I've got an idea. Since Mark Pryor can't seem to be pinned down for an honest debate with Tom Cotton, why not have Cotton ask Pryor to join him in sponsoring a resolution (Cotton in the House and Pryor in the Senate) demanding that President Obama refrain from issuing any kind of amnesty to illegal aliens -- period. I say this because the president announced on Sunday that he would hold off on using his infamous pen to scribble an executive order on immigration until after the election. In June he promised that he would issue an order by the end of summer.
Pryor was quoted in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as saying "The president is sending mixed messages," and he blamed partisanship for the delay, then he added "That doesn't give the president carte blanche authority to sidestep Congress when he doesn't get his way." I'm sure that Cotton could easily gain support for such a resolution in the House, but Pryor would be accused of blasphemy in the Senate and he would never dare to stand-up to the president or to cross Harry Reid. Talk in the paper is cheap, but action in the Senate takes courage.
Polling
I was just about to lament the fact that Cotton is running neck and neck with Pryor; then I heard the good news. According to a new NBC News/Marist Poll released on Sunday, Cotton is leading Pryor by 5 points, 45-40 percent. Between May and September registered voters who said they would vote for Pryor dropped from 51 percent to 41 percent, and just as important, among independent voters only 23 percent would vote for Pryor today while 45 percent would vote for Cotton. President Obama is wildly unpopular in Arkansas. His approval rating in this state is a lowly 31 percent, so no doubt he is a drag on Pryor's campaign. Arkansans also favor Republicans controlling both the House and the Senate by an 11 point margin as a check on the president. Now, keep in mind the election is not today, it's two months down the road, so it's not over, but I look for a lot of Democrat campaign money to exit the state soon if this trend continues.
Whining
I really hate to say this about the Tea Party because it has been a big part of the consciousness of the Republican Party since it swept into prominence in 2010, and I consider myself a supporter. But I have to say it. Many Tea Partiers are sore losers, whiners and purists. If they back a loser, and they have backed quite a few in the primary election cycle, they moan and threaten to back a Democrat rather than vote for the winner of the GOP primary. Case in point is what's happening in Mississippi with Thad Cochran. Bitterness and law suits abound raising the possibility that incumbent Cochran could lose to a Democrat which has not happened in that state in generations. And, in Louisiana Mary Landrieu is very beatable. She chairs the Senate Energy Committee and says she backs the Keystone pipeline, but she doesn't have enough influence to get Harry Reid to bring the Keystone vote to the floor, yet a Tea Party guy continues to gum up the works and Landrieu still might win. Landrieu's GOP opponent Bill Cassidy has a slight lead, but he would be way ahead if the Tea Party guy would drop out.
Of course the RHINO's are also guilty of forgetting that the objective is to win control of the Senate. A few days ago in Kansas where Pat Roberts is in a tight race, 70 supposed Republicans said they would vote Democrat rather than back Roberts because he's swung so far to the right. This demonstrates my headline that the GOP seldom misses a chance to miss a chance.
We sure know how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Both the RHINO's and Tea Partiers have to get with it and learn how to win elections, not whine.
I opine, you decide.
-- Willie Williams is a Siloam Springs resident. He can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 09/10/2014