There have been lots of predictions about what a Republican take-over of the Senate would mean, but I think it’s safe to say that Ted Cruz will continue to be a raging asshole – both with respect to his own party and, of course, to the president. He’s already making noises:
Piggybacking on what House leaders have done, Cruz said the first order of business should be a series of hearings on President Obama, “looking at the abuse of power, the executive abuse, the regulatory abuse, the lawlessness that sadly has pervaded this administration.” … And when asked whether he would back Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for Republican leader, Cruz would not pledge his support — an indication that there are limits to how much of a partner he’s willing to be.
At the heart of Cruz’s shift from the insular approach that defined his first year in office is a belief that he can use his popularity with conservatives to expand his influence in the Senate and improve his standing as he considers a 2016 presidential campaign.
Somehow, I don’t think the American public is hoping for another round of scorched earth partisan warfare after this election (some may even be gamely hoping for, you know, some kind of governance). And I doubt the establishment GOP heading into 2016 will want to alienate Latinos even more profoundly, ramp up its culture war rhetoric, and push for a new war in the Middle East (either against ISIS or Iran – they’ll take either, as long as Obama has to fight it).
But what’s been absent in this campaign – see the Democrats’ usual incompetence – is the extremism and divisiveness of the Republican right, which is now better seen as the Republican center. We could have another budget meltdown, or the now-familiar an impeachment move for a second-term Democratic president. And all this will serve to divide a party now easily united in opposition to Obama.
If this is their version of 2006, they have yet to find an Obama figure to make it their 2008. And the more divided and fractious and extreme their period in the sun the likelier it is that the Clinton machine will roll smoothly back into power.
(Photo: U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during the final day of the 2014 Republican Leadership Conference on May 31, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana. By Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The Dish 