A Wiser Republican Party?

Having returned from my Easter hiatus, I comment once again on the body politic in America, such as it is.

It seems that the Republican party, much to the chagrin of its many detractors, might regain enough of its collective sanity to, if not get President Barack Obama voted out of office, hold on to the House and take the Senate. The battle for the Senate is the easy part; they only need to gain four seats from the Democrats, and they are defending less than half as many seats as the Democrats - and those ten Republican seats are all considered ultra-safe, even Scott Brown's in Massachusetts. The House is less clear. Democrats only need 25 House seats to retake control, but added seats in Republican states at the expense of seats in Democratic and swing states - many of which happen to currently be under Republican governors and have Republican majorities in one or both houses of their legislature - could give the GOP an advantage in the redistricting based on the 2010 census, which is handled by elected officials in the states. But Paul Ryan's Medicare "reform" proposals could complicate things for the Republicans. The Democrats' chances of re-taking the House should become clearer once the redistricting is finalized.

Two Western Republicans, realizing the stakes, have reacted for the good of their party. In Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer wisely vetoed a bill that would have required presidential candidates to present their birth certificates to be allowed on state ballots. Calling it "a bridge too far," and obviously wanting to dissociate herself from the GOP lunatic fringe, Brewer would have none of this. She clearly wants the party to focus less on the "birther" theories circulating about Obama in Republican circles and concentrate on the issues.

She also vetoed, by the way, a bill that would have allowed students at colleges and universities to carry concealed firearms, calling it "poorly written." In the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Tucson in January, it was poorly proposed as well. Brewer has her faults. Many of them. But fanaticism is not of them.

Meanwhile, Nevada senator John Ensign announced his resignation over the weekend regarding corruption charges referred to earlier on this blog. Nevada's Republican governor, Brian Sandoval, will likely appoint U.S. Representative Dean Heller to the seat. Heller, who had already planned to run for Ensign's seat when Ensign announced he would not seek re-election next year, now has the power of the incumbency and should be able to secure an already safe GOP seat. But maybe not. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com crunched the numbers, and he declared that appointed senators of either party historically have only a 50 percent chance of winning a term in their own right.

It looks to be an exciting election cycle next year . . ..