The Hill has a month-by-month recap of 2010:

The grassroots conservative political movement made its clout felt the entire year, from the healthcare reform debate to GOP primaries and the general election last month.

Senior Democrats, ranging from Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.), aggressively attacked the Tea Party in the lead-up to the midterms, hoping that doing so would soften losses to the GOP. House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) and other Republicans embraced the movement, believing its energy would benefit their party at the polls.

In the end, the Tea Party was in many ways a net asset for the GOP as Republicans grabbed control of the House and cut into the Democratic majority in the Senate.

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From the Associated Press:

President Barack Obama signed into law a huge, holiday-season tax bill extending cuts for all Americans on Friday, saluting a new spirit of political compromise as Republicans applauded and liberals seethed. The benefits range from tax cuts for millionaires and the middle class to longer-term help for the jobless.

The most significant tax legislation in nearly a decade will avert big increases that would have hit millions of people starting in two weeks on New Year’s Day. Declared Obama: “We are here with some good news for the American people this holiday season.”

“This is progress and that’s what they sent us here to achieve,” Obama said as a rare bipartisan assembly of lawmakers looked on at the White House.

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From Stuart Rothenburg in Roll Call:

On one level, it’s entirely reasonable for liberal Democrats to oppose the [tax cut extension] compromise. Those Democrats have different priorities and values than Republicans, and many of them represent very liberal constituents who also oppose the compromise.

Nobody — nobody — is saying that those House liberals should change their views. If they want to vote against the package that the president negotiated with Congressional Republicans, that’s their right.

But the outrage by House liberals, many of whom were responsible for the party’s legislative agenda and for Congress’ earlier inaction on the tax cuts, is more than a little hard to take.

Congressional Democrats had two years to address the Bush tax cuts. They certainly could have dealt with them one way or the other between late April 2009 and mid-January 2010, when the party had a 60-seat majority in the Senate and a huge majority in the House.

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This week we have a special episode of Eyeblast Hits The Streets! We wanted to see what people were thinking about the upcoming midterm elections so we went to the nations capitol, Union Station specifically, and asked around. Here’s what we found:

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From The Hill:

Republicans are headed for a blowout election win that seems certain to seize more than enough seats to knock out the Democrats and take control of the House.

The Hill 2010 Midterm Election poll, surveying nearly 17,000 likely voters in 42 toss-up districts over four weeks, points to a massive Republican wave that, barring an extraordinary turnaround, will deliver crushing nationwide defeats for President Obama’s party.

The data suggest a GOP pickup that could easily top 50 seats (the party needs 39 for control of the House).

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From The Hill:

Democrats haven’t necessarily gotten the credit they’re due for the work they’ve done the last two years, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said.

Pelosi, in the middle of a tough campaign to defend Democrats’ majority in the House — as well as her own Speakership — seemed to echo a complaint voiced by other Democrats, that obstacles have made it difficult for the party’s message to get through.

“You have all those forces at work, pouring millions of millions of dollars into the media, and now into the campaigns to mischaracterize everything that we did,” Pelosi said in an interview with Politics Daily, video of which was posted Monday. “So that’s that. It’s up to us to go out there. I’m very confident; our members know why they voted for what they did.

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By Reps. Marsha Blackburn, Darrell Issa and Peter Roskam:

Last January, President Obama declared, “Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010.”

Since that time, more than 2.5 million Americans have lost their jobs and unemployment stands at 9.6%. Some focus. The President and his Democrat allies in Congress instead chose to unleash a torrent of bills that do anything but create jobs, like the so-called financial services reform bill that didn’t fix the real problem of government meddling in mortgages, and another round of “stimulus” spending that only deepened states’ addiction to Washington bailouts. Last week, Congressional Democrats canceled a vote on tax relief for all Americans until after the November elections, creating more economic uncertainty while delaying private sector job creation.

The primary job killer is the trillion-dollar folly of ObamaCare. The bill hits America’s struggling small businesses and their families with 2,801 pages of new taxes and complicated rules, creating a climate of hyper-regulation and uncertainty that the nation’s most important small business alliance – the National Federation of Independent Businesses –has called “death by a thousand cuts.”

Just a couple of those painful wounds: by 2018, self-employers and small firms will be hit by a $14.3 billion health insurance tax, while a projected $17 billion will be raised by taxing every business-to-business deal over $600. Washington insiders pushing ObamaCare appear to ignore these truths and clearly don’t understand the negative impact the law is already having on entrepreneurs.

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With less than a month to go before Democrats across the country face their fate, one would hope that they are reflective enough to ask themselves where they went wrong and how their out-of-touch liberal policies have failed the American people. According to a recent poll by Gallup, Congress has an 18 percent approval rating, and CNN/Time has President Obama’s disapproval rating at 54 percent. It seems the tide has changed since the 2008 election. At the end of September, Congress left Washington without passing a budget and failed to even address the largest tax increases ever to hit the American people that will come in January.

Citizens United Production’s latest documentary, “Battle for America” with Dick Morris, examines why Americans have such disdain for President Obama and his imperial Congress. The American people are angry. With an unemployment rate hovering around 9.6 percent and our national debt exceeding $13 trillion, Americans want real change… not the kind of change they were duped into believing two years ago. In 2008, the American people voted for what was sold as moderate and pragmatic leadership. Americans were in desperate need of a government that would focus on jobs and our troubled economy. Unfortunately, the Obama-Pelosi-Reid machine decided to pass the rest of Lyndon Johnson’s social welfare program instead.

During the 2006 election, Nancy Pelosi proclaimed that the Democrats would “drain the swamp” that is Washington, D.C. However, it looks as if her “swamp” is as polluted and infected as ever as evidenced by the backroom deals made during the health care debate and the ethics troubles facing former Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and other House Democrats. The truth is that Nancy Pelosi’s swamp can’t be drained because it is the bloated and (nearly) bankrupt government created by her and her colleagues that keeps it filled. Our country is drowning and suffocating in an out-of-control bureaucracy.

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On Wednesday The Hill reported on a new poll it has conducted of the 2010 midterms with initial focus on 12 districts held by freshmen Democrats and the news isn’t good for those incumbent Dems scrutinized. On the other hand, the poll seems to show that it isn’t pat that Republicans will necessarily run away with it all either.

On Wednesday The Hill reported that in 11 of the initial 12 races polled, Republicans are leading Democrat incumbents. In the 12th, the candidates are tied. While this may seem good for the GOP the downside is that none of the Republicans are polling over 50%.

However, a long held axiom states that an incumbent that can’t reach at lest 50% in the polls generally is in major trouble for re-election and if these polls show GOP leads in each case with not one of these incumbent Dems reaching the 50% mark, that says quite a lot about these midterms.

According to The Hill, the poll also shows that Obamacare is hurting Democrats. “A majority of voters in key battleground districts favor repeal of the legislative overhaul that Congress passed this year.”

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House Democrats adjourned this week without a vote on extending the Bush tax cuts set to expire in January. While they seem content to blame Republican leadership for the failure, it turns out that a group of Democratic House members bucked party leadership to join with the GOP in a move aimed at protecting senior citizens from a massive tax hike – and quite possibly indicating an eventual bipartisan kill-off of President Obama’s tax agenda .

Led by Rep. John Adler, D-N.J., the 47 House Democrats wrote a letter Tuesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., urging her to keep lower tax rates on dividends and capital gains that will expire at the end of this year.

A number of tax cuts enacted in the past decade are due to expire at the end of this year. Our fiscal policy should be one that maximizes economic growth and private sector job creation. That is why we strongly believe that Congress should extend the current tax rates for dividend and long-term capital gains taxes…We [] have a responsibility to protect middle class families and seniors from harmful tax increases and their economic impact…

Many seniors depend on this income to supplement their fixed retirement income. A recent study found that in 2007 over 27 million tax returns had dividends qualifying for the reduced tax rate reduction. Of those returns, 61 percent were from taxpayers age 50 and older and 30 percent were from taxpayers age 65 and older.

President Obama and Democratic leadership are also looking to allow other special brackets to expire, particularly long-term capital gains, which would affect couples earning more than $250,000 a year and individuals earning more than $200,000.

Citing the study mentioned in the letter, this small band of Dems tried to make clear to their leadership how deeply those saving for retirement and those in retirement would be affected.

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It’s déjà vu all over again.

In the early fall of 1992, George H.W. Bush was running for reelection, the economy was in recession and the Democrats had the incumbent president on the ropes. Bush was, they said, out of touch and perhaps incapable of understanding the challenges facing middle-class Americans grappling with real-world problems.

He was an elitist who played golf and ran around the world while the men and women who had put him in office were struggling just to survive. By way of contrast, his ultimately successful Democratic opponent assured people that, unlike Bush, he could “feel their pain.”

The president and his advisers argued that the recession was over. It had, according to most economists, ended that spring, and the nation was on its way to recovery. More evidence, the Democrats cried, that Bush didn’t get it.

This year, a Democratic president and his globetrotting spouse appear as divorced from the reality of today as then-President Bush seemed nearly two decades ago. Like Bush, Barack Obama comes across as a nice enough fellow who talks about things that just don’t matter to most Americans and insists on fixing things they aren’t sure are broken rather than tackling jobs they know need to be done.

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A terrific video produced by Ben Howe over at RedState is a great reminder that November is coming–and why this midterm election is so critical in solidifying America’s future path.  The video speaks for itself, but I’d like to stress a couple of key points for those voters who remain undecided and still cling to Obama’s “hope” lies.

As I have previously mentioned, what was originally promised to you during the campaign and reiterated on Change.gov is completely different than what has unfolded the past 21 months.  Don’t believe me or still undecided, go see for yourself.  In 2006 and again in 2008, Republicans were taught a lesson by the voters.  Now, the Democrats must learn the same lesson, including the Blue Dog Democrat sellouts (there are no conservative Democrats).  They stole your health care, spent your hard earned money for endless crony bailouts, and in the age of Obama more people in America live in poverty.  Now, it is time for them to learn.  Call it a teachable moment.

The Democrats will lose their majority.  Period.  The questions are by how many seats and will it be both houses.  And it has nothing to do with great orator’s ability to communicate–especially regarding the peristent selling of Obamacare as evidenced here.  Independents and Republicans, and yes, even Democrats, know that this Congress and president defied their will–which was clearly known–so there was no failure to communicate.  It was a failure to listen, uphold their oaths, and obey the will of the American people as their elected representatives. There is no way to sugar-coat the progressive redistributive power grabs legislated by the Democrat Congress with rhetoric or car metaphors.

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In early October 2006, as it was becoming more obvious by the day that Republicans were going to lose big in November, I was approached by a nervous young presidential aide at a White House meeting. He reminded me that I had been around in 1974 when the GOP took a post-Watergate pasting that those who lived through will never forget.

Wondering what it was like back then, he asked, “Did it feel like this?”

“Worse,” I said, “much worse.” Back then, Republicans knew there was no way out, and the apprehension by October was probably greater than among 1994 Democrats, who managed to remain in denial almost until the votes were counted.

This time, though, Democrats know what’s coming and, like their Republican counterparts back in 1974, they don’t know what to do about it. As a result, they’re rushing around the deck of the sinking ship blaming each other, the media and, in some case, the “stupidity” of an ungrateful electorate.

With limited funds and a need to focus on incumbents they might actually be able to save, today’s fights among the Democrats are over who ought to be allowed into the lifeboats and who ought to stoically accept their fate. Democratic leaders have triaged candidates they believe are drowning anyway in an understandable effort to save those they can.

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Even Politico is sensing the coming wave. From the tireless Mike Allen:

With just two months to go before the November elections, pollsters and political scientists are predicting a blow-out loss for Democrats that could rival the Republican Revolution of 1994.

In a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, most-likely voters say — by a 9-point margin — that they want the midterms to produce a Congress controlled by Republicans, not Democrats.

“If that kind of lead holds, Republicans would almost certainly take back control of the House,” the Journal’s Gerald F. Seib writes.

A new ABC/Washington Post poll gives Republican congressional candidates a 53 percent to 40 percent advantage among “those most likely to vote.”

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Political prognosticator Charlie Cook’s latest column in National Journal:

Labor Day is almost here and Democrats are still waiting for the cavalry to arrive. An exhaustive scan of the horizon reveals no rescuers and none of the things Democrats badly need to save them from tough midterm election losses on Nov. 2.

There are few signs of any meaningful recovery, and indeed there is more talk of a double-dip recession, plunging the country back into economic trouble between now and the end of the year. Unemployment seems stuck at 9.5 percent, reinforcing the view that last year would have been better spent focusing on the economy than on health care reform.

Democrats also needed a public re-evaluation of the new health care reform law. They needed the public to decide that it wasn’t so bad, that it was a good idea after all. That hasn’t happened, as pointed out by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s health care monthly tracking poll released this week. Favorable attitudes toward the new law dropped from 50 percent last month to 43 percent this month, and unfavorable views climbed from 35 percent to 45 percent. Twenty-nine percent of Americans believe that they and their families will be better off under the new law, while 30 percent say they will be worse off and 36 percent say it will not make much difference.

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There is little debate that the leadership of the House — lead by Nancy Pelosi — has successfully convinced vulnerable Democrats to walk the plank on issues like the government takeover of our health care system, trillions in wasteful spending, bailouts and even cutting food stamps to funnel tax dollars to the teachers’ unions.  But for some members, it is the Cap and Trade tax that may turn out to be the anchor around their electoral necks.  Look no further than Ohio and Reps. Zack Space and John Boccieri.

Reps. Space and Boccieri voted with Nancy Pelosi and against their districts by supporting the Cap and Tax bill and are now paying the price.  A reader just sent us a copy of this incredibly effective ad that is now running in two districts in Ohio:

The ad reminds voters of the issues at stake — the budget, securing our borders, reckless growth of government and the cost of the Cap and Tax bill – and in Ohio Cap and Tax is a huge liability. Ohio is already experiencing some of the highest unemployment rates in the country (10.4%) and Cap and Tax would send upwards of 100,000 Ohio jobs overseas.  The bill would damage the state so much that even the State Senate has gone on record opposing the bill.

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From CBS News:

New York Congressman Charles Rangel has reportedly cut a deal to admit to ethical wrongdoing and avoid a potentially humiliating public trial.

Harlem friends of Rangel tell CBS 2 they have been told that the details could be unveiled when the House Ethics Committee meets Thursday afternoon.

“Sixty years ago I survived a Chinese attack in North Korea and as a result I wrote a book saying that I hadn’t had a bad day since,” Rangel said. “Today I have to reassess that statement.” In a sense, Thursday is Charlie Rangel’s war. He is battling to preserve his legacy of 40 years of congressional service in the face of ethics charges that, at the very least, will subject him to a humiliating process of having to admit ethical wrong doing.

Just what he will admit to and how he will do it remains to be seen. The punishment remains to be seen as well, but sources tell CBS 2 that at the end of the day, Rangel is not expected to be thrown out of Congress and that he is expected to run for reelection to a 21st term.

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From the always interesting Michael Barone, in the Washington Examiner:

In 1994, I wrote an article in U.S. News & World Report arguing that there was a serious chance that Republicans could capture the 40 seats that they needed then, as now, for a majority in the House. It was the first mainstream media piece suggesting that, and it appeared on newsstands on July 11.

I cited as evidence five polls showing incumbent Democratic congressmen trailing Republican challengers. None of those Democrats had scandal problems; all five lost in November.

Today a lot more Democratic incumbents seem to be trailing Republican challengers in polls. Jim Geraghty of National Review Online has compiled a list of 13 Democratic incumbents trailing in polls released over the past seven weeks.

Some of these poll numbers are mind-boggling.

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For far too long, Americans have watched as the Democrat Majority in Washington has made promise after promise that they would responsibly manage the taxpayer’s dollars – but one promise we haven’t seen many members keep is to take action to reduce our ever exploding deficit by actually cutting wasteful spending.

Many Americans have lost their jobs or have seen their pay and benefits reduced. Our nation’s families and small business job providers are all tightening their belts – all while they look at what’s happening in Washington in disbelief.

Spending is out-of-control. We have a national debt over $13 trillion; an annual budget deficit of nearly $1.6 trillion; and within the first eight months of our current fiscal year, the federal government has accumulated $935 billion in deficit spending. Currently, we are right on track to meet last year’s annual deficit record of $1.4 trillion. American taxpayers want spending reduced.

That is why Republican Whip Eric Cantor and the House Republicans have launched the YouCut project – where we go over the heads of Nancy Pelosi and her allies in Congress to engage the American people in the effort to reduce the deficit and cut wasteful spending now.

YouCut gives Americans the opportunity to vote each week for one of five wasteful spending programs and Republicans will force a vote on the one receiving the most votes. As of this week, Americans have casted over 850,000 votes on YouCut programs.

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“Health overhaul to force changes in employer plans.” “Draft health rules set hurdles.” “Employer health care costs to jump 9% in 2011.” With headlines like these splashed across the nation’s newspapers, it’s no wonder the American public remains steadfastly opposed to the government takeover of health care signed into law by President Obama in March. Just this week, the Obama administration released bureaucratic new health care regulations that could change or eliminate more than half of all employer-provided health care plans, affecting tens of millions of Americans. Apparently, “If you like it, you can keep it” was an Obama promise too good to be true – one of many, as it is turning out.

Indeed, ObamaCare’s broken promises are piling up for America’s families, seniors, and job-creators and stifling the economic recovery we all hope to achieve. Bureaucratic mandates, higher taxes, and record deficit spending are proven job killers – yet these very principles lay at the heart of the Democrats’ government takeover of health care.

During the Blair House summit, Speaker Pelosi decreed the Democrats’ health care plan would “create four million jobs — 400,000 jobs almost immediately.” With a national unemployment rate stuck near 10 percent, and with 15 million Americans searching for work, Republicans and the American people continue to ask: Where are the jobs?

One of the lasting lessons of the health care debate is this: The American people will no longer accept a federal government that is tone-deaf to their concerns. Men and women who never before have spoken out about politics are now standing up and demanding to be heard. And Republicans are using every resource and seizing every opportunity to bring their voices to Washington D.C.

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