CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
50%↑
15%
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
October 14, 2013 06:14 AM UTC
31 Comments
Word is the President meets with Senate Democrats today.
This is imperative. If the Administration gives anything, the republicans win. The child throwing the tantrum gets his way. The winds will never favor the President more than now. The Democrats will never have more leverage.
It has to be a clean CR, Debt ceiling raised for 1 year. Anything less is a complete victory for the unruly child. Proof that extortion works. Confirmation that the minority within the minority runs the country.
If the Democrats stand firm, the repubicans will fold. The bully is face down on the ground, teeth on the curb, hands tied behind his back, knee on his neck, screaming "If you don't let me up, I'm going to kick your ass!!!!!!!!!"
Democrats, please don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!!!!! Please.
My guess is there will be some compromise on the CR and none on the debt ceiling. Which is legit as the CR is funding and funding measures start in the House. So the GOP legitimately gets to have same say on the budget.
One of the large reasons the mainstream media is going away – The perfect epitaph for establishment journalism
I consider the Democrats ‘standing firm and giving no ground’ to be only slightly better than the Tea Party Republican’s efforts. Drawing lines in the sand and holding your breath till you get your way is fine for elementary school yard fights but it is not how grown-ups settle political disputes.
There is something also to be said for the ancient concept of building bridges behind your enemy so that they have an escape. A cornered enemies do stupid, desperate things and that is where the Republicans and regrettably due to the logic above the Democrats as well are. Real political leadership would find an agreement that the Republicans can use that will save face while still letting the Democrats say they did not give in to the original demands.
This unfortunately requires the type of inspired political leadership that seems to be beyond Boehner, Obama and Reid. What is really sad is, it shouldn’t be as all three are tried and true politicians who down in their hearts understand this. Boehner particularly is by his nature a deal maker but seems completely hemmed in by and unable to control his base. Obama seems to understand it as well but being the more junior of the leadership experience here, doesn’t seem to have the leadership skill to get there. Reid, is driving the Senate’s ‘my way or the highway’ bus at the start but I think is finally beginning the realize the danger.
Couldn't disagree with you more Kit. There was nothing Lincoln could do to accommodate the sourthern states and their demands for continued slavery. They started the Civil War and he was required to send hundreds of thousands of young men to their deaths to combat the south and their intent to keep slaves no matter what. Sometimes you can't play nice and a lot of people get hurt in the short term but our country and the world is better off a 150 years later because the owning of other human beings as slaves is gone with the wind.
Assigning mutual blame to this game of chicken is the current strategy by Republicans because they don't want to take responsibility for this financial disaster.
the mutual blame meme fits the uninformed voters to a T
This is not about assigning blame but about the reality of politics. I for one lay the blame for causing the problem directly at the Republican's door. Even Lincoln was reported to have said that if he could have found a way to have preserved the Union at the cost of allowing the evil of slavery to continue for a while longer, he would have done so. But comparing what is essentially an economic debate to the civil rights horror that was slavery is a bit disingenuous. This is not the Civil War, though if both sides continue to entrench in us vs them attitudes it could evolve into one.
"Face-saving offers" from the Republicans amount to cutting spending on food stamps, social security and medicare/medicaid, and — big surprise here — cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations.
What part of "the voters have repeatedly voted against the GOP agenda in the last several elections" do you not understand?
But it is not 'Republican' face saving offers I am talking about, what are needed is Democrat face saving offers to the Republicans. That is the point of the building bridges quote, it is not the enemy who builds them but the victor to give his enemy a way out in order to lessen the bloodshed and destruction. An offer concerning the medical device tax which both sides seem to have objections to comes to mind. I give Obama the most credit for trying to build bridges here but he doesn't seem to have found the way to do it. The idea of having talks on the concerns of the minority if they will just end the current threat is a good approach but it needs something for the other side to buy into. This is why the apparent lack of back room discussions in this crisis concerns me, as such deals usually happen outside the limelight.
Frankly, if the voters had universally voted against the GOP agenda there would not be a crisis as there would not be a Tea Party cacaus this powerful in the House. There is a real concern about the budget and debt load of the government in the US, just because that subject has been hijacked by extremists on the right does not make the concern any less relevant. It is quite correct that you cannot reward extremism by giving in to its demands but it is also true that one of the ways to disarm extremism is to address the underlying relevant issues that it builds it foundation on.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/opinion/sunday/the-great-gerrymander-of-2012.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
We need to fix that as best we can in 2014, and then start amending the laws to make as many seats as possible competitive.
The GOP has burned their own bridges with the voters. I really don't see Democrats rebuilding them just so the pyromaniacs get to do it all over again, and again, and again.
It's not disingenuous at all Kit. What's at stake is whether a minority runs this country through extortion and intimination or through democratic processes that allow for a functioning government. It is about how we fundamentally organize ourselves as a civil society and Republicans have broken that compact with their political coup d'état attempt. They are no longer partners in democracy but power mad usurpers trying to invalidate elections that didn't go their way. No way that Obama lets them retreat gracefully in the face of such hatred and disregard for our Republic. Inflict maximum damage by letting them carrying out their threats and then work on taking out the usurpers like Mike Coffman.
Our Democracy is specifically designed so that interests of the minority can be simply ignored by the will of the majority. Yes it is not in the best interest of the country to allow the minority to run things by extortion and intimidation BUT you can lesson the impact of that extremism on the side of the minority by addressing its legitmate concerns.
And those 'legitimate' Republican concerns are that a Democrat who also happens to be a 'nigger' is in the White House. They have never dealt in good faith with this president because of who he is and there is no expectation that they ever will.
Quit being so naive Kit that this is all some kind of misunderstanding that can be resolved if only there was just more adult behavior by both sides.
It is odd that the only time I see Obama's race come up in political discussions outside of White Supremacy sites and other places not worth visiting is by folks critizing Republicans.
It is naivity indeed to not realize that there is some brinkmanship being played by both sides here. Last time I looked it takes two to play the game of chicken.
You don't get out much do you? Take a look at the CNN article on the million er 200 man march in Washington last weekend.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/13/at-tea-party-like-rally-obama-told-to-put-the-quran-down/?hpt=hp_t2
By our perspective then I guess the soldiers at Fort Sumter goaded the Confederates into shelling them because it takes two to wage war.
Republicans produced pamphlets for Congressional members this summer outlining how to frame the shutdown. They passed a resolution just before October first to make it so that only the majority speaker and introduce bills to vote. They planned this little coup for a long and aimed at replacing the Constitution with government by Tea Party threats. Obama did the right thing to tell them to fuck off. He stood strong and Assad gave up his chemical weapons. Standing strong is not a sign of weakness.
typo
s/b By your perspective…
Really fixated on that Civil War analogy. Its all right, gives you something in common with the Tea Party extremists, they see it as an all or nothing us vs them war too.
The economic, religious, and cultural differences that were apparent as the colonies were forming and led to the civil war are still in evidence today. The analogy is not inappropriate.
If you agree that the tea party extremists who are controlling this hoedown so they can go home with all the cookies, what makes you think that there is anything the moderates and the Dems can do to appease them? Many of us have been watching process for quite some time. And now it is starting to harm the security of the country and the well being of the American people. Negotiation does not seem to work with these people. They didn't come to negotiate or compromise or even to have constructive input. They have embraced anarchy and they like it.
The issue is the Tea Party is not the complete Republican party, a party that is very much in disarray due to the damage they are doing. IF something can be offered that gives the more rational members of the party some cover to protect their right flank in the primaries, they would help to push that compromise.
You ran out of REPLY buttons below, so let me answer your point below: Defeat. Once the current Republican Party is defeated, then and only then can the "rebuilding" occur. Until then, it is just Appeasement that just encourages them to continue their destructive ways
Interesting discussion…
It's called "moving the goalposts", kit.
At some point you have to plant those suckers in the ground and say..no mas.
Sorry…that's "Kit".
They must be defeated, no compromises can be given for it will indicate weakness, we must defeat Obama's..oh sorry…the Tea Party's plans because they are wrong and we are right and if we have to drag the entire world economy down to do it that is the price we must pay to stop their destructive ways.
It is interesting how after a while the way to reach the goalposts, moving or not, begin to sound the same on both sides.
Kit…it eventually has to get there…or there is no resolution.
True, both sides use the English language to describe their positions/opinions/options. The big difference is one is based on the realities of governance, and the other is based on a fantasy of winning without electoral support.
It doesn't appear you are able to distinguish between the two.
It sounds as if you are just starting to pay attention. Political history can be fascinating. I've been watching this slow motion train wreck for 20 years. The political cycle is about to turn, it always has, to date. I just hope we can learn to ameliorate the extremes. Apparently, the experience and memory of feudalism and the "divine right" dogma gave the Europeans a perspective we don't seem to have, for good or ill. But we must have viable social programs, not " socialism", if we are to move forward to our profit.
omg.
President Obama proposed healthcare reform while a candidate. He won.
Then, two years later, the GOTP attempted to win back the Senate by supporting candidates who wanted to repeal Obamacare. They lost.
Then two years after that we got to vote in a Presidential election. One candidate wanted to stop implementation of a personal mandate, though he had already implemented one. The other wanted to keep Obama care. The former lost.
Now, just a year later, the GOTP minority and actually only a minority of that minority demands! that the winners renogitiate the ACA. And you say the winners in the majority need to compromise. uh-huh.
Meanwhile, the only reason we end up with the shutdown is the same minority GOTP changed House procedure so that only one guy (Cantor), a leader of the minority's miniority, can introduce a lean CR. uh-huh.
Whatever.
And, we think that our governor's race has some "interesting" candidates.
http://nypost.com/2013/10/14/gopers-eye-donald-trump-for-governor-run/
Kit, let's see if they actually strike a deal. I really want logical, reasonable conservatives back. It could happen.
Ditto. But it's up to the logical reasonable conservatives to make the first couple of steps regaining control of their party. Then we can offer to help. If we offer first, that will encourage the tea party members who will say that we're folding without their offering anything.
Just so, David.