The thought of Nancy Pelosi being Speaker of the House and second-in-line of succession to the presidency?
Well, it's just plain loathsome.
And here's what makes it even worse: It coulda fairly easily been avoided.
Who's to blame, then?
The answer is simple. Lay it at the feet of the Republican House members who either retired or resigned. OK, so some of them were really old and a few were forced to resign because of problems they brought on themselves.
But most of them simply ran away like a buncha wimps. The word went out inside the beltway that a Big Blue Wave was coming and they headed for the hills. These cowardly runaways are the people who cost us the House. They denied us the power of incumbency, forced us to quickly cobble together a collection of replacements (many of whom were novices) and emboldened the Democrats and their cohorts.
In our own area, Frelinghuysen, LoBiondo, Costello and Meehan all ran away. OK, so Meehan made his own mess. But the three other seats were probably all winnable.
And shame on Paul Ryan for running away as well. He was the ostensible "leader" but he cut and run like a squeamish little toddler. When the "general" does that, what kind of example does that set for the troops?
Last night's results show us the GOP coulda kept the House, if even by a whisker. But too many country club Republicans left the greens to go sulk in the clubhouse, sipping their martinis and snickering at those they left behind. Shame on 'em -- every last one of 'em!
Retiring House Republicans
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas
Rep. John Duncan, R-Tennessee
Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas
Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, R-New Jersey
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina
Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Mississippi
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California
Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kansas
Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas
Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-New Jersey
Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas
Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Washington
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida
Rep. Ed Royce, R-California
Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pennsylvania
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas
Rep. Dave Trott, R-Michigan
Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Florida
Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pennsylvania
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin
Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Florida
Rep. Tom Garrett, R-Virginia
House Republicans who have resigned.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah
Rep. Trent Franks, R-Arizona
Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pennsylvania
Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pennsylvania
Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio
Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pennsylvania
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1 comment:
A lot of them retired because they were used to easy races with an opponent who wasn't well funded. Chris Smith had never raised a million dollars before and he has been in Congress since 1981. Every NJ Democrat in the competitive races had huge bucks. A problem nominee in NJ-2 probably cost the Reps that district. Playing defense probably hurt in NJ-5.
A lot of the retiring Republicans had differences with Trump and Trump had lost a lot of those districts. Lance hung there, put up a good fight against a very well funded opponent and still lost.
My view is that next year, all of the attacks on the TCJA will fall flat. I think people will like the tax plan when they file next year. But Trump has to change his tone somewhat. He has to do something to fix healthcare.
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