por admin » Mar Nov 09, 2010 10:26 am
Esto es lo que tiene al stock market al alza. 23 democratas iran a votacion en dos anios, mas les vale votar con los conservadores si quieren mantener sus puestos.
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En teoria los democratas tienen la mayoria en el Senado, pero en algunos asuntos (muy importantes) los republicanos tienen la mayoria funcional ya que algunos democratas posiblemente voten con los republicanos ya que en dos anios sus puestos estaran en peligro por las elecciones. (en dos anios)
Republicans May Yet Have Upper Hand in Senate By GERALD F. SEIB.
On paper, the numbers tell you the Democrats held on to a majority in the Senate last week.
In reality, things won't be quite that neat. In fact, on some issues the Republicans actually may have a functional majority, given the sentiments likely to prevail among certain Democrats who face the voters in two years.
On paper, Democrats kept control of the Senate after the elections. But in reality, Republican leader Mitch McConnell actually may have the functional majority on some issues. WSJ's Jerry Seib explains.
.Here's the situation. After last week's midterm election, the Senate next year will have 51 Democrats, two independents who caucus with the Democrats, and 47 Republicans. (The Republican from Alaska could be either Joe Miller, the tea-party candidate who was the official GOP nominee, or write-in incumbent Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. It appears Ms. Murkowski got enough votes to stick around, but all her write-in votes haven't been counted yet.)
So, in theory, that means Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, having survived his own election-day near-death experience, should be able to muster 53 votes if he keeps his troops in line.
But life is never that simple in the Senate and certainly won't be now. Among the Senate Democrats, 23 will face re-election in just two years, and, having just witnessed the drubbing some in their party took at the polls, they likely will be even less willing now to toe the party line. Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who caucuses with Democrats, often leans rightward, anyway.
More important, among those 23 Democrats who face voters in 2012 are a handful of incumbents from the kind of moderate to conservative states where Democrats took a beating last week: Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Jon Tester of Montana, Jim Webb of Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Joe Manchin, who just won a Senate race in West Virginia by separating himself from President Barack Obama and his party's congressional leaders, also faces voters again in two years because he was elected only to fill out an unexpired term.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, looks at this field and thinks he may see some votes for his side. He points in particular to his desire to roll back parts of this year's big health bill.
"There are 23 Democrats up in 2012 and only nine Republicans," he said in an interview. "I think there is a widespread belief on the other side of the aisle that [the health bill] was a huge mistake. There could be, who knows, a growing number of Democrats who think that was the wrong thing to do."
Mr. McConnell won't engage when asked whether Republicans will take the next step and try to persuade any moderate Democrats to switch parties, which has happened in the past when the winds shift. But he adds: "It doesn't require changing parties to change your mind."
So maybe there also are Democrats prepared to drift to the Republican side on issues beyond health—say, on spending cuts, tax levels and a new energy program built around such items as electric cars and clean-coal technology. On selected issues, that means Mr. McConnell actually might find it at least as easy as the Democrats' Mr. Reid to assemble a working majority.
Of course, there are distinct limits to how much that means in the ever-messy Senate. In a body where any 41 members can mount and sustain a filibuster to stop action, having a bare majority, real or functional, has limited impact.
Moreover, lest Mr. McConnell be tempted to feel cocky about his position, he has internal problems of his own. Though tea-party favorites Christine O'Donnell in Delaware and Sharron Angle in Nevada lost their Senate bids, Rand Paul from Sen. McConnell's own Kentucky won his race, and there's still a chance that tea partier Joe Miller of Alaska may prevail. Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina has become a kind of spiritual godfather to the tea-party movement.
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Associated Press
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) says some Democrats may vote with Republicans, citing misgivings over the health-care legislation.
.And anyone who operates under the tea-party banner isn't likely to feel he is in Congress to compromise on principles to get things done but is highly likely to feel he has a mandate to defy the established leaders in both parties. So the Republican conference could be as unruly and unreliable as the Democratic one.
Asked about that prospect, Mr. McConnell notes that among the 13 new Republicans about to take Senate seats, there are several experienced politicians who know how to get things done in a legislative chamber: Former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats is returning, for example, and seats are being taken by North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven and former House Republican whip Roy Blunt.
The real upshot may be that, in a Senate where neither party really has a clear majority on every issue, party discipline means less and the opportunity for free-lancing and interparty mash-ups grows.
Nobody will really be in charge. Let the fun begin.