| Nov 9, 2008 @ 11:37 AM |
The House Republicans are very ambitious
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SweetNapaGuy
Posts: 8,520
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Link
"There is going to be, I think, a willingness to try and get things done," Cantor said. "But at the end of the day I think you will see a Republican Party in Congress serving as a check and a balance against Mr. Obama's power and Speaker Pelosi's power."
How much power does the minority power hold in the House? With six seats remaining to be called (though, in browsing, it looks like mostly Republican districts), the Republicans are 81 seats behind the Democrats. Just how are they planning on serving as a "check and balance" when they would have to convince approximately a sixth of Democrats to side with them on an issue? Or does the House have the equivalent of the filibuster? (Note: The Democrats control 58.6% of the House already, before the allocation of the six remaining seats.)
I suppose we can see the Republicans stemming the tide on the most fringe legislation, but only with the help of a large segment of the Democratic majority. Aside from that? The Republicans probably might as well stay home.
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| Nov 9, 2008 @ 11:44 AM |
The House Republicans are very ambitious |
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lefthandedluckie
Posts: 6,386
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After what happened under the "Nuke" option given by the republicans during 2005, I believe, the Democrats should see the opposition and acknowledge they are there but, turn a deaf ear to anything else they have to say!
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| Nov 9, 2008 @ 11:49 AM |
The House Republicans are very ambitious
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vinnytmd
Posts: 6,004
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Three letter word
V
E
T
O
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| Nov 9, 2008 @ 11:53 AM |
The House Republicans are very ambitious |
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SweetNapaGuy
Posts: 8,520
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After what happened under the "Nuke" option given by the republicans during 2005, I believe, the Democrats should see the opposition and acknowledge they are there but, turn a deaf ear to anything else they have to say!
I was talking about the House, not the Senate. In the Senate, the Democrats have 57 seats. (If Franken wins the recount, make that 58.) Enough to push through the "nuclear option," but not enough to break a filibuster.
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| Nov 9, 2008 @ 11:54 AM |
The House Republicans are very ambitious
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SweetNapaGuy
Posts: 8,520
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VETO
That doesn't even make any sense at all. How would Obama vetoing some legislation serve as a "check and balance" on Obama's power?
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| Nov 9, 2008 @ 11:58 AM |
The House Republicans are very ambitious |
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lefthandedluckie
Posts: 6,386
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That is what I get for "skim" reading! Must look closer at your posts they are always more complex!
I stand corrected!
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| Nov 9, 2008 @ 12:01 PM |
The House Republicans are very ambitious
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eastham
Posts: 7,913
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When the Republicans seized control of the House in the 1990's, their promise was more legislation coming to the floor under open rules, more transparency. The opposite happened. The number of bills that reached the House floor under an open or modified open (the latter is more typical) rule dwindled, while bills under closed rules flourished.
Gingrich, who had spent more than a decade encouraging his colleagues not to participate in the democratic process, had a cadre of "chairmen" ill-prepared for the job. Neither they or their staff knew how to put together a hearing, how to run a mark-up, etc. But no matter, bills didn't work their way through the deliberative process; they were brought to the floor straight from the leadership offices in the dead of night.
For all the fits and starts we have seen in the House in the last two years, Pelosi had the less glamourous job of putting the mechanics of a working House of Representatives back in order. The same balance of power you should see at the macro level across all of government (executive, legislative, judicial) you see at the micro level in the Congress. Strong subcommittee and committee chairmen balance the power of the Speaker's office and that of the other leaders.
Until the Republicans understand the fundamental problems of how they governed, they won't have a chance to "get things done" for a very long time.
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| Nov 14, 2008 @ 12:08 AM |
The House Republicans are very ambitious |
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SweetNapaGuy
Posts: 8,520
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The Republicans have managed to pick up one of the six remaining House seats.
Of the remaining 5 seats, the ones I've found are:
California: McClintock leading by 1200 votes (R)
Ohio: Stivers leading by 150 votes (R)
Virginia: Perriello leading by 750 votes (D)
Two seats in Louisiana (districts 2 and 4) aren't up for election until December 4th, due to storms. It's likely the two parties will split these two seats.
So it looks like the Democrats will have gained a total of 20-22 seats in this election, after their impressive 31 seat gain in 2006.
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| Nov 14, 2008 @ 2:08 PM |
The House Republicans are very ambitious
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Haban3ro
Posts: 1,197
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It'll be a shame to lost Mcclintock to the House, since he's one of the few principled Republicans I can point to in Sacramento. Although I would like to see him get elected and "rally the troops" back to taking an approach based on principle and integrity, I fear he's as likely to be corrupted by the "get it while you can" attitude prevailing in DC.
2010 will be another wilderness year for CA republicans. WTF were we thinking when we elected a Kennedy in-law? Just goes to show how a hunger to gain power can destroy a party's distinctives.
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| Nov 14, 2008 @ 3:31 PM |
The House Republicans are very ambitious |
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eastham
Posts: 7,913
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I'm not sure that Perriello has been formally declared, as McCain has filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of VA on how they counted absentee ballots and the suit won't be decided until November 24th, but Perriello leads in the count, has named his transition team and is acting like the Congressman-elect.
Edited to add: Perriello leads Goode by 745 votes.
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| Dec 7, 2008 @ 1:52 AM |
The House Republicans are very ambitious
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SweetNapaGuy
Posts: 8,520
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The Republicans picked up LA district 02 (i.e. Neew Orleans), rejecting convicted lawmaker Jefferson.
LA district 04 will probably go Republican as well (they're leading by 350 votes).
CA district 04 went Republican (McClintock), but by a surprisingly narrow margin (600-ish votes).
VA District 05 is looking to go Democrat (by 750-ish votes).
And OH District 15 is looking to go Republican (by 150-ish votes).
So it's looking like the only surprise is LA district 02.
Looks like the final tally will be 256 D vs 179 R in the House. And a heck of a lot of those races were razor-thin victories... A total of 20 pickups for the Democrats, when most recent elections saw changes of less than 5 seats...
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| Dec 7, 2008 @ 10:20 AM |
The House Republicans are very ambitious |
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eastham
Posts: 7,913
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Getting back to Cantor's words in the original post...the ability of Republicans to affect any change remains to be seen. While the odds are more favorable in the Senate than in the House, they are still in the minority and will not control floor or committee schedules.
That said, prior to Gingrich's rise in the House, Republicans did affect changes to legislation. They attended hearings, they participated in mark-ups, brought up substantive amendments, etc. When Newt Gingrich, Bob Walker and crew arrived on the scene, the recommendation to the rank-and-file House Republican was to cease attending hearings, to stop participating in mark-ups, etc. In the end, while it helped Republicans win the House in the Gingrich revolution in the 1990's, it left Republican House members wholly unprepared to serve as equal partners in our republic. Younger members were leap-frogged over more senior Republicans with a reputation and history for working across the aisle. So those in charge had no idea how to put together a hearing and there was no one with experience to provide any type of counterweight to Gingrich and the leadership.
If the Republicans want to affect change, they must return to their roots. They must become good stewards of the House by attending hearings, doing their homework and by spending less time thinking about how good their hair looks on CSPAN and more on just thinking. Conversely, the new crowd of Democratic leaders must not cave into a desire for payback for how they as the minority party was treated over the last few years and be willing to work across the aisle.
Unfortunately for the House Republicans, I'm not sure they have the people in place to make the changes as a party in order to work across the aisle. Boehner is an intellectual lightweight, a place holder. Cantor spent as much time over the past two years trying to position himself as a viable candidate for VP as he did acting like the deputy whip. We'll see how he does in the number two spot (he's now whip) in the next Congress.
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