Will McCain Drag Down The House Republicans?

As we've been reporting all week, Republican members of Congress are starting to look at the reality of pissed off constituents. Red district incumbents in every part of the country-- not Utah, of course-- are suddenly understanding that the dire warnings they've been hearing on an abstract level are actually directed at them. Entrenched GOP incumbents in safe districts are suddenly hysterical and making such gargantuan demands on the NRCC that, according to Politico, the GOP has decided to just toss their few long-shot challengers-- like Dean Andal (CA-11), Erik Paulsen (MN-03), Sydney Hay (AZ-01), Richard Goddard (GA-08), Dave Schweinkert (AZ-05), Jay Love (AL-02), Darren White (NM-01), Steve Stivers (OH-15), Keith Fimian (VA-11), Tom McClintock (CA-04), Pete Olson (TX-22), Dale Sweetland (NY-25), Martin Ozinga (IL-11), Chris Hackett (PA-10), Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-09), Chris Myers (NJ-03), Leonard Lance (NJ-07), John Gard (WI-08), Kirk Schuring (OH-16)-- overboard.

Even Tom Rooney (FL-16), one of the only Republican challengers to a Democratic incumbent-- in this case to Tim Mahoney, a much disliked fake Dem caught up in a sex and payoff scandal-- with a real chance to win, is probably going to have to do it on his own without much help from the party.

That's because endangered and sinking incumbents like Marilyn Musgrave (CO-04), Ric Keller (FL-08), Robin Hayes (NC-08), Dave Reichert (WA-08), Dan Lungren (CA-03), David Dreier (CA-26), Mean Jean Schmidt (OH-02), Randy Kuhl (NY-29), John Shadegg (AZ-03), Ileana Ros-Lehinen (FL-18), Phil English (PA-03), Tim Walberg (MI-07), Joe Knollenberg (MI-09), Dana Rohrabacher (CA-46), Virgil Goode (VA-05), among others, are clamoring for funds to fight off surging Democratic challengers.

GOP Reps. John B. Shadegg of Arizona, Lee Terry of Nebraska, Henry Brown Jr. of South Carolina and Dan Lungren of California are all fighting for their political lives, a reversal of fortunes that has caught even the most astute campaign observers by surprise.

...If 2008 looks like 2006, a new wave of veteran Republicans will be out on the streets, and the colleagues they leave behind could find themselves with the smallest minority since the post-Watergate era.

...Despite some early suggestions that John McCain would help a few Republicans in marginal districts, the presidential election is playing to the Democrats’ favor in races across the country. Barack Obama’s current momentum is strong enough that even some Republicans in red states, such as Nebraska, have tied themselves to the Democrats this fall.

In Nebraska, where Obama hired a state director to help him turn out the vote in and around Omaha, Terry just sent voters a piece of mail with a testimonial from a woman who plans to split her vote between the Republican congressman and the Democratic presidential contender-- a sure sign that the GOP brand is lagging along with the economy and McCain’s own prospects for the White House.

Today is the last day of the People For the American Way Progressive Champion competition which will give three winning progressive candidates a total of $7,000-- on top of the $100,000 they have already collectively earned in the contest. If you can even spare one dollar or ten dollars, please use it to help your favorite congressional candidate leverage part of that prize. The contest ends at midnight tonight (PT). Just click that link that says "Progressive Champions" above. Insider the Beltway pundits are predicting one or two dozen GOP defeats. I think we can hand them four dozen. Let's make sure we're laughing at the pundits again in November like we did in 2006.

How has it come to this? These guys sum up Palin's role in all this pretty smartly:




UPDATE: VIRGIL GOODE

Some Republicans need no help from John McCain to be dragged down. McCain loves crowing about how he (and, ironically, Palin) have opposed Don Young's and Ted Stevens' earmark extravagenza Bridge to Nowhere. I wonder if he'll mention Virginia hypocrite Virgil Goode's earmark for a gay porn movie.