incumbent

Historically, it is not very frequent that we see an incumbent United States Senator get elected President of the United States.  It is even rarer that we see a U.S. Senator elected to both the Presidency and the Vice Presidency.

Bucking this historic tradition, our President-elect and Vice President-elect are incumbent United States Senators.  And now, Illinois Representative Rahm Emanuel has been offered the Chief of Staff position in the Obama administration.

This development that we are witnessing is largely unprecedented: a Presidential administration filled with incumbents from Congress.

So why is this a big deal? Well, we all know from elementary school history that the founding fathers built this great nation with three separate branches built into our Constitution: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial.  This level of participation by legislators in the executive branch will serve to eliminate the barriers between the executive office and the Congress – already low due to the Democrats’ increased control of both Houses – threatening the entire premise of separation of powers that has helped make this country so great.

Thus, this begs the question, "How many more Congressional officials will we see in the Obama administration?"  Regardless of the answer, in seeing an Obama administration composed of Democratic officials from the previous Congress, we are witnessing President-elect Obama's mantra of change get thrown out the window.

This entry has been cross-posted at NextGenGOP.com.

Disclaimer: I am working as an independent contractor with Lou Barletta's campaign, whose campaign I am about to discuss, to provide a website and our Mission Control software suite.  I am in no way directly affiliated with Lou's campaign.  This piece does not reflect the opinions of the campaign or anyone affiliated with the campaign.

2008 presents a year that is increasingly worrisome for Republicans, and for all of the right reasons -- generic Congressional polling shows Democrats with a clear advantage, the incumbent Republican President's approval ratings continue to reach new lows, the economy is being billed by many as in a recession, gas prices have reached record highs, and Republicans in Congress have become associated with pork spending and corruption.  As a result of these and other woes, Republicans recently lost two normally safe Republican seats in the House.  Many out there believe that Republicans will lose a significant number of additional seats in the House and Senate come November.

Following the above logic, a great deal of the political news that we hear these days focuses on traditionally "safe" Republican seats that are competitive or even leaning Democrat this cycle. However, I have been working closely with a House race in Pennsylvania that, although still looking at an incredibly challenging campaign, seems poised to upset a Democratic incumbent this November. The race is Lou Barletta's race in Pennsylvania's 11th district.

When Republicans began their campaign for the presidency in early 2007, I remember thinking that George W. Bush had thrown the party under the bus by choosing a running mate he knew would not run to succeed him in 2008, robbing us of a strong candidate and giving us the first election since 1928 where neither party had an incumbent president nor vice president seeking his or her party's nomination.

In retrospect, however, I realize that George W. Bush did the Republican party a favor by not saddling us with a candidate inextricably linked to a president with a 28% approval rating.  Even with Bush's low approval, there would have been enormous pressure to nominate an incumbent VP, and the party base, still largely loyal to GWB and the most reliable voters in the primaries, would likely have nominated a candidate much more vulnerable to the charge of being "Bush's Third Term."

Given all the talk about how Bush has weakened Republicans going into the 2008 election, I thought it worth pointing out that if we manage to win the presidency for another four years, it will be thanks in part to a decision made by none other than Bush himself.  The irony never ends.