Restraining order

Matthew Hoy
By Matthew Hoy on November 7, 2014

So, Tuesday's election was an ass-whupping of historic proportions. Of the "in-play" seats in the U.S. Senate, only New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen appears to have survived. In Virginia, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie came within a whisker of ousting Sen. John Warner in a race that appeared on absolutely no one's radar. In Arkansas, not only did Tom Cotton oust Sen. Mark Pryor—the "close" race turned out to be a landslide—but the home state of Bill Clinton's entire congressional delegation will be Republican. That's right, Arkansas isn't sending a single Democrat to Washington.

On last night's "Special Report" on Fox News Channel, National Journal columnist and panel regular Ron Fournier said Tuesday's election was an order from the American people for Congress and the President to work together to get the people's business done. Fournier pointed to exit polls that showed voters didn't like Democrats or Republicans. Note that these are the same exit polls that gave us President John Kerry for a few hours back in November 2004.

The fact of the matter is that not a single Senate Republican up for reelection this week lost his or her seat. In the House, the GOP gained more than a dozen seats, and if an incumbent Republican lost in the House, the media hasn't made a big brouhaha about it.

If you're an electorate that's mad about all the bastards in Washington, D.C., and their failure to work together, wouldn't you expect there to be an anti-incumbent wave rather than an anti-Democrat wave?

In fact, Fournier is really just parroting this statement by soon-to-be-minority-leader Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:

Really no surprise there, but the question for Fournier and Reid would be this: If Tuesday night's results represent a mandate for Democrats and Republicans to work together. Exactly how would Tuesday night have looked different if the election was a restraining order against President Obama?

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