The Things That Are To Come

The Tea Party and their corporate sponsors have already targeted their former darling Scott Brown of Massachusetts for a primary challenge in 2012. Massachusetts protected itself this time by electing all Democrats to congress and the state house. It learned its lesson. After winning the Maine state house by the slimmest of slim margins, they are targeting Olympia Snowe in 2012. They have also announced on their hit list--Indiana's Dick Lugar (probably for his friendship with President Obama), Tennessee's Bob Corker (who voted against bailing out the auto industry) and Utah's conservative Senator Orrin Hatch since they did in Bob Bennett this year.

President Obama's conciliatory press conference, where he assumed responsibility for last night's disaster,recalls similar ones by Bill Clinton in 1994 and Ronald Reagan in 1982, both popular presidents experiencing mid-term disasters. While President Obama said he would compromise on joint goals with Republicans, he still defended the health care bill as the right thing to do. Across town, Michael Steele and John Boehner said they wouldn't compromise, which is an interesting point of view when you are in Congress, which is defined as compromising. The 1994 mentality is already taking hold with Republicans. The House is equivalent to the Presidency. Newt really made that one work.

Here are some things that will and will not happen:
* Social Security will not be abolished or privatized even though Republicans want to.
* Major economic initiatives won't happen as evidenced by the hostile questioning of the President today about no further stimulus packages.
* Contrary to Ed Schultz, there will be no impeachment of President Obama, since even the House Republicans know they don't control the Senate.
* Rep. Issa will investigate ACORN, which conservatives believe elected Obama fraudulently, and the New Black Panther Party's so-called voter intimidation in 2008.
* Rep. Sensenbrenner will call for hearing on the Climate Change hoax more to blackmail Republicans who want some type of new energy policy. The Koch Brothers fund all anti-climate change projects in the United States.
*DADT will die a slow, painful death.
*House Republicans will try to repeal Health Care but will fail because Senate Democrats will just kill their bill.
* Our two wars will wind down and American forces will be leaving Afghanistan as promised this coming summer, even though General Petraeus doesn't want to leave.
* The House will first vote against raising the debt ceiling but then will be forced to because too many Americans would suffer.
*Unfortunately, I think there will be a compromise on the Bush Tax Cuts.
*Business will get a whole lot of new tax breaks.
*The rich will get even richer. Reagan's OMB head, David Stockman, commented on 60 minutes that the top 2% of Americans accumulated since 1980 more wealth than all of mankind since the beginning.
*The recovery will continue to be slow and some of the projects started in the stimulus will start paying off by creating jobs.
*After Obama promises significant tax breaks to business, the Chamber of Commerce will muscle Jhn Boehner to pass an infrastrucrture bill and the teabaggers will revolt.
*Obama will use the power of veto more than once in the next year and a half.

*Newt Gingrich will run for the Republican nomination because the Republicans took back the House.
*Haley Barbour will test waters in primary states, since he knows that George W was the President of the Governors' Association and used it to win the White House.
*Rick Perry of Texas will also run for the Republican nomination.

*Jerry Brown will not seek the presidency again. He will be content to be both the youngest and oldest Governor of California. His is actually one of the great political sagas of our time.