fact, managed the last real one that took place in the Senate in 1994.
Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer immediately responded that what McConnell wants won't happen.
The battle for Republican Minority Whip (the second slot) was between the patient 18-month campaign of Lamar Alexander
and the impulsive last minute effort of Trent Lott. Lott won by one vote.
The Whip job may be the best use of Lott's talents. He is a consummate deal-maker with active back channels open
to the Democrats. He is also, however, a major porker himself as well as a champion of the earmark system who has
opposed transparency and reform. Needless to say, he is not friendly to the White House because they dumped him
when he put his foot in his mouth over Strom Thurman.
In the Democratic side, the new Majority leader will be Harry Reid. His power will lie in the ability to set the
agenda and determine what will and what won't be considered on the floor. Like Rep. Jack Murtha in the House, Reid
heads a family conglomerate designed to profit from Reid's ability to direct government expenditures and earmarks.
Were the right people to investigate, Reid's ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff would become evident. If
Reid were forced to resign, his replacement would be selected by a Republican governor.
The Democratic Majority Whip will still be the notably undistinguished Richard Durbin.
An historical event will take place in January when Nancy Pelosi will be elected Speaker of the House. A vindictive
lightweight, Pelosi is supposed to be Joan the Baptist to Hillary's messiah. If she falters in her duty, the Clinton
ally and successful House campaign director Rahm Emanuel is slotted in the number four position in the leadership,
ready to take over in time for the '08 election.
Pelosi has already botched her debut by backing the wandering grouch Jack Murtha for the Majority Leader slot.
Pelosi's long time rival Steny Hoyer beat Murtha like a drum and won the vote for the number two post by almost
two to one in spite of Pelosi's direct campaigning for her buddy Murtha. His consolation prize is heading the sub-committee
that appropriates money for the military. His brother represents a consulting firm that lobbies for military contracts.
Hoyer has accumulated support through a 25-year history of hard work for the party. He represents a suburban Washington
district in solidly Democratic Maryland which contains a significant minority population employed by the federal
government. Hoyer votes his district.
That failed opening gambit earned the wealthy San Francisco liberal Pelosi a slap from the New York Times
before she was even in office. The question for now is will Pelosi complete her self-destruction by mucking about
in the House Intelligence Committee leadership. She seems determined to strike down a fellow California diva, the
well-qualified and able Rep. Jane Harmon, over matters of personal jealousy.
Pelosi's stated reason to oppose Harmon? As ranking member over the past years, Harmon cooperated with the White
House on intelligence matters in a time of war.
With unseemly haste, House Republicans kept their current leadership in place. John Boehner and Roy Blunt won handily
over Conservative rivals. It's business as usual for the House Republicans. Since they are powerless, they can
devote all their time to plotting the '08 comeback. Oh, and how to replace the K Street money that will now go
to the Democrats.
Both parties can be divided into three competing parts. For the Democrats, the jowly, old-timey Liberals have
waited through their prime years to preserve their committee seniority. They want their Committee Chairs with its
control of the agenda, subpoena power and staff investigative budgets. They want to hold hearings and draw up censure
motions and leak to the media and generally torture the opposition for having been put in the wilderness for so
long. Speaker or no Speaker, old bull chairmen plan to have their pound of flesh. Under House rules, the Republicans
can do nothing. Only the public can grow so tired of them that they have to stop.
Having forgotten and neglected the Reagan Democrats and paid the price for it, the Republicans also have three
major groups - the social values voters, the economic libertarians and the Prescott Bush establishmentarians.
Disgusted over the lack of will to win and the PC policies of the war, the social conservatives have announced
that they don't have to be Republican to be Conservative. Indeed, they don't. Many stayed home and some 20 percent
voted for Democrats as a way of getting the Republican's attention. It remains to be seen if the price they paid
was too high.
The economy has been flying and may be so strong that it can conquer the foolishness of politicians. However, Wall
Street loves good business above all other interests. They would readily support appeasement in order to keep the
good times rolling a bit longer. Former Treasury Secretary Rubin has already called for higher taxes on the basis
that "we can afford it."
For those who have always been suspicious of the Bush clan, the feeling runs through their veins that George is
not a pure Conservative and that given his last two years in office, he will abandon conservative principle in
order to go down in history as the grandson of Prescott Bush, an Ivy League member of the Establishment. To them
that means Bush cannot be counted on to veto anything. He will push for illegal immigrant amnesty in cooperation
with the Democrats, for example. He has already named the excessively mediocre Mel Martinez to head the party.
The Baker-Hamilton Iraq study group is also regarded with great suspicion. Staff members are viewed as strongly
favoring Arab oil over Israel.
If all of this adds up to anything, it is that both parties intend to use the next two years to shape the Presidential
battlefield. Should that proves to be the case; a couple of things beyond the Islamofascist war will be neglected.
The current trustee report indicates that the total imbalance has increased from $10.4 trillion in 2004 to $13.4
trillion in 2006. The Medicare imbalance has grown from $61.6 trillion in 2004 to $70.5 trillion in 2006. It is
estimated that the U.S. economy will produce $14 trillion in GDP this year. The $11.9 trillion of new accumulated
debt is 85 percent of everything we produced this year.
Established in 2003, the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) recently issued its first report. Its conclusion?
"Misguided environmental regulations, green obstructionism, and the NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) syndrome have
combined to delay the construction of desperately needed new power plants and transmission lines. The result is
an infrastructure that will soon be unable to meet the demands of the American economy. Policy makers must act
now to re-empower America."
The ERO projects that U.S. demand will increase by 141,000 megawatts (MW) over the next ten years. Supply will
only increase by 57,000 MW. Even that figure assumes that all proposed facilities will be approved and built.
Denied the technological advances that energy use provides, the explosion of wealth affecting millions of people
will end. Without power, people are doomed to an economy based on physical labor.
The answer to this issue lies in repealing much of what the green lobby has put in place and stopping them from
further damage. Renewable energy sources cannot meet demand. The problem cannot be met without a series of reforms
including nuclear and coal-fired options.
Israel announced this week the practical development of a new oil shale conversion process that can produce natural
gas, diesel fuel and electricity at very competitive costs of less than $20 a barrel. Israel and Jordan have shale
deposits. The United States and Canada have massive shale deposits.
The United States has major oil prospects in Alaska and the continental shelf. Current regulations can't prevent
foreign pollution hitting U.S. shores but prohibits U.S. firms from access to the drill sites. That means the oil
goes to Cuba, China and Venezuela.
In time, the electorate may reflect on its impatience. In 2002, columnist Austin Bay described what the U.S. faced
in Iraq.
- The U.S. and allied forces liberating Iraq will attempt - more or less simultaneously - to end combat operations,
cork public passions, disarm Iraqi battalions, bury the dead, generate electricity, pump potable water, bring law
out of embittering lawlessness, empty jails of political prisoners, pack jails with criminals, turn armed partisans
into peaceful citizens, re-arm local cops who were once enemy infantry, shoot terrorists, thwart chiselers, carpetbaggers
and black-marketers, fix sewers, feed refugees, patch potholes, and get trash trucks rolling, and accomplish this
under the lidless gaze of ABC and Al-Jazeera.
And we might add - Listen to the Democrats sounding like seven years olds in the back seat on the way to Grandma's.
"Are we there yet?"
November 17, 2006
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