And what on earth would their incentive be to leave the majority party to join the minority?
RE #60:
"...And what on earth would their incentive be to leave the majority party to join the minority?"
To hand the majority back over the the abortion on demand Party, like Jumpin' Jimmy did for them some years back, given sufficient incentive.
And that incentive could be in the form of plumb Committees, grants to key constituent groups, or, I would not be at all surprised, keys to a nice fat Swiss Bank Account...
I'm pretty sure that the UN has plenty of real pretty ones they'd be willing to share whith a "special friend" or two - even George SOROS might be able to come up with a little such "incentive", don't you reckon?
And that kind of money can buy a politician a lot of power - or a nice cushy retirement with full pension over in Europe somewhere.
Whose interests and agendae, at home and abroad, would be well served by a Congress that could and would reliably hobble and obstruct our President's every initiative for the duration of his second term?
What kind of resources might some of those interests have access to?
Go figure, then.
You want "incentive"; how's that for starts?
It he Dems can't win or steal an election, they can and I'm pretty sure will at least try to buy the Senate.
It's what they do.
So how many left-leaning (more popularly known as "moderate") RINOS are there who might be pursuaded somehow to jump, given the proper "incentive" and some less than PC action by the POTUS that would give them occasion for feigned "outrage" and a public excuse for a group abandonment of the Republican Party in response?
Instead of just one traitor to flip the Senate, they need what - five now?
Count up the two-faced RINO hypocrytes lurking around the Senate now whose loyalty to Ted, Hillary, and the abortion industry (not to mention affinity for "incentive") could possibly trump any residual loyalty they might retain for the President or the Republican Party; Then do the math.
Don't forget; to reverse a 5-seat majority, they only have to flip 3 Senators, as each loss to the Rs is a pickup for the Ds.
By flipping technically as an "Independant", Jeffords only half betrayed us, I suppose, as it wasn't a gain technically for the Dems, was it? (at the time I don't think they really needed it, since Jumpin predictably votes with the Dems).
Correct me if I'm wrong here, (as I well may be) but if 3 Rinos bailed, it would become a 51 - 52 Dem majority, wouldn't it (assuming that the Dems retain 49 seats)? My figures might be off here, but you get the idea.
For a while during the last term, I fully expected Olympia Snowe to jump after we got a slim majority back.
But as a more politically savvy Friend pointed out, she weilds a lot of power right where she is, as a Member of several key committees, and chair of some of them.
So she can advance the cause of liberalism and the leftist agenda over the American culture and economy a lot more efficiently right where she is behind Republican lines than she likely could over cuddled up next to Hildabeast, Uncle Teddy and Komrades.
I personally opine that this is probably the main if not only only reason why she and probably a few of her fellow RINOS still tote that "R" around behind them down in Washington.
As an aside, who was it that held the Federal Budget hostage until the Presiden't proposed tax cut was CUT IN HALF?
Could she have done that from the other side of the isle?
I don't think so.
So I rest my case for the practical utility of RINOS to the left.
That same political mentor also suggested that neither Snowe nor Collins ever need one Republican from Maine to vote for them in order to keep their incumbancy just as long as they want it.
And you know, I have come to believe that he's right about that!
I certainly know of at least One Maine Republican who won't be holding his nose to support or vote for either one of them again, majority or no majority.
A Freshman Democrat in the Senate would probably be much less usefull to Uncle Teddy and Aunt Hillary than a Senior RINO firmly ensconced behind our lines, even if it gave them a slight majority. Heck; the GOP has been acting as if the Dems still had a 6 or 7 seat majority over us ever since the last election - so what would change, anyway?
So yes; I submit that there is plenty of "incentive" available - but will the Dems play it or leave it on the table to maintain a fairly comfortable status quo?
If and when said incentive is cast, will our RINOS rise to the bait?
Sen. McCAIN seems to have been offered some pretty choice worms lately (like a chance to be Kerry's VP running mate for instance) but even he could smell the hook in that one.
Who needs baseball when you've got politics to follow, eh?
Certainly the stakes are a lot higher, aren't they?