Subject: [big campaign] Thank you Tom!!
From: "Brad Woodhouse" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 10:02:59 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Thank you Tom!!  Maybe You Can Embrace this as Well...
http://www.americansunitedforchange.org/page/invite/bushgolf 

And Cole rejected the notion of a dramatic break with Bush.

"I don't see it particularly as an advantage to be in a debate with our
president," he said. "It's not for me to second-guess the president of
the United States."

After String of Losses, Republicans Face Crisis

By Jonathan Weisman and Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 15, 2008; A01

House Republicans turned on themselves yesterday after a third straight
loss of a GOP-held House seat in special elections this year left both
parties contemplating widespread Democratic gains in November.

In huddles, closed-door meetings and hastily arranged conference calls,
some Republicans demanded the head of their political chief, while
others decried their leadership as out of touch with the political
catastrophe they face.

GOP leaders sought yesterday to "re-brand" the party with a new slogan
and renewed pledges of fiscal rectitude and limited government. But the
slogan -- "The Change You Deserve" -- came under mocking fire, because
it parallels Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/o000167/> 's
"Change We Can Believe In" motto and it mirrors the advertising slogan
for the antidepressant Effexor
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Effexor?tid=informline>
.

"What we've got is a deficiency in our message and a loss of confidence
in the American people that we will do what we say we're going to do,"
conceded Rep. Tom Cole
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/c001053/>  (Okla.),
chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/National+Republican+Con
gressional+Committee?tid=informline> .

The losses of conservative House seats in Louisiana and Illinois this
spring were explained away by many Republicans as setbacks in which they
were hampered by bad candidates. But Tuesday's loss in northern
Mississippi was devastating. The district had given President Bush
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/George+W.+Bush?tid=info
rmline>  62 percent of its vote in 2004. To reverse its losing streak,
the NRCC pumped $1.3 million from its depleted coffers into the race.
Freedom's Watch
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Freedom's+Watch?tid=inf
ormline> , a conservative independent group, pitched in. Vice President
Cheney
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Dick+Cheney?tid=informl
ine>  appeared at a last-minute rally. Bush and Sen. John McCain
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/m000303/> , the
presumptive Republican presidential nominee, lent their voices to
automated phone calls imploring Republicans to vote for Southaven Mayor
Charles G. "Greg" Davis.

Davis lost the contest by eight percentage points, a wider margin than
in either of the two previous special-election defeats.

As soon as the results came in Tuesday evening, Democrats were already
gloating, some even talking publicly of a filibuster-proof 60-seat
majority in the Senate. Charlie Cook, a nonpartisan political analyst,
scoffed at 60, but he said he now could see gains of as many as seven
Senate seats and 15 to 25 in the House. Democrats now hold a 236 to 199
majority in the House, up from 203 seats they controlled two years ago,
and Republicans face a flood of retirements in the chamber. Retirement
announcements from Senate Republicans in Colorado, New Mexico and
Virginia have created prime pickup opportunities for Democrats, who will
not be defending any open seats in November.

Ted Stevens
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/s000888/> , the
longest-serving Republican senator in history, has been badly damaged by
scandals besetting his family and his party in Alaska, creating an
unexpected opportunity for Democrats. Sen. John E. Sununu
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/s001078/>  (N.H.)
is defending a seat in a state where Democratic fortunes are on the
rise, and other Republican senators -- including Susan Collins
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/c001035/>  (Maine),
Norm Coleman
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/c001057/>  (Minn.)
and Gordon Smith
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/s001142/>  (Ore.)
-- are seeking reelection in states leaning Democratic in a presidential
election year. In total, 23 Republican-held Senate seats will be on the
ballot this fall compared with 12 for Democrats.

Even Republican strategists were downcast about their prospects for the
fall.

"These races were not in New Jersey or New England, where Republican
erosion has taken place over the last decade. They were in the heart of
the Bible Belt, the social conservative core of our coalition," Rep. Tom
Davis <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/d000136/>
(Va.) fretted in a 20-page memorandum given to House Republican
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Republican+Party?t
id=informline>  leaders yesterday and provided to The Washington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/The+Washington+Post+Com
pany?tid=informline> .

"Members and pundits, waiting for Democrats to fumble the ball so that
soft Republicans and Independents will snap back to the GOP, fail to
understand the deep seeded antipathy toward the President, the war, gas
prices, the economy, foreclosures and, in some areas, the underlying
cultural differences that continue to brand our party."

Republicans from across the ideological spectrum of their party said
yesterday that they understand the need to change course. But they
disagreed on what change is necessary.

Rep. Ric Keller
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/k000361/>  (Fla.),
routinely targeted by Democrats in his Orlando district, said that
Republicans from swing districts need the latitude to seek more moderate
solutions, to be "independent folks who are trying to solve problems."

Rep. Mike Pence
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/p000587/>  (Ind.),
however, said the GOP needs to be more true to its conservative grass
roots.

"Until we convince our public we have renewed our commitment to limited
government and fiscal discipline, we will continue to lose," he said.

Rep. Walter B. Jones
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/j000255/>  (N.C.),
who just crushed a primary opponent challenging him on his antiwar
stance, said it is time to break with Bush and find a way out of Iraq.

"If this party does not look at options and figure out how to pursue
those options, we're in real trouble," he said.

Several Republicans decried the NRCC's strategy in the Mississippi and
Louisiana special elections of nationalizing the campaigns by linking
the Democratic candidates to Obama. All that did, they said, was
energize African Americans to vote, while taking the GOP's focus off the
local issues the Democrats were riding to victory. "Cheap, partisan
political points" are not going to work in this environment, Keller
said.

At a tense closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference, Cole
took full responsibility for the string of losses. But in a hastily
arranged conference call with reporters, he dismissed any call for his
resignation or a staff shakeup, which some Republicans have suggested
may be necessary.

"You have to get beyond campaign tactics and take a long, hard look if
there's something wrong with your product," he said. "It would be a
great mistake to think that this could be fixed by tweaking a few things
or a staff thing."

And Cole rejected the notion of a dramatic break with Bush.

"I don't see it particularly as an advantage to be in a debate with our
president," he said. "It's not for me to second-guess the president of
the United States."

But the numbers point to some dramatic action. In recent days, two polls
put Sen. Elizabeth Dole
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/d000601/> 's
Democratic challenger within striking distance of her in North Carolina.
Another poll showed Democrats gaining on Smith, a moderate who appeared
to be escaping the heat of the election year. Even Sen. John Cornyn
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/c001056/> , one of
Bush's closest allies and a fellow Texan, may be feeling some heat from
state Rep. Rick Noriega, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.

"We haven't hit bottom yet. I've never seen members so frustrated or
demoralized," former House majority leader Tom DeLay
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Tom+DeLay?tid=informlin
e>  (Tex.) said in an interview.

DeLay and former House speaker Newt Gingrich
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Newt+Gingrich?tid=infor
mline>  (Ga.) have been issuing calls to arms to their former troops.
But even they disagree on the steps needed to reverse their fortunes,
with Gingrich demanding an emergency meeting of all Republicans to craft
a new agenda. Gingrich is offering unusual proposals such as reforming
the Census Bureau
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Census+Bureau?tid=
informline>  and the Federal Aviation Administration
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Federal+Aviation+Admini
stration?tid=informline> .

But DeLay called those ideas "a yawn" and instead demanded a dramatic
agenda that would energize the conservative base -- or else face major
losses in the fall leading to wholesale changes in leadership next year.

"That sort of thing will happen over time if there are more losses. You
can never gauge when members have had enough," he said.

"There is no simple, easy way out of this," said Glen Bolger, a GOP
pollster who works closely with congressional Republicans. "This is
extraordinarily problematic."

 

Brad Woodhouse, President

Americans United for Change

202-470-5858 

202-251-5669 (cell)

[email-masked]

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