There's nothing better than reading headlines like this:
With party strategists fearing a bloodbath at the polls, GOP officials are shifting to triage mode, determining who can be saved and where to best spend their money.
It seems that John McCain isn't on that list of folks that can be saved. The RNC is prepared to go into full damage-control mode for the United States Senate in an effort to prevent Democrats from picking up nine seats or more, which would give the dominant party a 60-seat, filibuster-proof majority in the chamber.
The Politico refers to this as the "bailout" plan for GOP senators, as it involves the committee borrowing $5 million on endangered Senators' behalf to shore up their finances.
They claim, of course, that this has nothing to do with abandoning the great and wonderful John McCain...but it doesn't take much to read between the lines:
But that the party would use new money to block a Democratic triumph in the Senate rather than boost the odds of its presidential nominee speaks volumes about what many Republicans think is still salvageable. And some in the GOP, especially those working on House and Senate races in which their candidates’ poll numbers swoon during the financial crisis, are increasingly agitated about money being spent on what all observers, including McCain, acknowledge is an uphill fight on top of the ticket.
"They should pull the money from McCain like [former RNC Chairman] Haley Barbour did in ’96, when Dole slid away, and funnel it to save some Senate and House seats as best they can," said one longtime GOP strategist who is working on congressional races.
The Republicans tried the strategy of building a "GOP Senate firewall" in 2006, in order to stop a Democratic takeover of the chamber. Their strategy was to pull out of races in Montana, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, focusing instead on Ohio, Missouri and Tennessee.
The strategy failed, in part because of a failure in identifying the critical states to protect. The GOP lost Montana in 2006 in part because they pulled out of the state too early; they may have lost Virginia because they went in too late; and they dumped considerable resources into a lost cause in Ohio. Their only success was narrowly holding an open seat in Tennessee. Playing defense is not the Republicans' forte.
There's a real chance to amass a 60-seat Senate majority this year; the Republicans are evidently freaking out about the possibility. Senate candidates apparently can't count on too much help from the top of the ticket, however:
But the Obama-Biden campaign has refused to provide millions of dollars in help to the DSCC, turning down a direct appeal by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and arguing that it needs the money itself to beat McCain.
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