Posted on 05/14/2008 6:43:50 PM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Special election races for Congress have arguable value as bellwethers for upcoming general elections. Mostly these races get decided on local issues rather than national themes, as in Louisiana, where the Republicans ran a lousy candidate, considered the only person who could have lost the seat. They do demonstrate the strength of national party efforts, though, and when one party loses three special elections in districts previously thought safe, that sends a message — and rightly has Republicans worried about their chances in November:
A Democrat won the race for a GOP-held congressional seat in northern Mississippi yesterday, leaving the once-dominant House Republicans reeling from their third special-election defeat of the spring.
Travis Childers, a conservative Democrat who serves as Prentiss County chancery clerk, defeated Southaven Mayor Greg Davis by 54 percent to 46 percent in the race to represent Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District, which both parties considered a potential bellwether for the fall elections.
Democrats said the results prove that they are poised for another round of big gains in the November general elections, and they attacked the Republican strategy of tying Democrats to Sen. Barack Obama, the front-runner for the party’s presidential nomination, saying it had failed for a second time in 10 days in the Deep South. Democrat Don Cazayoux won the special election for a GOP-held House seat in Louisiana on May 3. …
The Childers victory was the latest setback suffered by Republicans, who began the string of defeats in special elections when Democrat Bill Foster claimed the seat of former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) in March.
President Bush won Mississippi’s 1st District by 25 percentage points four years ago, and Roger Wicker (R) won reelection with 66 percent of the vote in 2006. Wicker was appointed earlier this year to the Senate seat vacated by Trent Lott, who quit just one year into his six-year term to become a corporate lobbyist.
Why the panic? Even heavily Republican districts have given the GOP a slap in the face. Not even attempts to tie Democratic candidates to Barack Obama — unconvincing attempts at that — brought Republicans to the polls for the special elections. Democrats out-motivated, out-organized, and out-performed Republicans. And with a huge gap in fundraising between the DCCC and the NRCC, that appears to presage the general election in many more districts.
The lack of motivation comes from a disgust with a Republican Party that still hasn’t learned why it lost the majority in 2006. They lost those mid-term elections not because voters stopped supporting conservative principles, but because the House GOP stopped supporting conservative principles. Look at who won these special elections; they’re all Blue Dog Democrats, running in support of conservative themes such as gun rights. Now look at the Republicans who last held those seats, such as Hastert and Wicker — Republicans who spent other people’s money on waste and personal ambition.
Did the House GOP caucus take a hard line on pork-barrel spending or adopt policies to cut federal spending? No. Republican voters and conservative pundits begged the House and Senate caucuses to make dramatic breaks with the previous six years and adopt real conservative policies of fiscal responsibility and federalism. What did they do? They offered to stop earmarking only if Democrats followed suit, a deal everyone knew would never take place. Instead of appointing one single anti-pork activist to the House Appropriations Committee in Jeff Flake, they appointed Joe Bonner, a good Congressman but a well-known earmarker, and mostly because Flake’s anti-pork crusade irritates his colleagues.
John Boehner, the House Minority Leader, issued this warning:
The results in MS-01 should serve as a wake-up call to Republican candidates nationwide. As I’ve said before, this is a change election, and if we want Americans to vote for us we have to convince them that we can fix Washington. Our presidential nominee, Senator McCain, is an agent of change; candidates who hope to succeed must show that they’re willing and able to join McCain in a leading movement for reform. We need to stop wasteful Washington spending, fight and win the war on terror, and stop the largest tax increase in history. That is truly the change the American people deserve — and that is a message on which we can succeed.
Unfortunately, the Republicans have to take action to build credibility as reformers. Every step of the way between 2006 and now, they have chosen as a group to go in the opposite direction. The failure to appoint one single reformer to the lion’s den of wasteful spending shows that the GOP never learned its lesson from 2006, and now will suffer even greater consequences in 2008.
Get ready for the deluge. The next Republican leadership group had better learn the lesson of 2008 a lot more quickly than two years after the fact.
Update: It was Joe Bonner who got appointed to Appropriations and is an earmarker. Jack Kingston was pushing Flake for the job. My apologies to Rep. Kingston.
You are absolutely correct!
The Democrats made a point in stressing that the Democrat who won in Miss. represented that Districts values-which meant Conservative.
You have to allow each District to pick a Representative that represents them, including moderate Republicans.
Then, you have to elect a truly CONSERVATIVE Speaker, not a compromiser like Newt or Hastert.
But most importantly, the House must represent the People, which means sometimes resisting the President.
Clinton destroyed his Party's majority by demanding it do his bidding and Bush has destroyed his own as well.
The GOP must develop a national identity of limited Government, which includes limiting spending and securing our borders.
However, I do not think the leadership of the GOP will ever do so, so a 3rd Party alternative may be the only option.
Me too. If not, I will leave it to my three conservative children to carry on. I am impressed by many in their generation.
Childers is a conservative Democrat and ran to the right of Davis. Not unlike the crop of new Dems in 2006, with one difference. The 1st congressional district is highly conservative. I might note that since 1964, 44 years ago, only one Democrat has won a majority of votes for POTUS, and that putz was thankfully a one term wonder.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
well ..you know why and so do all freepers.....for the worthless sh*p that this present Pub Congress/Senate/Presidency has brought us, it also brought us a few good judges....
and judges is where its all at...
if the Pubs don't put up some defense, I hesitate to think what the Rats will pull off....immediate national health insurance, gun control, the "fairness" doctrine, etc.....
there is lots at stake here....
we've had dark days before.....Clinton rode in with a Rat Senate and House.....we defeated that and we can do it again...
and they are taking us with them, lock, stock and barrel....
WAKE UP people....so we don't like McCain....the elites pushed him on us....it doesn't matter...
if McCain wins...and I think he will..or Barry or Hitlery....if we don't have a modicum of Pub presence in the House and Senate, we will face horrors that will never be fixed....
complain , complain, complain, but for Gods' sake ....DO THE RIGHT THING when it comes to November...
he is not perfect...he has "history"...so did Reagan...the greatest president in my life....
so yes...there are good people waiting in the wings....we just need to keep our selves in the game.....
“We used to call them “Bob Michel” republicans, after a GOP senator who spent a whole long career as minority leader and never so much as caused a ripple while the ‘rats did whatever they pleased..”
No offense, but Bob Michel was in the house, not the senate. Otherwise, a very good point.
You don’t need to worry about us not voting, (other than McCain) but the GOP is like the Washington Generals against the Harlem Globe Trotters. “Gee, we lost again. How’d that happen?†Wink wink...
I HATE the thought of leaving the country in the hands of Obama and company.
The troops deserve better.
I agree the troops deserve better.The country deserves better as well and we will not get it if we dont do something about the cesspool called washington real soon.Any one of the three will sell this country out.Its just a matter of when, not if.
McCain or Obama.
It’s beginning to look like a choice between a slow spiral into hell or a nose dive.
SoConPubbie
Since Mar 26, 2007
sam_paine
Since Nov 27, 2000
Thanks for the tips on how I can fit in, and welcome to FR! =)
"Principled" and "pragmatic" are not mutually exclusive qualities in a voter.
They are mutually exclusive in a politician.
Reagan, which we can agree was the greatest president in our lifetimes, cut and ran from from the war on terrorists in Lebanon, and signed real Amnesty into law, and appointed Sandra O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy which became the mushy middle of the supreme court.
Reagan was a pragmatist who spoke eloquently about guiding principles.
Exactly right - and the exact two issues that caused the problem. Now, angry at being rebuffed, like the old Soviet Union they want to "dissolve the people and elect a new one."
Buckley's famous quote recognized centuries of scholarship on conservatism including Burke etc: 'Standing astride history shouting "Stop!"'
Conservatism has never in history been able to reverse the tide. It has only had moments of victory that has slowed the inevitable advance of pernicious 'progressivism.'
Your revelation, airborne, was constructed in great detail by Russell Kirk's Conservative Mind in 1953.
Absolutely nailed it. Great post
I have now. Thank you. I will look into it.
Disrupter alert!
btw, good comments.
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