Quote of the day: It's still too soon for Nancy Pelosi to order her "Speaker" business cards, but . . . (Plus: L.A.'s police chief toots his own horn)

"Privately, many Republican strategists fear there may be no way to prevent the Democrats from winning the House, where Republicans hold 231 of 435 seats."
--from a report by Dan Balz and David S. Broder in today's Washington Post, "More GOP Districts Counted as Vulnerable"

Balz and Broder continue: "One prominent consultant--who like many of the people interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer candid appraisals--put the odds of a Democratic takeover at 75 percent. Another strategist who has worked as part of Bush's campaign team said he believes there is a 9-in-10 chance that Republicans will lose their 12-year-old House majority."

What's more, the "strategists and officials in both parties" interviewed by Balz and Broder see the GOP "fighting to preserve at best a slim majority in the Senate."

Balz and Broder quote Portland (Oregon) independent pollster Tim Hibbitts, "who has been surveying voters for decades": "I'm not saying this is another 1994 [when the then-dominant Democrats lost the House and Senate]. But voters are not happy. It's not just Iraq. It's also that most people don't feel better off economically."

Just yesterday, you'll recall, Howie previewed today's New York Times front-page story by Adam Nagourney and Jim Rutenberg, "Rove's Word Is No Longer GOP Gospel." Signs of panic are growing among Bush-plagued Republicans, who once revered master strategist Karl Rove and his sidekick Chimpy the Prez as God and His Boy Helper.


ALSO TALKING--And the Chief Didn't Even Mention His Own Candor

"I blow my own horn because I am good at it."
--Los Angeles Chief of Police (and former New York City Police Commissioner) William J. Bratton, whose overall success at the job he campaigned heavily for seems likely to earn him a not-so-easily-won second five-year term, reports the New York Times's Jennifer Steinhauer

And if you don't believe Chief Bratton about being good at blowing his own horn, just ask his former boss, then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who decided in 1996 that his city wasn't big enough for the two of their horn-blowing selves.