Tell that to now out of work J.D. Hayworth, who jumped on the Tancredo bandwagon and lost.
Also many of the new "democrats" ran as GOP lite, but will vote the pelosi line.
If they had run on their core beliefs(pro-tax raises, pro-abortion, etc.etc), they would have lost.
Wow, you're on every thread with the Hayworth thing today.
JD was caught in the Abramoff scandal, it's as simple as that.
I wouldn't blame JD Hayworth's loss on his support of Tancredo, if that's what you're implying.
The GOP was demoralized, and simply got routed.
In my district here in Pennsylvania, we lost a Republican Congress seat we've easily held the past 12 years, for several terms in the 80s, for several decades before that.
And Tancredo had nothing to do with this district, generally speaking.
Hayworth was one of the most vocal supporters of Bush's "Stay the Course" policy in the Iraq War, and although I feel moronic saying it again and again, many Republicans along with the public at large are clearly NOT comfortable with Pres. Bush's strategy in fighting the Iraq war.
My estimation is that at least 10-percent of Republicans was so against the Administration's war policy that they wouldn't even come out to vote.
Add to the mix the general GOP demoralization over FOLEY THE PERV, jailbirds Cunningham and Dey and Abrahamoff, and you had about 15-percent LESS REPUBLICANS than normal heading to the polls last Tuesday.
That was more than enough to defeat many entrenched and seemingly popular Republicans like Hayworth.
You mean other than his ties to Jack Abramoff? Besides his hiring his wife to run a PAC, paying her $140K? (Over 26% of the total money raised by the PAC) Besides breaking FEC rules on reporting the value of services? Besides being for term limits but not stepping down and being a 6 time Representative?
Then here is what Rush has to say:
J.D. Hayworth is from Arizona. Now, he's one of the Republican freshmen of '94, and he won that race by a very slim margin, because it's a Democrat district.
He kept it up until Tuesday. J.D. Hayworth led -- and this is Arizona, this is a state that is really up in arms about illegal immigration. J.D. Hayworth led the fight in Congress on the Republican side against illegal immigration.
He lost. Now, the details of his loss are being totally misrepresented by the Drive-By Media. He ran against a Democrat who was parroting and echoing everything J.D. was saying. He was making himself out to be an even bigger anti-illegal immigrant guy when he wasn't.
But the message. Who's going to know that?
The Drive-By Media is portraying this as anybody who was really pro-anti-illegal immigration got swept away. They're trying to kill this issue, the Drive-By Media, as they always do. They're trying to massage and write that J.D. Hayworth lost because he came across as nativist, racist, too strident, and anti-Mexican. Now, what message does that send Republicans? If they're the usual weak-kneed Republicans, "Gosh, that's a losing issue. I can't do what J.D. did. I'll lose, too. The media will write that I'm a racist and that I'm a nativist and that I hate Mexicans." So you can't assume that Republicans are going to be voting against this, either.