The News: What You'll Learn And What You Won't

This morning 11/23/14, I heard on a respected new show, political analysts cogitating over where the country will go from here now that the Republicans won the Senate.  On analyst suggested that now the Republicans will make a strong effort to show the American people that they can make the Congress work.  They will now reach out to their Democratic counterparts and come up with legislation that can be agreed upon by both political parties.  Areas on which progress should now be possible include immigration, taxes, and more important areas.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.  Yes, the Congress might now finally do the things they have been unable to do in the past -- important things, things that really do need doing.  However, road blocks in the past were not, for the most part, put up by the Republicans.  They were created by Obama and his hit man, Harry Reid,  who permitted no discussion on bills sent to the Senate by House Republicans.  And, the press ran with that narrative.  They pushed aside entirely, any discussion of the bills sent to the Senate by the Republican House.  In this matter, Obama and Harry Reid won.  Congress was to blame for its inability to act and that was largely the fault of the Republicans.

Now it becomes more complicated -- for the Democrats --  not for the Republicans.  Some bills will fly through the Congress, e.g. the XL pipeline bill.  Will Obama be able to veto it.  Maybe, but I believe that in this case the Congress will easily over ride his veto.

A comprehensive immigration bill should also be possible.  Sure, there are different voices among the Republicans.  But, the Republican Party has a number of Latinos.  They know what's to be gained and what will be lost if they don't come up with something creative -- something that includes a sealing of our border with Mexico;  something that relies not on the alligators suggested in one of Obama's moments of sarcasm, but rather on technology.  Congressional bills, once passed, get the kind of attention unavailable to bills that don't make it out of the Congress.  This now becomes a problem for the Democrats.  Before the Republicans won the Senate, all the negative remarks as regards the Congress were assigned to either (1) a dysfunctional Congress as opposed to the President,  or (2) to the Republicans for having made the Congress dysfunctional.   Those story lines will no longer work.
The possible winner: the American people.