Has the Republican Party Written Off John McCain?
The more I think about the events of yesterday, the more I'm convinced that a substantial faction of the GOP has essentially written off John McCain and instead has its eyes on a 2010 and 2012 resurgence. How else can you explain the RNC releasing an ad attacking the very bailout bill that John McCain is trying to rally support and take credit for?
Ben Smith reports that the ad was cut and released before the House voted yesterday, at a time when everyone thought that the bill would pass (albeit narrowly). The goal of the House Republicans was not to kill the bill. The plan was to have enough Republicans (mostly retiring Republicans and those in very safe seats) vote for the bill to allow it to pass, but have every other Republican vote against it. Once the bill was safely passed, the RNC and those in the House who voted against the bill could then turn around and stoke public resentment of it.
This strategy--had it worked--may well have helped the GOP in the long term and allowed them to reinvent themselves for 2010 and 2012. It would not, however, have helped John McCain.
But guess who was a big advocate of this plan? Newt Gingrich. Andrea Mitchell reported the following this morning:
Gingrich is clearly a much more influential figure among House Republicans than John McCain is. The movement conservatives in the House have never liked McCain and will not be heartbroken if he loses. They are plotting for the long term right now.
And what's astounding is that the RNC seems to be doing the same thing. It's hard to believe that anyone in the McCain campaign would have approved of the anti-bailout ad. It doesn't help McCain at all. So the only conclusion I can reach is that the RNC is openly hedging its bets. That's something I never thought I'd see one month before a presidential election.
UPDATE: On a tangential note, watching the House Republicans and their ideological comrades at places like the National Review denounce Nancy Pelosi's display of "partisanship" is just more than I can take. The House Republicans are the most partisan group of politicians to have ever existed. They ran the House of Representatives for 14 years in the most partisan way imaginable. And just yesterday, the vast majority of them were plotting to run against this very bill; they even had an ad produced and ready to go, blaming the Democrats for trying to fix a problem that happened on their watch. What a disgraceful bunch of hypocrites these people are.
Ben Smith reports that the ad was cut and released before the House voted yesterday, at a time when everyone thought that the bill would pass (albeit narrowly). The goal of the House Republicans was not to kill the bill. The plan was to have enough Republicans (mostly retiring Republicans and those in very safe seats) vote for the bill to allow it to pass, but have every other Republican vote against it. Once the bill was safely passed, the RNC and those in the House who voted against the bill could then turn around and stoke public resentment of it.
This strategy--had it worked--may well have helped the GOP in the long term and allowed them to reinvent themselves for 2010 and 2012. It would not, however, have helped John McCain.
But guess who was a big advocate of this plan? Newt Gingrich. Andrea Mitchell reported the following this morning:
I’m told reliably by leading Republicans who are close to him [Gingrich], he was whipping against this up until the last minute when he issued that face-saving statement. Newt Gingrich was telling people in the strongest possible language that this was a terrible deal, not only that it was a terrible deal, that it was a disaster, it was the end of democracy as we know it, it was socialism.Newt Gingrich isn't just a concerned bystander here. He clearly has presidential aspirations of his own. And the best case scenario for him is that John McCain loses, and he can lead the Republican party back into power in 2012.
Gingrich is clearly a much more influential figure among House Republicans than John McCain is. The movement conservatives in the House have never liked McCain and will not be heartbroken if he loses. They are plotting for the long term right now.
And what's astounding is that the RNC seems to be doing the same thing. It's hard to believe that anyone in the McCain campaign would have approved of the anti-bailout ad. It doesn't help McCain at all. So the only conclusion I can reach is that the RNC is openly hedging its bets. That's something I never thought I'd see one month before a presidential election.
UPDATE: On a tangential note, watching the House Republicans and their ideological comrades at places like the National Review denounce Nancy Pelosi's display of "partisanship" is just more than I can take. The House Republicans are the most partisan group of politicians to have ever existed. They ran the House of Representatives for 14 years in the most partisan way imaginable. And just yesterday, the vast majority of them were plotting to run against this very bill; they even had an ad produced and ready to go, blaming the Democrats for trying to fix a problem that happened on their watch. What a disgraceful bunch of hypocrites these people are.
posted by A.L. at 12:19 PM
5 Comments:
"The House Republicans are the most partisan group of politicians to have ever existed."
HYPERBOLE ALERT!
"Disgraceful bunch of hypocrites" is putting it too mildly. They are badly-intentioned liars and bullies who can dish it out but can't take it. I say "thanks but no thanks" to their misguided neocon ideology.
The Republican Party is no different than the Democratic Party. Our political system is so broken and our government is so broke, it's scary. The government either wants to give every citizen every amenity, which it can't OR fight wars with everyone to persuade them to become democracies. Either way we go broke and the government sells out the principles that this country is about. I hope Obama and McCain both lose, but this nation is doomed no matter what. The debt and the understated inflation is unfixable, but no one seems to notice it, YET.
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=PluckPersona&U=2dffd57a22d64da3985fc229b8512fe2&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckUserId=2dffd57a22d64da3985fc229b8512fe2&plckPostId=Blog%3a2dffd57a22d64da3985fc229b8512fe2Post%3ab753faed-8a7a-474c-bc45-865cd2416d96&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest
When I learned that Gingrich had been working behind the scenes to kill the bill while publically supporting it, I figured he was looking to 2012 and considering the McCain candidacy a dead issue. I figure he told those Rethugs who bolted the agreement that they should worry about being re-elected and let McCain twist in the wind. They do eat their young I'm told. LOL.
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