Panic! At the NRCC

As the special election for Dennis Hastert's old seat in IL-14 draws ever closer, the infighting between Denny the Hutt's successors in the Republican leadership is apparently growing more and more bitter.

House Minority Leader John Boehner and NRCC Chairman Tom Cole have been squabbling since September over Cole's leadership of the NRCC, which has provided little in the way of money, an unusually high number of Republican retirements, and a mixed bag in terms of recruitment:

Frustration among House Republicans over sluggish fundraising, staff strife and other internal operations at the National Republican Congressional Committee came to a head this month — with Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) demanding that changes be made.

The tension reached a boiling point in early September during a meeting between GOP leaders and NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.) that resulted in Cole threatening to resign from his post.

Things apparently haven't gotten much better in the past five months.

It is now rumored that if Republicans lose the battle for their former Speaker's old territory of Tatooine Illinois' 14th (where Blue Majority candidate Bill Foster is the Democratic candidate), Cole will be sacked as NRCC Chairman.

As I wrote on Friday, there is a realistic possibility that this could occur.

Now, I don't know whether the rumors are true and whether Cole's actually going to be fired...and it's certainly quite possible that they'll hold on to this district regardless.

But the mere possibility of such a dramatic move - that the NRCC chairman could be forced out in the middle of a campaign - speaks to the dissension within Republican leadership. The firing of Cole would be a public abandonment of even the lamest attempt to conceal their dismay at GOP electoral prospects.

And I'm not convinced it's a good move for them.

I don't know to what degree the NRCC's current woes are actually Cole's fault. When Cole took over, the NRCC was $16 million in debt, was coming off a cycle in which they had lost 30 seats and damn near lost 10-15 more, faced a 31-seat Democratic majority, and was hampered by a presidential field which would have made the Dirty Dozen blush. Under the circumstances, I am not sure Joan of Arc could have done much better than Cole.

And now, just as the fundraising, at least, is slowly improving, come the rumors of Cole's imminent demise. A friend put it rather well; the GOP's script, plot, direction and production suck, so they're blaming the cast.

If Cole does go down, he'll be more a GOP scapegoat than anything else. I suppose that the theory that the dismal House outlook is all Cole's fault is easier to accept than the other alternative: people just don't like the GOP anymore, don't want what they're selling.

And the leadership is doing nothing to amend that reality. Again from the September Roll Call piece:

"Our leadership guys need to be out there more. Boehner hasn’t been out there that much either," the lobbyist said. "He can only fault Cole so much. It needs to be a more collective party effort."

I'm sure that if and when the GOP does get drilled in the fall elections, they'll have any number of scapegoats for the losses-Cole, McCain, Bush, Ensign, history, dumb luck.

But I'd submit that the fault, dear Boehner, lies not in our stars (nor our colleagues), but in ourselves.

By the way, if you also want Cole fired, and Boehner pissed...head over to the Blue Majority ActBlue page and help Bill Foster win Tatooine.