welcome back! so um, the rest of 1970 was mostly focused on like, the midterms, but there were some other things that happened. the biggest of these was the paris enforcement resolution, a bill proposed by senator dane and the most fervent of hawks that would send large amounts of military aid to south vietnam and authorize the president to carry out strikes in north vietnam. now, normally this bill would be dead from the moment it was penned due to the expected opposition from the president and his caucus in congress, yet the president was strangely silent on the resolution, with rumors even floating he intended to support it. these rumors would somewhat offend some prominent allies of the president, with it seeming he wanted to go back on the whole leaving vietnam deal. in any case, the bill would never reach his desk, as many moderates didnt rlly wanna go back into vietnam after having just left, and the bill would fail in the house. and ofc, it's possible sorensen wasn't really going to sign it but was just more focused on the midterms. speaking of!
the two juggernauts of the senate
needless to say, the moods in the two camps couldn't be more different going into the elections. dane and the gop were on cloud 9, whereas the democrats were destitute. all polling showed the gop winning big, with their best polls in early october having them win outright majorities in both houses, with especially the senate having a lot of democratic incumbents in tricky positions. as a result a lot of shenanigans happened, the biggest of which being in pennsylvania, where governor cartnell would run for the senate, despite the fact that the sitting incumbent, gerald landon, was a republican running for re-election. now normally, this would be seen as a bad idea, but the governor's celebrity (and incredible luck) would allow him to primary the sitting senator and go on to win the general. in new york, james buckley would run as a conservative against the democrats and the liberal gop nominee, and would manage to actually beat the two major parties there. as would sitting senator harry byrd of virginia who ended up running as an independent when the democrats failed to nominate him for the seat. all in all, the gop would get their big win. while it wasnt the two house majorities they hoped for, it was certainly a victory for the opposition, making the next years tricky business for the president and his allies' agenda.
House of Representatives -
Senate -
