Charles Krauthammer: GOP To Take "De Facto" Control Of Senate

Nice Deb - Just because Republicans failed to win enough Senate Seats to knock the deplorable and inexplicably re-elected Reid out of the majority, it doesn’t mean that they will be in the same feeble position they were in from 2009-2011. Charles Krauthammer, on Fox News this morning, said Republicans have won “de facto control” of the U.S. Senate, and now with “de jure” control of the House, they are in a perfect position, tactically.

The message voters delivered on Election Night was so strong, Krauthammer said, that Senate Democrats will continue to distance themselves from President Barack Obama’s policies for fear of political repercussions.

“I think there will be great resistance to any advance of the Obama agenda, and I think there will a lot of sympathy among these Democrats, the ones who are now up for reelection in two years for example, for an extension of the Bush tax cuts, for even a nibbling away of some of the edges of Obamacare,” he said.

Some of the Democratic senators coming into the new Congress, such as West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who defeated Republican John Raese, actually ran in open opposition to the president’s policies.

There has been a shift of power in Congress, there is no doubt about that, but Krauthammer says we didn’t really want control of both Houses:

… because then Obama could do a Truman, where he ran against the do-nothing Congress and won re-election,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist said. “If you put too much of the actual, official power to the Republicans, it makes them responsible.

Conservative voters can still watch closely, and hold Republicans accountable for any jelly-spined, RINOish behaviors we detect. We didn’t elect them to compromise with the Democrat Socialists who survived Tuesday’s onslaught.

But they shouldn’t be blamed for Obama’s economy if he rejects all of their remedies.

See Also:

Senator DeMint has some excellent advice for freshman Senators in his WSJ oped, this morning:

Congratulations to all the tea party-backed candidates who overcame a determined, partisan opposition to win their elections. The next campaign begins today. Because you must now overcome determined party insiders if this nation is going to be spared from fiscal disaster.

Many of the people who will be welcoming the new class of Senate conservatives to Washington never wanted you here in the first place. The establishment is much more likely to try to buy off your votes than to buy into your limited-government philosophy. Consider what former GOP senator-turned-lobbyist Trent Lott told the Washington Post earlier this year: “As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.”

Don’t let them. Co-option is coercion. Washington operates on a favor-based economy and for every earmark, committee assignment or fancy title that’s given, payback is expected in return. The chits come due when the roll call votes begin. This is how big-spending bills that everyone always decries in public always manage to pass with just enough votes.

But someone can’t be bribed if they aren’t for sale. Here is some humble advice on how to recognize and refuse such offers.