NRCC: 'Deficiency' in GOP message
Posted: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 3:07 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Congress, Republicans
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole had harsh words for his own party brand and its prospects going forward.
“There’s a deficiency in our message,” Cole said, “and a loss of confidence by the American people that we will do what we say we’re going to do.
“We’re not winning in places we ought to win just by being Republicans.”
In a conference call the day after his party lost a third straight special election -- last night's in the most Republican district in Mississippi -- Cole balanced distancing himself and his candidates from President George W. Bush with standing up for what the president has fought for.
The election should be about the future, “where the country is going in the next eight years,” he said in one breath.
But in another: “We are in challenging economic times, a challenging war -- an important war, an important, defining struggle for us. When you govern as long as we’ve governed, you make tough decisions. In the course of that, it’s always easy to second guess, to say things would be magically better. This country has not suffered another attack” because of those in uniform and the intelligence community, “but also because this president has been strong. Congress was willing to give tools, at least until the Democrats came along, to protect the country.”
Cole heaped praise on McCain, who has not always been the favorite son of the GOP. Cole said he believes Republicans would fare better down ballot from McCain, than standing alone in this environment. Even if voters disagree, they trust and respect McCain’s honesty, he said.
“Every candidate is an individual candidate,” Cole said. “One of John McCain’s great strengths is his brand.”
He added, “Our misfortune was we had special elections during this time, because I think we would have faired better in context of general election.”
Continuing on the three recent GOP losses, Cole attributes the outcomes, not to a desire for Democratic values, but rather a frustration with the Republican brand. These voters were “not rejecting GOP ideals,” Cole said. The Democratic candidates were not running on “raising taxes,” “pro-choice,” or “gun control” platforms, he urged.
“Developing that brand is really important,” Cole said.
“Our opponents didn’t disagree with us,” he added. “They were Republicans in all but title. They agreed with us. They are smart, local politicians, distancing themselves from their own party [Democratic]. We have to make sure we don’t let them get away with that.”
That last bit was an apparent reference to the Democratic candidates not wanting to be associated, at least in wholesale ideology, with Obama and Nancy Pelosi (partially because of NRCC advertising). It was also potentially a peak into the thought process of the NRCC having run ads in these districts comparing the local candidates with the more liberal elected officials. In Louisiana, for example, Republicans ran an ad trying to link Don Cazayoux to what they called Obama and Pelosi’s “radical agenda.”
