Dem
49
Ties
1
GOP
50
The results are in! According to the readers, when the dust settles from this election, the Republicans will have 50 seats in the Senate (more precisely, 49.52) and 223 seats in the House (more precisely, 223.47). That, of course, would mean continued Democratic control of the Senate (with Kamala Harris' tiebreaking vote) and razor-thin Republican control of the House.
Here are some more numbers for your amusement (remember, all numbers refer to seats held by the Republican Party):
| Senate Seats | House Seats | |
| High Reader Guess | 56 | 288 |
| Low Reader Guess | 40 | 192 |
| Median Reader Guess | 49 | 223 |
| Most Common Reader Guess (Mode) | 49 | 225 |
| FiveThirtyEight's Guess | 51 | 227 |
| (V)'s Guess | 50 | 230 |
| (Z)'s Guess | 49 | 223 |
Looks like it's gonna be close. Who knew?
If House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) does capture the Speaker's gavel, he's got big plans, of course. But he's already warning that those plans probably don't include a Joe Biden impeachment. Here's what he said to CNN's Melanie Zanona yesterday:
One thing I've known about the land of America, it's the rule of law. And we will hold the rule of law and we won't play politics with this. We'll never use impeachment for political purposes. That doesn't mean if something rises to the occasion it would not be used. At any other time, it wouldn't matter if it's Democrats or Republicans. But the idea of what Democrats have done, what Adam Schiff has done, is treacherous... We're better than that. We need to get our nation back on track. That's what the Commitment to America does.
Yes, Republicans would never deign to use an impeachment for crass political purposes. Someone should make sure to explain that to Bill Clinton.
Of course, McCarthy is not much of a leader; he basically goes where Donald Trump tells him to go and does what Fox tells him to do. And if he finds himself herding a bunch of cats, some of whom are far-right MAGA types, he might have no choice but to give in and pursue an impeachment, even knowing it would be a farce. Alternatively, he might follow the same path as the last two Republican Speakers, and chuck the whole thing in frustration. (Z)