Beware: I know for a fact that Ron Brownstein is not on the list!
Resolving the serial showdowns over the federal budget and debt ceiling may be more difficult now than during the last shutdown under Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich because so many more House Republicans today represent safely GOP districts, a National Journal analysis has found.
This suggests that even if a public backlash develops against a shutdown or potential government default, Republican members may be far more insulated against those gales than their counterparts were during the two shutdowns in the winter of 1995 and 1996. Today's GOP legislators, for the same reason, also may be less sensitive to shifts in public attitudes that could threaten their party's national image or standing in more closely contested parts of the country.
Comparing today's 232-seat Republican majority with the 236 seats Republicans ultimately held after special elections and party switches from 1995-96 underscores the extent to which GOP legislators have succeeded in fortifying themselves into homogeneously conservative districts. On every measure, Republicans today represent constituencies that lean more lopsidedly toward their party.
ZitatRep. David Price, D-N.C., a former political scientist, says that the proliferation of safe GOP seats means that even if Republicans receive most of the blame for a shutdown, as polls suggest, "in these individual districts maybe that's no problem; maybe it's actually to their electoral benefit." If there is an electoral cost for the GOP, he argues, it will come through alienating the swing voters they need to win statewide elections in closely contested states like North Carolina.
Funny Dave. What you are arguing is total and unadulterated bullshit. If you look at state wide races across the country, the GOP is cleaning house.
North American Lambada Dance Champion 1988, 1989, 1991.
Dave is mad and deluded because we tea party conservatives here in NC put the GOP in charge of the State House for the first time in 100 years and got a republican gov. and defeated their homo agenda and the dems are pissed.
RIGHT'S RIGHT 
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Tue Oct 01, 2013 2:05 pm
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