Barton was the best thing that has happened to the Democrats in months.
David Broder writes in The Washington Post:
For weeks, it has appeared increasingly likely that voters will use the midterm elections in November to signal their unhappiness with the lingering effects of the Great Recession, the threat of uncontrolled deficits, the stalemate in Afghanistan and the continuing tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico by inflicting serious losses on Democratic candidates.
Unless.
Unless one Republican after another steps into the limelight, apparently eager to show that however bad the Democrats look, the opposition could be worse.
The parade of horribles that began with GOP Senate nominees (borrowed from the Tea Party movement) in Kentucky and Nevada challenging accepted wisdom on everything from civil rights to Social Security reached a new height with Barton's wildly mistaken decision to defend the world's most unpopular oil company from a fictitious strong-arm assault.
Barton, a longtime advocate of the oil and gas industry, seized a microphone right after President Obama had extracted a promise from BP executives that they would create a $20 billion trust fund from which to compensate families and companies victimized by the accident on its offshore drilling platform.
House Minority Leader John Boehner and his lieutenants summoned the Texan to his chambers, ordered him to recant and apologize -- which he promptly did.
Barton was the best thing that has happened to the Democrats in months. All of a sudden, they were not defending the undersea gusher they don't know how to cap; they were charging that the opposition was in bed with the corporate bad guys.
Why so eager? Because in the past few days, they had read election analyst Stuart Rothenberg's forecast that five of their Senate seats are leaning Republican and two others now under their control are toss-ups. If Democrats lose all of them, their Senate margin would be down to four seats.
A similar House analysis by academics Alan Abramowitz and Larry Sabato projects Republican gains of 32 to 39 seats. The latter number would be just enough to make Boehner the speaker, replacing Nancy Pelosi.
These numbers will change as the campaigns unfold. But you can see why the Democrats pounced on Barton, and why Boehner & Co. might want to hand out muzzles to their members.
For weeks, it has appeared increasingly likely that voters will use the midterm elections in November to signal their unhappiness with the lingering effects of the Great Recession, the threat of uncontrolled deficits, the stalemate in Afghanistan and the continuing tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico by inflicting serious losses on Democratic candidates.
Unless.
Unless one Republican after another steps into the limelight, apparently eager to show that however bad the Democrats look, the opposition could be worse.
The parade of horribles that began with GOP Senate nominees (borrowed from the Tea Party movement) in Kentucky and Nevada challenging accepted wisdom on everything from civil rights to Social Security reached a new height with Barton's wildly mistaken decision to defend the world's most unpopular oil company from a fictitious strong-arm assault.
Barton, a longtime advocate of the oil and gas industry, seized a microphone right after President Obama had extracted a promise from BP executives that they would create a $20 billion trust fund from which to compensate families and companies victimized by the accident on its offshore drilling platform.
House Minority Leader John Boehner and his lieutenants summoned the Texan to his chambers, ordered him to recant and apologize -- which he promptly did.
Barton was the best thing that has happened to the Democrats in months. All of a sudden, they were not defending the undersea gusher they don't know how to cap; they were charging that the opposition was in bed with the corporate bad guys.
Why so eager? Because in the past few days, they had read election analyst Stuart Rothenberg's forecast that five of their Senate seats are leaning Republican and two others now under their control are toss-ups. If Democrats lose all of them, their Senate margin would be down to four seats.
A similar House analysis by academics Alan Abramowitz and Larry Sabato projects Republican gains of 32 to 39 seats. The latter number would be just enough to make Boehner the speaker, replacing Nancy Pelosi.
These numbers will change as the campaigns unfold. But you can see why the Democrats pounced on Barton, and why Boehner & Co. might want to hand out muzzles to their members.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 3:43 PM
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