If the United States Senate is not Majority Republican in two years, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.
Heck, it could be sooner rather than later, if Senator-elect Joe Manchin joins the GOP, as the Washington Post reports he might. A few more like that, and the Dems 53-47 advantage could quickly go bye-bye.
The GOP gained 6 Senate seats in an election year where 19 Dems and 18 Republicans were up.
In 2012, the Senators up will be 21 Democrats, 10 Republicans and 2 Independents.
A good deal of those Senators won nailbiters in Montana, Missouri, and Virginia. Will Obama leading the ticket help or hurt those efforts? Will some of these folks just flat-out retire, like 12 Senators did this year.
Virginia has its role to play with Senator Jim Webb as Obama’s campaign partner in 2012. Without a Bush White House, a war to run against, a Constitutional amendment bringing out Democrats, and an idiotic press refusing to talk about campaign issues, can Jim Webb win?
The next 18 months of the Obama Presidency may have more to do with Webb’s success or failure than anything Webb does. Who leads the GOP Presidential ticket, and which candidates are nominated for these Senate seats, will of course be crucial.
But the numbers are there. Simply reversing the fluke wins from 2006 gives the Senate to the GOP in two years.
Anything more, and it’s another tsunami bringing us into 2013 with both Houses of Congress back in the GOP column by large margins, and maybe even the White House, too.
