The Obama Steamroller: Is resistance futile?

Richard Baehr @ BrookesNews.Com

The political reality at the moment is that regardless of the wisdom or foolishness of what is or will be proposed by the Obama administration or Congress in the next two years, it will pass. This is the consequence for the GOP of losing elections and losing them big in both 2006 and 2008. The Democratic majority in the House is 257-178. After the 2004 elections, the GOP held a 232-203 edge, so nearly a quarter of GOP held seats are gone.

There is no power of filibuster for the minority in the House, and there won't be any key votes where 40 blue dog Democrats align with the Republicans to stop some piece of legislation from being passed. In the Senate, the Coleman Franken race will likely wind up with Franken being seated, giving the Democrats a 59-41 Senate majority, one seat from the 60 seat filibuster proof majority. After the 2004 elections, the GOP held a 55-45 edge in the Senate, so just over a quarter of the GOP seats are now gone.

The Coleman Franken result is not certain, but Coleman's odds of prevailing are long. In the first critical weeks of the recount he was out-lawyered and out-hustled by the Franken team, which seemed to know better than the Coleman team where they could find additional votes, and insure they were counted. With 59 Senate seats the Democrats will have clear sailing on all votes by turning just one Republican on a filibuster vote.

With Arlen Spector facing re-election in an increasingly Democratic leaning state in 2010, the Democrats have their most likely vote. Given union influence in the Keystone state, will Spector stand with other Republicans and oppose card check? If Spector does not fall in line with the Obama steamroller, then Obama can pick off one of Maine's two Republican Senators. He won the votes of both Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, as well as Spector for the stimulus bill.

The Republicans have been unlucky, particularly in Senate races recently, but part of the damage was self-inflicted. Would a shift of campaign resources in 2006 have saved the seats of George Allen and Conrad Burns, both of whom lost very narrowly? Might a better use of resources saved Coleman and Ted Stevens last year?

Were the GOP at 44 or 45 in the Senate, they would have a real shot at sustaining a filibuster, and slowing the Obama team's determined effort to greatly expand the role of government. That effort amounts to nothing less than a sustained attack on the free enterprise system in the country, penalizing its winners, and discouraging entrepreneurship. Is it at all surprising that not a single corporate executive found a home among the upper levels of the Obama White House or Cabinet? Obama stated several times during the long campaign that even if some of his policies did not expand the pie, that they were needed for fairness. In essence, this is an administration committed to leveling, that trusts that only government can accomplish this.

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