Democrats Outrun by a 2-Year G.O.P. Comeback Plan

NY Times ^ | November 3, 2010 | JIM RUTENBERG and JEFF ZELENY

[neverdem]

The PowerPoint slides presented to House Republicans in January 2009 seemed incongruously optimistic at a time when the very word “hope” belonged to the newly ascendant Democrats and their incoming president, Barack Obama.

“If the goal of the majority is to govern, what is the purpose of the minority?” one slide...

--snip--

He said his team was thrilled when Mr. Sestak raised a public objection, arguing that, in fact, he voted with Ms. Pelosi 97 percent of the time. In a climate where Ms. Pelosi was toxic, “I was like, ‘Jackpot,’ ” Mr. Miller said. (Mr. Sestak lost in a close race.)

Democrats had a different reaction to the rush of advertisements, at times bordering on panic.

--snip--

Mr. Wolfe had been at a Capitol Hill restaurant the evening before and overheard a Republican advertising strategist discussing his new assignment, to attack Mr. Frank with an expected budget of $1 million and a strategy to “piss him off, because you know how Barney gets.” Mr. Wolfe said afterward, “That anybody thought Barney could be vulnerable in his district seemed surprising.” Mr. Frank survived.

Others were not so lucky.

Representative Alan Grayson, Democrat of Florida, stood outside his home in Orlando two weeks before the election and marveled at the scope of the attacks and the candidates they were backing. “They think they can elect a ham sandwich,” he said.

He expressed relief that the barrage against him had come to an end, noting that his attackers appeared to have concluded that their work with him was done and moved on to another member.

They were correct. He was one of the 60 Democrats who lost their seats on Tuesday.

[neverdem]

He said his team was thrilled when Mr. Sestak raised a public objection, arguing that, in fact, he voted with Ms. Pelosi 97 percent of the time.

This was an admiral? Thank God that he wasn't at Midway or the Coral Sea!

[neverdem]

Did Sestak say, in effect, that he voted with Pelosi 97% of the time?

[FormerACLUmember]

NY Slimes spin machine on max.

[Paradox]

Representative Alan Grayson, Democrat of Florida, stood outside his home in Orlando two weeks before the election and marveled at the scope of the attacks and the candidates they were backing. “They think they can elect a ham sandwich,”...

... said the bologna sandwich.

[Verginius Rufus]

Leave it to the New York Times to quote Alan Grayson as if he were a sane human being. He's complaining about negative ads?

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Get a load of this article....the GOP beltway RINOs are claiming full credit for overturning the Rats, barely a mention of the Tea Party movement and NO mention of Palin.

[Bridesheadfan]

He expressed relief that the barrage against him had come to an end, noting that his attackers appeared to have concluded that their work with him was done and moved on to another member.

Isn't he the guy that ran that ad that attacked his opponent for being a Christian(and taking what he said out of context to boot)? And yet from the article you would get the idea that Grayson was a reasonable man who was being unjustly maligned. Good grief, and these mainstream media outlets wonder why they are going the way of the dinosaur!

[neverdem]

NY Slimes spin machine on max.

Maybe we might get some feedback from PA? I'm in NY. Didn't Sestak attain flag rank under Clinton?

[neverdem]

Isn't he the guy that ran that ad that attacked his opponent for being a Christian(and taking what he said out of context to boot)? And yet from the article you would get the idea that Grayson was a reasonable man who was being unjustly maligned. Good grief, and these mainstream media outlets wonder why they are going the way of the dinosaur!

I'm not from Florida. All I know was that he had a bad reputation as far as conservatives were concerned. That's why I included it in what I excerpted. IIRC, he was the guy who said that if you get sick, then the GOP wants you to die.

[Soul Seeker]

Most of all, Republican leaders had the foresight to imagine the possibility of winning again. Even now, they believe they could have taken back the Senate if they had just managed to block at least two Tea Party candidates who proved unelectable.

Turns out, they would have needed more then two so say good bye to the whining excuses since your own establishment Republicans didn't pull out some races either. I am relly sick to death of their whining because thy didn't get the "perks" of chairfmanships. If not for us say goodbye to Marco, Toomey, and Johnson. They had written off Wisconsin completely untila TEA PARTY member decided to run and single handedly almost changed that election. They had written off WV so they can't lookto us for that either. And they may well have been responsible for a few lost votes with their hick ad. Colorado and Neveda might have been won with better ground games but they were too busy drolling over California.

And they were keenly aware of the anti-establishment mood, rarely engaging with Tea Party challengers, as Senate leaders did, fearful that any efforts to influence primary races could backfire. /i>

This is why the House now has a majority and the Senate does not. If they weren't so patrician and arrogant they'd take a cue from the House and from Hayley Barbour and how NOT to antagonize the very people you need the cooperation of who run the ground games.

[goldstategop]

You can blame part of it on stupid SC Republican primary voters who kept Lindsay Graham around. And the ones in AZ who kept John McCain around.

RINOs are never going to get us to where we need to be.

[chilltherats]

Both SC and AZ are quite conservative by comparison to most states, yet they’ve elected McShame a million times and Graham at least twice that I remember.

I just do NOT get it!

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Question: I wonder how many meetings and PowerPoint presentations they have held behind closed doors with respect to the Palin and Tea Party problem?

[Liz]

ITS HOWDY DOODY TIME

VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIslhp9vqqw

[Liz]

Post-Midterm Massacre Ohaha is a joke.

He's on robocall---repeating over and over that he was so intent on (gag) "saving" the economy, he forgot to communicate to the people..........that people thought his ignoring and rolling over people was really his agenda (gag).

Fact is he made countless appearances around the country, and on TV---and NEVER once did he allude to this.

It's only after the Dem slaughter that he's vainly trying to coverup his Marxist demagoguery.

"Tell ya what Ohaha----we aint' buyin' it."

[sickoflibs]

RE :” How they did it is the story of one of the most remarkable Congressional campaigns in more than a half-century, characterized by careful plotting by Republicans, miscalculations by Democrats and a new political dynamic with forces out of both parties’ control. The unpredictable Tea Party movement, the torrent of corporate money from outside interests and an electorate with deep discontent helped shift the balance of power in Washington. “

“At that Republican retreat in January 2009, gathering inside a historic inn in Annapolis, Md., the group — led by Representatives John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, and Eric Cantor of Virginia, the whip — did not tolerate the hand-wringing that consumed so many Republicans that dark winter. “

“Improbably, Mr. Boehner’s team turned the notion that Republicans could not afford to be the “Party of No” — or, in his words, the party of “Hell no” — on its ear, successfully portraying it as a virtue in the face of Mr. Obama’s legislative priorities. But even that team never predicted the sort of victory they experienced Tuesday night”

LOL, I easily predicted this Democrat disaster exactly 2 years ago and even before that election. Republicans never had it so easy the past two years. It was the setting for the perfect storm. But McCain had to lose and Obama win, that was the key.

Imagine what I was thinking early 2009 watching MSNBC Matthews showing electoral maps gitty over the Democrat wins the past two elections. I was thinking was thinking :”You moron, this is the perfect formula for a democrat train wreck” and it was. Dems really believed they had found the magic formula to voters(much like Republicans did in early 2005.)

They thought Pelosi was brilliant for winning on a GWB 24/7 strategy too. Winning by targeting(negative) is one thing, keeping it is another.

[Verginius Rufus]

Yes, Grayson took a clip where Daniel Webster was telling men that when they quoted the Bible to their wives they should not take the verse that says wives should submit to their husbands, and edited it to make it sound like he was saying "Submit to me"--the exact opposite of what he was actually saying.