The whiff of panic

May 4, 2006

Occasionally, outlets like The Note will mention that [tag]Republicans[/tag] turn pale every time they glace at their most recent internal polling. National Journal noted yesterday that [tag]Ken Mehlman[/tag] wants the caucus to be prepared for the worst.

[tag]RNC[/tag] Chairman Ken Mehlman met with Republican members of [tag]Congress[/tag] this week to impress upon them just how bad the opinion polls are looking for them, and warning that they face a possible catastrophe in November….

This warning contributed to GOP determination to pass a tax reconciliation bill that will extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts beyond their current expiration dates at the end of the decade.”

How bad is it for the majority party? TNR’s Michael Crowley received the latest RNC fundraising email in his inbox yesterday and almost felt sorry for Mehlman after seeing his not-so-effective rallying cry.

“This year, we face another momentous choice. Fight and defeat the terrorists, or retreat from the central front in the War on Terror. Live up to our calling as Americans to stand for freedom, or choose [tag]Democrats[/tag], who have been clear that they will censure and impeach the [tag]President[/tag] if they win back Congress.”

Hmm, Mehlman thinks voters should rally behind the GOP so U.S. troops will stay in Iraq, which few Americans want to do, and to help shield [tag]Bush[/tag], with his 32% approval rating, from accountability. Or as Josh Marshall put it, “The president can’t afford to lose either house of Congress. Because they’ve just got too many bad acts and secrets to conceal.”

No wonder Mehlman finds it necessary to impress upon Republicans “just how bad the opinion polls are looking for them.”

Nice to see the Droolers & Chowderheads Society has their talking points down. Here’s what Libby Dole wrote in her emergency e-mail:

”If Democrats take control of the Senate in ’06, they will cancel the Bush tax cuts, allow liberal activist judges to run our courts and undermine all Republican efforts to win the War on Terror. Even worse, they will call for endless congressional investigations and possibly call for the
impeachment of President Bush!”

Be still my beating heart – if only….

And let’s hope Speaker Pelosi gives Hastert the “Sonny Bono office” next January – top floor of the building, where the elevator doesn’t go, around 800 sq ft of space.

  • “… or choose Democrats, who have been clear that they will censure and impeach the President if they win back Congress.”

    Sounds delicious to me, though I’m not sure our elected Democrats have the testicular fortitude to pull it off.

  • Tom Cleaver–Sonny Bono ended up being a pretty good Representative. Maybe Hastert could find inspiration in his office.

  • “This warning contributed to GOP determination to pass a tax reconciliation bill that will extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts beyond their current expiration dates at the end of the decade.” – National Journal

    There was a wonderful little graph in the WaPo today. If Bush’s tax cuts are allowed to expire, in several more years, we will have a surplus again (with a hideous debt service every year, of course). If Bush’s tax cuts are extended, the deficit is extended FOREVER!

    And this would be hard to run against why???

  • Frak – note the “top floor of the building, where the elevator doesn’t go,” then look at Denny’s full-figured girth.
    I smile imagining his red faced huffs and puffs as he clombs those stairs.

  • Beware the desperation of ethically impoverished Repubs who fear loss of treasure, becoming a minority after the way they have treated minorities, and who fear disclosure of so much secret slime.
    The phrase “cornered rat” comes to mind.

  • i fail to see how mehlman’s call to arms wouldn’t work equally well as a democratic call to arms.

  • BuzzMon got it right. Sonny Bono was essentially harmless – he certainly never deserved his halfwit image, when one considers he was the one who did all the business that created Sonny and Cher, which absolutely couldn’t have been done by an idiot (whatever you think of their act). As Republican’s go, I’d call him one of the last of the breed with any human DNA left.

    Watching Hastert huff and puff up the stairs and squeeze himself into that office would be funny as hell.

  • I refuse to get my hopes up, but the GOP’s pitch — which amounts to “vote for us so we can stay in Iraq forever” and “Don’t vote for the Democrats because they’ll be mean to a President most of you don’t like anyway” — is pathetic.

    It does highlight one thing, though, which is that this midterm is almost entirely about subpoena power. From a purely strategic point of view, a narrow loss might actually be just as good as a win — by narrowing the GOP majorities, they can hobble Bush’s legislative agenda (such as it is) while setting the table for a clean sweep in 2008. But if the Republicans keep even narrow majorities, then there are no real investigations of Bush/Cheney and they get away with everything. (Though on the other hand the Democrats were pretty weak against Reagan when they took back the Senate in 1987.) So this is really all about investigations. The Republicans have no agenda left, and the Democrats won’t be able to pass anything with Bush in the White House, so all anybody really cares about is investigations, one way or the other.

  • Gotta disagree on Sonny being harmless. Bono helped write the latest copyright act that expanded the length of copyright protection (I think limited to music, film, tv and books) to 90 years was not so harmless. So instead of forcing companies to actually try and do new things, it becomes a oligarchy that benefits a few and stifles any creativity. Personally, I don’t know of any nation outside of the US that has copyright protection that long. Most have somewhere between 25-50 years.

  • I have to keep going back to the well, to Michael Moore, who back in 2001 when Shrub had 90% approval ratings, said that all this wingnuttia was just the last dying gasp of the rich white fundamentalist ignorant racist male. I admired his “positive thinking”, but thought he was being way too optimistic.

    Now it seems to be. All the lies, willful negligence, and corruption have caught up with them. They seem to very viscerally realise that they’re surrounded by a world full of people of black, hispanic, semitic, and asian origin– not only in the world at large, but increasingly here at “home” too. And joined by lots of poor and even middle-class-but-getting-poorer white folks. The peasants are carrying their pitchforks and torches and starting to march towards the “gated community”. Corporate America and their Culture of Corruption lackeys in D.C. are starting to sweat a bit.

    Good. Couldn’ta happened to a nicer bunch of fucking assholes.

  • Wow. Do Mehlman and Dole actually believe they are “rallying the troops” by telling GOP supporters that Dems will try to impeach Bush? Seems to me this might actually put a seed of doubt into any Republican’t supporters admittedly limited grey matter. Only the true kool-aid drinkers are going to reply to that appeal.

    “Stand for freedom…or…impeach the President” I’m not sure those are mutually exclusive. In fact, I would argue that in order to accomplish the first, you MUST do the other.

  • Mehlman and Dole have to make do with the only issues they have left, not the issues they’d like to have. Like a permanent Republican monarchy.

    Hastert would resign before he’d accept an office without an elevator, so that would be one less chowderhead to have to deal with. I like it!

  • Democrats really only have one chance here. If they can’t take back both houses in 2006, is it even possible to hold Bush accountable?

  • If the Dems make significant progress in either house, there’s going to be a shitstorm like no other. Repubs are going to attack with a vengence that makes their hatred of the Clintons look like a lovers’ quarrel. I only hope that in their desperation, they go so far that the American public sees them for what they are.

  • Hard for me to think of any political reversal of fortune that would make me feel sorry for Mehlman. His picture should be in the dictionary next to “disingenuous.”

    Dan, thanks for citing Bono’s work on copyright law; I thought the same thing.

  • Speaking of which, how are things with Feingolds censure proposition? Haven’t heard about for weeks now. Anyone?

  • The Republicans know their time is just about up and that their
    Misrule is coming to an end. Of course, this means there will more
    than likely be a ferocious backlash against them and their failed and
    dismal policies. That does not bode well for the GOP, does it?
    But there is still time for them to buy their one way tickets to Brazil
    and Argentina and escape the wrath of the American people before the
    curtain falls. And wouldn’t it be nice if we were able to hold our own
    version of the Nuremburg Hearings to find out the truth of how our nation
    was sold out to the highest bidders? No wonder Mehlman is nervous.

  • Vote Republican so the President is not impeached doesn’t sound like a very good campaign slogan to me. And they say the Dems are a party without ideas?

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