Democratic Senate and Republican House?

I think America had best get used to the notion of "Speaker Boehner." Despite Justin Coussole's spirited campaign for the noted tanned golf semi-pro's House seat, it's not only likely that the Republicans will take the House of Representatives in November but that John Boehner will be there to assume the Speaker's gavel. The White House is trying to make him the face of the Republican party to stir up the Democratic base, but the idea of "Speaker Boehner" won't set off alarm bells until Boehner actually is Speaker because as of now, too few people have heard of him. Bear in mind that few people had actually heard of Newt Gingrich before he became Speaker of the House in 1995.

A victory by Justin Coussole isn't entirely out of the question, though, as this article by Howie Klein of the Huffington Post suggests.

Meanwhile, the chances of the Democrats maintaining a majority in the Senate have improved as Republicans have continuously nominated a series of wackos and misfits to oppose sitting Democrats or to run for seats left open by retiring Democrats. I believe that the Democrats will have a bare majority of 51 or 52 Senate seats come January, mainly because the voters will realize that GOP crackpots like Sharron Angle in Nevada and Rand Paul in Kentucky aren't ready for prime time.

I did a little research, and it appears that, except when a change of party affiliation in June 2001 gave the Senate to the Democrats during the 107th Congress while the Republicans held a majority in the House, there hasn't been a Democratic Senate and a Republican House since the 47th Congress met between 1881 and 1883, during the Republican presidential administrations of James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. So, if a Democratic Senate and a Republican House is the result of the 112th Congress to convene in January, we'll be seeing such a setup for only the second time in 130 years, and for the first time in that period in a Democratic presidential administration. The dynamics might prove fascinating.

One other historical fact demands notice. In 1854, when the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act led to violence in the Great Plains territories over slavery and the country began to fall apart, President Franklin Pierce, a Democrat, saw his party hold the Senate (not elected by the people until 1914) but lose the House. The new Republican party won the most seats but not a majority, as new parties were springing up to fill the void left by the collapse of the Whigs. So a party coalition opposing the Democrats controlled the House in the subsequent 34th Congress.

Are we headed to similar discord? I hope not.