The “R” Word?
Three weeks to go to the pivotal 2006 election, and it looks like the Democrats will take the House and have at chance at the Senate.
Michele Bachmann’s epic fuckup in consort with Daddy Mac Hammond of the “Living Word” megachurch may well seal her Godly fate. Appearing onstage at one of Hammond’s religious “services,” Bachmann went over the top and hot for Jesus.
That was bad enough, but Daddy Mac possibly cooked his church′s nonprofit status and served it on a platter to the IRS by publicly endorsing Bachmann in front of the congregation. (Kudos to Ken Avidor for capturing the video and to Dump Michele Bachmann for unceremoniously sharing it with the world. And God bless YouTube.)
The day after, the FBI raided six locations as part of an investigation of Pennsylvania’s Curt Weldon, already running behind his Democratic opponent, Joseph Sestak, in a race for the 7th District Congressional seat.
That night I watched Tavis Smiley’s conversation with David Kuo, author of Tempting Faith, the new book disputing the sincerity of Bush’s Christianity. Kuo’s appearance is hard to shake. He’s a convincing fellow and comes off as genuinely hurt by the Bush team’s cynicism towards their own base. Of course, his account resonates with the Bill Moyers on America episode, “Capitol Crimes,” that I talked about in my last post.
That’s not to mention the Mark Foley scandal.
It seems that the Republicans are at risk of reaching a tipping point where mere affiliation with the Party becomes a negative. It may already be happening.
In poll after poll, Democrats are gaining ground across the country. Coleen Rowley has picked up 12 percentage points on John Kline, who looked to be a lock with a 20% lead a short time ago. Even Mike Hatch seems to have found some traction against Teflon Tim Pawlenty.
And it is cool to be liberal again. No amount of right wing bile in the remaining three weeks can change that. Suddenly, the Dems have the advantage–preserving a wider political spectrum within their party now means broader appeal while the increasingly sectarian rhetoric of the Republicans (think Terri Shiavo) limits their ability to motivate the moderate voters who the Repugs always assumed were really social conservatives.
The Republicans have shit loads of money, however. The question for them is whether Bush and Company have so disgraced the Republican name that party affiliation–and the word Republican–is itself now a negative with many voters.
If that is the case, the more they spend getting their message “out there” the worse it could get for them.
Here’s hoping.
–Loosestrife
Original post by Loosestrife