Washington Post Crashed-and-Burned Watch (David Broder Edition)
Atrios reminds us of what David Broder wrote, a year ago:
Davide Broder: Why Is This GOP Strategist Smiling?: Polls showed the Republicans on the losing side of almost every issue and the 2008 presidential race.... But Tom Cole, the 58-year-old Oklahoma representative who this year took on the responsibility for running the GOP's congressional campaign, was remarkably sanguine.... Hillary Rodham Clinton... was beating Rudy Giuliani, the current Republican front-runner, 51 percent to 43 percent... Bush's approval rating at 33 percent... congressional Republicans'... at 29.... Democrats are trusted more than Republicans when it comes to handling Iraq, health care, the economy and the federal budget, the poll said, and the two parties are tied on terrorism -- supposedly the Republicans' strong suit.
So how could he be reasonably satisfied with his party's prospects? The answer: The Democrats are also looking like dogs.... Congress as a whole rated only 29 percent.... People think it has been spinning its wheels.... Cole... [s]peaking of the Democrats, he said, "My God, they're dragging themselves down to our level."... "The American people are rising up in disgust," Cole said, "and incumbents will pay. It's not anti-Republican anymore. It's anti-Washington."...
[T]he crucial question at the moment... is Bush's veto of... SCHIP.... Cole claims that Republicans will be protected by asserting that they favor the concept and are prepared to support a less expensive compromise. "All of us are for the program," he said, "but we can't support a bad bill." I think that is a tough sell politically. But I'm more persuaded by his argument that Republicans have little to fear from a Hillary Clinton candidacy.... "There are Democrats sitting in 61 districts that Bush carried; 47 that he carried twice. We are on the offensive in those districts," he said.... Cole has history on his side. In 1992, as he notes, incumbents were hammered, 24 of them losing in November, 17 others failing in their primaries. The Republicans achieved a net gain of 10 House seats that year.... Cole is out to make history repeat itself...
Why oh why can't we have a better press corps.
