Seems like a good thing to offer after my last post.
There are 33 seats up for election in the US Senate in 2008. Eleven belong to Democrats who all apparently plan to run (although there is some speculation about the seat of Joe Biden from Delaware). Twenty-one belong to Republicans who plan to run (although, again, a growing body of possible retirees are being speculated about and they include: Chuck Hagel of Nebraska--who may be up for a presidential run; Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Pat Robertson of Kansas; and Pete Deminici of New Mexico) And there is one seat open, Colorado which is presently Republican.
My early thoughts: This is gonna be a good year for Democrats. America is awake again and the pendulum is swinging toward the Big D. Democrats need to win 10 seats in the Senate to affect real and positive change. It's a rare event when any political party is given such a mandate, and there's no guarantee that this is an election cycle that will produce such a mandate. It usually comes after the party in power has totally fucked up governance and/or presided over a time a national crisis either blamed on them or over which they have clearly failed. (Like Hoover and the Great Depression.) Need I suggest more?
So here are three of my early thoughts:
Republicans are in trouble!
MINNESOTA: There are now 7 Democratic candidates in the race to unseat Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. He's in some real deep S#@%...err, Snow!
KANSAS: A known conservative (R) Representative was just unseated by a moderately (D) conservative (Nancy Boyda) in the state's 2nd congressional district. And known conservative (R) Senator Pat Robertson is about to be challenged by a moderately (D) conservative and safely supported mulit-term Governor Kathleen Sebelius, who is very much in the more moderately, pragmatic, Kansas traditions of Robert Dole and Nancy Kasselbaum.
Democrats weakest link:
SOUTH DAKOTA: By and large, Democrats are in high cotton as the saying goes. But life intervenes and in this case, it was as capricious as gracious. Senator Tim Johnson's sudden "Aneurysm?" of the brain was a wicked twist on the political scene that has thus far been met with courage and fortune. He's making amazing progress. He's not simple alive, but clearly determined to restore his physical and cognitive powers. Kudus to Senator Johnson! But let's be real. No one in his position should be expected to run for a national political office. Life has dealt him a regrettable blow and taken his political career and aspirations in a different direction. It's time to groom a replacement, and I am completely behind the state's sole U.S. Representative, Stephanie Herseth.
My pontification.....
It would be nice if the Dems could pick up a few Senate seats in the South. I'd like to see the myth of the "solid Republican South" broken once and for all.
ReplyDeleteMike, my bud,
ReplyDeleteThe south is NOT as impenetrable as conservative pundits would like us to believe. Some examples: TEXAS: the incumbent, John Cornyn, has completely tied his wagon to the Bush administration. He's just barely a step above an intellectual imbecile. And he's got nothing to run on. Remember, after the most heinous redistricting scheme in the nation to favor Republicans, only two districts in Texas changed hands: and both went to Democrats! In the war, 4 of the top ten cities for causalities in America are in Texas: Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth, and Austin....and El Paso is #11! Texas is vulnerable vis a vis Republican strongholds.
Add Mississippi: incumbent Thad Cochran is rumored to be seriously considering retirement. Why would a safely seated senator want to retire? Personal illness, or a shift in the political landscape? I hope Sen. Cochran is in good health, and the landscape was wiped clean by Katrina....
Only Lindsay of South Carolina seems like a sure bet to me.
Perhaps most intriguing of all...
Former Kentucky state First Lady, Miss America, and longtime goodwill ambassador and successful businesswoman, Phyllis George Brown is rumored to be considering a race against Senator Mitch McConnell. As a former citizen of the most beautiful state in the union, I can tell this: it'd be a damn good horse race. She's got it all; experience, intelligence, goodwill, connections. And Kentuckians remember fondly after recent gubernatorial malfeasance the reign of two-term governor Martha Lane Collins. So voting for a woman is not an issue. The icing on the cake would be if the particulars of McConnell's intimate dalliances as I've been told were to come out...to coin a phrase. Yeah, he's married to Elaine Cho, current Labor Secretary--how convenient for the both of them... That's all I'm saying.