Note to Republicans: be afraid. Be very afraid.
When Democrats won a special election in March for former Speaker Dennis Hastert’s seat, an R+6 district the GOP had held for three decades, it was cause for a celebratory fuck you to Republicans who only four years ago taunted D’s with talk of a “permanent majority.” Last week, when the Dems picked up yet another blood-red seat, this time an R+8 Louisiana district the GOP had owned since 1974, Beltway Republicans appeared to turn on each other. But after last night’s Democratic pickup in Mississippi, it looks like the House Republican Caucus may be headed into every man for himself mode.
MS-01, where Democrat Travis Childers just beat Republican Greg Davis 52% to 48%, is an R+10 district that President Bush won with 62% of the vote in 2004, and the former incumbent won with 66% just a year and a half ago. And that’s after the cash-strapped NRCC sunk $1.3 million into the race on top of another million from Freedom Watch and the candidate himself.
The tried and true GOP tactics of race-baiting and fear-mongering just don’t seem to be working this cycle. The R’s saturated the media with the ads tying Childers to Barack Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and yet the Democrat only increased his support since the previous round of voting a few weeks back. Running on a “get out of Iraq” message in a traditionally pro-military Deep South district, Childers earned a comfortable win over a credible and well-funded opponent.
This is what happens when a bitter electorate turns out in record numbers to say enough is enough. If Dems can win in an R+10 district they can win anywhere, a sentiment loudly expressed this morning in The Hill:
The sky is falling on House Republicans and there is no sign of it letting up.
The GOP loss in Mississippi’s special election Tuesday is the strongest sign yet that the Republican Party is in shambles. And while some Republicans see a light at the end of the tunnel, that light more likely represents the Democratic train that is primed to mow down more Republicans in November.
Be afraid, my Republican friends. Be very afraid.
UPDATE [LEE]: I thought I’d link to this quote from Paul Begala in 2006 about Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy since it’s appropriate:
“Yes, he’s in trouble, in that campaign managers, candidates, are really angry with him. He has raised $74 million and spent $64 million. He says it’s a long-term strategy. But what he has spent it on, apparently, is just hiring a bunch of staff people to wander around Utah and Mississippi and pick their nose. That’s not how you build a party. You win elections. That’s how you build a party.”
Like usual it worked well.
Keep staying overconfident, blue wave idiots. The main reason why Democrats are winning most of these seats is that the Democrat candidates running are as conservative the Republicans. You guys can’t win on your socialist, anti-american agenda so you go out and dig up candidates that you hope won’t cause your leadership headaches when they get to D.C. Nothing but a house of cards. Conservatism is alive and well – it’s just looking for a party to call home, in some areas of the country. Liberalism may win a few battles here and there, but the American people will never let it win the war in the arena of ideas. Enjoy whatever temporary, meaningless victories you can, because they won’t amount to much in the long run.
Orb @2,
So, if “the American people will never let [Liberalism] win the war in the arena of ideas,” explain this to me:
Doesn’t that look like Democrats (and thus liberals) are winning the war of ideas? Or is Newt Gingrich overstating the case?
No doubt in politics, what goes around comes around, as the GOP is discovering at the moment, and our side will have some downs along with our ups. But if you’re not concerned about a generational political realignment potentially in the making, you’re the one who is being overconfident.
@1, (no)Morethan Stammering, Remember, turnabout is fair play.
@2, Up your medication. You’re on the verge of a stroke.
The worry should be for our messiah candidate. Once the Black Liberation Theology is understood by more voters it will be over for Jimmy Carter’s second term.
Here is what the NRCC says:
“NRCC Chairman Tom Cole released the following statement following the results of the special election runoff in Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District:
“We are disappointed in tonight’s election results. Though the NRCC, RNC and Mississippi Republicans made a major effort to retain this seat, we came up short.
“Tonight’s election highlights two significant challenges Republicans must overcome this November. First, Republicans must be prepared to campaign against Democrat challengers who are running as conservatives, even as they try to join a liberal Democrat majority. Though the Democrats’ task will be more difficult in a November election, the fact is they have pulled off two special election victories with this strategy, and it should be a concern to all Republicans.
“Second, the political environment is such that voters remain pessimistic about the direction of the country and the Republican Party in general. Therefore, Republicans must undertake bold efforts to define a forward looking agenda that offers the kind of positive change voters are looking for. This is something we can do in cooperation with our Presidential nominee, but time is short.
“I encourage all Republican candidates, whether incumbents or challengers, to take stock of their campaigns and position themselves for challenging campaigns this fall by building the financial resources and grassroots networks that offer them the opportunity and ability to communicate, energize and turn out voters this election.”
Republicans HAVE NO NEW IDEAS. Republicans have slavishly followed BUSH. They are going down big time. Even Republicans acknowledge they cannot spin this….they are morally and politically bankrupt.
Their only hope is to try and swift boat Obama – this will turn off more voters and Obama will help democrats sweep this election.
@5: Curious idiot – go back to the hole you crawled out of. Voters and real americans are smarter than your stupid racist tricks.
@2: Moron – the main reason Democrats are winning is that republicans have slavishly followed bush and ruined our country. The republican is synonamous with corruption and incompetence – not to mention the war in unnecessary Iraq and the ruined economy.
conservative democrats are winning in Republican districts and liberal democrats are winning in swing districts – that is called a shift and only the idiots who love bush and can’t handle reality are denying it.
Yeah we’re running conservative Dems to win. Whatever. Sort of like you right wing assholes running a pro-choice, pro-school, pro-environmental candidate in California. If every GOP member was like Ahhhhnold, living in a GOP district wouldn’t be so bad. HE HE!
I grew up in the south, and I have to say that the day has arrived when the Republican scare tactics don’t even work in Mississippi, for god’s sake. I honestly never thought I would see that day.
http://www.homesteadbook.com/blog
@2 Getting lonely over at your sucky cut and paste blog, huh?
Dear Orbusmax
Keep it up, sonny.
Don’t forget to click yer heels together 3 times and say “George W. Bush is a fine President and we’ll do just fine this November.”
7-correctnotright – Racist tricks? The bulk of the racism is on the Obama side. The “trick” has been to get so many duped to vote for someone because he is black.
Change you can “believe” in, but not provide.
We are about to nominate a candidate who will be repelled by the vast majority of voters. He has virtually no experience, can not back up his “change” rhetoric with ANY actions in the US Senate, comes from the sleazy political machine in Chicago, and has subjected his children to the most hateful and divisive quasi-religion for years. The big secret held tight by most of the media is that he is very radical and will forment racial hatred in the US for decades to come.
Think, don’t FEEL.
The neoconservative delusionocracy is a complete and total failure. The only groups of people who continue propose that we all take more of the medicine that made us sick are the extremely gullible and those who profit from selling that medicine.
The most pathetic thing about the first group is that they think they’re part of the second.
@14
This comment demonstrates better than anything I could possibly write why the GOP is getting crushed across the nation. It’s impossible to be more out of touch with reality than this.
@14 – You got nothing to back up your poorly worded racist commentary. “Repelled” by voters – you can’t even write!
And don’t write we (about whom we are about to nominate) – you are not a democrat or even a thinking person – go back to your hole.
Obama is light-years ahead of McCain on real issues. WE don’t need more senseless war in Iraq, We don’t need more corruption from republicans, WE don’t need more stupid name-calling campaigns – but I guess YOU do.
@2
Conservatism is alive and well – it’s just looking for a party to call home, in some areas of the country.
True, and when you figure out that invading Iraq, passing the Patriot Act, spying on Americans, and giving away taxpayer money to irresponsible corporations isn’t conservatism, we’ll take you seriously.
16 & 17 – Typical hate blather….Not one word to justify anything above cult-like worship of the “messiah”. The super-duper delegates will have to change their votes come July. Watch it happen.
Republicans appear to be pursuing a Low Tax Looper strategy: Make themselves so unpopular even a write-in candidate would get 96% of the vote! (If you don’t know who Mr. Looper is, look him up on Wikipedia!)
@6 “Republicans must undertake bold efforts to define a forward looking agenda that offers the kind of positive change voters are looking for”
Like what? Cheaper labor? More bankruptcy “reform”? More collusion with oil companies? More pandering to corporate interests? Further gutting of laws and regulations that protect consumers?
Here’s a positive change 70% of voters want: Get rid of the GOP and its twisted anti-worker ideology.
@14 “We”? What “we” are you talking about, wingnut?
Man, don’t you just love it when they pretend to be one of us — like a pickpocket trying to blend into a Pike Place Market crowd …
@19 yawn
What we should do is spray-paint all the wingnuts a neon-pink color so they can’t hide in crowds or misrepresent who they are.
@25 Nice. How incredibly egalitarian of you, Roger. And here I thought you silly Dems were the epitomy of tolerance and acceptance.
You have the makings of a fine Fascist though. You should be proud.
Boehner’s “Change You Deserve”.
The GOP anti-depressant call your doctor for free samples
It makes losing feel like winning.
2 Orbus
If running as a conservative is so popular noi matter what the district, why doesn’t Dave Reichert run as one? Heck, why did Mike! McGavick ever mention the word “Republican” during his whole fucking campaign?
I’ll tell you why: Republicans are less popular than ever, and are seen as the anti-environment, spending-happy, corrupt, illegally wiretapping crazy warmongers. And rightly so.
14 CG
Of course your handle is a racial slur.
But the rest of your post is just projection, something that Republicans are expert at:
I think you mean “rejected,” and that’s what’s happening right now to Republicans across the country.
You mean the United Church of Christ? Wow, don’t let the RNC hear you callin Christianity “quasi-religion.” They’ll kick your dumb ass right out of the club.
I’m assuming that you mean he will “foment racial hatred” more than, say, Trent Lott telling us all that if we had only had the wisdom to elected Strom Thrumond as the Segregationist President we wouldn’t have “all these problems?” And that he will “foment racial hatred” more than the loser in yesterdays MS-01 race, Republican Greg Davis, who as mayor offered up his town as the new home for a statue of the founder of the Klu Klux Klan, Nathan Bedford Forrest. And that he will “foment racial hatred” more than the guy who’s selling the Curious George t-shirts you lamely stole the name of?
Yeah, Republicans wouldn’t think to foment racial hatred, would they, “Curious George?”
14 CG
Of course your handle is a racial slur.
I’m assuming that you mean he will “foment racial hatred” more than, say, Trent Lott telling us all that if we had only had the wisdom to elected Strom Thrumond as the Segregationist President we wouldn’t have “all these problems?” And that he will “foment racial hatred” more than the loser in yesterdays MS-01 race, Republican Greg Davis, who as mayor offered up his town as the new home for a statue of the founder of the Klu Klux Klan, Nathan Bedford Forrest. And that he will “foment racial hatred” more than the guy who’s selling the Curious George t-shirts you lamely stole the name of?
Yeah, Republicans wouldn’t think to foment racial hatred, would they, “Curious George?”
It’s surprising that you would so openly admit that the democrats were race-baiting and fear-mongering.
Notice how quickly the chickenshit right is trying to change the subject here? Keep believing assholes. Maybe the Earth really is flat! LOL!
@30
Um, dumbass, it’s not “race-baiting” when you appeal to voters who oppose racism.
@32 Lee, if the ad is directed at a particular group, and castigates an opposition candidate for their (perceived) hostility to that group, whatever the stated goal may be, it is “race-baiting”. Your side screamed vociferously about the Wille Horton ad for that very thing.
re 26: Refusing to tolerate the intolerable is not intolerance.
WingNutz have the twisted belief that not allowing them to censor, prohibit, and control for moralistic (albeit, illogical) reasons is denying them freedom. They feel picked on because they are being denied the freedom to deny freedom to others.
Sick puppies.
Baaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa
Anymore, I can only LAUGH out loud at the moronic conservatives who blog here.
Any idiot who believes the Republicans have any shot at the White House or netting seats in congress are the same dip shits who don’t believe the scientist when they say the earth is warming up and humans are the cause.
These are the same goofs who believe the earth is 6,000 years old because some mythological book called the bible tells them so and discards science – like carbon dating.
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeez, you guys are stoooooooopid.
There is simply NOTHING to debate any more.
Conservatives have lost on every idea, every principle, everyTHING.
This is the biggest “blow-it” in American history. Nothing is more of a screw up than conservatism.
Shambles, the prefect word to describe the Republcians.
It’s been a tough 8 years, but in the end, the pain will be worth it, although not for the 4,100 who had to die for the weakest Commander-in-Chief in our nation’s history. Thanks to Bush and Ambramoff type of Republicans all the hard work Newt Gingrich did building the Republican brand has been nuked.
@33
Lee, if the ad is directed at a particular group, and castigates an opposition candidate for their (perceived) hostility to that group, whatever the stated goal may be, it is “race-baiting”. Your side screamed vociferously about the Wille Horton ad for that very thing.
No, it’s not the same thing. The Willie Horton ad was intended to motivate racists. The ad in Mississippi was directed at people who dislike racism. That’s the exact opposite. One is race-baiting, the other is the opposite of race-baiting.
@37 You say “tomato”, I say “tomaato”. In my opinion, by directing that particular ad at blacks, it was defacto racist, in the same vein as the Willie Horton ad. It was aimed at a specific racial group, with the intent of arousing them against a particular candidate. How is that not problematic for you? Or are you admitting that the ad itself may be racist, but since it was “for a good cause”, it was alright?
‘Cept that the Republicans use a vertically integrated marketing model. The tower has tumbled. There is no model for the R’s to follow.
@38
You say “tomato”, I say “tomaato”. In my opinion, by directing that particular ad at blacks, it was defacto racist, in the same vein as the Willie Horton ad.
The KKK isn’t just against blacks. They’re also against Jews, Catholics, Asians and Hispanics.
How is that not problematic for you?
The inaccuracy of the ad is problematic for me, but the idea of pointing out someone’s racism is not the same thing as “race-baiting”.
Or are you admitting that the ad itself may be racist, but since it was “for a good cause”, it was alright?
I don’t think the ad itself was racist. I think the ad itself was slander. This is the same mistake that a lot of people are making when it comes to Reverend Wright. Having an overly paranoid view of racist influence is not automatically a form of racism.
Dumbass rethuglifucks…haven’t got it. Never will.
Good.
Re Ol’ Miss – Will admit this politics game was way more fun 3 1/2 years ago when the Slog sluggards were whimpering & whining about whether they would or would not deport themselves to Canada.
” … the same vein as the Willie Horton ad …”
That would be the vein opened in 1988 by Senator AlGore.
A link for the haters…
http://www.tnr.com/politics/st.....a741c6ebb9
“….But, while he remained silent about the allegations of racism, he gave speeches across South Carolina that warned against being “hoodwinked” and “bamboozled” by the Clintons. His use of the phrase is resonant. It comes from a scene in Malcolm X, where Denzel Washington warns black people about the hidden evils of “the White Man” masquerading as a smiling politician: “Every election year, these politicians are sent up here to pacify us,” he says. “You’ve been hoodwinked. Bamboozled.”
By uttering this famous phrase, Obama told his black audience everything it needed to know. He was helping to convince blacks that the first two-term Democratic president in 50 years, a man referred to as the first black president, is in fact a secret racist. As soon as I heard that Obama had quoted from Malcolm X like this, I knew that Obama would win South Carolina by a massive margin….”
” … the first two-term Democratic president in 50 years, a man referred to as the first black president …”
* Bill Clinton was the second first black president. #1 was Harding, slimed by Democrats in 1920 (FDR was VP candidate that year) of being too dark to be president. The Democrat racist rumor mill ground mighty fine that year, looking for the African-American in Harding’s woodpile. As for first black presidents, Obama will be our third.
* Blasts from the past: When the Religious Wright spewed about ‘chickens coming home to roost,’ the roosting rooster from whom Wright stole his peroration was Malcolm X. MX used the chickens trope in November 1963, referring to the assassination of JFK.
@40 Lee, while we may not see eye to eye, I do have to commend your integrity.
Too bad it’s such a rare quality on HA. ;)
ExLax! – Thanks for posting PuddyFact #1.
AlGorebasm first brought up Willie Horton against Mike Dukakis!
Larceny is the sincerest form of flattery. Didn’t know I was stealing an Actual Puddy Fact. Royalty check’s in the snail mail with a $.42 stamp.
Jeez, all they have left is Orwellian doublespeak. Or should I call it Dubyaspeak? No wonder the R’s want to change the filibuster rules so that only 35% can tie up legislation…
RIP GOP