“G.O.P. Seen to Be in Peril of Losing House ” That’s the headline for this NYT story. And bold, isn’t it? Not “is” in peril—as the panoply of polls, analysts, and GOP pols say in the body of the piece itself—but “seen to be.”
Is or Seen To Be, this is not news. Everybody knows the GOP is in danger of loosing the House. Indeed many political insiders see it as a given, provided the DNC doesn’t blow it (and, granted…). The real issue is the Senate. Here, the NYT says:
“A turnover in the Senate, which would require the Democrats to pick up six seats, is considered a longer shot. Democrats’ greatest hopes rest with Pennsylvania, Montana, Rhode Island, Ohio and Missouri; the sixth seat is more of a leap of faith. It would require Democrats to carry a state like Tennessee, Arizona or Virginia, where Democratic hopes are buoyed as Senator George Allen, a Republican, deals with the fallout from his using a demeaning term for a young man of Indian descent at a rally last month.”
“Using a demeaning term for a young man of Indian descent at a rally last month”—it is so weird hearing that incident described in such white-paper language, isn’t it? More on how key the Virginia Senate race to the overall outcome of the midterm eletctions here.
Another sign the GOP is in trouble: its own candidates calling for Donald Rumsfeld’s resisgnation, as Thomas H. Kean Jr., a New Jersey state senator who’s running for the U.S. Senate, did “just shy of midnight” on Friday. “What compelled him to advocate publicly for a “fresh face” leading the troops, Mr. Kean said (via the NYT), were Mr. Rumsfeld’s recent remarks chiding critics of the war for “moral and intellectual confusion,” and comparing them to those who advocated appeasing Nazi Germany in the 1930’s. “By engaging in that kind of rhetoric,” Kean said, “this secretary has stepped over the line.” (More on Rumsfeld’s Nazi rhetoric here.)
Also the NYT offers some really cool interactive maps and databases to track all the races. You can navigate to them from any of the above NYT links.
