National GOP Strategists: Blame Our Loss On The Candidates!
In a little-noticed episode right before the election, Karl Rove began laying the groundwork for some post-election spin should the GOP lose: Rove had his allies leak word that he was "privately frustrated that individual candidates have not been more aggressive in drawing contrasts with Democrats on national security." In other words, Rove was saying, if the GOP loses, it'll be the candidates' fault, not mine.
In today's Washington Post, GOP strategists are shown continuing with this post-election spin, again trying to shove off blame for Tuesday's catastrophic defeat onto individual candidates who apparently lost because they didn't heed the national party's advice closely enough.
More after the jump.
GOP officials faulted several lawmakers for blowing their races. For months, the National Republican Congressional Committee warned incumbents that this year's headwinds could endanger them -- even if they had not faced serious races before. The NRCC went to Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) in the summer with a poll that showed him in real jeopardy in his race against teacher Tim Walz (D). Gutknecht did not adequately heed that warning, falling to Walz in the southern Minnesota 1st District.In Iowa's 2nd District, the NRCC noticed months ago that Rep. Jim Leach (R) could well lose to Democrat Dave Loebsack. National Republicans did not want to tip off Democrats to his troubles, so they decided against running ads there. Instead, GOP aides said, they decided to pay for a direct-mail effort on Leach's behalf, but just as it was about to be sent out, Leach insisted it be canceled. He lost to Loebsack on Tuesday night.
In Pennsylvania's 4th District, Rep. Melissa Hart (R) ignored repeated warnings from national Republicans to go negative early on her opponent, Jason Altmire (D). Hart waited -- out of fear for raising Altmire's name recognition. She waited too long.
Sure, candidates and their choices matter in individual races. But broadly speaking, the idea that candidates failed the national party -- rather than the other way around -- is pure bunkum. A key reason the GOP lost was because its central Rove-inspired strategy of framing it as a choice between "stay the course" and "cut and run" was a miserable, catastrophic failure -- and when it tried to revise this strategy by saying that they'd never called for "staying the course," it was way too late. As exit polls confirmed, voters registered strong disapproval of the administration's policies in Iraq in overwhelming numbers.
In district after district, the national GOP funded millions upon millions of dollars' worth of vicious ads and lurid mailings accusing Dems of wanting to lose, wanting to leave before the "job is done," helping the terrorists, etc. This national strategy tied individual GOP candidates tightly to the "stay-the-course-versus-cut-and-run" frame. Yet the Dem counterattack was a simple one: Bush's Iraq policies are failing, and the White House is in denial about it. In the end, more voters agreed with the Dem argument. They wanted something -- anything -- other than what they'd been getting from Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney, and no amount of NRCC or RNC screaming that anyone who had such a thought was a coward or defeatist could change their minds. The strategy foisted by national GOP strategists on their candidates failed -- and those who did the foisting are largely to blame for what happened.
True to form, Rove will never admit he was wrong. Remember a couple of weeks ago when he said he had access to poll numbers that the rest of us didn't see, which made him confident that the GOP would actually gain seats?
Bush/Rove: creating their own fantasy reality once again when the real reality gets too hard. They still believe saying something makes it so. Glenn Greenwald has made some interesting observations about the faith-based self-deception of Bush followers.
Looks like the Blossom's off the Turd. Now it's just a steaming pile of bullshit on the right side of the road.
November 9, 2006 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
love that line -- "blossom's off the turd." great one.
November 9, 2006 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think the dems success can be attributed to any one thing. Part of it was the hubris of Bush/Cheney/Rove that they could use fear and smear to win in the face of voter discontent. In some cases republicans lost because of ethical reasons either being tied to Abramoff or personal problems. In some cases republicans who hadn't face a serious challenge in years were out campaigned by their democratic challengers.
Whatever the specific reasons are what I take from this election is that the GOP's machine is not invulnerable. I think the dems leadership from Rahm, to Schumer, to Dr. Dean all deserve credit. Have and implement a plan, do not cede anything, don't back down and the GOP can be beat...
November 9, 2006 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nothing like a football coach who blames his team's "execution" after a blowout loss.
To strain the sports analogy further, teams that have long periods of success eventually start to believe that they win because of who they are rather than what they do. The Yankees are probably the best example of this. After winning so much, they talked about the "mystique" of the pinstripes and how any player they brought into the clubhouse could be transformed from miscreant to hero.
Running the Congressional campaign committee is probably the toughest, dirtiest job a Congressman can have. Prior to Schumer, the best DSCC leader in recent years was Bob Toricelli.
You have to cajole prospective candidates, discipline the candidates you have, grab every possible dime, serve as the public attack dog and, hardest of all, screw your friends and colleagues when necessary. Was there a less appropriate senator for this job than Liddy Dole? But the GOP didn't care, because they have Rove, they'd mastered the "freak show," they win these elections.
November 9, 2006 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I noticed this after the 2004 elections. What the losers do is take all of the polls that they said didn't matter and were inaccurate when they came out before the election, and roll them out afterwards as evidence that their advice was predicated on data that illustrated how badly they were doing. It's some pretty blatant post hoc revisionism.
November 9, 2006 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I certainly hope the GOP learns nothing from this loss. I hope they listen to the dead-enders who claim that they lost because the GOP did not tack far enough to the right.
More of the same please, GOP!
November 9, 2006 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
While there is likely loads of blame to be ladled about, the fact is that many, many, many of the GOP candidates did do an unimaginably poor job of advancing their candidacies.
At the top of the list of course, are Burns and Allen (not George and Gracie--Conrad and George.) But, beyond these two clowns, the examples of rank incompetance born a twisted sense of entitlement/inevitability are legion.
The mindset seems to have been, I'm a Republican, W's a Republican. He always wins, so to shall I.
It was, in the end, great fun to watch.
unclesmedley
November 9, 2006 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Greg's absolutely right. So Hart waited to go negative on an opponent nobody'd heard of - maybe that was a mistake, but if the national GOP hadn't screwed the pooch and created a toxic environment in the first place, it wouldn't have mattered. Altmire would have stayed anonymous, and Hart would be banking her reelection money for her next go-round in '08. A perfectly good strategy most years was ruined by the party leadership's performance in DC.
November 9, 2006 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
" Looks like the Blossom's off the Turd. Now it's just a steaming pile of bullshit on the right side of the road."
Best analysis of the 2006 election we are likely to see!
Hoppy in Sacramento
November 9, 2006 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rove says it can't be the fault of the party. What happened to the GOP issue of George Soros funding Dem oppo? I'm surprised they haven't flogged that old warhorse again.
November 9, 2006 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
for the quote of the year, jeffgee.
Scanning through channels after pundits were beginning to grasp the magnitude of our rejection of the Republican agenda, I found CNN's unspeakable Glenn Beck in mid-fearmongering-rant, waving his arms in disbelief, "... Nancy Pelosi!...don't people realize Democrats are going to raise your taxes..."
Explaining why he misread the potential for Republican defeat, Bush said he thought the voters understood the importance of security and taxes. The public had trembled with fear on cue when the bell was rung on these two issues so reliably in the past, he thought it would work forever, despite the fact that his policies were making us less secure and that tax relief to the rich was impoverishing the rest of us.
November 9, 2006 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Onion has the definitive analysis--Dems did it. Those dirty bounders!
From the piece---"There are reports of television spots, print ads, even volunteers going door-to-door encouraging citizens to vote against us." Acknowledging that the "damage has already been done," Mehlman is seeking a promise from Democrats to never again engage in similar practices.
November 9, 2006 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Blame the candidates, blame the troops. We can do no wrong! Therefore, it must be their faults."
November 9, 2006 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Talk about an obvious conclusion! Bush and the GOP had tried very hard to de-nationalize this election. It was supposed to be all about the local races, not about Gee Dubya and his war. So it should not come as a surprise that the blame is being cast elsewhere.
However, had they held the Congress you can bet they would have cast it as an affirmation of Bush's policies and Iraq and torture and war profiteering would have continued unabated. Thank goodness it turned out the way it did.
November 9, 2006 9:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's just funny to see the republican DC elite behave like the democratic DC elite. The message of this election is that candidates of both parties should ignore the DC elite. They should run, with passion, on the issues that move voters in their districts. Like Tester. Like Whitehouse.
The problem the republicans had is they had no issues that would move voters. So they were stuck with character smears and vote suppression.
November 10, 2006 1:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
They lost because they didn't heed the national party's advice 'closely enough'? What, they didn't run enough nasty ads trying to vilify and demonize their Democratic opponents? What, they were unfairly papered with claims that they were corrupt, and followed a president lockstep to fight a war based on lies and deception? Enlighten me.
November 10, 2006 9:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's not their fault.
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November 10, 2006 10:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
I can't see jeffgee's original post with this (most excellent) quote. Can other people see it??
When I go to jeffgee's comment page, it shows that he's made 2 comments on this thread, but I can't see either of them here!
November 10, 2006 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
nope..not I.
November 10, 2006 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is it possible that the site software is mistakenly reversing ratings and removing high-rated comments instead of troll-rated comments?
November 10, 2006 10:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Any thoughts about why Rove protege Ken Mehlman is resigning as RNC Chairman? whether it's due to the failure of the Rove/Mehlman election strategies (relentless gay-bashing, race-baiting and attacking the patriotism of Democrats wasn't enough to keep Republicans in charge of Congress), or more to Bill Maher's planned outing of Mehlman as a key gay Republican (mentioned on Larry King Live on Wednesday)?
(discussed on this TPM thread)
November 10, 2006 11:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
I remember seeing an article in the national section of my local paper a week or so after the resolution of the 2000 Presidential election, quoting Terry McAuliffe saying that the Gore loss was the result of his 'failed populist strategy.'
I was struck, first of all, that chunks of undigested DLC spin were being thrown forward as 'news,' but secondly by the seemingly bottomless capacity some people possess to misapprehend the meaning behind events.
So - tossing your losing candidate under the bus is a practice that seems to enjoy a rich tradition in the leadership of both parties.
*****
Beware! For my revenge
Is as the sealed commission of a king
That kills, and none dare name the murderer.
- Shelley, The Cenci I. iii.
November 11, 2006 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I deleted a comment posted on the wrong thread here.
November 16, 2006 2:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
If the MSM just goes with the power flow, as some have speculated, I want to see some tangible sign of a change after Democratic victories. A specific sign I want to see is Glenn Beck gone from CNN. Gone quickly, completely.
November 18, 2006 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
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December 6, 2007 2:53 AM | Reply | Permalink