Another op-ed thinking GOP control of the Senate will be bad -- for the GOP

Here's another opinion (I posted this one a couple of days ago) that expresses the idea that the Republicans winning the Senate won't be good for them -- in this case, the writer thinks it will be a nightmare for them.


Republicans will probably take the Senate. Here’s why it will be a nightmare for them.

Three intriguing excerpts:

1. "There will be tremendous built-up pressure from conservatives that Sen. Mitch McConnell (assuming he wins his own race and becomes majority leader) will have to satisfy. That means votes on things such as repealing the Affordable Care Act, building border fences, slashing environmental regulations and cutting corporate taxes, most or all of which will be unpopular and inevitably filibustered by Senate Democrats."

2. "Though it was called “the nuclear option,” the true nuclear option would apply to legislation, which under current rules the minority is still free to filibuster (as the Republicans do). Would McConnell go fully nuclear and get rid of that, too, so the GOP Congress could send bills to the president’s desk? ... There wouldn’t be much point, since Obama would just veto the bills. And McConnell surely knows that his time as majority leader would come with a two-year expiration date, since in 2016 there will be only 10 Democrat-held seats up for election, while Republicans will be defending 24 seats, many in Democratic states, and they will be doing it in a presidential election year, when the electorate that comes to the polls is far more friendly to Democrats." *

3. " Not only that, at various times they will have no choice but to make deals with Obama. McConnell, John Boehner and the more sober Republicans know that there’s nothing worse for them politically than forcing government shutdowns and debt defaults. That means they will have to agree to continuing resolutions keeping the government open and making increases in the debt ceiling in order to avoid national and political disaster. And when they do, the tea party base of the GOP will be enraged. “What did we elect a Republican Congress for?” it will shout."

* My thought:  if they end up doing very little, which is very likely;  or looking really obstinate and mean-spirited while opposing President Obama; then there will be even MORE incentive to vote the GOP bums out. So while I don't relish two years of Republican congressional rule (looking on the bright side, Eric Cantor is GONE), the prospect of a heavy overturn two years later is slightly heartening.