http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/14/miss.election/index.html
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, called the defeat a
"wakeup call."
"We have to show Americans that we can fix the problems here in
Wa****ngton and fix the problems that they deal with every day."
You guys lose the house in '06 and you're now just getting your
"wakeup call"? Please please please, don't try to fix any problems us
helpless American have, because if there is one truism in Wa****ngton
that is agonizingly obvious, it's that the more you try to fix things
the worse it gets.
=3D=3D=3D=3D
Mississippi election loss is GOP 'wakeup call'
By Alexander Mooney
CNN
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(CNN) -- A third-straight special election defeat in as many months
left congressional Republicans reeling Wednesday, seriously concerned
about what the November elections have in store for their party.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, called the defeat a
"wakeup call."
"We have to show Americans that we can fix the problems here in
Wa****ngton and fix the problems that they deal with every day,"
Boehner said.
Democrat Travis Childers defeated Republican Greg Davis on Tuesday in
a Mississippi district that hasn't voted Democratic in more than 15
years, one where George W. Bush defeated John Kerry by 25 points in
2004.
It was a result that even Republicans admit is ominous sign of what
could happen in the fall.
"This loss is going to prompt serious introspection by our conference
to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it," a Republican
leader****p aide said. "We have time to do that, and we will if we
learn our lessons leading into November. But the next couple of days
are not going to be pretty." Video Watch how Childers' win impacts
presidential race =BB
Democrats control the House by a 236-199 majority. Stacking the deck
further against the Republicans is the fact that 26 Republican House
members are retiring at the end of their current terms, but only eight
Democrats are.
Stuart Rothenberg, editor of The Rothenberg Re****t, said the election
result exposed clear vulnerabilities for Republicans.
"The idea of Republicans losing a special in Mississippi a couple
years ago would have been unthinkable," Rothenberg said. "It shows the
problems they are having recruiting candidates, delivering their
message, demonizing Democrats and swimming upstream."
Childers, a conservative Democrat and local chancery clerk, defeated
Davis, the mayor of Southaven, by 4 percentage points -- a stunning
upset by any measure, considering the state's deeply conservative
leanings.
Republicans and conservative independent groups pulled out all the
stops to defend the seat, pouring upwards of $2 million into the
contest and dispatching party heavyweights there in the final days to
drum up sup****t, including Vice President Dick Cheney.
The party also flooded the airwaves with ads attempting to link
Childers with Sen. Barack Obama and Obama's controversial former
pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Video Watch how Obama's former
pastor may cost him =BB
The GOP was also desperately trying to avoid a third special-election
defeat this year in districts that have long been held by Republicans.
In March, Democrat Bill Foster won House Speaker Dennis Hastert's
former Illinois seat, and two weeks ago Democrat Don Cazayoux won a
Louisiana seat that hadn't voted for a Democrat since the 1970's.
Recognizing the potential for another House seat pickup and the strong
tailwind it would provide heading into the fall, Democrats spent a
similar amount of money on the race, financing several television ads
that questioned Davis' competence and ethics. Read more on the ad
controversy
And in a sign of just how nasty the contest became, Democrats also
sent out a last-minute mailing suggesting that Davis sup****ted moving
a statue of the Ku Klux Klan founder into his city. Davis denied that
allegation, though Democrats cited a 2005 New York Times article that
suggested he was at least open to the idea
In the end, Democrats say the election result sent a "political
thunderbolt across America."
"It is yet another rejection of the House Republican agenda, the Bush
administration's misguided policies and John McCain's campaign for a
third Bush term," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman
Chris Van Hollen said. Video See answers to the question: "Should
congressional Republicans start packing?" =BB
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole issued a
sobering *****sment of the race, saying "time is short" for his party
to establish a bold agenda that will lead to election victories in the
fall.
"When you lose three of these in a row, you have to get beyond
campaign tactics and take a long, hard look at whether this is
something wrong with your product," he said Wednesday. "I think we
have several challenges ahead of us. ... It is evident to me that a
large section of the American people does not have confidence in the
American people to deal with the issues in front of them."
To that end, the party unveiled a broad "pro-family" agenda for the
fall Wednesday.
Democrats have said they view as many as 50 Republican congressional
seats up for grabs in November, including several in conservative-
leaning districts like the three they have won this year.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Julie Shutley
called that number "wishful thinking," though she declined to
speculate on how many seats the party is in danger of losing.
Shutley also said several freshman Democrats in conservative-leaning
districts will face tough races in the fall.
"Those members have been taken votes for two years, votes that are a
lot more liberal than what they campaigned on," she said.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Doug Thornell
said the Mississippi election results clearly show that GOP efforts to
tie local candidates to Obama failed.
"Their tactics failed as far as trying to nationalize the
congressional race," he said. "The fact is that they don't have an
agenda, they don't have a message, and they are resorting to their old
playbook that is now out of date."
Obama said Wednesday that the Mississippi result suggested his name
would not scare away voters in conservative districts.
"They were trying to do every trick in the book to try to scare folks
in Mississippi," he said. "And it didn't work."
The Republican Party is expected to deploy the Obama strategy in
several districts in the fall. The NRCC, the conservative group
Freedom Watch and Davis himself spent well over $1 million airing
television commercials that linked Childers to Obama.
In one ad, Childers was shown next to Kerry and Obama while the
Illinois senator's ranking from the National Journal as the most
liberal senator was noted. In another ad paid for by Davis, the Rev.
Jeremiah Wright was shown and a narrator chastised Childers for not
publicly denouncing the pastor's controversial remarks. That ad also
claimed Obama had endorsed Childers. (Childers later said that was not
the case.)
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But Cole said Wednesday using Barack Obama as a tool in conservative
districts could still prove successful.
"I think that's still a useful tool. ... I think reminding people that
we have a very liberal and, I think, very inexperienced Democratic
nominee, and your opponent is likely to be sup****ting that individual,
is interesting," he said.
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