Posted on 01/26/2010 6:33:32 PM PST by CutePuppy
Democratic election expectations were crumbling Monday after a leading Senate recruit declined to run and another lawmaker announced his retirement.
Rep. Marion Berry’s (D-Ark.) departure and Beau Biden’s (D) decision not to pursue the upper chamber came after Democrats said they expected the opposite. And now the party, which has said it doesn’t expect lots of retirements, is facing the possibility of several more.
It is the latest bad news for Democrats in a cycle with a growing number of open seats and candidates bowing out. Berry became the sixth House Democrat to retire from politics, and all of those seats appear to be GOP pickup opportunities.
Republicans also have a list of Democratic members they’re encouraging to step down, including Reps. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), John Spratt (D-S.C.),
Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa), Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Baron Hill (D-Ind.), among others.
But unless these and several other Democrats decide to leave, it will be tough for Republicans to win the 41 seats they need to regain the majority in the House.
Republicans will be favored to win Berry’s district, which went 59-38 for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008.
As for the Delaware Senate seat, Republican Rep. Mike Castle, a former governor, remains popular in the state and raised a solid $1.1 million in the fourth quarter.
Republicans seized on the Democratic setback Monday.
“As we saw in Massachusetts last week, voters clearly stated that these seats belong to the people — not to either political party or dynasty,” said Colin Reed, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).
Democrats had fought back against reports in recent days that Berry and Biden were eyeing the exits, but within a day or two, each made it official.
The party faced a similar situation with Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), who also said prior to his retirement that he expected to run for reelection.
Berry, 67, didn’t yet face a top opponent, and he cited health concerns in his announcement. But he also alluded to the same political difficulties mentioned by Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) in his retirement announcement earlier this month.
Berry told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that Democratic leaders and President Barack Obama are forcing Blue Dogs like him to take too many tough votes. He said he’s been urging them not to repeat the sins of 1994, when Democrats were blindsided by the tough environment.
“I’ve been doing that with this White House, and they just don’t seem to give it any credibility at all,” Berry said. “They just kept telling us how good it was going to be. The president himself, when that was brought up in one group, said, ‘Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was, you’ve got me.’ We’re going to see how much difference that makes now.”
Biden, the vice president’s son, said his decision had nothing to do with politics, but it’s pretty apparent that his task against Castle was getting more and more difficult. That became particularly clear after fellow Attorney General Martha Coakley’s (D) loss to Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R) in last week’s special election for a Massachusetts Senate seat.
Biden instead cited an all-consuming prosecution his office is faced with, involving a pediatrician accused of molesting children who were his patients. He said later that he hadn’t even factored Coakley’s loss into his decisionmaking process.
Whatever the cause, Biden’s decision leaves Castle as a strong favorite to reach the upper chamber.
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[ more at http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/77955-dem-midterm-woes?tmpl=component&print=1 ]
That said, in either case, Obama's and Pelosi's agenda will be crippled and they will not be able to govern normally while actually "owning" the results of their policies, and not being able to credibly blame Republicans for them, in 2012.
If GOP doesn't actually take over House and/or Senate, it will be a repeat of Carter's 1980 scenario when Democrats ran both branches outright, not Clinton's 1996 scenario when he blamed anything "bad" on 1995-1996 Republican Congress, while taking credit for anything that was decreed "good" by the media.
On behalf of Palin, those alleged “retirements” are nothing more than libtard cover for QUITTERS! =.=
Keep acting like a jackass Obama.
You’ll soon be alone.
Or a reshuffle of the deck.....
They simply do not want to be fired or branded a loser, so they say happy trails to you.
The good news is that the Dems are practically giving away the DE senate seat.
The bad news is that Mike Castle is a cap and trade approving RINO.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
No. This is what happens when self centered tyrants rule.
People jump ship.
Skelton and Boswell both need to retire.
Obama, Pelosi and Reid need to retire.
Kerry, Frank, Durbin, Boxer, the list is endless.
Obama is not helping his own party get re-elected. Everyone he campaigns for becomes a big loser.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
Bill Clinton's approval rating January 1994, 55%.
Barack Obama's approval rating January 2010, 48%.
The obvious to me is the minority in Mass was never going to vote for a white female AG. They are racist, sexist, and not very keen on prosecutors.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
It sure seems that local politics is bad everywhere for the Dems.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
They smell blood in the water.
THEIRS!!!
And they should.
Marion Berry could stay in Washington and be elected mayor—as long as he doesn’t let the electorate see what he looks like.
Yes, sly Tip wanted people to think that, so they can run the "dogs" of appropriate color for the local constituents. Obliging media kept repeating this "big lie" until they convinced enough politicians of it. That's how we find ourselves with Democrat Senators in what normally should be "red" states like Dakotas, Missouri, Nevada etc. etc.
We could have a permanent near-veto-proof Senate (about 30 "red" states) if GOP leadership understood that. As Gingrich proved in 1994, "nationalizing" elections works to clear advantage of Republicans. Not that they knew what to do with it after 1998 / 2000. In 2006 and 2008 Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer "localized" them again, and GOP didn't even know what hit 'em.
Here is my suggestion to GOP Representatives and Senators for tomorrow's SOTU - sit on your hands and do not applaud when Obama says something flattering about conservative ideas, like he did in his first one:
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