Posted on 02/24/2017 10:13:52 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison appears to be the odds on favorite to win Saturday’s election to head the Democratic National Committee. That seems like good news for Republicans seeking to expand their congressional majority in 2018, a fact President Trump seemed to gleefully acknowledge this week.
“One thing I will say about Rep. Keith Ellison, in his fight to lead the DNC, is that he was the one who predicted early that I would win!” Trump said in a Wednesday message on Twitter.
It’s no secret that incumbent presidents usually have a tough time in midterm elections. President Obama lost the Democratic House majority in 2010; President Bush lost his congressional majority in 2006; and President Clinton lost Democrats’ House majority in 1994 for the first time in 40 years.
But with Ellison as chairman, Trump could buck history by emerging from the 2018 midterms with an even larger majority.
Ellison’s position on the far left end of the political spectrum is a fact that Republicans in his home state, used to losing deep-blue Minneapolis, have taken for granted. But that’s also part of the reason old controversies have been stirred anew during his bid for party chairman. Those include accusations of anti-Semitism stemming in part from old writings in which he complained about American foreign policy being “governed” by Israel — a “country of 7 million people” — and his comparison of the 9/11 attacks to the 1933 Reichstag fire.
Those positions have been met with indifference from Ellison’s voters in Minneapolis, which leans heavily Democratic. They’re going to receive a much different response from national voters, especially those most critical to determining the congressional majority map next year. Voters in deep-red Trump states – such as Indiana, Missouri, and West Virginia – as well those from states that Trump brought back to the Republican fold for the first time in years – Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio – could hardly be more different from the voters Ellison has always relied on in his own district.
One big thing those Trump states have in common: They all have Democratic senators up for election in 2018. Democrats will be defending 23 Senate seats in all, and 10 in states that Trump won. Republicans are defending eight.
That kind of math doesn’t leave any margin for error. Republicans would have a filibuster-proof majority if they could win just eight seats. If they can simply maintain their majority, it will mean that Trump governs with a congressional majority longer than Obama – who held it for just two years – ever did, even if he doesn’t win re-election.
Ellison’s ideological peculiarities alone are enough to put his party at a severe disadvantage in the present political climate. That’s before even getting into his personal failings, which have also reemerged. There was the occasion in 2010 where he lost his temper during a debate with his Republican challenger, referring to him as a “scumbag” and “gutter-dweller.” There were the nearly half-dozen times between 1992 and 2000 that he failed to pay his income taxes, which resulted in a lien on his house, as well as the 14 traffic citations that he received but failed to pay. (He attributed the latter, in fairness, to a former wife, who said she failed to pay the fines due to illness.)
It is possible that Ellison has the ability to overcome his weaknesses and rebuild his party by reaching out to moderate and conservative voters, though it is unclear that he even wants or would seek to do either of those. And if he did, it would be for the first time in his political career.
We’ll find out on Saturday whether Democrats are ready to roll the dice on those odds. There’s a good chance Republicans are going to feel even luckier by the time they’re done.
And not one single mention of “moslem.”
Unlike Steve Bannon there will be plenty of examples of Ellison’s anti-semitism and Muslim extremism, racism. This guy is radical and we had better see Trump with harsher criticism of this guy than tweeting Ellison said he would win.
How Trump and Republicans are not calling out the Democrat party for even having this guy in consideration is beyond me. Total extremist.
>How Trump and Republicans are not calling out the Democrat party for even having this guy in consideration is beyond me. Total extremist.
Because Trump, the GOP, and pretty much everyone who wants to see the dems lose are cheering this pick on.
I know right?
Bwhahaha!
Ha...he is already bat-shite crazy.
Like Dirty Harry’s attitude with the building jumper, just get out of the way so you don’t get any on you.
Bust didn’t lose in 2002 - no mention in the article
Go Keith!!!
Ellison’s ideological peculiarities alone are enough to put his party at a severe disadvantage in the present political climate. That’s before even getting into his personal failings, which have also reemerged. There was the occasion in 2010 where he lost his temper during a debate with his Republican challenger, referring to him as a “scumbag” and “gutter-dweller.” There were the nearly half-dozen times between 1992 and 2000 that he failed to pay his income taxes, which resulted in a lien on his house, as well as the 14 traffic citations that he received but failed to pay. (He attributed the latter, in fairness, to a former wife, who said she failed to pay the fines due to illness.)
Add to it he’s so ignorant of history he stated the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.
Yup, he’s the perfect pick.
(A gal can dream. Besides which the progressives would have a valid point)
What is insane is that even something like this may not make liberal Jews defect from the party.
Yep, they need to go hard, hard left. That’s the only thing that will save them as a national party. Anything else is a losing strategy.
” the “Gd damn America” speech”
For leftists today as then, that speech was music to their ears. It was not a bug, but a feature. You and I were horrified, but we were never going to vote for Dogeater anyway.
It was disconcerting that more people in the mushy middle blew it off. But then again McCain ran such an anemic campaign.
I prayed last evening and this morning to God Almighty, begging to him to allow either Ellison or Perez to be elected DNC Chairman today. Either event will weaken the now politically dying Democrat Party much further. Democrat Party base dwindles as, they lose African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, Blue Collar Workers, Women, the Military, First Responders, etc.
You will also begin to see Democrats from both the Senate and House switch their political party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. Senator, Joe Manchin will lead the way, followed by at least two or three other “Red State” Democrat Senators!!! Let the self-destruction begin, of the entire Democrat, Obama/Clinton, Democrat Party and become as obscure, useless, and incompetent, as Barack Hussein Obama & Hillary Clinton now are!!!
1. which leans heavily Democratic. - So we have a voting district made up especial of black people so black people can elect a black representative. Why lie about this?
2. There are many such "minority" black voting districts in all of the major cities - Houston has Sheila Jackson Lee as one prime example of a black nut case in congress.
3. could hardly be more different from the voters Ellison has always relied on in his own district. - So the lie comes full circle - see #1 - The Black Muslim Radical who has a safe congressional seat back home made up of black voters cannot and will not appeal to traditional blue-collar Democrat voting WHITE voters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio or anywhere else.
I heavily doubt they would leave the party. They supported a muslim resident for 8 years unwaveringly despite his idiocies against Israel.
A few of the Jewish folks see what is happening and are among our strongest allies. The socialists among them are so far gone they are openly antisemitic in many cases. Ellison will encourage them, not discourage them. I've spent enough time in Boca Raton to tell you I've seen some of the best and worst of it. The best among them help sustain my faith. The worst among them test it and cause me to have a deep amount of sympathy and affinity for our Jewish conservatives , their courage and character in the face of the unthinkable.
Republicans have done a good job holding their fire until Ellison is elected. After that, all bets are off. Once Ellison is in place, he’ll be firmly ensconced because if Democrats ask him to step down, they will be seen as racist and Islamophobic.
Good point.
The self-hating Jews will still support Ellison.
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