> GOP Leaders Warn Of Election Disaster
> Politico: Sniping And Selfishness Decried As Wary Republicans Fear
> November Nosedive

> May 7, 2008
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> In a piece published in Human Events, the Republicans’ onetime
> captain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, warned his old colleagues
> that they face “real disaster” on Election Day unless they move
> immediately to “chart a bold course of real reform” for the country.
> (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

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> (The Politico) This story was written by John Bresnahan.
> Shellshocked House Republicans got warnings from leaders past and
> present Tuesday: Your party’s message isn’t good enough to prevent
> disaster in November, and neither is the NRCC’s money.

> The double shot of bad news had one veteran Republican House member
> worrying aloud that the party’s electoral woes - brought into sharp
> focus by Woody Jenkins’ loss to Don Cazayoux in Louisiana on Saturday
> - have the House Republican Conference splitting apart in “everybody
> for himself” mode.

> “There is an attitude that, ‘I better watch out for myself, because
> nobody else is going to do it,’” the member said. “There are all these
> different factions out there, everyone is sniping at each other, and
> we have no real plan. We have a lot of people fighting to be the
> captain of the lifeboat instead of everybody pulling together.”

> In a piece published in Human Events, the Republicans’ onetime
> captain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, warned his old colleagues
> that they face “real disaster” on Election Day unless they move
> immediately to “chart a bold course of real reform” for the country.

> And in a closed-door session at the Capitol, National Republican
> Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told members that
> the NRCC doesn’t have enough cash to “save them” in November if they
> don’t raise enough money or run strong campaigns themselves.
> Although a top House Republican brushed aside Gingrich’s broadside as
> “hype from a has-been who desperately wants to be a player but can’t
> anymore,” the harsh words from Cole were harder to ignore.

> “It was a pretty stern line that he took with us,” said one House
> Republican.

> Cole, on the defensive in the wake of special election losses in
> Louisiana and Illinois, pointed his finger Tuesday at his Republican
> colleagues, telling them that they had been too stingy in helping fund
> party efforts. He also complained that the Republicans ran weak
> candidates in both Louisiana and Illinois - a charge Cole made despite
> the fact that, as NRCC chairman, he could have played a major role in
> choosing the party’s candidates if he hadn’t made the decision to stay
> out of GOP primaries.

> In his meeting with members, Cole distributed a document showing that
> even former Republican political guru Karl Rove had badmouthed
> Jenkins, according to GOP sources. It’s not clear whether Cole meant
> it as a criticism of Rove or of Jenkins.

> But Cole’s overall message was clear, said members who sat through the
> meeting: “If you’re not out doing your own work, and you’re waiting
> for the NRCC to come in at the last minute and save you, it ain’t
> gonna happen.” That’s how one lawmaker characterized Cole’s talk,
> adding that the NRCC is “not going to have the resources” to help all
> members “and Democrats will have a lot more money.”

> Republicans are suffering a crisis of confidence after the two special
> election losses. There’s talk that House Minority Leader John A.
> Boehner and other GOP leaders could be ousted if the party suffers
> double-digit losses in November.

> Gingrich’s broadside did little to calm the GOP jitters.

> While Gingrich softened his blow by circulating it privately to the
> GOP leadership on Monday - a day before it was publicly released - his
> language was still strong, and his message was seen as a broad attack
> on Boehner, Cole and the rest of the Republican leadership.

> “The Republican loss in the special election for Louisiana’s 6th
> Congressional District last Saturday should be a sharp wake-up call
> for Republicans,” Gingrich wrote. “Either congressional Republicans
> are going to chart a bold course of real change or they are going to
> suffer decisive losses this November.”
> Gingrich said Republicans cannot rely on the popularity of Sen. John
> McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, to carry
> them to victory in November. And he warned that attacks on Sens.
> Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and on the
> Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former pastor, could backfire.

> “The Republican brand has been so badly damaged that if Republicans
> try to run an anti-Obama, anti-Rev. Wright or, if Sen. Clinton wins,
> anti-Clinton campaign, they are simply going to fail,” Gingrich said.
> “This model has already been tested with disastrous results.”

> The NRCC ran TV ads tying Cazayoux to national Democratic figures in
> the Louisiana special election, only to see Democrats grab control of
> a House seat that had been in the GOP column for more than three
> decades.

> Gingrich, who was pushed out as speaker following GOP losses in the
> 1998 midterm elections, advocated “an emergency, members-only” meeting
> of House Republicans in order to hash out a new reform agenda before
> Memorial Day. He also called for a “complete overhaul” of the NRCC.

> Gingrich said that if the GOP leadership would not go along with his
> plan, “then the minority who are activists should establish a parallel
> organization dedicated to real change.” He offered nine policy
> proposals designed to achieve that goal, including repealing federal
> gas taxes, reforming the Census Bureau and declaring English as the
> official language of the United States.

> Boehner tried to put the best face on Gingrich’s message. His
> spokesman, Michael Steel, said that Boehner “certainly agrees - and
> has said repeatedly - that Republicans can only succeed this year by
> being agents of change and reform.” Steel said Republicans have to
> convince voters that they can “fix” Washington and that, in the coming
> weeks, they will be “laying out Republican policies that embody the
> sort of changes we need.”

> But there is no question that Gingrich has identified a nervous
> undercurrent among House Republicans that could morph into full-
> fledged panic if the GOP loses a special election next Tuesday in
> Mississippi. Republican Greg Davis is squaring off against Democrat
> Travis Childers for the House seat held by former Rep. Roger Wicker (R-
> Miss.), who was appointed to the Senate to replace retired Sen. Trent
> Lott (R-Miss.).

> With internal polls from both parties showing the race as a tossup,
> the GOP is putting on a full-court press. The White House has
> dispatched Vice President Cheney to Mississippi to campaign on Davis’
> behalf. And Wicker, Lott, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Mississippi
> Gov. Haley Barbour will hold events for Davis this weekend and early
> next week, according to GOP sources.

> House Republicans will hold a rally with President Bush on Wednesday
> morning, with all 199 members invited to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to
> show solidarity with the president, according to GOP sources.

> By John Bresnahan
> Copyright 2008 POLITICO