Heard a Republican on National Public Radio say..

Yeah so I was listening to Counterspin, a talk show on the radio, the station being NPR, National Public Radio.

Anyways, the question was raised by the Host of the show to the Republican in not these exact words, "Give me your honest assessment, based on current figures, of what you're expecting the outcome of the Congressional and Senatorial races to turn out?"

And he replied that he, the Republican, honestly expected at the worst that the Republicans would lose up to 30 seats in the House and up to 6 in the Senate. He went on to say that "ideal" results, with campaign effort, would be in the loss of 12-18 seat range in the House and 3 to 4 range of lost seats in the Senate.

If i'm not mistaken, the Democratic party needs 15 seats won in the House for a majority, however I do not know what it would take to win the Senate majority.

How many seats would be needed for the Democrats to gain Senate majority?

It looks like at least ONE branch of the government will have it's checks and balances truly restored since this right-wing monopoly on the American Govt thats been taking place since the 2000 presidential election.

Edit: Fast Forward to 2008, Democrat takes Presidential duties in 2009 with a Democratic House, that would be quite nice .. 2 of 3. The Senate would give them hell, though.

[edit on 10/26/2006 by runetang]

There are 44 Democrats in the senate, plus one left-leaning independent (Jeffords, who will probably be replaced by another independent, Bernie Sanders. Sanders caucuses with the Democrats in the House and probably will in the Senate).

This means the democrats need a net gain of 6.

It's a good year for the Republicans if they lose 4 in the senate. It's average if they lose 5, making it a 50-50 tie and Dick Cheney gets the deciding vote. It's a bad year if they lose control because that means losing a southern state that leans in their favor normally. It's a nightmare if they lose AZ or NV, but they theoretically could.

New Jersey is the only Democratic seat considered too close to call by most polls. A few others have been classified as only "leaning" democrat as opposed to safe, but short of a major October surprise or some unforseen shift in turnout (or of course ballot problems) NJ is the only seat in real danger for the Dems, and I think they can keep it.

Most polls show between 5 and 7 Republican seats being either too close to call or leaning democrat. Those states are Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Of those 7 states, the least likely to change hands are Virginia and Tennessee: no major poll classifies them as leaning democrat, only as tossups or as leaning republican.

Missouri is the 3rd least likely to change hands. Electoralvote.com and Election Projection call it leaning democrat, Rasmussen and 5 other polls call it a tossup, nobody calls it leaning republican.

The other 4 states are pretty likely to change hands. Pennsylvania is widely regarded as lost. Montana and Ohio aren't far behind. Rhode Island is slightly closer, but still leaning toward the Dems.


After this election, it's gonna be really close in the senate, and there's gonna be a brawl.

If Republican Bob Corker wins in Tenn (I think he will) the Democrats are going to go after him almost immediately for some suspicious land deals that happened when he was mayor of Chattanooga, Tenn. By February or March we'll probably all be talking about that Republican who sold protected wetlands to Walmart through a not-so-blind trust, then "lost" a boatload of official correspondence and emails to cover it up.
They'll do that because they control the governor's mansion in Tenn, meaning that if they can force a resignation or get him arrested, then either the legislature will put up a democrat or governor Bredesen will make a recess appointment.

Meanwhile they'll be putting a full court press on the RINOs, especially John Sununu. Sununu, a moderate who worked with the "gang of 14" has to run in 2008 and he should be afraid of losing to a democrat on coattails, so if the Democrats promise to protect him in 2008, there's a chance that he'll declare himself an independent.

On the other hand, if the Republicans lose I wouldn't be too surprised if somebody had a plane crash or a heart attack.

One problem, look at the voting records of both parties. I need not say more.

Originally posted by Vekar
One problem, look at the voting records of both parties. I need not say more.

I think that's a splendid point. It needs to be reminded every once in a while that all people are corruptable, no matter how much they might say that they aren't.

The truth is, that when the Democrats held both branches during Clinton's administration, things like this were happening as well, just they weren't as obvious to the average leyman as they are now with Bush and his entourage. Most of that was due to the drama over the Monica Lewinsky fiasco, which is still just a reminder of how stupid people can become over a piece of tail.

I just think it's important to remind people of the little things that cause us to get lost in the world, and lead us into the corruption. It's not just one thing; it's several small ones.

TheBorg