{"id":8028,"date":"2006-07-25T15:31:27","date_gmt":"2006-07-25T19:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8028.html"},"modified":"2006-07-25T15:31:27","modified_gmt":"2006-07-25T19:31:27","slug":"the-anonymous-republican-wearing-the-scarlet-r","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-anonymous-republican-wearing-the-scarlet-r\/","title":{"rendered":"The anonymous Republican wearing the ‘Scarlet R’"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know it’s a tough political environment for the GOP when a Republican Senate candidate sits down with reporters and says<\/a>:<\/p>\n

On the Iraq war: “It didn’t work. . . . We didn’t prepare for the peace.”<\/p>\n

On the response to Hurricane Katrina: “A monumental failure of government.”<\/p>\n

On the national mood: “There’s a palpable frustration right now in the country.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The same Republican said he “probably” wouldn’t want Bush campaigning with him in his home state, said his party has “lost our way,” and offered stinging indictments of the White House on the war, immigration, the response to Hurricane Katrina, and the Dubai ports deal.<\/p>\n

There are at least two interesting angles to this. The first is the almost-whining tone this Republican took during his interview. When it came to talking about his chosen political party, he said, “It’s an impediment. It’s a hurdle I have to overcome. I’ve got an ‘R’ here, a scarlet letter.” He added that it would be “tough” to run “as a proud Republican.”<\/p>\n

I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic, but droning on about how awful it is to be a Republican candidate, while bashing the party’s direction and failures, doesn’t make a lot of sense. Of course<\/i> his party affiliation has become problematic — the same guy had just gone into great detail explaining how the GOP has lost its way.<\/p>\n

The second angle is the big mystery: who in the world are we talking about here?
\n
\nDana Milbank explained<\/a> that the interview took place at a DC steakhouse with a Republican candidate who wanted to remain anonymous. He chatted with nine<\/i> political reporters, but only under the condition that he be identified only as a GOP Senate candidate. “When he was pressed to go on the record, his campaign toyed with the idea but got cold feet,” Milbank said. “He was anxious enough to air his gripes but cautious enough to avoid a public brawl with the White House.”<\/p>\n

So, who is it? Here’s the criteria:<\/p>\n

* He’s a he.<\/p>\n

* The candidate is apparently not currently in the Senate, which means he’s either challenging a Dem or is running for an open seat.<\/p>\n

* While criticizing the president, he agrees with Bush on stem-cell research, banning gay marriage, banning flag burning, and the dangers of pulling out of Iraq.<\/p>\n

* He’s “immersed in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country.”<\/p>\n

* Bill Frist briefly interrupted the lunch interview to tell reporters that this candidate is “the best.”<\/p>\n

It sounds like it could be Minnesota’s Mark Kennedy, but he was in his home district yesterday. It could have been Ohio’s Mike DeWine, but he’s an incumbent. Maybe New Jersey’s Tom Kean Jr., except he disagrees with Bush on stem-cell policy.<\/p>\n

My money’s on Maryland’s Michael Steele. Anyone else have any guesses?<\/p>\n

Update (4:53pm)<\/em>: ABC News<\/a> is reporting that the Republican who “anonymously described his Republican affiliation as a ‘scarlet letter’ to the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank and others on Monday is none other than Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.” A bizarre triangulation strategy, perhaps? Talking to nine reporters, Steele had to assume the news would break eventually.<\/p>\n

Second Update (5:05pm)<\/em>: The AP<\/a> has it too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know it’s a tough political environment for the GOP when a Republican Senate candidate sits down with reporters and says: On the Iraq war: “It didn’t work. . . . We didn’t prepare for the peace.” On the response to Hurricane Katrina: “A monumental failure of government.” On the national mood: “There’s a palpable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}