No Clear Path For GOP On Health Care Repeal
The Associated Press reports: “Republicans say they’ll repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s health care law, but tinker and tweak is as far as they’re likely to get…Republicans will control the House in January, but they don’t have the votes to overcome a Senate filibuster, much less Obama’s veto on repeal. Plan B, denying funds to carry out the law, could backfire if it escalates to a government shutdown.”
Obama’s Day Ahead
President Obama and Vice President will attend a Cabinet meeting at 9:20 a.m. ET. Obama and Biden will have lunch at 12 p.m. ET.
House Committees To Get New GOP Chairmen
The Associated Press reports: “The Republican takeover of the House means a complete turnover in committee chairmen, with the new, and sometimes returning, GOP chairmen coming in armed with the promise from their leaders that they will no longer be an afterthought. Just who winds up where won’t be made official until the new Congress takes office in January. But jockeying for key positions will be going on when the current Congress returns Nov. 15 for a lame-duck session.”
Reid Victory Energizes Democratic Conference
Roll Call reports: “Senate Democrats lost at least six seats on Tuesday and significantly weakened their majority. But even in defeat, they feel some sense of victory having survived what could have been a blowout; Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was able to eke out a fifth term, and the party held on to seats in West Virginia, Colorado and California (Washington’s Senate race remained too close to call). Reid’s victory also averted a potential divisive leadership fight for Majority Leader between Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.).”
Money Doesn’t Buy Many Wins For Self-Funded Candidates
The Washington Post reports: “Tuesday’s midterms featured an unusually large crop of moguls who sought to ease their way into power by pouring millions of their own dollars into their campaigns. In most cases, they failed spectacularly. The most obvious - and jaw-dropping - example came in the California gubernatorial race, where Republican Meg Whitman spent $175 million of her eBay fortune to lose badly to former Democratic governor Jerry Brown. That works out to about $57 for each of the roughly 3 million votes she won.”
In Rubio, Some See Rise of ‘Great Right Hope’
The New York Times reports: “For many Tea Party conservatives, Hispanics, and young Americans frustrated with the national debt that baby boomers have saddled on their future, Marco Rubio’s victory in the Florida Senate race gave them an extra reason to celebrate…’He’s our Cuban Barack Obama,’ said Alex Lacayo, 36, a campaign volunteer at the Rubio victory party on Tuesday night who could not stop giving hugs to strangers. ‘He gives us hope.’”
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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