Legal Commentary

What It Will Mean

By Big Tent Democrat

Though I won't do my official prediction until this afternoon, let's assume for the moment that the GOP sweeps the House and just misses on the Senate, as Matt Yglesias does here. I agree with Yglesias that the interesting upshot of this will be the irrelevance of "moderates" and Democrats in the Congress. Yglesias writes:

[E]gomaniacal senate moderates will be frustrated to discover that the legislative process now consists primarily of negotiations between Barack Obama and the House GOP.

Why? Because unlike the progressives in the House, the hard line GOP House members will not compromise (even if Boehner wants them too.) The test President Obama will face is immense. In many ways, bigger than the test faced by President Clinton in 1995. Gingrich was raring for a fight, but he had the control. Once Gingrich was broken, Clinton could make deals. Breaking Boehner won't lead to the same result. The crazies are in charge of the GOP asylum. Of course 1995 ended in government shutdowns. Does Obama have the stomach for that type of fight? How does that type of fight end? We live in interesting times.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on November 02, 2010 (boomark / email).