In tomorrow's election Republicans are expected to retain the House, and Democrats are expected to retain the Senate. Can America survive another two years of dysfunction on Capital Hill?
John Koster, Republican candidate running for Congress, talks with reporters in Arlington, Wash in 2010. In an audio recording provided by a liberal advocacy group to The Associated Press on Oct. 31, Koster is heard to say abortion should not be legal, even when it involves "the rape thing," speaking at a fund raiser Oct. 28.
Greg Gilbert/The Seattle Times/AP
EnlargeA barrage of negative ads, more than $2 billion in spending and endless campaign stops all come down to this: Americans likely will elect a Congress as divided as the one they've been ranting about for two years.
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In Tuesday's voting, Republicans are poised to hold the 435-seat House, with Democrats expected to gain a small handful of seats at best from roughly 60 competitive races but fall well short of the net 25 needed for the majority. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is poised to wield the gavel again.
Senate Democrats are likely to maintain their narrow advantage as two Republican candidates' clumsy comments about rape and abortion could cost the GOP Indiana and dampens its prospects of winning Missouri ? two major roadblocks in the Republican path to the majority.
Republicans hoped the math would work in their favor ? Democrats are defending 23 seats, the GOP 10 ? but solid Democratic recruits and the close presidential race, added to the GOP candidate stumbles may ensure that Nevada Sen. Harry Reid remains majority leader.
"That's extremely frustrating for what everyone thought was a Republican advantage," Ron Bonjean, a Republican consultant and former top Capitol Hill aide, said of the developments in Indiana and Missouri.
No matter who wins the presidency ? President Barack Obama or Republican Mitt Romney ? the nation's chief executive will be dealing with a Congress no closer to bridging the ideological chasm and showing no inclination to end the months of dysfunction. Tea party numbers are certain to tick up in the Senate with Republican Ted Cruz heavily favored in Texas and Deb Fischer looking to grab the Nebraska seat.
In the House, the movement that propelled the GOP to the majority in 2010 will be even more emboldened even if a few of the big-name tea partiers lose.
Sal Russo, head of the Tea Party Express, likened the group to the anti-Vietnam War movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s that he said remade the Democratic Party. He envisions the same with the GOP.
"In the sense that the anti-war movement brought out millions of people that had not been involved in politics and they became engaged in a material way," Russo said in an interview as he headed to what he expects will be a victory party for Cruz in Texas.
The Democratic Party, he insists, has never been the same and neither will the GOP after the influx of tea partiers.
When the Senate votes are counted, moderate Republicans and Democrats from Massachusetts and Montana could be gone, leaving the chamber with just a handful of the lawmakers inclined to reach across the aisle. Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine decided to retire earlier this year, frustrated with the partisan gridlock in Congress.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/BoHsEJzqbPI/What-will-happen-if-Congress-remains-status-quo
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