Posted on 02/18/2018 1:41:19 PM PST by Kaslin
A new interview with Mitch McConnell this week showed the first cracks in the wall of his optimism about the midterms. While not going down a path of gloom and doom, he no longer sounds positive of breaking a long-standing trend of the party in power losing ground in such scenarios. He’s not coming out and saying the GOP’s majorities in both chambers are toast, but he seems to think they’ll be losing seats. (The Hill)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says in a new interview that he expects to see GOP majorities in the House and Senate shrink in November as a result of the 2018 midterms.
The top Republican in the Senate told The New York Times that “the odds are” his party will face net losses in both chambers of Congress this year, the first time McConnell has made such an admission publicly.“The odds are that we will lose seats in the House and the Senate,” McConnell said.
“History tells you that, the fired-up nature of the political left tells you that. We go into this cleareyed that this is going to be quite a challenging election,” he added.
McConnell looks like he’s zigging when everyone else zags. It seemed like everyone was predicting that the Democrats would at least take the Senate back before Christmas, but Mitch was all sunshine and roses. Now that Trump’s numbers have begun to creep back up and some GOP strategists have a bit more spring in their step, McConnell is lowering expectations.
The biggest question is the Senate, of course, and you’d expect the Majority Leader to be more in tune with that. But how many seats are going to flip and which way will they go? The Democrats need at least a net pickup of two now that the Alabama mess is settled. Granted, we’re probably going to lose Nevada because Dean Heller is in a deep hole right now, being attacked from both sides. The #RESIST movement there is strong and Hillary carried the state easily. It looked like we were going to lose Arizona with Flake’s retirement, but if the primary electorate there can settle down and nominate Martha McSally, we could be in good shape. (Nominating Joe Arpaio, on the other hand, would likely turn into Roy Moore Phase Two.)
But let’s say the Dems take Arizona. There’s your flip, right? Not so fast. That means they still have to hang on to all of the more than two dozen of their own they’re defending. And those include:
Granted, they’ll probably keep some of them. But all of them? Particularly looking at McCaskill, Donnelly and Manchin, I’m thinking it’s going to have to be a tsunami and not just a “wave” to go three for three there. As usual, we should remind ourselves that it’s still ridiculously early in the year to pretend that anything is set in stone, and one turn of the news cycle can change any number of things. But as it stands right now, particularly if Trump can somehow keep his nose above water in the mid-forties, it looks like the Democrats have a massive amount of work ahead of them. All the GOP really needs to do at this point is avoid being stupid.
Okay… I didn’t say was a sure thing.
I don’t want anyone do a repeat of the 2006 election when so many on our side stayed at home because they wanted to teach the GOP a lesson.
Yeah - like they did for Obamacare.
The Senates’ equivalent of SCOTUS’ Ginsburg!
No fight in this turtle at all. Some “leader.”
Not to mention losing the White House too.
...oh wait, that was his prediction in 2016.
Yes...and “usually” a guy with NO POLITICAL JOB EXPERIENCE does NOT become President.
Unfortunately given his behavior during the Roy Moore election in Alabama I’m not sure he wants to be majority leader.
The Republicans better pick up some Senate seats because the math will be against them in 2020 and 2022. If the Dems win back the Senate in 2020, you can forget about good conservatives being confirmed for judges.
Unfortunately he is not up for reelection. The Republicans need to find someone else for Majority leader who does away with the 60 majority vote, unless we can win enough seats from the rats so we would have the super majority.
Yes, the far-lefties are truly an insane lot.
I see them every time I go for my Yahoo mail (I have to look).
They are nuts. Absolutely, totally freaking nuts.
I’m surprised they don’t burst into flame.
But then, I’m surprised Hillary’s pantsuits didn’t catch on fire 100x.
Plus it makes it a hell of a lot easier to impersonate a man with a job.
Indeed.
When you realize that only a handful of congressional repubikans in D.C. actually voted for Trump in 2016, then you’ll understand how irreparably FUBARed ‘our’ fed govt is.
Exactly.
Of course R’s will lose seats. Partly because of McConnell and a few more like McShame & Lindsay, Flake, Collins, Romney, Bush, Kaysuck of Ohio, etc.
Most folks look at these types and want to throw up
Ah, the old turtle with the perpetual “L” on his forehead.
McConnell WANTS TO LOSE SEATS.
Turtle man knows the base hates him. He also knows we are motivated to win bigly.
Relax folks. If Mitch were the political genius he thinks he is, Trump wouldn't be President right now.
If the GOP majority in the Senate shrinks by two it's Minority Leader McConnell.
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