GOP Tsunami Warning

Lately I've been reading Eric Boehlert's Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush, and discovered the following passage on page 90. He's discussing The Note, ABC News' e-mailed summary of the big news stories of the day:

"When it came to Iraq, The Note had adopted a modified don't ask, don't tell policy regarding bad news. For instance, on June 13, 2005, Knight Ridder newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and Miami Herald, published an unsettling piece of page-one analysis, reporting, "A growing number of senior American military officers in Iraq have concluded that there is no long-term military solution to an insurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqis and more than 1,300 U.S. troops during the past two years." That day, The Note linked to more than forty-five must-reads, but the Knight Ridder story did not make the cut."

Of course, readers of this blog will know that, while The Note did not mention the Knight Ridder story, I wrote a long item on it the next day:

http://celticprogressive.blogspot.com/2005/06/mission-not-accomplished.html

Why do I bring this up now? Well, this is a long-winded introduction to another story that might not make The Note, but is going to be seen as important in the months to come.

Dick Morris is making a prediction about the upcoming midterm elections.

And what might that prediction be?

Well, here's the gist of what he has to say:

"Whether there will be a rout or not is anybody’s guess — mine is that there will be and that the Democrats will win both Houses of Congress. "

Morris continues:

"A bit less than half of all voters say that the country would be better off if the Democrats ran Congress, while a bit more than one-third say they would like the GOP to remain in charge. Bush’s ratings are regularly below 40 percent, and his profile on the issue that voters care about most, energy prices, is virtually nonexistent.

The main GOP issue is terrorism, but as we succeed in the war on terror its saliency is dropping every month. Corruption has become a one-party issue, and the blame is falling squarely on the Republican leadership in Congress.

That a Kennedy fell off the wagon and Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) flew off the handle are not enough to besmirch the Democrats. Rep. William Jefferson’s Louisiana larceny — keeping $90,000 in his freezer, a new definition of frozen assets — is also not enough to offset the spectacle of Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) resigning and the House leadership running for cover.

So this year will probably be a wipeout for the GOP. Enough to lose control? Probably. But, the point of this column is that it’s too soon to tell."

I think the main Republican leaders already realize that an electoral tsunami is coming -- that's why we're seeing them pull out their Biggest Hits (Gay Marriage, Flag Burning) in a pathetic attempt to stave off the inevitable. Look for more of that sort of thing in the weeks and months to come. They're going to try their level best to scare the crap out of voters so that they'll feel like the only chance they have to stay alive is to vote Republican.

But I don't think it's going to work. And if the Democrats take control of Congress (as I believe they will, although it's by no means a sure thing), we may finally get some answers from the arrogant jerks who are currently running this Administration -- and ruining this country.

Tom Moran