If the past offers any guide to the future, the Republican Party may not recover from the electoral consequences of its choice for decades.

"But the question is whether Governor Pataki and others become frightened of the electoral consequences of going ahead."

"If something happens in which rates go up," he added, "one side could blame the other, and it could have electoral consequences."

The most common electoral consequences of political alienation are abstention and protest voting.

The electoral consequences of that are a subject of considerable debate.

He acknowledged somewhat ruefully on Tuesday afternoon that "we'd suffer no electoral consequences for doing nothing" on Social Security.

That fact is, however, of no electoral consequence".

There are no electoral consequences.

Democratic activists support campaign finance reform without much thought about its electoral consequences.

Lee hoped to minimize the electoral consequences of this by encouraging the older members to retire, but with limited success.