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September 30, 2006
Stealing Focus
Karl Rove should never be underestimated during campaign season. Apparently free of his own legal troubles (at least for now), Rove has been able, over the last few months, to turn his full attention and considerable skill toward saving the 2006 midterm elections for his boss and party. And arguably, he's been making progress.
Rove has (correctly, in our judgment) calculated that the GOP's best hopes for retaining control of Congress rest on broadly making the election about which party voters can trust to successfully fight terrorism, and narrowly about making Democratic challengers in individual races unacceptable. Viciously negative TV ads against Democratic challengers have begun running in competitive U.S. House districts across the country.
Rove's strategy, however, has encountered some hiccups of late. First, was the seemingly principled blockage by Arizona Senator John McCain and others of legislation loosening restrictions on treatment of detainees suspected of terrorist involvement. Rove had counted on getting Democrats on the record opposing the President, and then using that vote to undermine their credibility on national security.
He didn't count on resistance from within his own party. McCain, widely assumed to be running for president in 2008, at first stood up and opposed the bill, only to fold later on. The White House reached a "compromise" with McCain and his group, and Bush/Rove got their legislation. The very public internal GOP battle over it, however, has likely sapped the issue of some its political punch.
Yesterday came real trouble. Underage sex scandals in Congress are never good news for those involved, particularly those of the same-sex variety. In a year when control of the U.S. House may come down to just a seat or two, the GOP must now add a seat they expected to win -- the Florida 16th -- to the likely loss column. Given that the Texas 22nd is almost certainly lost, Republicans now face a two-seat deficit from the get-go.
Much worse, however, is the rapidly unfolding story that the GOP House leadership knew of Rep. Foley's "indiscretions" for months and did nothing about them. And that, friends, has political disaster written all over it. Just remember what happened to the Catholic Church.
Stay tuned...
Posted by houtopia at September 30, 2006 08:37 AM