Jump to content

TN Congressional Districts


fieldmarshaldj

Recommended Posts

^ I highly doubt the Democrats would try to impeach the President. They saw how that backfired on the Republicans when they did it to Clinton, and I think outside of some radical fringe left elements in the party thats not a real agenda item.I doubt they could muster a quarter of the Dem House members to vote for articles of impeachement.

Now if the House does flip, I do expect LOTS of investigations by House Committees on the Iraq War, government contracts, government leaks, etc. That could become very politically advantagous to the Dems in the long-run, while trying a fool-hearty attempt at impeachment would be a poison pill IMO.

Local Perspective: I couldn't see any of our Dem delegation members supporting impeachment or anything as silly as that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 55
  • Created
  • Last Reply

^ I highly doubt the Democrats would try to impeach the President. They saw how that backfired on the Republicans when they did it to Clinton, and I think outside of some radical fringe left elements in the party thats not a real agenda item.I doubt they could muster a quarter of the Dem House members to vote for articles of impeachement.

Now if the House does flip, I do expect LOTS of investigations by House Committees on the Iraq War, government contracts, government leaks, etc. That could become very politically advantagous to the Dems in the long-run, while trying a fool-hearty attempt at impeachment would be a poison pill IMO.

Local Perspective: I couldn't see any of our Dem delegation members supporting impeachment or anything as silly as that.

I think it's impossible to overstate the rabid furor of the Democrat grassroots for impeachment. It's not just a "fringe element" in the party (ideologically for the mainstream of politics, it is, but this a substantial element of the Dems today) demanding it. You have several state legislators introducing bills to demand their federal elective officials introduce articles of impeachment (VT, CA, PA, IL). Even Sen. Robert Byrd was discussing the future likelihood of an impeachment trial in the Senate (something he sounded like he relished).

There is a website set up on the subject: http://www.impeachpac.org/resolutions

The investigations you mention above go without saying (always amusing that they seem quite interested in alleged wrongdoing but they had their heads buried in the sand or openly obfuscated with respect to ChinaGate -- which would ultimately lead to Sen. Fred Thompson's retirement).

I would say the number is far higher than only a quarter of the Dem House members that would, once in the majority, move to impeach the President (remember, too, that this is also payback for Clinton). I suspect that Steve Cohen (whom I predict is the next Congressman from the 9th), Cooper, and Tanner would vote for it. I'm less sure about Bart Gordon and Lincoln Davis, both of whom represent Republican districts. What is common-sense and reasonable from a practical political standpoint goes out the window here, it's all about appeasing the base.

As I repeated in an earlier post, it might be worth letting the public get a taste of a Pelosi-led Congress (and this won't be your dad's Democrat-run Congress, that, although always liberal-run since the '30s, was never full-up with anti-American moonbat fringe like it is now) so that they truly realize the implications of such a power shift. The public will be begging for the GOP to be back in power.

As an aside, keep an eye on what the Dem reaction will be on the Iran situation. It may become absolutely necessary for the President to move decisively, and I fully expect the Congressional Dems to be on the side of the President -- that is, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Disturbing doesn't even begin to describe that prospect, but sadly, it's not very surprising to this political observer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure where the national Dem leadership will side, but I feel the correct position is that Iran has to be dealt with now and not later, and thats where the party needs to be. My current issue is that if it we had not had this current side adventure in Iraq, draining military focus and resources, it would be alot easier today to have the domestic support to take on a real clear and present danger that Iran poses in the near term. If I was Dem leadership that is how I would argue the issue as "Iran (a clear and present danger) needs to be taken care of now, but the Iraq war (a clearly less pressing danger as we all know now) has made this task much harder than it has to be".

On impeachment, there may be Dems who want payback, but I would hope long-term thinking would prevail, for the good of the nation and party. I have no doubt that the Dems in super-safe seats in liberal bastions/states would be railing at the bit to try to impeach, rallied on by their local bases. However, the Dems are looking at a small majority in the House if they get one, and a 50/50 Senate at best. They would jeopardize all that, and it could take another 10 years to get back to where they stand today. Dean stated on Hardball today that he doubted the House would seriously move on impeachment. Of course Dean is not House leadership, but I'm pretty sure an impeachment trail is something he would like to avoid on his watch, since it is a very unsound political move.

I personally highly doubt Tanner would vote for impeachment; I would doubt Cooper would either. Now Cohen, I can't say what he might do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure where the national Dem leadership will side, but I feel the correct position is that Iran has to be dealt with now and not later, and thats where the party needs to be. My current issue is that if it we had not had this current side adventure in Iraq, draining military focus and resources, it would be alot easier today to have the domestic support to take on a real clear and present danger that Iran poses in the near term. If I was Dem leadership that is how I would argue the issue as "Iran (a clear and present danger) needs to be taken care of now, but the Iraq war (a clearly less pressing danger as we all know now) has made this task much harder than it has to be".

On impeachment, there may be Dems who want payback, but I would hope long-term thinking would prevail, for the good of the nation and party. I have no doubt that the Dems in super-safe seats in liberal bastions/states would be railing at the bit to try to impeach, rallied on by their local bases. However, the Dems are looking at a small majority in the House if they get one, and a 50/50 Senate at best. They would jeopardize all that, and it could take another 10 years to get back to where they stand today. Dean stated on Hardball today that he doubted the House would seriously move on impeachment. Of course Dean is not House leadership, but I'm pretty sure an impeachment trail is something he would like to avoid on his watch, since it is a very unsound political move.

I personally highly doubt Tanner would vote for impeachment; I would doubt Cooper would either. Now Cohen, I can't say what he might do.

I don't want to fight that battle here (if only because we're going too far afield from the subject of this thread), but I hope you're not seriously saying that we shouldn't have liberated the people of Iraq from a psychotic, bloodthirsty dictator ? As for where the Dem leadership sides, it's simple. If the President stands on one side, they (and their media brethren) oppose it (so, of course, there's never going to be a hugely "broad based" public support for a cause of freedom, since the opposite party "ain't interested" and will undermine attempts for it at all costs). Not such a long time ago, it used to be that the minority party didn't engage in playing dangerous politics to score cheap points where national defense and foreign policy was concerned, but that has long since been abandoned. For many, I believe it has crossed the line into treason. I remember quite clearly a bumper sticker from 2004, "10 out of 10 Terrorists agree... Anybody But Bush." It really told you all you ever needed to know about which party was interested in protecting the country, and which one would jeopardize us all.

You're correct that the Dems, at best, would have a slim majority (obviously with freshmen members from Republican-leaning districts), but knowing exactly how they act and what their instincts are, they immediately face a major problem that will likely prevent them from holding Congress more than 1 term. If they fail to move on impeachment, what the base demands, there will be hell to pay with their leftist leaders. If they do move on it, they scare the straights. In any event, it's a win-win for the GOP. We got a small taste of it after the apostasy of Jeffords in '01 and the basic obstructionism of the slim Dem majority in the Senate, which saw the voters quickly return it to the GOP (spurred on, of course, by the infamous Paul Wellstone funer-ally, which I think also demonstrated the lack of decency and morality the modern Dem party today embodies).

You have a lot of faith in Tanner and Cooper not to believe they wouldn't support impeachment. I'd say of the two of them, Tanner might be less likely to support it, but I wouldn't rule it out, he still is no fan of the GOP and the President. Cooper jumped the shark of supposed moderation at the very start of his current tenure here in my district, and sadly, he votes the liberal line virtually all of the time now, so I fully expect his support of impeachment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Off-Topic: Just to clarify, no I am not saying liberating the Iraqi people was not a positive action (although the lack of troops on the ground immediately after the war has become a very evident mistake), rather I meant that Iran is the state that should have be targeted for regime change before Iraq. Iran is, and clearly has been, the most prone state to want to obtain and use WMD, and has for 20 years been the biggest sponsor of terrorism. Shall we just end this line of discussion with my clarification. :D

On-Topic (sorta): Back to Tanner though, yes I have quite a bit of faith he would not support impeachment proceedings. He is a staunch Democrat, but not a foolish one when it comes to what to do politically in his district. As for Cooper, I would be weakest in my estimation of him, but it would seem an very unwise move for him, even in more liberal 5th. The only Tn Congressman that could get away with going along with impeachment without any political implications is that from the 9th in my estimation.

Back Off Topic: I don't see freshmen Dems in swing districts going for impeachment either. Those new Dems would be overall more moderate group of freshmen, who if they know their districts at all, would know better than to do something as silly as support impeachment if they wanted to get re-elected. I contend that not going with impeachment will not hurt the Dems in the long run with their base, I think there is an overestimation of the support to impeach Bush within the party rank and file (maybe not within the activists ranks which is a small but vocal part of the party) by some in both parties who would like to see it happen(obviously for different reasons), just like it was overestimated in the Republican Party (except for in the activists, who again were loud and vocal) when there was the impeachment proceedings against Clinton. The Dems (esp. in swing districts) get to learn from the Republicans what not to do, ie listen to the activist portion of the base.

I suppose we will just have to wait and see how the 06 elections turn out and what the new Congress might do. Is that a good way to close out this off topic discussion? :D

So back to more TN related political discussion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.