Down the Tubes, Part VI

It's common wisdom that the big losers in the 1994 GOP blowout were not "liberals," but rather centrist to conservative Democrats, primarily from the South, resulting in a much more bitterly divided Congress. So will the same dynamic operate in 2006? Will moderate Republicans lose to extremely liberal Democrats? I don't think so; true, in some cases, like Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island, moderate Republicans are endangered, but so are hard right-wingers like Mike DeWine and Rick Santorum. The Bull Moose sees this as a counter-surge by moderate Democrats. Donklephant points out that the published Democratic agenda ain't all that radical, really, unless you are a plutocrat. And even the Cato Institute (!) is discussing the virtues of divided government. Of course, this is likely to mean that Nancy Pelosi will have her work cut out for her as Speaker, as the much more liberal netroots push loudly for an immediate pull-out from an Iraq, followed as soon as possible by the impeachment of everyone from Bush down to the White House cleaning crew. Be careful what you wish for...

UPDATE: More on the new breed of centrist Democratic congressional candidates from the LA Times and their centrist agenda from USA Today.