Republican Resurgence?

{Bugs Bunny voice} Mnyeeeaah, could be….

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In New Jersey, Donk place-holder Bob Menendez…

1) ….is under federal criminal investigation for rampant corruption;

2) ….was caught in a pathetic double-lie, telling Jewish voters that he supports Joe Lieberman in Connecticut after earlier telling a different audience that he backs Li’l Neddie Lamont, and also accusing his GOP opponent, Tom Kean, Jr., of “lying” about his support for Lieberman by exposing the lie;

3) ….would lose to Kean if the election were held today.

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In Virginia, the incredible shrinking Donk that is known as James Webb….

1) ….declared in 1997 that he did not have “one ounce of respect” for Bill Clinton;

2) ….called Clinton’s “the most corrupt administration in modern memory” three years later;

3) ….was kissing Mr. Bill’s fat ass last week (and probably didn’t stop there) to get the old scoundrel to raise campaign cash for him;

4) ….was castigated recently by former Virginia governor (and Democrat) Doug Wilder for running too negative a campaign;

5) ….is apparently utterly indifferent to reining in pork barrel spending;

6) ….has been caught lying about his role in proposing and leading the "fight" to include a black soldier in the Vietnam War soldier's memorial;

7) ….would lose to GOP incumbent George Allen if the election were held today.

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Is Nancy Pelosi the new “church lady”?

Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider said,..."Republicans are without a single winning issue, so it's no wonder they are desperately trying to falsely smear a churchgoing grandmother who has made fiscal responsibility, bipartisanship and middle-class tax cuts a priority."

How many “church-going grandmothers” do you know who also march in gay pride parades and tacitly endorse man-boy “love”?

Sounds like a winning issue to me.

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Michael J. Fox, creator of Reagan conservative Family Ties character Alex P. Keaton, and real-life sufferer of Parkinson’s Disease, has taken it upon himself to pity-monger on behalf of Missouri Donk senate candidate Claire McCaskill (and now also Maryland Donk senate candidate Ben Cardin - who voted against embryonic stem cell research, BTW) by going before the cameras sans medication, jerking and spasming all over the screen while lying about everything from being an American (he’s Canadian, eh) to accusing GOP Senator Jim Talent (and presumably Maryland Lieutenant-Governor Michael Steele) of “opposing stem cell research”:

In Missouri you can elect Claire McCaskill who shares my hope for cures. Unfortunately Senator Jim Talent opposes expanding stem cell research. Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us a chance for hope…What you do in Missouri matters to millions of Americans. Americans like me.

Notice the word Fox doesn’t use – “embryonic.” Nobody blanketly opposes ALL stem cell research, much less wants to "criminalize" it; indeed, adult stem cell research has yielded a significant number of medical advances that do provide hope for treatments and even cures for those afflicted with neurological disorders. What Talent, and many other Americans, do oppose is destroying human embryos for their genetic material, which have yet to produce a single medically useful discovery.

But then Fox can’t mention that little detail because if he did, Jim Talent would have to come on at the end and endorse McCaskill’s ad. Hell, he should anyway just for kicks since such grotesquely exploitive, Edwardsesque snake-oil carnival-barking cannot help but backfire on McCaskill.

It’s funny; when a televangelist does this kind of thing, people like Michael J. Fox and Claire McCaskill and Ben Cardin are the first and loudest to condemn it as “right-wing, theocratic, religious fundamentalism.” But when there’s political power to be had, they’ll trample Benny Hinn himself to get first in line to start raising the dead.

In exchange for their votes, of course.

Oh, yes, McCaskill would lose to Talent if the election were held today.

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Harold Ford, Jr., the fresh-faced young African-American Donk Congressman going after Bill Frist’s Tennessee senate seat….

1) ….got his clock cleaned by this devastating Bob Corker TV ad simply stating that Ford has never worked an honest day (i.e. in the private sector) in his life;

2) ….tried to retaliate by crashing a Corker presser and throwing a temper tantrum, succeeding only in underscoring the fundamental truth of Corker’s ad that Ford is a silver-spooned n’er-do-well and an empty suit;

3) ….is cratering in the polls and would lose big to Corker of the election were held today.

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Didja know that the fever swampers has already got their election defeat excuses ready, and are even imagining the election to be irrelevant if they win, because of the quiet confidence of President Bush and Karl Rove?

When I asked Gore Vidal at dinner why the White House seemed so serene and at ease about the vote, he replied that, this time around, the Bush-Cheney henchmen could simply call on martial law. He glumly noted that we are so far down the road toward totalitarianism that, even if Democrats do win back the Congress, it would take at least two generations before the last six years of damage to the nation could be reversed. Gore frankly despaired that any amount of time could ever return the country to where and what it previously was. This prediction left me reaching for some Fernet Branca.

But whether it is hubris, loony tunes, or both, the White House’s freakish calm about the elections makes me as nervous as the hell we seem to be headed for. Therefore we should all be on alert. If for whatever reason we don’t win back Congress in November the only real answer will be to take to the streets.

Not a whole lot of folks are taking that threat seriously. That’s because the sort of person who makes threats like that don’t merit being taken seriously. Though they do take themselves seriously – far too much – and place a value bordering on the metaphysical upon the regaining and retention of raw political power. Far more so than grounded, godly men like George Bush and Karl Rove do.

That’s the difference between “Red” America and “Blue” America. If George Bush had lost in 2004, his life would have gone on because he knows there are more important things than politics. For the libs who hate him, politics is all there is, which is why they’re recurring failure at it, propelled by the very mania driving them to keep coming back for more, has driven them functionally mad.

Personally, I don’t take Lyn Lear Davis seriously. But I think there are lefties who will, eventually, take to the streets, and not just to protest. I remember well the political violence against Republicans that swept across the country in the last weeks of the ’04 campaign. I see no reason why that won’t continue to metastasize if the Dems’ losing streak continues.

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Or when it continues. That appears to be a growing consensus of at least some electoral experts.

Barron’s Online:

Jubilant Democrats should reconsider their order for confetti and noisemakers. The Democrats, as widely reported, are expecting GOP-weary voters to flock to the polls in two weeks and hand them control of the House for the first time in twelve years - and perhaps the Senate, as well. Even some Republicans privately confess that they are anticipating the election-day equivalent of Little Big Horn. Pardon our hubris, but we just don't see it.

Our analysis - based on a race-by-race examination of campaign-finance data - suggests that the GOP will hang on to both chambers, at least nominally. We expect the Republican majority in the House to fall by eight seats, to 224 of the chamber's 435. At the very worst, our analysis suggests, the party's loss could be as large as fourteen seats, leaving a one-seat majority. But that is still a far cry from the twenty-seat loss some are predicting. In the Senate, with 100 seats, we see the GOP winding up with fifty-two, down three.

Yes, basing election predictions on which candidate in each race has the bigger warchest is not exactly casual, since incumbents usually win and incumbents usually are able to raise more money. There’s some overlap there but not so much as to be able to handicap based upon it.

But wait – there’s more! Scott Elliot at ElectionProjection.com is noticing a GOP resurgence as well:

On the House side, did anyone see that Selzer & Co. poll from Indiana CD-7? When I saw the GOP candidate ahead by three points, my heart sank a bit thinking that another safe GOP seat was getting competitive. Then I realized that IN-7 is a Democratic seat. Well, lo and behold! I think we will see this trend of more GOP-favorable polls continue over the last seventeen days. By the way, let me confirm once again that I stand by all three of the edicts I decreed earlier this year.

The GOP will hold the House - April 24

The GOP will hold the Senate - April 28

In the Senate, though not much happened last week, look for polls this week in Tennessee and Missouri to show Corker and Talent with small leads, respectively. And look for Allen's lead to grow some in Virginia next week as well. The huge financial advantage enjoyed by several GOP senate candidates should start to pay dividends in some of these close races. I think the chances of the Democrats taking the Senate are very, very slim.

Overall, it is clear to me that the GOP has indeed turned the corner - if it was ever really down in the first place….I believe now that the effort by the media to portray the GOP faithful as depressed and un-energized has failed to produce GOP faithful who are depressed and un-energized. That is the main reason I'm feeling good this week.

And there is what I think is an emblematic post from libertarian Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit:

Well, I voted today on the "Hart Intercivic eSlate" voting machine. The early-voting location was pretty crowded, and one of the poll workers told me that it's been very busy - like a Presidential election, he said, not a midterm. Apparently, not many voters are deciding to stay home. If this reflects a more general trend, that's probably good news for the Republicans….

I liked Harold Ford, Jr. when we interviewed him, and I wouldn't shed any tears if he were elected; he'd raise the caliber of the Democrats in the Senate. But when push came to shove, I voted for Corker. I liked him, too, and ultimately the combination of Ford's "F" rating on gun rights and the sleazy "outing" behavior of the Democrats was such that I just felt I had to vote Republican in this race….

As I mentioned before, the Republicans don't really deserve my vote - though as Bob Corker hasn't been in Washington that's not really his fault - but nonetheless the
Democrats have blown it again. Not long ago I was thinking that a Democratic majority in Congress wouldn't be so bad; but the sexual McCarthyism from the pro-outing crowd, coupled with the Dems' steadfast refusal to offer anything useful on national security, has convinced me that they just don't deserve a victory with those tactics. That's not Ford's fault, either, really. But I just don't think the Democrats are ready for a majority right now. We'll see how many other voters agree.

Voters like Reynolds - independent and disgruntled with the GOP - are just the sort of voters that the Donks need to either attract or suppress on Election Day if they are to regain their version of the Holy Grail. If Reynolds is so repulsed by the Democrats' gutter tactics and sulfuric pacifism that he feels motivated to (1) vote and (2) vote Republican, that speaks volumes about the direction this campaign is headed in its closing days.

If you want a parallel to a past election, think not 1994, but 1996: an all-out Donk slimeacane that was going to annihilate Republicans that, instead, peaked too early and receded, allowing the GOP to make a strong close and hold both sides of Capitol Hill.

I think quite a few voters will agree with the Instapundit's sentiments. Enough, at the very least, to keep the House and Senate, nominally, in Republican hands, and Lyn Lear Davis swimming in Fernet Branca.