Is The Murtha/Hoyer Election A Harbinger Of Things To Come?

by John Hawkins | November 17, 2006 8:13 am

Make no mistake about it, with Nancy Pelosi running the show, liberal chairmen running the committees, and liberal activists demanding that liberal ideas be moved forward, the Democrats will definitely be pushing a liberal agenda over the next couple of years.

However, having a liberal agenda is one thing and getting it through can sometimes be quite another. In this case, replacing the more moderate Steny Hoyer with “Abscam John” Murtha[1] didn’t work out so well.

That may, if America and the Republican Party are lucky, happen a lot over the next couple of years. First of all, even before last Tuesday, there were already some moderate and blue dog Democrats who were hesitant to sign on to a liberal agenda and after the election, their numbers swelled considerably.

And put yourself in the place of Democrats like Heath Shuler, Harry Mitchell, & Brad Ellsworth. You ran as a moderate Democrat in a Republican district and, because the national sentiment turned out to be so anti-Republican, you won an election that normally, you wouldn’t have had a chance to win.

Now, you know that two years from now, you’re going to have to run for reelection in a district that’s still going to be a step or two to your right and this time around, because the Democrats will be in power for at least two years, the environment’s probably not going to be anywhere near as favorable as last time.

Democrats like that — and a majority of the ones that won this time around are going to be very nervous about voting for whatever Nancy Pelosi’s latest “great idea” is if they think it will turn off a lot of people in their district.

So, it’s entirely possible that Republicans may regularly find that they have a block of 20-40 Democrats ready to vote with them against any unpopular liberal idea that comes down the pike. Let’s hope that turns out to be the case.

Endnotes:
  1. Steny Hoyer with “Abscam John” Murtha: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061116-021315-2546r

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