GOP Jitters

It’s either the millennium or the apocalypse, depending on whom you talk to. “A tremendous event that will change the future of this country for the better,” crows a congressman. “It will lay waste to everything America has become,” moans a Hill Staffer. The Summit? Tax reform? Drug testing? None of the above. It’s the November elections, and the possible recapturing of the Senate by the Democrats.

Thirty-four Senate seats are up, and of these 22 are GOP incumbencies. The Democrats need only a net total gain of four seats to resume control, the present composition being 53 Republicans, 47 Democrats. A fifty-fifty split would save Republican domination, since Vice President George Bush as Senate President would be the tiebreaker. But an even split would also permit Democrats to insist on exactly balanced participation on powerful committees; some committees would become effectively Democratic, since liberal Republicans (like Lowell Weicker on Labor and Human Resources) invariably vote with the Democrats.

JM

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John McLaughlin

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Republican Party

It’s either the millennium or the apocalypse, depending on whom you talk to. “A tremendous event that will change the future of this country for the better,” crows a congressman. “It will lay waste to everything America has become,” moans a Hill Staffer. The Summit? Tax reform? Drug testing? None of the above. It’s the November elections, and the possible recapturing of the Senate by the Democrats.

Thirty-four Senate seats are up, and of these 22 are GOP incumbencies. The Democrats need only a net total gain of four seats to resume control, the present composition being 53 Republicans, 47 Democrats. A fifty-fifty split would save Republican domination, since Vice President George Bush as Senate President would be the tiebreaker. But an even split would also permit Democrats to insist on exactly balanced participation on powerful committees; some committees would become effectively Democratic, since liberal Republicans (like Lowell Weicker on Labor and Human Resources) invariably vote with the Democrats.