Warnock wins re-election
Of course he did. Of course he did.
Although I knew this election was going to be happening Tuesday, I couldn’t bring myself to analyze it ahead of time because a Warnock win seemed a foregone conclusion. It felt as though we’d seen this movie before.
And indeed we had – only this time it brings the Senate to 51 Democrats to 49 Republicans instead of 50/50 with a Kamala Harris tiebreaker for the Democrats.
I don’t even think fraud was needed for Warnock to win. Herschel Walker just wasn’t the candidate to beat him, and on election night 2022 when it became clear there would be a runoff it also became clear that Warnock would win it. Money had poured in to support him, in a ratio of three to one. And although McConnell’s super PAC threw in money for Walker in the runoff, it didn’t meet Warnock’s total and at any rate maybe money wasn’t the issue.
Whatever it was in Georgia that got voters out for the Kemp win in November wasn’t operating for Walker in December, despite Kemp’s endorsement. Personality? Troubling past and family members who aired it prominently? Lack of incumbency? And it seems that Warnock’s leftism didn’t trouble the voters much if at all, nor did other accusations that surfaced against him.
So, what difference does it make if the Senate is 51-49 versus 50-50 with a tiebreaker? For one thing, it would take two Democrats defecting instead of just one to stop a judge from being approved. Or, the same if they wanted to vote on the filibuster – they’d need two “nay” votes against ending the filibuster instead of one.
Of course, the GOP now has the House, which means it will be harder to pass anything – I think. The problem is that the GOP holds it by such a small margin that if (and when?) any House members decide to do that bipartisan reach-across-the-aisle thing, watch out. Whoever becomes Speaker – and for the moment I’ll assume it will be McCarthy, although he has a challenger in Andy Biggs – had better be made of sterner stuff than previous behavior indicated.
As for Biggs:
I’m running for Speaker to break the establishment.
Kevin McCarthy was created by, elevated by, and maintained by the establishment.https://t.co/tKLPXUxSOA
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) December 6, 2022
Biggs simply doesn’t have the votes to win, and there are dangers here:
Biggs…presumably has at least five votes. This puts Kevin McCarthy at a precarious 216 votes, two shy of what he needs to take possession of the Speaker’s gavel. Some fear that the five holdouts will give more moderate GOP members the chance to strike some kind of deal with Democrats that allows them to retain the speakership. All of this may just be a political ploy to force concessions from McCarthy in the new legislative session, but he only has 28 days to whip up the votes he needs.
The full House will vote for their new speaker on January 3, 2023.
Anyone else feeling a bit weary at this point? I certainly am.
Having 51 Democrat senators means that they will still control the Senate in case the Vice Presidency becomes vacant because Harris dies, resigns, or becomes President. This makes it somewhat more feasible for them to replace Biden before the end of his term.
So, it comes down to money and incumbency. How sad is that? Warnock was a terrible, immoral candidate, but he got a pass.
Of course, I’m old enough to remember in jr. high being told that our incumbent reelection record rivaled Russia’s.
Term limits, but the foxes rule the hen house.
So we went from a Red Wave to Marxists controlling the Senate.
Read a big part is national money in Senate elections, just as I Presidential races. The March into almost all education the control of the media and until now all of social media.
Anyone but McCarthy but we are going to get McCarthy and The Turtle
This puts The Turtle’s mind at ease. He’s snug as a bug in a rug.
Would it be too boring were one to ask, “WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS SEEM TO HAPPEN”???
“Transparency issues mar Senate runoff in Georgia’s largest county as observers cite limited access”—
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/fulton-county-election-issues-amid-senate-runoff-observers-unable-witness
(Of course, that might be the WHOLE point…)
The RNC Chair needs to be replaced. Since her term began in 2017, we have lost three elections. Harmeet Dhillon or Lee Zeldin should take the job.
And I am very sorry to say this. I fully appreciate Trump’s achievements in winning in 2016, and his successful presidency, and I deplore what has been done to him. But, with his party leadership, we have lost elections in 2018, 2020, and now 2022. We need to elect politicians who share Trump’s policy objectives, but who also know how to do politics. Fortunately there are many around the country who have learned from Trump about dealing with the lying information media.
No, commenters here, I am not a Trump hater. I’m being realistic. The important thing is getting our country back.
I know you don’t like it, Neo, but the existence of the uniparty of Dem/GOPe is quite obvious. Not because Walker lost; he was a bad candidate. It has more to do with the apparent permanency of McCarthy and McConnell types in the leadership positions.
I’m with Kate here, the first place is to purge the GOP of RINOs or near RINOs, and get Trump-like people in place who don’t alienate a large fraction of MotR voters.
Of course this is an optimistic view assuming elections matter anymore and are not an exercise in theatrics. I tend toward the latter view.
“Missed it by… this much!” Seriously, did anyone ever have a doubt about the outcome? I assume that those who believed Walker was supposed to have a chance also have put aside their plate of cookies and milk for when Santa comes down their chimney. And remember, people, next time… VOTE HARDER!
I’m Mitch McConnell and I approve this comment.
I no longer trust anything related to govt. If Ga had an honest election with standard integrity safeguards, it would still be a red state. We all know this.
Obviously, news media and the rest of the Democrat voters are happy to continue to endorse fraud and the rush to dismantle our republic. I think I’ll get another gun.
BTW — more signs of corrupt administration reindeer games. Similar to the rigged jobs numbers under Obama. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/something-rigged-unexplained-record-27-million-jobs-gap-emerges-broken-payrolls-report
Why would anyone trust anything they say? About anything?
The Republican House caucus had a leadership vote. Whether you like McCarthy or not, he won that vote, with something like 80% of the caucus voting for him. Now Biggs is going to challenge McCarthy on the floor for the speakership? I’m sorry, that’s nuts. Even if if you support Biggs or hate McCarthy or believe that the “establishment” elevated McCarthy or whatever – look at it from the stand point of the 80% of the caucus who already voted for McCarthy to be the party leader. The matter was settled amongst the caucus and the losers of the caucus vote are now pulling a stupid stunt on the floor that could easily result in a Democrat or Democrat-supported Republican becoming speaker.
Politics is a coalitional game. Very few factions in American history have ever been strong enough to simply steamroll their opposition. The MAGA movement was never that strong and certainly isn’t now. MAGA folks need to decide whether they want to play a long game and utimately get a lot of what they want, or continue to be the turd in the punchbowl to the rest of the GOP coalition.
Bauxite, what I hope is that the Biggs effort is to pressure McCarthy into agreeing to some things the Freedom Caucus wants to see changed. He can be pressured. Remember he appointed good representatives to the J6 Select Committee. Pelosi overruled him and set up the kangaroo committee with Cheney and Kinzinger. McCarthy stood his ground. He’s not what I want, but he can be influenced.
Justin Amash wants to be Speaker, as well. Now that would shake things up.
You won bauxite well the marxist hamas supporter did and by extension fauci is held unaccountable but orange mad bad thats the important thing
I am inclined to think that the RNC leadership battle is even more important than the (very early) presidential campaign. We have effective Republican leadership here in NC, we were organized, and we won where it counts, in a state still politically mixed.
Take a look at Harmeet Dhillon’s record and proposals.
They dont mind the ‘broken crockery’ kate they spent all this money to let the democrats wins like the 1919 world series
Zeldin will not challenge dhillon will not be allowed to win too many ricebowls would be broken
The phenomenon of widespread ticket splitting indicates to me that the Republican party needs to be more careful when picking candidates. And the fact that the Democrats outspend the Republicans 4 to 1 indicates that more can be done on that front, unfortunately.
There is that
https://twitter.com/joelpollak/status/1600376192481099777?cxt=HHwWgoCgvd_q1rUsAAAA
I fear 2024 will be a poisoned chalice election. Our economy is being destroyed by the insane climate hysteria. Trump tried to steer the country toward prosperity after Obama’s weak leftism left us struggling. The oligarchs, who grossly over rate their ability, stole the 2020 election and the effect has been to put us all on a slide to the bottom. 2024 and 2025 will be the bottom. 2008 was only a sign of things to come.
The uniparty establishment got the result that they wanted; this doesn’t bother McConnell in the least. He’d rather be minority leader with complete control over his caucus than be majority leader and perhaps have to deal with a half dozen or so MAGA senators who notice things they’re not supposed to notice, e.g. where the money that’s being sent to Ukraine really goes..
Not saying there was any significant voter fraud in yesterday’s election. There is always some, but usually not enough to make a difference. The thought occurs to me that both parties are probably engaging in dirty tricks, but not the way you might think. I think it’s just possible that the Democrats and establishment Republicans are quietly working together to tilt elections away from candidates that McConnell and Schumer both dislike, for example Blake Masters in AZ and J.D. Vance, who they were unsuccessful in bringing down.
Given how close it was, I have to think that McConnell’s attempt to sell us out on the JCPA was, all itself, enough to blow it. But we’re not supposed to criticize the Sooper Genius Turtle.
Face it, he’s an anchor far beyond anything Trump can be. Mollie is right in that Schumer does everything for them that McConnell does for us, and a lot more.
Let me get this straight: an absolutely, positively, genuinely certified—by one of our most talented commenters—God-Awful candidate loses to the incumbent by a whisker?
Um, am I missing something here?
(…And might it ALL connected to this–among, oh, a few other things…)?
“So not only did FBI have at least 8 informants embedded in Proud Boys before Jan 6, its leader was working with DC Metro Police to let them know the group’s plans that day.
“DOJ now strong-arming cop, threatening to charge him if he testifies for defense”—
https://twitter.com/julie_kelly2/status/1600484310250823684?cxt=HHwWiICx0YOAiLYsAAAA )
H/T Hans Mahncke twitter feed.
+ Bonus:
Jeff Carlson was already warning Elon Musk about James Baker from last April…
https://twitter.com/themarketswork/status/1600279058486480897?cxt=HHwWgsCq6ebUqrUsAAAA James Baker from April
Miguel cervantes – I won? In what universe? Democrats will control the Senate and White House for another two years and will continue to reshape the federal courts with radical progressives. Pray for the health of Clarence Thomas.
I’m going to have a Democratic governor for the next term, with all of the culture war implications of that. My own Senator is now a radical progressive Democrat.
Now we’re staring down the barrel of a Republican majority House with a Democrat controlling the agenda as Speaker.
That’s sure as heck not a win for me.
McConnell is almost 81. How much longer can this go on?
His putting funds into a race in Alaska between two Republicans was unforgivable.
I saw Elaine Chao (McConnell’s wife) interviewed a day or two ago. She was parroting the exact Democrat lines about “defending democracy.” I’m with physicsguy and others. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck … Let’s skip the RINO talk and call them DIRCs. Democrats In Republican Clothing.
And the fact that the Democrats outspend the Republicans 4 to 1 indicates that more can be done on that front, unfortunately. — Nonapod
It’s easy to underestimate the importance of the above. All politics watchers can cite elections where money was not determinative. Trump’s 2016 win is an obvious one.
And yet, advertising works, some much better than others.
My primary thought here though is that vote fraud or quasi-fraud such as ballot harvesting costs money too. We’ve learned that many or most of the Dem harvestors are paid operatives. A couple election cycles ago a Project Veritas video showed a top campaign person for Ilhan Omar was paying ballot holders $100 to $300 for their mail-in ballots. “It’s all about the Benjamins.” he said.
If the GOP is the party of corporate America, Wall Street, and the rich…how could it get so badly outspent in such an important race? The answer is that the pro-corporate transformation of the Democratic Party is complete.
Mike
The other rumor was that “moderate” Republican Fred Upton was going to run for speaker. That one may not be operative any more. Upton didn’t run for reelection this year. Technically, Upton, or Amash, or Trump could run for speaker, but none of them would be elected.
The time to challenge was in the party caucus. It would be foolish to do so now and risk the other side winning. IMHO, McCarthy was a lot less of a plague than McConnell.
Did the Repubs abandon Michigan and Georgia?
R. Cook:
They certainly didn’t abandon Georgia. If you read my post, I have a link to an article about how they gave Walker a lot of money in the runoff. Also, Kemp – a popular GOP governor there – endorsed him.
I don’t have time to find it now, but I recall that they gave Walker a lot of money in the general, as well.
Good idea, Kate, on getting a new RNC chair. Harmeet Dhillon has an interesting legal resume, having represented James Damore in his suit against Google, and Andy Ngo in his against Antifa. She also seems to have a clear and positive vision of conservative populism.
If there is a ray of hope for more transparent elections, it would be that legal action might have a chance of forcing changes. Otherwise, the darkness could last for a very long time.
How much of that billion from sbx went to georgia why they are steal treating sbf with kid gloves
Miguel cervantes:
When I was writing the post I asked the question and tried to find the answer, but it was unobtainable. I’m going to assume that some of the money did indeed come from Bankman-Fried.
The dog that doesnt bark they 400 million was spent in this race ga’s own stimulus program 120 just for the dem side of the runoff
I participated in the extensive “election integrity” effort run by the RNC this year. It was good, and well-run. Also, the RNC sued aggressively over illegal election changes. But it wasn’t enough.