Karl Rove's Take on the 2008 Senate Races (and Thad Cochran)
Hearings were held on allegations of General Services Administration (GSA) misconduct, specifically using GSA staff, time, and resources for Republican partisan political purposes. Think Progress has more and YouTube has clips from the hearing.
Included in the hearing was a PowerPoint presentation from the White House Office of Political Affairs (i.e. Karl Rove's desk), and one of the slides was titled "Battle for the Senate 2008." States were broken down as "Republican Offense," which includes six states, "Republican Defense," which includes 8 states, and "Not Competitive," which includes 19 states (though the math wizards in Rove's office listed it on the slide as "21 states").
The six states listed under "Republican Offense" are Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota. No huge shocks.
The eight states listed under "Republican Defense" are Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, and Virginia. Mississippi?!?! Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Oregon are the obvious top five Republican vulnerabilities. And Virginia and New Mexico are both purple states with possible retirees (even before the Domenici phone call scandal).
But Mississippi?!?! The only Democrat to make Mississippi competitive, at least in a top-tier (i.e. more competitive than, say, North Carolina or Kentucky, which are both listed under "Not Competitive") sense, is former state Attorney General Mike Moore. And it is believed that Moore will only step up if incumbent Republican Thad Cochran retires.
So, does Rove have inside info that Thad Cochran is planning on retiring, after all? Certainly provokes curiosity. The Guru will keep an ear toward these developments as they unfold.
posted by Senate2008Guru | 8:58 PM
7 Comments:
Im not surprised that NC and KY are considered safe. I cant imagine Rove telling the candidate he recruited to run and the minority leader they are vulnerable.
The presentation was meant for internal use only. They wouldn't know. Rove (along with everybody but liberal blogs) consider KY and NC to be not competitive.
Very early on in the cycle, Cochran's public remarks had him leaning towards retirement, so I think Rove including MS was a contingency based on what was (at the time) Cochrans likely retirement. Obviously, things have changed since then. Since the presentation is months old now, I don't think there's anything else to the story.
Except for the investigation that is beginning over certain GSA employees participating in partisan politics on govt time.
I, for one, am looking forward to a partisan investigation by Democrats into whether Republicans are partisan.
So Republicans are now in support of government officials participating in elections while on taxpayer time? Wow, I havent seen an entire party flip-flop that much since the Republicans stopped calling for exit strategies every two minutes.
Why do I even need to respond when you can just simply put all the words in my mouth that you want?
va blogger - the GSA, filled with Republican political appointees, held a blatantly partisan presentation on politically helping Republican Congressional candidates on GSA premises during GSA work hours. That is wildly illegal. And it is obviously wildly illegal.
As is their appropriate role, Congress is investigating the matter.
But because Democrats are the majority in Congress, you, va blogger, write off the investigation as a "partisan investigation by Democrats."
Seriously. That the GSA held such a presentation is shameful partisanship at its worst. It is exactly the type of activity that must be investigated by Congress. For you to suggest otherwise is so off-the-charts ridiculous, you should ask yourself why any of your comments on this blog should be taken seriously.
Imagine if the Party labels were reversed and Democratic appointees held a meeting in the GSA on how to help Democratic candidates. There would be calls for investigations and firings, and rightfully so!
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