If things are looking up for Joe Biden, they're looking worse for Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The speaker of the House went to bed last night with the real nightmare happening right in front of her. Republicans, who were supposed to be embarrassed by a supposed Tuesday night slaughter, have emerged from 2020 in one of the strongest positions they've been in years. And pro-life women -- a living repudiation of everything this speaker stands for -- are leading the way.
"We're going to have more women Republicans in Congress in the history of the Congress," Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters enthusiastically. "Every pundit said we would lose somewhere between 15 to 20 seats," he shook his head. "The opposite happened... We've won seven seats [according to] the AP, and we're ahead in 11 more." It's the most diverse class of Republicans, he insisted, than any he's ever seen. "I give President Trump a great deal amount of credit, that he expanded this party. He expanded Hispanics, African Americans, who are welcomed into this party."
Politico, interestingly enough, thinks McCarthy's numbers might be modest. They have Republicans leading the count in 25 seats, "which puts them at 215 seats" -- just three shy of the majority. "This is a really nice position to be in, if the GOP wants to regain control of the House in 2022."
It's also a really nice position to be in if Republicans want to push back on an aggressive liberal agenda. Before the election, radical Democrats vowed to open the floodgates to taxpayer-funded abortion on every spending bill -- doing away with the bipartisan Hyde amendment, which is what's stopped that from happening in appropriations for the last 44 years. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who chairs a key House committee, "told a small group of lawmakers last month that they would not add the prohibition to any government funding bill beginning next year." Fortunately, their ambition will be seriously weakened by a) the Republican control of the Senate; and b) the swelling numbers of newly elected congressional pro-lifers. In this election alone, conservatives managed to double the number of pro-life women in the House.
Meanwhile, 73 of 74 of FRC Action's True Blue members, men and women who earn a 100 percent on our annual scorecard, have also been reelected -- and the 74th, Rep. Ken Calvert in California, is leading in a race that hasn't been called. Even in Texas, where liberals are working overtime to turn the state blue, not a single Republican lost. And Pelosi's week might only get worse.
In what Democrats are calling a "dumpster fire" of an election, there's a lot of disgust and anger about the way Pelosi has handled things. "Stung by their party's disappointing showing at the polls Tuesday, two moderate House Democrats say they and other centrists are privately discussing a plan that was unthinkable just 24 hours earlier: throwing their support behind a challenger to Speaker Nancy Pelosi... Several centrist Democrats blamed their more progressive colleagues, saying moderates in Trump-leaning districts couldn't escape their 'socialist' shadow." Congressman Henry Cuellar (D), one of the only Blue Dog Democrats left in the House, said it's not like Pelosi hadn't been warned. "This is what I've been saying over and over and over. Urban areas are important, but you still gotta look at the rural areas. If we don't change the strategy, it's going to be the same in 2022."
Instead of pushing hugely controversial agendas -- like taxpayer-funded abortion and transgender bathrooms -- maybe it's time for Democrats to regroup and look at the message the American people are sending. Although, judging by past elections, it's probably another one the Left will simply refuse to hear.
