What if Kucinich and Paul get the nominations of their respective parties? What if we find out Bush is secretly a woman or Al Sharpton is secretly white? I'm not too worried. Barring some unforeseen MAJOR event, there is no way the Republicans will regain control of Congress while this war is going on.
Many and mean MANY of the voters I talked to before the election were furious about high fuel costs. They believed that Bush and Cheney's connections to the oil companies were somehow responsible. The war was the main issue, but it was not the only issue.
Your friends are not representative of the general populace. Fuel prices were below corruption/ethics, terrorism, Iraq, the economy and immigration.
If your crazy ass shows up at my house with a gun maybe. But worried about Republicans re-taking Congress? Not even a little.
Maybe another reason why congress' approval is so low? ----------------- Senate Conservatives Aggressively Obstructing Critical Legislation Senate conservatives in the 110th Congress are obstructing and blocking legislation at a rate more than double that of the past two Congresses combined. During the first six months of the current Congress, there have been 13 cloture votes on motions to proceed — “each one wasting days of Senate time.” In comparison, there were just four cloture votes on motions to proceed during the the first sessions of the 108th and 109th Congresses combined. The result: The House of Representatives has passed 239 pieces of legislation during the 110th Congress yet few have made it through the Senate, with conservatives “objecting to just about every major piece of legislation” that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has tried to bring up. The legislation being blocked by right-wing senators has broad public support: – Conservatives blocked debate on raising the minimum wage (54-43, Roll Call Vote #23) – Conservatives blocked debate ethics reforms (Rejected 51-46, Roll Call Vote #16) – Conservatives blocked debate on funding for renewable energy (Rejected 57-36, Roll Call Vote #223) – Conservatives blocked a vote on funding for the intelligence community (Rejected 41-40, Roll Call Vote #130) In April, Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS) acknowledged, “The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail… so far it’s working for us.” It just isn’t working for the American people. http://thinkprogress.org/
In general the conservatives want to discredit government. It is critical to their central tenet that the number one thing is to keep taxes down on their wealthy contributors. If government is stalemated or ineffective, it feeds into their idea that it should not be funded i.e., taxes should remain low. If you think about it logically, if you have all the money you need, and aren't socially concerned, you only have two main worries: taxes and inflation. YOu could give a rat's ass about such things as education, health care etc. Strong employment is just a hassle as it could lead to some price pressure. Not much concern for starting new businesses either. Your money comes from inheritance or businesses that are already mature.
The people hate Dems, but hate the GOP even more. http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/29/schneider.angry.voters/index.html So, are voters ready to change horses again and go back to a Republican Congress? Nope. A solid majority says it's good for the country that the Democratic Party is in control of Congress. Even though they're doing a lousy job? Yes. (Read the complete poll results -- PDF) People think, OK, the Democrats aren't so great. But the Republicans are worse. Just a bare majority of Americans now holds a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party (51 percent). But only 36 percent like the Republicans. That's the Republican Party's second-lowest rating in 15 years. Only in December 1998, when the Republican Congress voted to impeach President Clinton, were Republicans held in lower regard.
their approval ratings are low b/c they are not doing the job that the american people elected them to do. they have been giving bush everything he wants. they put up a little dog and pony show to placate the masses, but end up caving into the administration virtually every time.
Force them to filibuster. Last week on the Young Turks, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) said a Republican colleague of his told him that a strategy has been adopted by the minority to “prevent any accomplishment” by the new Congress: I think that we could do a better job making our points, and one part of that is to let the American people see just how obstructionist this Republican minority is being. The leader has had to file cloture now over 40 times already this year. And cloture, as you know, is a special procedure to stop debate, to stop filibusters, in order to reach conclusion on legislation. I had a Republican colleague tell me it is the Republican strategy to try to prevent any accomplishment of the Democratic Congress. That is set in their caucus openly and directly that they don’t intend to allow Democrats to have any legislative successes, and they intend to do it by repeated filibuster. OpenLeft and Firedoglake call for Congress to call the conservatives’ bluff and force them to filibuster the Levin-Reed Iraq redeployment bill. http://thinkprogress.org/
BREAKING: Reid To Force All-Night Filibuster On Iraq Withdrawal Moments ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that in response to conservative obstructionism, he plans to force war supporters to physically remain in the Senate and filibuster Iraq withdrawal legislation. Reid accused conservatives of “protecting the President rather than protecting our troops” by “denying us an up or down vote on the most important issue our country faces.” He said that if a vote on the Reed/Levin Iraq legislation is not allowed today or tomorrow, he will keep the Senate in session “straight through the night on Tuesday” and force a filibuster. From Reid’s speech: Reid’s announcement follows calls from OpenLeft, Firedoglake and others for Congress to call the conservatives’ bluff and force them to filibuster the Levin-Reed Iraq redeployment bill. http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/16/reid-filibuster/
Some of the stuff Repubs have threatened filibuster on... Where's all the talk about the "nuclear option" and how bad filibusters are? I guess being in the minority changes your perspective.
No doubt. To me, the reason their poll numbers are so low is because they ran on an agenda to end the war, and since their election, they've done absolutely nothing.
i dont approve of the work this congress is doing. not until they start respecting the oath they took and protect and defend the constitution by impeaching the pres and vp.
Not true. They've done every single thing they possibly could short of cutting off funding. Personally, I wish they would cut off funding, but I understand why they won't. The fact is it takes more than a majority to end the war when the president clearly cares so much more about his own legacy than the lives of the troops; it takes a veto-proof super majority. No Worries: I really think you're wrong (and so does George Voinovich). I predict the super majority is coming right around September. There are a number of Republicans that are finally nearly ready to abandon Bush on this.
