The worst political atmosphere since Watergate
Posted on May 15, 2008 by Riley
U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, whose political instincts are second to none, sees dark clouds on the horizon this Nov. for the GOP.
“The political atmosphere facing House Republicans this November is the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006, when we lost 30 seats (and our majority) and came within a couple of percentage points of losing another 15 seats,” Rep. Tom Davis, a moderate Northern Virginia Republican who previously headed the National Republican Congressional Committee, wrote in a 20-page memo to colleagues.
Filed under: 2008 Elections, Congress
Hmph, that’s what happens when Republicans don’t act like Republicans.
Just look at the $290,000,000,000 farm bill that four of the eight Virginia Republicans voted for.
I agree that Davis’s antennae are pretty good, although I disagree with his solutions. Davis has repeatedly suggested over the years that the solution for GOP woes is to move to the center and sacrifice principle, but history has shown it’s when the GOP is a “me too” party that it loses elections. At the congressional level, we were in permanent minority status for decades (save 1980-1986 in the Senate) when congressional Republicans offered only token resistance to Democrat initiatives, whereas we gained and kept a majority in 1994 under a principled conservative mantle. Only after runaway spending, corruption (remember in 94 we were going to clean up government), and an unpopular war that actually embraced the liberal principles of nation-building and democracy-spreading activism, did we lose our majority.