Tuesday’s result was not a Republican victory, it was a conservative victory and Republicans just happened to be the least worst choice available

New Congress To–Do List

By Michael R. Shannon
Friday, November 5, 2010

Tuesday voters placed the House of Representatives under new management and put the fear of God into what remains, temporarily, a Democrat Senate. Now it’s time for a resuscitated GOP to deliver.

But before the Republicans get to work, they need to — as we say here in the South — get their mind right and understand what actually happened.

At first glance the pickup of 60 House seats (as this is written) looks like an overwhelming endorsement of the GOP, since it tops the total of seats captured in the anti–Clinton wave of 1994.

Appearances are deceiving in this case. Just prior to Tuesday’s election a poll of voters who favored a Republican–controlled House was released.

A total of 48 percent of those voters viewed their choice as a positive vote for Republicans, but 45 percent said their vote was not a vote for the GOP, but rather a negative vote against Obama and the Democrats. It should be glaringly obvious to House leaders that a party unable generate a majority of supporters among its own voters, is a party that is on probation.

Tuesday’s result was not a Republican victory, it was a conservative victory and Republicans just happened to be the least worst choice available.

A divided legislative branch, combined with internal and external obstacles, makes pleasing this coalition of the grumpy very difficult. If Republican leadership in the House stays the same, temporizers and “realistsâ€