They couldn't defeat Morella on the merits in Montco, but throw in some voters from other counties and she'd be toast. Morella was like Charlie Stenholm in West Texas---his district was already like 65% Republican, and the way to beat him, as DeLay new, was not to throw more Republicans at him, but *different* Republicans. TX Redistricters split Stenholm's CD in two and he really had no chance against Neugebauer.
Maybe I'm biased because I live in New England, but I think she wouldn't have made it through this year. 2002 and 2004, absolutely. But no one saw Jim Leach losing.