Durbin makes one Tuesday prediction: Harry Reid is safe

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) made only one prediction for Tuesday’s elections: Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will hang onto his seat.

On CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Durbin said he wouldn’t speculate about new party leadership, specifically whether he’d vote for New York Sen. Chuck Schumer (D) to take over helm of the party, even if Reid keeps his seat.

Durbin said he promised Reid he wouldn’t discuss possible changes in party leadership until after the elections. Durbin’s name also is circulating as a possible choice to take Reid’s place regardless of the outcome on Tuesday.

Most polls now are showing that Democrats are likely to retain the majority in the Senate. On Saturday, the latest Cook Political report said Republicans would probably gain between five and seven seats instead of the initial estimate of six to eight as Democratic chances improved in several races, including California.

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In a new CNN poll released today, 52 percent of likely voters said they would choose a Republican while 42 percent said they’d vote for a Democrat.

Historically, the incumbent president’s party loses seats in the House and the Senate, so the shift isn’t any surprise, Durbin said.

“We will lose some seats in the House and the Senate, that’s what history tells us,” he said.

Despite some gloomy predictions for Democrats, Durbin stuck by his party’s accomplishments in passing a healthcare overhaul, a bill to reform of Wall Street and an economic stimulus, which kept the country from sinking deeper into a depression.

“Those are three fundamentally sounds things that history will prove were essential,” Durbin said.

“I think we’re moving America in the right direction.”

All three issues have dominated the elections with Republicans harping on voter dissatisfaction with the programs that they say created quickly expanding deficits and shifted control from the free market to the government.

Durbin criticized the Republicans’ lack of agenda, saying their message to voters is “we’re not Democrats.”

Republicans have made it clear that they want to privatize Social Security and Medicare and don’t want to change the part of the tax code that “rewards corporations for moving jobs overseas,” Durbin said.

He also criticized the GOP for pushing for an extension of all the President George W. Bush-era tax cuts that he says “led to greatest deficits in our history and massive unemployment.”

Congress could take up the issue of the tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the year, during the scheduled lame-duck session.