GOPers stomping mad over prospects
Posted: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 11:58 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Congress, Republicans, Mike Viqueira
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Lots of very glum faces among House GOP members this morning as they emerged from their weekly closed-door session. The political situation is not good, and they aren't even trying to deny it.
Rep. Tom Davis stomped on the concrete floor of the Capitol basement when asked by reporters about Republican fortunes at the moment.
"This is the floor," he said, by way of explanation. "We're below the floor."
Inside the meeting, Davis had just presented his colleagues with what he said was a 20-page memo outlining his prescription for a way out of this mess. He did not offer details to the press, yet did not spare the party and the president scathing criticism in his public comments.
"The president swallows the microphone every time he opens his mouth," Davis said.
He believes Bush's staunch opposition to the Democratic housing bill and the SCHIP bill, for example, is hurting rank and file. Look at yesterday's vote on the SPRO, where Republicans defied the president in droves. Lo and behold, the White House says today that it will not veto the bill.
Today is also the day when the House takes up the farm bill, which the president has promised to veto. It’s expected that this will become the second veto of Bush's administration to be overridden -- though the farm bill has more of a parochial dynamic than the national political one.
Asked if he thought there should be a change in House GOP leadership, he brought up the 2006 election and the loss of Congress, then wondered aloud why, when "the plane is being flown into the mountain," there has been no change in direction.
A major target of internal GOP criticism is Rep. Tom Cole, who runs the House campaign arm of the party. He emerged to tell reporters that there is "concern" within the party, yes, but, looking for a silver lining, he pointed out that John McCain is running far ahead of the generic GOP approval rating. He then spoke of the need to "re-brand" the party in the likeness of McCain, which may be a tall order, since many rank-and-file conservatives have reviled McCain for years for his transgressions against party orthodoxy.
The parlance of marketing has, of course, overrun the business of politics (and news media), and here again Cole spoke of the unpopularity of the GOP "brand." He says, as does House GOP No. 2 Roy Blunt, that the Democratic candidate yesterday in Mississippi, Travis Childers, is pro life and pro gun.
"Both candidates ran for what Republicans are for," Blunt pointed out. That leaves open the question of why the Democrat won the race. The "brand" is the most common explanation.
House GOP leaders huddle at 11 a.m. today. That will be watched closely for any possibility of a coup or insurrection against leadership in the wake of this third consecutive loss of a GOP seat.
