2006 Elections

I consider myself a pretty optomistic guy. But I'm starting to feel as though the stream that President Bush has been swimming against for the past 4 years has turned into a whirlpool sucking him down into the bottom. We may be only weeks away from officially calling him a lame-duck president.

The sad thing is he mostly has himself, and the people in Congress to blame for it. Though the Democrats and the media aren't helping by hyping such pseudo-scandals as Wilson/Plame and the whole Delay mess (for the record, that prosecuter is responsible for the grossest abuse of power that I've ever seen), Republicans in Washington really have forgotten what it means to be conservative. For the life of me, I will never understand the creation of a new entitlement program, on a party-line vote, that will eventually cost the country trillions but will only help the Democrats in the long-run.

So, after years of pandering, what is the hill that President Bush decides to die on? Handing over ports to an Arab country? Are you kidding me? I understand the background of it all, and, in a non-ideological sense I could even support it, but this is just such a case of political tone-deafness that it's amazing.

I think that was the final straw. Democrats will take over the House in 2006 and Nancy Pelosi will be the new Speaker (despite being the most incompetant party leader in my lifetime). The Senate should hold much better, I don't see more than 3 seats going to the Democrats, but that will be enough to get them to start filibustering every judge in sight.

So where does that leave us. Well, since, at this moment, this blog is concentrating on getting Gov. Romney the Republican nomination, it does provide some stumbling blocks and opportunities.

First, it will provide an instant boost for the "electable" Sen. McCain (note: same adjective used to desribe Sen. Kerry). However, we should remember that a 3rd Supreme Court nomination is likely to come up between now and the primaries. When the Democrats filibuster that candidate, it will be easy to remind Republican primary voters that Sen. McCain is largely responsible for keeping that weapon safe for Democrats once the RINOs are in charge.

Second, the Democrats will make President Bush's life a living hell. But, that's okay, he'll be long since irrelevant as a political force by then. The Democrats will embark upon Operation Overreach, and will lose momentum as the country gets tired of their games. What that will mean for the political calculus of the 2008 primary, I'm not exactly sure. But it does seem to me, that an outsider would be a smart bet at that point.