Ken Mehlman warns his party that they will
lose seats at every level of government. The Hotline blog reports:
RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, generally one of the party's premiere strategic optimists, warned GOP state chairs that the party would lose seats at every level of government.
Not "if" they didn't do X,Y, or GOTV. But "would lose," period. The task for state chairs: use lessons learned from '04 to flush out the Republican base as much as possible.
The corollary: the more Republicans confront Pres. Bush, the more they localize national sentiment, which in turn could provoke a higher turnout among independents, which in turn could cost the party even more House, Senate and GOV seats.
What Mehlman and WH pol dir Sara Taylor didn't say -- but what all state chairs know -- is that the politics of nastiness generally turns off persuadable voters. So expect the marginal races this year to be quite nasty.
After what they've done to the country, it's a wonder these people don't head home in shame.