Can it get any worse for Repubs ?
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(Tue, 13 May 2008 11:19:25 -0500 (CDT)) ---
The Washington Post Sunday, May 11, 2008;
As Losses Mount, GOP Begins Looking in the Mirror
Since losing 30 seats and their 12-year stranglehold on power in 2006,
House Republicans have kept asking themselves the same question: Can it
get any worse?
On Tuesday, they may get another answer they won't like.
With lots of help from Washington -- including more than $1.3 million in
campaign cash and a last-minute visit by Vice President Cheney --
Mississippi Republicans are desperately trying to retain a
congressional seat in one of the most reliably conservative districts in
the nation.
The stakes in the 1st District special election couldn't be higher,
strategically or symbolically. The loss of a traditionally GOP seat to a
Democrat would be the third in a special election this spring and the
second in the Deep South after the May 3 victory of Rep. Don Cazayoux
(D-La.).
Rank-and-file Republicans say that would force a day of reckoning for
their leadership.
"When you connect three dots in anything, that's a bad thing. This
connects the dots. At that point, everybody's got to come together and
have a come-to-Jesus meeting," said Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), a retiring
centrist who will help form a new advisory panel at the National
Republican Congressional Committee.
"It's a time of sober reflection and, to some extent, resolve. I hope
these special elections are a wake-up call," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling
(R-Tex.), the leader of the conservative Republican Study Committee.
Democratic leaders have stopped tamping down expectations and instead
have set a new goal for the November elections of establishing a
long-lasting majority that could dominate the chamber.
"We will have a strong, confident, predictable Democratic majority to
take us forward, and then we will be in 2010, 2012, on the path to a
strong Democratic leadership for a long time to come," said House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Just when Republicans thought they had seen everything, Rep. Vito
Fossella (R-N.Y.) admitted Thursday that he has a 3-year-old daughter
from a long-running extramarital affair with a retired Air Force
officer. Fossella, who is married and has three young children at home in
Staten Island, is also facing drunken-driving charges in Virginia. GOP
strategists are debating whether he should resign or announce that he will
not seek reelection in November.
Fossella's resignation would mean another special election, this one in
the nation's most expensive media market.
Independent analysts agree that a loss Tuesday would leave Republicans
with no excuses. They blamed poor candidates in races in Louisiana and
Illinois, where the GOP lost a special election for the seat long held by
former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert.
MichaelP (papadop@peak.org).
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