by Jack Le Moine
Here are some thoughts on today’s election.
The pundits think that the Republicans will gain seats in the Senate while the Democrats will take control of the House. If so, there will be a lot of investigations of Trump and his administration. Trump’s major asset has always been the over-reach of his opponents. This is what is most likely to happen in 2019.
Expect lots of investigations.
- His business empire. The victorious Democrats will stretch the emoluments clause of the Constitution to definitions not thought of before Trump. Then
- His tax returns. The Democrats will subpoena those and then treat the public to a tour of the arcana of the Income Tax Code. Then
- Russian Collusion. Revisiting that, they will have to perforce perform a redo of the House Unamerican Activities Committee activities during the McCarthy Era.
Twenty years ago the public turned against the investigations of Bill Clinton. Don’t know if Donald Trump will play defense as well as Bill Clinton did. Or maybe he might do better. On the business and tax returns attacks he already has readied his defense: “That just proves that I’m smart.” On the third major line of attack, the Democrats have to come up with something on Russian Collusion or else they just look opportunistic – Joe McCarthy style.
So this election day, I am not looking so much as to whether the Democrats win as to how they handle their victory. That will be the real test of whether they win or lose.
Not much to add. Things went pretty much as I expected though it looks like as of the time of this writing that the Republicans will take more seats in the Senate than the 2 or so that many pundits expected.
Speaking of pundits, their increasing partisanship is disappointing because of the damage this does to their credibility. Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh campaigned with Donald Trump. This crosses a line for professional journalists.
As for the Democrats winning the House, apart from their investigations mania noted this morning, we can conclude that Obamacare is here to stay — at least for years to come. Not only will the House block any more bills to Repeal and Replace but just tonight, voters in three states voted to expand Medicaid under the Obamacare provisions.
With Republican legislation effectively blocked by the Democratic House expect the Republican Senate to fill their calendar with appointment confirmations, especially judges. As for what the Democrats can do with their power in the House besides investigations? Government shutdown?
This from Joe Cunningham at RedState.
The Democrats did not see a wave, and the Republicans did not stave off defeat. Each side more or less broke even. Democrats get subpoena power and Republicans get to keep putting judges on the court. But neither side should kid themselves here.
There were individual victories last night, but there was very little for our country to celebrate.
All of this excites immediate interest to us now. Later on, this will be another history story like all of the rest. And like all of the rest of the history stories on this website, they were of immediate interest to the respective people who lived during those times. Current History, Past History — in the end they are all one.
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