House GOP Funk Worsens

The Politico:

For National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.), every week seems to bring a new set of problems. On Saturday night, things got even worse.

With Democrat Bill Foster's victory in the Illinois 14th District special election, Democrats now hold the seats occupied only 21 months ago by former Speaker Dennis Hastert (Ill.) and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Texas) -- the two GOP lawmakers who ran the House from 1998 to 2006.

Since September, Cole has faced a barrage of bad news:

• The NRCC lags behind the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee by nearly $30 million in cash on hand.

• GOP House leadership endured an embarrassing scuffle when Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) tried to fire Cole's top two staffers, during which Cole threatened to resign.

• There has been a wave of retirement announcements by veteran Republican lawmakers that will force the NRCC to defend what were once seen as safe GOP seats.

• Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) was indicted on 35 federal corruption charges, which puts another Republican-controlled district in play.

• And the FBI continues its criminal investigation into a brewing accounting scandal that centers on the former NRCC treasurer's activities.

But the GOP's defeat in Illinois' special election Saturday may trump those setbacks, at least in the short term. Cole and the House Republican leadership are blaming the loss directly on GOP candidate Jim Oberweis. A dairy owner who lost three consecutive statewide elections before Saturday, Oberweis has a long history of political baggage. He won the recent nomination without receiving the support of his Republican primary rival, state Sen. Chris Lauzen.

Read the whole story: The Politico

Comments

[lincat]

I'm glad it worsens.

[NoFactsJustTruth]

Just WHEN will their party of small-minds start to wake up and abandon the neoCONS and the preznutz?

They seemingly STILL refuse to believe it wiil bury them come November, and are also delusioned by their belief that goppers somehow hold high ground on national security issues. NOTHING could be further from the TRUTH.

[bushbehindbars]

The house goopers are in a funk? Wow. Fitting, really, since they've put our nation, even the world, in a collective funk for years now. I hope they are soon relegated to the dustbin of history.

[Nochnoi]

Ah.... the death of the GOP..... Nice to see, and hopefully they will not be able to rebuild for at least 40 years........

One scandal after another.... My suggestion to them would be to clean house from top to bottom and start over............

[stavros]

Pardon me if I don't shed a single tear.

[lungfish]

Apparently "Compassionat Conservatism" isn't compassionate enough.... For those GOPers that aren't voting from the rightwng nutjob religious block commentary by the President can't be helpful. Statements like referring to the US Constitution is " just a goddamned piece of paper" and " I don't do nuance." and Osama bin Laden is "irrelevant" and searching the Oval Office for WMDs, etc... must be as embarassing as the real issues of torture, unwarrented and illegal surviellance, secret prisons and CIA goon squads, hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded Iraqis and Afghanis, getting laughed out of the Bali Global warming conference, funding and equiping Palestinians covertly, the reinstatement of Russian Cold war flights, the various signing statements to sidestep law and the Constitution, the tanking of a growing economy that started with a balanced budget and a surplus, etc....
I don't think that very many people think of the GOP as representative of patriotism and they are jumping ship in droves... all that are left are hardcore right to lifers and kooks...

Lung "Hussein" Fish

[VPN]

"House GOP Funk Worsens", so sad, too bad, couldn't be happening to a more deserving bunch! :-)

[olderdem]

Obama proves what results are really important -- getting a stronger Democratic majority in the House and Senate. Showing he can help get a Democrat elected in a previously strong Republican district makes Obama the candidate to lead the Democrats to victory in November. The Clintons are about getting themselves elected; Hillary believes if President she can muscle her way around to get what she wants. Obama knows it takes more. Remember the Clintons lost the Congress.

[bikerdude]

House GOP funk worsens....GOOD! The created this chaotic mess and now they have to live with the results. Think how bad they will feel when the impeachment hearings start...

[NC4Obama]

Only one thing can save the GOP, and that is Hillary 08.

[kellygrrrl]

the RNC Dinosaurs are nearing extinction.

EVOLUTION - it's a beautiful thing