Boehner's position, as his allies see it, forces the battle in the GOP's direction. Since everyone agrees on the middle-class tax cuts, they say, the debate will become whether Democrats can be pushed to go along with the cuts for people above the $250,000 line, which Republicans argue will affect the most successful small businesses -- and employers -- in the country.
But the problem with Boehner's concession is that, at the moment he spoke on CBS, more and more Democrats were already coming over to the Republican position supporting all the cuts. Several moderate House Democrats were urging Speaker Pelosi to extend all the cuts. In the Senate, five Democrats want all the cuts extended.
Now that Christine O’Donnell has won the GOP Senate primary in Delaware, Democrats will definitely retain Joe Biden’s old Senate seat. It’s not because O’Donnell is too conservative — it’s because of her numerous and serious personal issues.
(For those seeking specifics, there are plenty.)
* Her lawsuit against ISI for “mental anguish” is exhibit A. It even contains an apparent lie about her seeking a Master’s Degree at Princeton. * Exhibit B is her lies about having a college degree all these years — and no, she didn’t simply finish paying loans, as she implies. People who take student loans use them to pay their schools, and they get their degrees. She did not until 20 years later.
* Exhibit C is the fact that she has no apparent income, then she admitted to John McCormack that she has concealed income by leaving it off her financial disclosures.
* Exhibit D is the fact that she appears to be paying her personal rent with her campaign money, which is completely illegal.
* Exhibit E is the question about whether O’Donnell’s home was foreclosed. These three points suggest we have a drifter who understands conservative rhetoric.
* Exhibit F is her false claims that she “tied” or “beat” Joe Biden in two counties in 2008.
* Exhibit G is her campaign’s assertion that Scott Rasmussen is a tool of Mike Castle’s campaign.
* Exhibit H is her campaign’s deliberate stoking of rumors that Mike Castle would switch parties or has cut a deal with the Biden family to hand the seat over to Beau Biden in four years.
* Exhibit I is her former campaign staff’s video accusing Mike Castle (baselessly) of a homosexual affair, followed by O’Donnell calling him “unmanly.”
* Exhibit J is her paranoia over who’s hiding in the bushes and vandalizing her house.
* Exhibit K---well, you get the picture.)
I question the conventional wisdom that Delaware is now a lock for the Democrats. Despite Scott Brown, Rand Paul, Sharon Angle, and Joe Miller, the talking heads in Washington and New York obviously still cannot comprehend the depth or intensity of anger among voters or the fact that anger is far from limited to conservatives.
The central issue was the Republican Party. Insiders have so consistently made it difficult for conservative candidates (and their supporters), this result shouldn’t be all that surprising. They did it to themselves. How toxic have they made this environment, that the grassroots of their own party rejects anything they do? The NRSC has created its own backlash, for example, by once supporting politically disastrous Florida Gov. Charlie Crist over conservative favorite Marco Rubio, or going to bat for Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski over conservative military vet Joe Miller. It’s what therapists call a “broken relationship.”
Democratic strategists hope that Barack Obama can rekindle some of the enthusiasm that was so apparent two years ago. Liberal columnists have cheered his slashing attack on House Minority Leader John Boehner and his denunciation of proposals to maintain the tax cuts on those earning more than $250,000.
I doubt that it will be that easy.
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