The Republican’s big win on Tuesday in the House of Representatives is something most politicians only dream of, former House Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra said Wednesday on “America’s Forum” on
Newsmax TV.
"A lot of times we had a majority of somewhere around 10 to 15 seats, which made it tough on occasion to pass some very, very significant legislation," Hoekstra said.
"(House Majority Leader) John Boehner's going to come back as a Speaker of the House. He's going to have a cushion of somewhere between 25 and 30 seats to pass legislation through the House. That's going to give him a lot more flexibility and leverage to get things done."
Story continues below video.
Note: Watch Newsmax TV now on DIRECTV Ch. 349 and DISH Ch. 223
Get Newsmax TV on your cable system – Click Here Now
ABC News projected early Wednesday that the GOP won 239 seats in the House, compared with 180 for Democrats. The sweeping victory provides Republicans with an even bigger majority than the 34-seat advantage in the previous Congress.
When all votes are counted, according to ABC News’ projections, Republicans will net between 14 and 18 House seats.
Republicans were victorious despite huge disapproval ratings, something that can be attributed to Democrats poor messaging, Hoekstra said.
"You can't run against the House, you can't run against your House member," he said.
"People historically, they hate the House of Representatives, but they're very favorable and they very much like their congressperson. We saw last night that it did become a nationalized election. The measure here was President Obama."
The
Republican majority will last at least through 2016, he predicted, and probably beyond.
Hoekstra doesn’t think Boehner will face an internal challenge for the speakership, but even if he does, he’s safe.
"They've got a new leadership team in place headed by John Boehner," he said. "There may be challenges, but they're not going to be successful.
"What this team has now done is they put in place not only a Republican majority through 2016, but the margin is significant enough that, regardless of what happens in 2016, Republicans are going to maintain the majority after the 2016 presidential elections," he said.
"You and I both know that having 218 members in your caucus is a really comfortable and awesome place to be, you don't want to go back into the minority. So there may be a challenge to Speaker Boehner, but it will not be successful."
Story continues below video.
Hoekstra also weighed in on recent reports that some Kurds have aligned with the Islamic State (ISIS) in the battle for the
Syrian border city of Kobani.
"What you've got here is, you've got a faction of the Kurds that have broken off, they've aligned with ISIS,” said Hoekstra. “The Kurds have been a battered minority for years in Iraq, in Syria, in this parts and places, so I'm not surprised that it's not a monolithic force out there.
"I do work for the Kurds so yeah, obviously we're disturbed and we're disappointed that that's what we're seeing with some Kurds in Kobani, but the real story of where the Kurds is, the Kurds are the one force in Iraq that are being effective.
"They're taking losses, they're fighting hard and they're not getting the weapons and the equipment that they need to do, and some of the problems that you may see is some of the Kurds are saying, 'Well, we're not getting the support from the United States that we need,'" he continued.
"So there's some question about at least with a small fraction of them as to who they should be aligned with, but the bottom line is the Kurds, the vast majority of the Kurds, have been America's friends for a long time and will continue to be America's friends."
The Kurds are excellent fighters with strong intelligence, Hoekstra added, and are very disturbed at learning that some of their own are aiding ISIS.
"They will pay a price because the Kurds that I work with recognize how dangerous ISIL is to the religious minorities and other minorities, and to the Kurdish regions in Syria and in Iraq," Hoekstra said, referring to another acronym by which the Islamic State is known.