House Republicans ROMP down road to nowhere

Ever wonder what the NRCC's answer to the DCCC's "Red To Blue" program is?

Well, strictly speaking, they don't have one (at least, not one that's publicly shared). But they're working hard on that.

House Minority Leader John Boehner does, though, and he's even come up with a clever acronym. He's entitled it the "Regain Our Majority Program", or "ROMP 2008". Ah, what a comedian.

ROMP 2008 has recently released the third instalment in its list of candidates favored for assistance, the first update to their list in calendar year 2008. I found it rather instructive as to GOP priorities, and I've posted it below:

Rep. Michelle Bachmann, MN-06
Rep. Vito Fossella, NY-13
Rep. Sam Graves, MO-06
Rep. Ric Keller, FL-08
Anne Northup, KY-03
Erik Paulsen, MN-03
Rep. Bill Sali, ID-01
Rep. Jean Schmidt, OH-02
Rep. Tim Walberg, MI-07
Darren White, NM-01

Notice that this ROMP program, ostensibly focused on regaining the Republican majority, seems disproportionately tilted towards protecting incumbent Republican Reps. In fact, out of these 10 districts where the elephants hope to ROMP, exactly one is currently held by a Democrat, John Yarmuth of Kentucky's 3rd District.

I find this to be a novel and fascinating method of Regaining Their Majority; by not targeting Democratic-held seats. I wish them the best of luck with this; I'm sure it's going to work out just splendidly. Keep avoiding the Dem-held seats, and they oughta have that ol' majority back in no time flat.

I'm also intrigued by the specific Republican seats that the ROMPers decided were particularly endangered. I'm not at all surprised by the open seats in MN-03 and NM-01, and listing Graves, Keller and Walberg makes a lot of sense to me as well.

But some of the others listed show just how desperate things are getting for the Grand Old Pustules. They need to swoop in and help out Bill Sali? Already?

ID-01 has a PVI of R+18.9. It's the 14th-most Republican district around. I know Bill Sali is "just an absolute idiot", but really, what does it say about the GOP's electoral hopes that six months before the general election, they're worried about districts like this one?

The same goes for Ohio's 2nd, home of Mean Jean Schmidt. I guess I understand this one-Schmidt is a walking nightmare of a candidate who has single-handedly made this district competitive in two consecutive elections-but still...things are so rosy for House Republicans that they're already trying to figure out how to protect R+13 districts? Splendid.

As for NY-13...it's a pretty friendly district for Democrats, I grant. But Vito Fossella has never received fewer than 57% of the vote, and Boehner's folks are already worrying about him?

In simple terms, the Regain Our Majority Program is not actually focused on regaining the Republican majority, but on preventing Democratic pickups in second-tier races. They won't admit this, but their targeted races indicate that that's exactly what they're doing. From the CQ article:

CQ Politics’ Balance of Power scorecard, which is based on its ratings of all 435 House races, underscores how optimistic the goal of regaining a House majority appears for the Republicans. But Boehner contended last week that his party would gain ground in this year’s elections, citing the lengthy and combative race for the Democratic presidential nomination between Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

"The longer this goes on, the more disappointed voters there will be. Frankly, that’s one cause for my optimism," Boehner said at a lunch for reporters organized by the Christian Science Monitor.

Actions speak louder than words, Rep. Boehner, and your actions seem to indicate just how optimistic you really are about regaining a House majority.

But if you want to strain credulity and destroy the remaining shreds of your credibility by insisting that you're going to gain seats this year...well, that's your hangup.