Recently in this space, I suggested that a 54-vote GOP pickup in the House and as much as a 12-vote swing in the Senate could be coming in November. \u00a0Reports last week suggest that Republican House gains may prove even larger.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday Politico<\/em> ran a front-page story (see http:\/\/tiny.cc\/teo7k<\/a> ) headlined, \u201cHouse chairmen in [reelection] jeopardy.\u201d \u00a0The list included once invincible Barney Frank and John Dingell.<\/p>\n Frank is the author of the real \u201cfailed policies that got us into this mess,\u201d to use the president\u2019s phrase.<\/p>\n These were not the policies Mr. Obama keeps invoking as failed: cuts in tax rates, reduced regulations, stable money supply, control of spending, freer and more globally open markets. \u00a0This Reaganesque package produced the longest peacetime expansion in American history \u2013 perhaps world history. \u00a0It enabled millions of Americans to move themselves into higher income levels. \u00a0Copied globally, it led to a twenty-five percent drop in extreme planetary poverty between 1981 and 2005, according to the World Bank\u2019s website (see http:\/\/tiny.cc\/z3esy<\/a> ).<\/p>\n No, top on the list of true failures would have to be the housing policies of Congressman Frank and his policy partner, Senator Christopher Dodd. \u00a0Starting as early as 2001, congressional Democrats led by these two economic geniuses successfully blocked repeated Bush Administration attempts to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. \u00a0The Bush people warned of a financial crisis if the housing giants failed. Mr. Frank replied he was willing to \u201croll the dice\u201d, that is, to bet that Fannie and Freddie were OK as they stood. \u00a0Result: the biggest gambling debt ever recorded.<\/p>\n Until recently it looked as though, despite such catastrophically failed policies, Mr. Frank would win another House term. \u00a0\u00a0Now it appears constituents might hold him to account.<\/p>\n John Dingell is a different story. \u00a0History\u2019s longest serving House member, he essentially inherited his seat from his father. The elder Dingell was elected with Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.<\/p>\n The careers of father and son mark the full arch of American liberalism in power. \u00a0The father entered Congress a dedicated and idealistic New Dealer. \u00a0Among his achievements, he sponsored the bill that established the Social Security System.<\/p>\n In contrast, the son has made his name as a political thug, known for using Congress\u2019 investigatory powers to all but bankrupt opponents. \u00a0In the Reagan years, his malicious personal probes of officials who crossed him required his targets to run up massive legal fees defending themselves. \u00a0Think of Burt Lancaster\u2019s villainous J.J. Hunsecker in the 1957 classic Sweet Small of Success,<\/em> and you have a good portrait of Mr. Dingell and of what modern liberalism has come to.<\/p>\n If these two Democratic icons are in danger, what Democrat is not?<\/p>\n You can sense the White House\u2019s desperation. \u00a0It isn\u2019t just that advisor after advisor is jumping ship \u2013 or being pushed. \u00a0Last week Vice President Joe Biden all but threatened the nation. \u00a0Addressing a rally, he warned, \u201cIf we lose, we\u2019re going to play hell\u201d. \u00a0He added that playing hell would be to protect the middle class from the Republicans (see http:\/\/tiny.cc\/zei8s<\/a> ). \u00a0Apparently it is not the middle class that is poised to end the Democrats\u2019 congressional dominance.<\/p>\n The Vice President preceded his promise of political chaos with a list of those aspects of middle class life that Democrats would defend.<\/p>\n Housing and neighborhoods led the rundown. \u00a0Think of it. \u00a0The Dodd-Frank Fannie-Freddie policies brought apocalyptic collapse to the housing market, to neighborhood after neighborhood, and to millions of American homeowners. Any more Democratic defenses like that, and we will have no more housing or neighborhoods to defend.<\/p>\n