WP: Rightward Shift May Squeeze Centrists

[kskiska]

Thursday, November 4, 2004; Page A01

Tuesday's Republican sweep of the South will reshape the next Senate, replacing moderate Democrats sometimes willing to cross party lines with ardent GOP conservatives who will press their leaders for a more right-leaning agenda, according to analysts.

Republicans claimed Senate seats vacated by Democrats in Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina. In South Dakota, Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle fell to a challenger closely identified with President Bush. And a GOP-crafted House redistricting plan in Texas led to the defeat of four veteran Democratic lawmakers and helped Republicans expand their majority by three and possibly four seats.

These changes have the potential to reduce the importance of Republican moderates, especially in the Senate, and embolden conservatives in the White House and elsewhere, these analysts said. But they also might heap unrealistic expectations on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who still lacks a filibuster-proof majority as he weighs a 2008 presidential bid.

The GOP's bare Senate majority of 51 members will grow to 55, but the impact goes beyond mere numbers.

(snip)

While Frist celebrated the victories that will leave only four Democratic senators in the former Confederacy, some political scholars noted he must oversee a diverse delegation that still has enough moderates to occasionally frustrate Bush's agenda. But in light of Tuesday's election results, conservatives in the House and White House may show less patience with roadblocks to drilling for oil in Alaska wildlife refuges or limiting civil liabilities for doctors and others.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23663-2004Nov3.html

[DBoon]

1. I imagine a similar headline

appearing in Germany in 1935, referring to the conservatives that put Hitler in power thinkin they could control him.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. There will be no control

the moderate GOP will cave and the Democratic jokes will let Bush fuck them up the ass all the way until 2006 then try to backtrack just in time for the election.

[IronLionZion]

3. 2006 anyone?

let's get started on that now. I want to see Rick Santorum in prison...or at least out of office. Let's take him down hard. Who else can we destroy? I say we go after them hard core the same way they took down Daschle. Let's get Frist where it hurts. And we'll have another shot at Tom Delay.

[Charlie Brown]

4. Think they'll try

to put the Ten Commandments in classrooms again? Or to push a "School prayer" or "creationism in education" amendment?

[davhill]

5. First two for sure

Maybe the third

[The Zanti Regent]

6. You forgot the Arnold for President Amendment, which will now pass...

...you need a REAL NAZI to run a Fascist state, after all!

[Wright Patman]

9. Arnold cannot be nominated

by the GOP. Ironically, he probably COULD be elected in the fall.

But Arnold is not even a Christian and he has been candid enough about what he believes in recent times that nobody would believe an announcement-day conversion either.

[yardwork]

8. They're already doing those things - in fact, they never stopped

I think they have bigger plans now.

[aquart]

11. Co-opt.

Thou Shalt Not Kill with a nice shot of a dead Iraqi, or our dead soldiers, or any of the new people George will get dead.

Every time one of them gets outed on adultery, Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery stamped across a photograph.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me, stamped on a picture of George.

Make them nauseous at the sight of the words Thou Shalt.

Really, it can be delightful fun.

Attack them with their own props.

[FDRrocks]

7. "limiting civil liabilities for doctors"???

limiting civil liabilities for insurance companies is more like it.

[UCLA Dem]

10. they're going to push this country to the brink.

if thats what it takes to get America to wake the hell up so be it. they asked for it, now they're going to get it.

[aquart]

12. Nothing changes until we're OVER the brink, unfortunately.