TomPaine: Republicans In Trouble

[PhilipShore]

TomPaine.com
February 13, 2006

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2005/11/07/republicans_in_trouble.php

Newt Gingrich. George Will. The American Enterprise Institute. These are just the latest icons of the right to weigh in on the conventional wisdom of the moment: Voters are not happy with the Republican Party.

The problem with having a monopoly on government lies in the fact that there's no one to blame when you screw up. And a chorus of pundits and pollsters has united around the notion that voters will hold Republicans accountable at the polls in next year's midterm elections for their handling of the war in Iraq, the economy, Katrina and internal corruption.

Let's review, shall we, the chorus opining about the Republican Party's woes? Just yesterday on CBS, "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer opened the show with talk of "Republicans in trouble." On ABC's "This Week," George Will and Newt Gingrich shared their grim assessments of the GOP's ability to maintain its hold on power in the 2006 elections. Well, Will was grim, noting that most elections are won or lost a year before they're held. Gingrich conceded there were problems, but tried to put on a happy face—yammering robotically about the GOP's ability to rebound because it's the party of "reform," blah, blah, blah. In yesterday's Washington Post article reporting on "voter anger ," Gingrich sounded more negative.

Finally, there are signs that the scandal, cronyism and incompetence that in so many ways defines this Congress is beginning to irk the electorate. Today's Progress Report quotes AEI scholar Norm Ornstein on how the corruption scandal involving Jack Abramoff is "building to an explosion, one that could create immense collateral damage within Congress and in coming elections." (Philadelphia Inquirer, free req. req'd)

[xchrom]

1. i hope that explosion blows the repuke party to smithereens.