1. Sen. Coats Starts with a Bang – Wants to “Reform” the Filibuster

2. Obama sets the modern record for Midterm losses

3. Political Malpractice: The GOP Should Have Had Bigger House Gains

4. Senate Scorecard: RedState vs NRSC

1. Sen. Coats Starts with a Bang – Wants to “Reform” the Filibuster

Less than a week after being sent back to the Senate after a 10-year absence, 67 year-old former Senator / DC lobbyist / Senator-elect Dan Coats apparently feels that it is critical to launch his new tenure with an assault on the filibuster.Hmmm… Way to signal to the world that the establishment got it right in convincing you to run, and that you are ready to hit the halls of Congress and fight for limited government, Senator.In an interview with NPR on November 4, and then again just yesterday on Fox News, Coats suggested that the filibuster should be ended on the “motion to proceed.” In other words, he would allow the filibuster on the final vote, but not on the motion to bring the matter to the Senate floor for debate. His reasoning is that “[t]here’s just too much need for moving forward with action to address our serious economic situation and a number of other issues to not go forward on that basis.”Really? Right, because what we really need is for it to be easier for the Senate to pass more laws. What more do we need than MORE laws?This kind of talk is decidedly un-conservative.Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Obama sets the modern record for Midterm losses

Here are the the last 60 years’ worth of midterm losses, going back to the second Truman midterm, according to Wikipedia for election-on-election losses, which is the standard I use all around. For 2010 I’m using the current CNN projection of a 65 seat Republican gain and a 243 R – 192 D House.Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Political Malpractice: The GOP Should Have Had Bigger House Gains

Just the facts. That’s all I’m going to give you here — no blame game. No names.It has been suggested that the reason the GOP didn’t take more Senate seats is because of conservatives. The facts show otherwise.What the facts show is that while you and I are focused on the most House pickups since 1948, we probably should have made even bigger House gains. Likewise, we probably could have made more gains in the Senate. In fact, losing the Senate had nothing to do with conservative candidates and everything to do with GOTV.Success has a way of covering up problems.You can decide who to blame, all I am doing is giving you the facts.Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Senate Scorecard: RedState vs NRSC

The time has come for the Senate Republicans to begin thinking about what to do with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which this last cycle was run by Senator John Cornyn along with bureaucrat Rob Jesmer. Before any Republican endorses that team to go ahead and run the committee for another cycle, I urge them to consider alternatives.The NRSC has the name and the databases to be a tremendous force for good for the party, much as the RGA was this cycle. But to do so it has to make the right decisions with those resources that it has. I submit that it could have done much better this year.Please click here for the rest of the post.