GOP cancer: Party could lose 20 more (House) seats

Politico ^ | May 15, 2008 | JOHN F. HARRIS & JOSH KRAUSHAAR

[jern]

For the past 18 months, ever since the 2006 elections, congressional Republicans have been like a hospital patient trying to convince visitors that he is not really all that sick: a bit under the weather; actually feel better than I sound; should be up and about any day; thanks for asking.

Suddenly — belatedly — all pretense is gone.

The Republican defeat in Tuesday’s special election in Mississippi, in a deeply conservative district where, in an average year, Democrats cannot even compete, was a clear sign that the GOP has the political equivalent of cancer that has spread throughout the body. Many House GOP operatives are privately predicting that the party could easily lose up to 20 seats this fall.

Combined with the 30 seats that the GOP lost in 2006, that would leave the party facing a 70-vote deficit against Democrats in the House — a state of powerlessness reminiscent of Republicans’ long wilderness years in the 1960s and ’70s.

[chimera]

For all you youngsters out there....it looked a hell of a lot worse in 1976.

Four years later we got Ronald Reagan.

Buck up!

It was bad in '64, too (see, I go way back). We ran a "true conservative" then and got clobbered. The party turned practical and went with Tricky Dick (moderate) and regained power. We lost in '76 with a moderate (Ford) and won in '80- with a "true conservative". The lesson? Depends on the candidate and the opposition. Johnston and the 'Rats were strong in '64 and were able to crush the "true conservative" Goldwater and a fractured GOP. Ford was weak in '76 against a weak but "new" face in Carter, who was able to eek out a win. Carter was weak in '80 with a fractured 'Rat party in bad times and Reagan was strong and optimistic. McCain is going top have to go against the grain to win. He can't allow himself to be painted as "Bush's third term" because that is immensely unpopular. If he can do that, and Obama starts to implode and makes a major gaffe (like McGovern in '72), he could pull it off.

The trouble is the damage the 'Rats do to the country in their four-year reign. In '64 we got the 89th Congress, LBJ in the WH, outvoted 2:1 in the House and 68-32 in the Senate. The result? The Great Society. We're still paying for this boondoggle today. In '76-'80 with Carter in the WH and a unified 'Rat Congress, what did we get? Gasoline shortages. 20% inflation, 10% unemployment, a "misery index" out of sight, decimation of our military, hostages and a revolution in Iran that still haunts us to this day. So, In short, we can't afford even four years of Obama. The stakes are too high. If he tries the appeasement route with Ahmadinijhad, we'll either be looking at a major city vaporized, or learn to speak Persian.

[Nickname]

“Well the truth is, many Republicans do offer solutions and make comments.

But the ‘reporting’ media, the AP, ABC news, Reuters, Breitbart, Yahoo News, Google News, UPI —— will not report any good thing a conservative says.”

They’d probably be more likely to report it if the Republicans were making their opening statements with a can of political whoopass against their opponents.

Democrats are ruthless in their lies and disinformation while Republicans aren’t exactly spunky even when the truth is on their side.

Make a few waves and it’ll get attention. And for God’s sake, don’t apologize and back down when the Democrats WHINE about what you’ve said!

[jpsb]

"I was a member of the GOP when it had meaning. Strong military, low taxes, limited government, and personal responsibility. That GOP is gone."

Yup, and that is why I am no longer a Republican either. Will now vote for best (most conservative) candidate without regard to party or chances of winning.

A destroyed GOP is the real Bush legacy.

I think it is 50-50 if the GOP even survives, many many conservatives and GOPers have totally had it with the GOP that there is a real chance that a new Party, say the American Party could arise and send the GOP into the ash heap of history.

[BOBTHENAILER]

To try to put it in a perspective people understand, if we had ratified, according to the Wharton School of Economics, the Kyoto Treaty, back five years ago, it would have cost about – between $300 and $330 billion – that was the range they had. This bill that’s up today is $471 billion – far more than that. And the question is, what do you get for it?”

I don't know how much clearer your use of this article could make this issue. Cap & trade will kill this economy!!!!!

[PerConPat]

...our ridiculous RINO Governor who now endorses McMistake so we can replicate that in the national legislature!!!

As a great American once said, "Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other."

I am now thinking that I will be spared the ridiculous temptation of voting for McCain as a result of Kaliforneeeaaah's consistent habit of going for the Rat POTUS candidate, since 1988. I wonder if our immigration policies had anything to do with that? Whatever, IMHO, it won't be close enough in the land of fruits and nuts for my vote to make a difference. I may write in Donald Duck.

[Edit35]

They (the lib reporting media) would probably be more likely to report it if the Republicans were making their opening statements with a can of political whoopass against their opponents.

This is the Republican dilemma in a nutshell.

IF a good conservative were to come out and slam-bam a Democrat, the "reporting" lib reporter would dutifully frame the story as "another partisan attack" from a Republican -- and would totally bury or ignore the essence of the Republican's comments.

"Aren't you readers sick of this Washington DC mudslinging," the reporter would ask or imply near the top of the story.

But if the shoe were on the other foot (and the Dem made a brutal statement), that same reporter would dutifully frame the story as evidence that the public is sick and tired (yes, they use that term all the time) of the Republican Administration....

... sick of the recession (even though there is none) .....sick of rampant inflation (even though it is really not that bad)..... sick of the war ( even though....)

You get the idea.

I am serious when I say I have sat in newsrooms the past 15 years and literally heard reporters insist that all readers think this way or that way .... and thus they do not feel obligated to report any logical solutions or factual statements made by conservative politicians.

I got fired from one newspaper, in fact, for shooting off my mouth one too many times.

My colleague, (there were only two 'right leaning' reporters on the 25-person newsroom staff) was fired several years after me, also for not fitting in, basically.

I truly believe that unless one has worked inside a newsroom, they really have no idea how news is made, manufactured or generated.

And I really mean 'manufactured'.

Once in a while a Republican can break thru the haze, but usually only when a large portion of the reporting media has become sick of or disillusioned with the Democrat in power.

Are there conservative writers in America?/ Yes, certainly.

But they are the second-day pundits and columnists.... and columnists and pundits do not and cannot "drive" the story.

It is the lib "reporting" media which frames the initial story, and makes Republicans out to be dolts, and worst.

[Edit35]

Don’t lay the blame of the gutless, spineless republican failures on the media. This crap is self-inflected.

While I agree with your sentiment that Republicans often self-inflict, the media none-the-less plays a HUGE role in forming and shaping public opinion of both Democrat and Republicans, conservatives and liberals.

Consider the news (or lack of news) of today, May 17, 2008.

Barack Obama is running millions of dollars and multiple TV and radio ads in Kentucky, specifically proclaiming himself to be the "Christian" who "wil use his Christian values as President" and who is very active in his "Christian church in Chicago."

The media's response???

(Crickets chirping)

When a Democrat claims himself a Christian, then bravo.. wonderful, tremendous.

When a Republican speaks of Christian faith, it is evil, controlling, bigoted, an attempt to create a Theocracy in America.

If a Republican candidate, for President or otherwise, used that Christian language it would cause two weeks of headlines, with teeth gnashing, etc.....

Recall the consternation and condemnation in 2000 when GWB talked about how his faith made him a better person, when GWB said Jesus Christ was one of his favorite philosophers.

Heck, you'd have thought he just proclaimed himself to be a child molester.

The TV, Cable, and newspaper media went nuts.

All of which proves what HUGE HUGE role the media plays in forming opinions. The Republicans start each and every election deeeeeep in the hole.

[Mr. Jeeves]

I hear it every day from people who ask breathlessly, "why doesn't some good conservative Republican make a speech and set things right."

Only the President has the power to talk over the MSM's heads. Ronald Reagan did it all the time and oh, how they hated him for it.

Bush has made some good speeches, but they are always to some audience that the MSM deems ignorable. The recent "appeasement" jab at Jimmy Carter only got airplay because Obama decided to act like it was aimed at him.