Don’t get me wrong, I’m plenty happy that the Republicans took control of the Senate and padded their numbers in the House, but I’m hearing some trash-talking that would seem to indicate that we may be letting things go to our head, at least a little bit. And what I mean by that is that I recently heard where Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, proclaimed Wednesday that Republicans may have built a "hundred-year majority" in the House. What he said was, "We're back to a majority as big as any of us have seen in our lifetimes. It may be a hundred-year majority."
Sounds to me like he may need a little cold water thrown in his face in order to bring back down to Earth. Because there is nothing that points to this as being anything other than a temporary thing that could all come to an end in just two very short years. Granted, House Republicans have swelled their majority to at least 243 and are on track for more pickups that would give them the biggest House majority since the Truman administration more than sixty years ago. But as they say, there are few things in life that are permanent, and that’s especially so when we’re talking politics. I’d hate to see that put to the test.
Republicans could very well end up with as many as 249 seats, which would be the largest House Republican majority since 1930. That's well past their early goal of netting 11 seats for a 245 seat majority in the next Congress. Walden’s language seemed to echo GOP strategist Karl Rove’s dream from ten years ago of building a "permanent" Republican majority in Washington. And in trying to perhaps throttle things back a bit. Daniel Scarpinato, a spokesman for the NRCC, said Walden was merely putting Tuesday’s resounding victory into historical context, not predicting decades of House GOP rule.
Scarpinato went on to say, "His reference to a ‘hundred-year majority’ was that it’s been nearly 100 years since we’ve seen a majority this size." And he made sure to add, "[He] wasn’t suggesting in any way that the majority is safe for 100 years." Personally, I think Walden was a little too quick to open his mouth without thinking. People hear that kind of gibberish and form their own opinion about what he ‘meant’ to say without the benefit of Mr. Scarpinato’s interpretation. It’s idiotic comments like these that make things more difficult than they really need to be. Somebody needs to grab Walden by the short-hairs and tell him to shut up!
Anyway, Walden and other GOP leaders exulted at a press conference at Republican National Committee headquarters after the election and much grandiose plans were discussed. Walden said, "Our party will ultimately be measured by how we govern and that’s what Americans have elected us to do and we’re eager to get to that work." And on that I will most definitely agree with Mr. Walden. But if our Republican majority does little more than to settle for half-measures and providing lip service, this accomplishment of which they now seem to be so proud will come to a premature, as well as a very ugly, end.
Look, this little ego trip that so many now seem to be on, could very easily come back to bite us all in the ass, and such comments could easily have a very adverse effect before the new Congress even gets started. Because unless these folks demonstrate that they are serious about taking care of the ‘people’s’ business, they could very well be in for the same type of ass-kicking in 2016 that the Democrats got this time around. Priority one needs to be the getting rid of Obamacare. If they’re unwilling to do that, this majority that we now have is pretty much worthless. And what we’re already hearing from some of these guys is far from encouraging.
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