Friday, December 12, 2008

Streak of Bad News for Dems

After three nearly uninterrupted years of favorable political news, Democrats have finally hit a rough patch.

Over a period of fewer than 10 days, Democrats have seen their nominee go down in defeat in the Georgia Senate runoff — eliminating the prospect of a filibuster-proof majority — lost two winnable House races in Louisiana and witnessed House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) sink deeper into ethics trouble.

Then there’s the still-unfolding Illinois Senate debacle, which exposed Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s tawdry attempts to auction off President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat and forced Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) to hold a press conference Wednesday denying any inappropriate discussions with the governor.

Democrats aren’t exactly disheartened by these developments – they’re still set to control the entire federal government in January – but the streak of bad news has tempered the party’s post-election euphoria. And the string of post-Election Day congressional wins has given the GOP some of its first good news in a long time.

Read it all here.

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