Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

US & Int'l Papers

�

Click here for the Secret Decoder Ring to this issue!

Presented by:

2008 - Get Beyond It

Wednesday December 31, 2008

Click here for an Easy Print Version

Here's the best thing about New Year's Eve: It means the end of 2008.

For Republicans this was not the best year ever. Lost the White House 365 electoral votes to 173. When the 111th Congress opens next week there will be 57 Democrats and 41 Republicans. Minnesota and Illinois will likely have vacancies which, by the time they are filled, may well give the Democrats a 59-41 margin. That will be the largest margin enjoyed by either party since the 96th Congress during the Carter Administration.

In the House there will be 257 Democrats and 178 Republicans which represents the largest D majority since the 103rd Congress during the first two years of Bill Clinton's Administration.

Before we all march off the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, keep in mind that two years after the Democrats and Bill Clinton took control of Washington in the election of 1992, Newt Gingrich and the GOP won control of both the House and the Senate in the election of 1994.

Not only that, but on January 20th at the stroke of noon, Eastern time, Barack Obama will take the oath to become the 44th President of the United States with Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid in control of the Senate and Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi in charge of the House.

It will mark just eight years - to the second - since George W. Bush took the oath with Majority Leader Trent Lott and Speaker Dennis Hastert standing behind him giving the GOP control of the Administration, the House and the Senate.

All this to say that in politics as in other professional sports looking back is of limited use. Planning forward is the best use of time and talent.

The country and the world is in such trouble that it would be folly - indeed unpatriotic - to root for President Obama to fail. We need him to be successful because we need US to be successful.

Republicans can be successful by having better ideas than Pelosi, Reid and the Democrats in the House and Senate, not by just being opposed to what the majority is proposing.

They can be successful by following the example of Rep. Rahm Emanuel who, when he was the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, looked for candidates who fit their District, not ideologues who could pass the MoveOn.org litmus test.

Republicans can be successful by presenting a positive message for the future which will appeal to a broad majority of voters, not by being the nation's scold needing more and more support from a smaller and smaller minority of the electorate.

This does not mean the GOP should back away from a fight, but they need to pick their spots and make sure the fights clearly demonstrate the vast differences in approach between how Democrats want to proceed and what Republicans would do if they held the reins of power.

This is far different from opposing every idea and every bill just to keep Democrats from gaining an easy win. Some bills coming out of the Democrat-controlled committees in the House and Senate will be good ideas.

Even a stopped watch is correct twice a day.

The Democrats may well have already gone beyond their high point. The GOP has won run-off elections since November 4th. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is the gift that just keeps on giving. And, there is every reason to believe that officials of the Obama Administration will suffer from the sin of hubris and overstep their bounds politically, legally, or both.

In 2010 Barack Obama will not be on the ballot anywhere in the nation. Individual Democrats will be defending their votes if they are incumbents or defending positions of their party if they are running in open seats or as challengers.

With proper planning, good recruiting and strong fundraising it is very likely Republicans will be going into the 2010 election cycle with the political winds at their backs.

Every day the GOP spends whining about what did or didn't happen over the past four years will be a day wasted.

If Republican candidates run on strong principals instead of narrow ideology they can make dramatic gains in the mid-term elections just over 22 months away.

Happy New Year.

On the Secret Decoder Ring today: An Excel spreadsheet showing the divisions in the U.S. House and Senate since 1971, a Mullfoto of the aforementioned Woodrow Wilson Bridge as well as a Catchy Caption of the Day.

Become a
Paid Mullings Subscriber!

(To join the FREE mailing list or to unsubscribe Click Here)

Current Issue | Secret Decoder Ring | Past Issues | Email Rich | Rich Who?