Good News America, the GOP is on it's way out

[Dogger]

The Democrats have now won 3 straight special elections in Republican strongholds:

Childers victory gives Dems a third straight takeover

By Aaron Blake
Posted: 05/13/08 10:19 PM [ET]

Democrat Travis Childers won Tuesday’s Mississippi special election runoff for Sen. Roger Wicker’s (R) House seat, handing Democrats the biggest of their three special election takeovers this cycle and sending a listless GOP further into a state of disarray.

Childers, who beat GOP candidate Greg Davis 49-46 three weeks ago but came up just shy of a race-ending majority, joins new Democratic Reps. Bill Foster (Ill.) and Don Cazayoux (La.) to give Democrats a trifecta of upsets in conservative House districts.

The loss could send shockwaves through the Republican Party, where murmurs about a leadership shakeup have become more and more audible.

Democrats are backing up the assertion that they remain on the offensive in the cycle following a 30-seat gain, which has historically not been the case after a wave election.

Wicker’s former district voted 62 percent for President Bush in 2004 and, by that measure, is one of the most conservative seats Democrats have taken from the GOP over the last 18 months.

Childers, the longtime Prentiss County Chancery Clerk, campaigned as a conservative Democrat and overcame GOP efforts to tie him to more liberal elements of the Democratic Party, including presidential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.).

Republicans brought out the big guns toward the end of the race, including a visit from Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday in Davis’s home county of Desoto.

Both national party House committees plugged more than $1 million into the race, and spending by the candidates and outside groups like GOP-backing Freedom’s Watch pushed the race over $5 million total.

Davis and Childers will square off again in November, as they have already been elected their parties’ general election nominees.

 

[Annie]

I've been saying for over 6 months now, the Dems will control both houses, probably veto proof. I'll bet Obama, though that is much more questionable, through no fault of GOP.

 

[DeadCanDance]

The Democrats have now won 3 straight special elections in Republican strongholds:

Dems are going to tie Bush around the neck of every GOP candidate running this year.

They elected him twice. They voted with him 99% of the time and gave him 99% of what he wanted. They won't be able to run away from him.

 

[Dogger]

Dems are going to tie Bush around the neck of every GOP candidate running this year.

They elected him twice. They voted with him 99% of the time and gave him 99% of what he wanted. They won't be able to run away from him.

Maybe the GOP could tie the Dem candidates to Obama and Jeremiah Wright? No, they tried to do that with Travis Childers of Mississippi, who (as I reported above) just kicked GOP ass in a long-time GOP district.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Maybe the GOP could tie the Dem candidates to Obama and Jeremiah Wright? No, they tried to do that with Travis Childers of Mississippi, who (as I reported above) just kicked GOP ass in a long-time GOP district.

Not the win you hoped for though. He had to run as a Conservative, NOT a liberal. he had to deny links to Obama and Pelosi.

 

[Dogger]

Not the win you hoped for though. He had to run as a Conservative, NOT a liberal. he had to deny links to Obama and Pelosi.

Liar. His is a straight progressive agenda.

His website scorches Bush policies of unfair trade deals that sent jobs overseas, billions in subsidies to big oil companies, ignoring the home mortgage crisis, and the growing the deficit and national debt to all time highs. He wants to focus on education and economic development in rural areas and small towns, balance budgets, fair trade deals, broad middle class tax reform, improving the lives of senior citizens, protecting Social Security, opposing privatization, expanding in-home care programs for seniors, improving quality of healthcare, and expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP, which Bush vetoed).

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Liar. His is a straight progressive agenda.

His website scorches Bush policies of unfair trade deals that sent jobs overseas, billions in subsidies to big oil companies, ignoring the home mortgage crisis, and the growing the deficit and national debt to all time highs. He wants to focus on education and economic development in rural areas and small towns, balance budgets, fair trade deals, broad middle class tax reform, improving the lives of senior citizens, protecting Social Security, opposing privatization, expanding in-home care programs for seniors, improving quality of healthcare, and expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP, which Bush vetoed).

A direct quote from the article

Childers, the longtime Prentiss County Chancery Clerk, campaigned as a conservative Democrat and overcame GOP efforts to tie him to more liberal elements of the Democratic Party, including presidential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.).

So who exactly is lying?

 

[Dogger]

So who exactly is lying?

Oops. Sorry about that.

The reporter got it wrong, but I should not have called you a liar for relying on bad information within my own post.

 

[Ravi]

A direct quote from the article



So who exactly is lying?

Where did he deny his links to them? It says he overcame the GOP's attempts to tie him to them.

Somewhat different, IMO. What did he actually say to distance himself?

 

[Dogger]

Where did he deny his links to them? It says he overcame the GOP's attempts to tie him to them.

Somewhat different, IMO. What did he actually say to distance himself?

It appears Childer's took advantage of the attack rather than distance himself.

From In the South, a Force to Challenge the G.O.P.:

. . . .
“We realized the Republican machine was on the attack,” said Mr. Buck, the state representative who helped Mr. Childers. “They wanted to say he was tied to Barack Obama. The question we asked was, What’s wrong with that? We wanted to prove to them that there’s nothing wrong in Mississippi with a person being tied to Barack Obama.”

Between an initial vote on April 22, when Mr. Childers fell just shy of getting the 50 percent he needed to win, and Tuesday’s runoff election, when he won with a decisive 54 percent, the Republican campaign to link Mr. Childers with Mr. Obama intensified, with a barrage of advertisements specifically on that theme. Perhaps not coincidentally, vote totals in counties with large black populations went up sharply between those two dates. In Marshall County, which is 48.8 percent black, the votes nearly doubled, to 5,083. In Clay County, 56.8 black, nearly 1,500 more people voted, pushing the total to 3,898.

The attacks on Mr. Obama clearly had a galvanizing effect, local officials said. “The people I talked to said, ‘Man, I don’t like that they’re trying to use Obama against him,’ ” said Eric Powell, a black state senator who helped in voter turnout efforts. “It actually helped Travis.”

In the past, Democrats from conservative districts would have distanced themselves from the top of the ticket. That is the very essence of appeasement, and that is why Democrats lost the Congress in 1994.

 

[Gunny]

The Democrats have now won 3 straight special elections in Republican strongholds:

*yawn*

 

[Dogger]

*yawn*

Wrong. It's more like this: DEM -->

<-- GOP

 

[Toro]

I've been saying for over 6 months now, the Dems will control both houses, probably veto proof. I'll bet Obama, though that is much more questionable, through no fault of GOP.

I don't think the Dems will get to 60 in the Senate. 55 or maybe 58, but 60 may be too much of a stretch.

Frankly, its not Obama or Hillary (or McCain) in the White House that worries me. Its the Democrats controlling everything with big majorities that worries me.

 

[Dogger]

I don't think the Dems will get to 60 in the Senate. 55 or maybe 58, but 60 may be too much of a stretch.

Frankly, its not Obama or Hillary (or McCain) in the White House that worries me. Its the Democrats controlling everything with big majorities that worries me.

Veto proof is 67 Senators. You're thinking filibuster-proof. Kathianne's projection seemed a little high.

Don't worry about the Dems in control. When they controlled the White House and the Congress, they did not run wild like the GOP did. The Democratic Congress never shirked it's oversight responsibilities.

 

[Ravi]

It appears Childer's took advantage of the attack rather than distance himself.



In the past, Democrats from conservative districts would have distanced themselves from the top of the ticket. That is the very essence of appeasement, and that is why Democrats lost the Congress in 1994.

After the deafening silence from RGS I was sure that this was the case.

 

[jillian]

Reports of the demise of the republican party are premature, and while it would be good to have a vetoproof congress, we don't have a president elected yet. And nothing I've seen gives me any reason to think that McCain will lose easily, if he will lose at all.

 

[Dogger]

Reports of the demise of the republican party are premature, and while it would be good to have a vetoproof congress, we don't have a president elected yet. And nothing I've seen gives me any reason to think that McCain will lose easily, if he will lose at all.

Although the thread title was intended to be hyperbole when I started it, I subsequently heard on The Young Turks that some GOP Congressmen want to replace the head of the RCCC because he hasn't been extreme enough. If that happens, the thread title will make me look prescient.

Although McCain looks like he's presently holding even in the polls, I still believe that is the result of the media free ride he has received up until this week. By November, I think many voters will go to the polls expecting to see the name "John W. McBush" on the ballot.

 

[jillian]

Although the thread title was intended to be hyperbole when I started it, I subsequently heard on The Young Turks that some GOP Congressmen want to replace the head of the RCCC because he hasn't been extreme enough. If that happens, the thread title will make me look prescient.

Although McCain looks like he's presently holding even in the polls, I still believe that is the result of the media free ride he has received up until this week. By November, I think many voters will go to the polls expecting to see the name "John W. McBush" on the ballot.

I know it was hyperbole. And I am glad the pendulum is swinging. But if they think the RCCC hasn't been extreme enough, that's going to cause them huge problems. I suspect, at some point, the far reaches of both the democratic and republican parties will break off. And I'm not sure that's a bad thing at all.

 

[Dogger]

I know it was hyperbole. And I am glad the pendulum is swinging. But if they think the RCCC hasn't been extreme enough, that's going to cause them huge problems. I suspect, at some point, the far reaches of both the democratic and republican parties will break off. And I'm not sure that's a bad thing at all.

Also, demographics may contribute to GOP extinction in the near future. Hispanics are a growing voter block, and they had affinity for the GOP at one time because of anti-Castro sentiments and the appeal of pre-life policies to Catholic hispanics. Now the GOP champions immigration reform with rhetoric that focuses on immigrants from Mexico and Central America while ignoring those from Canada, England, Germany and France.

It's hard to attract minorities when a party appears to regard only caucasians as real Americans.

 

[JimH52]

Liar. His is a straight progressive agenda.

You called Sarg a liar! Wow, I thought it was his job to call others liars? I am shocked..