Veteran political analyst Dick Morris tells Newsmax that “rejection of Obama and his policies” propelled Republican Scott Brown to a stunning victory in Tuesday’s election for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts.
Morris also said Brown’s win could persuade as many as 10 House members to retire from long-held Democratic seats and open them up to a serious Republican challenge in November — and he named five Democratic senators who are highly vulnerable to defeat this year.
Newsmax.TV’s Kathleen Walter asked Morris if, given that Americans have deep concerns about jobs, Obama’s healthcare bill is in jeopardy, the president has low approval ratings, and now Brown’s victory, Obama’s political future is in jeopardy in terms of his ability to get things done and to win re-election.
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“Yes, of course it is. “It’s in grave jeopardy,” Morris declared.
“But first we have the Congressional elections, and the Scott Brown victory has a huge effect on them, not just because of one seat in Massachusetts — although that’s significant — but because if the Republicans could win the most liberal seat in the most liberal state in the country, it sends a message to older Democratic congressmen who have been in Congress for many years and feel they may face a tough fight for re-election, and might lose. They might just choose to retire.
“One of the quirks of the law is that, if they retire with a full campaign war chest, they can give that money out to politicians as donations. And very often what they do is they get money from a lobbying firm to give their clients in campaign donations. It’s sort of a way for backdoor compensation. So I think that may be attractive to a number of them, and we may find five to 10 new Democratic retirements in the House.
“On the Senate side, there are five states where there are very vulnerable senators, but we don’t have good candidates running against them: Gillibrand in New York, the woman who took Hillary’s seat; Evan Bayh in Indiana; Russ Feingold in Wisconsin — he’s too liberal for anyplace other than Cuba; in Washington, Patty Murray; and in Oregon, Ron Wyden.
“Those are five senators who can be defeated but we don’t have good candidates yet, and I think this defeat in Massachusetts may encourage some good Republicans to get into the race and really give these incumbents a tough run for their money and very likely take the seats.
Walter asked Morris to explain Scott Brown’s victory.
“It’s anger at Obama. It’s plain and simple rejection of his agenda, rejection of his tactics,” Morris said.
“Rasmussen did a poll where he analyzed the voters in Massachusetts, an exit poll, and he found that 98 percent of the people who disapproved of Obama voted for Brown . . .
“Clearly it was a rejection of Obama and his policies. Massachusetts has the healthcare program that Barack Obama’s trying to foist on the United States. They have a mandate to buy health insurance. It’s working terribly. The cost is bankrupting the state and there is now a 63-day wait in Boston to see a primary care physician. People are rebelling against that.”
Walter noted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi conceded on Thursday that she does not have enough votes to pass the Senate version of the healthcare bill, and asked Morris for his reaction to that.
“This is clearly a work in progress and it’s not clear yet how this is going to shake out,” he responded.
“My initial reaction was, what she was doing was laying the basis for telling her caucus that it’s the Senate bill or nothing . . .
“But I’m not so sure that’s the case. I think that it may be possible [for Republicans] to go after some of these Democrats that voted for the bill last time, and do ads in their districts and say the majority of his constituents oppose this bill and we want him to switch and vote against it. I think that may be effective.
“My opinion’s been evolving in the last day or two. I think maybe we could beat this thing.”
Walter noted that some pundits are touting Scott Brown as a possible presidential candidate in 2012, and asked Morris whether he believes Brown is a viable candidate.
“After Barack Obama, a state senator who spent a couple of weeks in the [U.S.] Senate and then started to run for president — if he can do it, anyone can do it,” Morris said.
“So I wouldn’t rule that out.”
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