Republican Influence in the U.S. Senate

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The Republicans did not gain control of the U.S. Senate. . . or did they?

Though the GOP did not technically gain enough votes to control the U.S. Senate, which by Democrat terms means the Republicans won't be able to get any bills before President Obama (like all of the repeals they need to push, so that Obama can veto them, essentially making the Democrats own the failure of those programs), the Republicans did sort of gain control of the U.S. Senate.

What I mean by this is the message of Election 2010 is clear, and as a result Democrats are distancing themselves from Obama's policies in droves. To protect their positions, many Democrats will ally with the Republicans. Though such an alliance is for the wrong reason, it does give the Republicans something to work with.

Though the GOP does have more influential control over Democrats in the Senate than most are willing to admit, there is also an advantage to the fact that the Republicans didn't technically win control over the Senate.

Imagine, if you will, what the battle cry by leftists in 2012 would be had the GOP gained full control over both houses of Congress.

Control of both houses would allow Obama and gang to run against the "obstructionist" Republicans, but if some of that "obstruction" is coming from the Senate, it means that Democrats will be villains as well - making their argument a moot point.

As it stands now, this is only the first step. In 2012, much of the Conservative goals will come to fruition, and the next 16 year period before the next hard left success will commence. Now is the time to push those bills, get the House and Senate to both approve them (with the help of nervous Democrats), and let Obama veto them over and over and over - and when those programs fail, the blame will land squarely on Obama, who repeatedly vetoes the GOP's attempt to fix things.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary