In 2014 midterms, Republicans increasingly see parallels to 2006 election

The Washington Post ^ | October 5, 2014 | Chris Cillizza

[right-wing agnostic]

A half-dozen senators fighting for their political lives — and their party’s hold on the majority — in tough races while trying to avoid being dragged down by an unpopular president and the stark reality that second-term midterm elections almost never work out for the side controlling the White House.

2014? Yes — but also 2006, an election cycle that Republicans are increasingly beginning to see as a parallel to this one as the fight for control of the Senate enters its final four weeks.

“During that cycle, our guys in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Rhode Island, Missouri, Montana and Ohio could never move their numbers, and in the last couple of weeks the races blew open,” said Billy Piper, who was chief of staff to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at the time. “The macro environment was too much to overcome in states that were not reliably red.”

At the start of the 2006 election, Republicans controlled 55 seats, buoyed by two consecutive elections — 2002 and 2004 — that had moved seats their way. But their vulnerabilities were significant. Despite defending only 15 seats (to the Democrats’ 17), the GOP had incumbents in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island — two states that President George W. Bush had lost convincingly two years earlier — as well as sitting senators in places such as Missouri and Montana who, through a combination of the competitiveness of their states and their own foibles, were in deep trouble. As the cycle wore on, Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) turned his race ultra-competitive by referring to a Democratic tracker as a “macaca.”

[Maceman]

Gee. I wonder why the RINOcrat Uniparty is nervous.

No more voting for RINOs.

Even now the Republican leadership is lowering expectations about what they'll do if they take the Senate in 2014.

And then there’s John McCain saying what will happen if the Republicans win the Senate: “I will work very hard to go back to 60 votes,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who boldly predicts a Republican Senate would process Obama’s nominees “more rapidly than [Democrats] do today.”

And as for the House: John Boehner: ‘Very Few’ Republicans Will Oppose Me

So tell me again how much better off we'll be voting for the RINOs.

[a fool in paradise]

The rats are spinning the “culture of corruption that rises to the top ranks of the party” meme again???

Tom DeLay was vindicated (slowly but surely). Two faggots got outed. What else was there? Smoke and mirrors.

Pelosi’s promised “most ethical congress EVER” never came through.

[goldstategop]

Its Obama. Few people can stand him - he’s become the Democrats’ Bush.

The irony is rich and palpable.

[goldstategop]

Called the Six Year Itch. The party holding the White House has lost seats in every second term mid term election. Sole exception was 1998.