House GOP chief: Self-loathing is key to success

by Matthew Hay Brown

The chief campaign operative for House Republicans has advice for GOP aspirants to Congress in 2008: Run against the House Republicans.

"I tell candidates all the time, they ought to be running against all of Washington, D.C. – and that includes us," Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee, told reporters today. "Because we have not ourselves in every case lived up to the things that we wanted to accomplish as a party."

President Bush’s approval ratings are low, and congressional Republicans’ are lower. A dozen House Republicans have announced their retirements, and the NRCC trails the rival Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in fundraising.

But voters, the Oklahoma Republican said, are in "a firing mood. … They’re going to come out, and they are not happy with the direction in which the country is moving, and the direction in which the Congress is moving."

And therein, Cole says, lies the seeds of Republican victory. In Cole’s view, voters still frustrated with business as usual in D.C. following the Democratic takeover of Congress are continuing to look for alternatives – which will lead them back to the GOP next fall.

"We think 2008 is an anti-Washington, anti-incumbent year," he said. "We think that the Democratic Congress forfeited the opportunity to make a good first impression."

Of course, the change Cole wants to promote is in Demcoratic seats only. In the Republican-held First District of Maryland, for example, where conservative state Sen. Andy Harris has launched a strong primary challenge to moderate GOP Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, Cole is backing the incumbent.

Harris had outraised Gilchrest through Sept. 30, trailed him only slightly in cash on hand, and has lined up the endorsements of several leading Republicans in the district on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Cole has taken shots in the conservative blogosphere for endorsing Gilchrest, a former Marine who has voted with the Democrats on the Iraq War.

"Wayne Gilchrest, I think he’s an exceptional member," Cole said. "Now if there’s a change, then we’ll work with the other guy."

Cole continued to see good news for the GOP in the special election Tuesday in the Democratic-leaning Fifth District of Massachusetts, where Jim Ogonowski didn’t lost to Niki Tsongas by as much as Republicans say he should have.

"We think this was as much a judgement about the Democratic Congress and how it’s being run as anything else," he said. "They no longer are seen as the agents of change. If you have to struggle to win there, then, you know, I think you’ve got some serious challenges.

"Also it shows that just running against the president or running a 2006-model campaign is not going to make it in 2008. I think you really have to adjust for a very different temperature in the electorate."

Democrats have rejected Cole’s analysis.

"Massachusetts voters sent a clear message," Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement after the Tsongas won, 51-45. "They support candidates who fight for their values to provide children’s health care and work to end the war in Iraq."