The next big freakout over red state Democrats
BY GREG SARGENT
May 21 at 2:54 pm
Bank on this. When President Obama rolls out his new regulations on existing power plants in coming weeks, the roar of gloating from Republicans will be deafening: It’s an absolute political disaster for red state Democrats! Commentators will concern troll about how awful this is for these Dems, and reporters will track every twist and turn in their statements for signs of adherence or distance from the proposed rules, all of which will be considered highly significant in the most negative way possible.
Dem strategists involved in contested Senate races tell me they’ve already begun to think through how to respond to the coming political storm. They do concede vulnerable Dems will have to deal with the new rules – the issue has enormous and far reaching consequences – and they expect Dems to distance themselves. But they also say the hype will be out of sync with political reality, and that in the end, this just won’t matter that much.
“They’ll have to talk about this and figure out their position on it and face questions about it,” a Democratic operative who’s advising candidates in red state races tells me. “But will it be something that changes the dynamic of the races? I don’t think so. This will very much be a story that’s written over and over again when it happens, but 90 percent of the narrative will be wrong.”
The most obvious races where the rollout of the new Environmental Protection Agency rules will matter are in states like Kentucky and Louisiana, where battles are already underway over energy. Mitch McConnell hits Alison Lundergan Grimes regularly as an agent of Obama’s war on coal, and Republicans are using the Keystone delay to cast doubt on Mary Landrieu’s claim that as chair of the Senate Energy Committee she’s well positioned to deliver for Louisiana.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/05/21/the-next-big-freakout-over-red-state-democrats/?
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Why is it that just about everything is "bad" (or at least just "not good"
for Democrats yet the fact that Republicans are obstructive nilhists and many of them hold radically regressive ideals and promote some truly awful policies is NEVER considered much of a liability for THEM?
