RK ARCHIVE - The First District is the Opening Salvo of 2008

Clearly the eyes of the Republican national party are on this race. To show support and concern for the 1st District, the National Republican Congressional Committee sent a representative of the group, Brian Walsh, who brought with him an award for Chairman Hager on behalf of the committee: the National Congressional Medal of Distinction.
After reading the Republican Creed at the beginning of the convention, Chairman Hager was called to address the gathering. He grasped for straws as he described last week's election outcome a resounding Republican success. He stated that "We are not turning into a Blue state but rather we are duplicating what is happening at the national level: we have a red Virginia and a Blue Virginia and the Virginia Republican Party is alive and well." He outlined "two Virginias" (eat your heart out John Edwards) to describe the outcome of the elections last week and included the 1st District of Virginia as part of Red Virginia. He seemed to believe that having 11 candidates for the nomination was a measure of vitality and unity and derided the Democrats for having only two contenders.

"We are Republicans for a reason," he told the crowd, dropping the title of the themes Charlie Judd outlined earlier this year and then reduced the reasons to one: "We don't want Hillary Clinton to be President," he announced to the receptive crowd.

So look for a lot of help from Republicans outside of Virginia as the party begins the effort to regain Congress with this race. The name Pelosi will likely be heard more than Forgit, with Durbin and Reid close seconds. The Republicans appear poised for a quick, hard strike in the tradition of shock and awe.

Comments

How pathetic. (Lowell - 11/11/2007 4:05:51 PM)

A once-great political party reduced to "we don't like Hillary Clinton?" Just for sake of argument, let's say Hillary Clinton was beamed to Alpha Centauri by the Borg tomorrow. What would the Republicans do then? I mean, since apparently the only thing they stand for is "we don't like Hillary Clinton," would they just fold up shop? Unbelievably lame.

A coincidence that Hager was with the President on election night? (dsvabeachdems - 11/11/2007 4:14:19 PM)

They have a scheme and the kool-aid drinkers are receptive and enthusiastic.

What an idiot! (Timothy Watson - 11/11/2007 4:36:42 PM)

"'We don't want Hillary Clinton to be President,' he announced to the receptive crowd."

Because the Democrats did oh-so-well in 2004 with the same message...

Moron.

Shock and Awe (Teddy - 11/11/2007 5:26:08 PM)

is no doubt a good description of probable Republican tactics. Where is the Swift Boat crowd at the moment? Massive, down, dirty assaults at all levels, an attempt to split the Democratic Party in the District (something which Fogit seems to have started on his own), voter suppression, public relations manipulation through a compliant local press--- and, probably, playing the immigration card since they no doubt feel it was effective in Pr Wm.

Are the Democrats ready?

Democrats need to play their immigration card (True Blue - 11/11/2007 5:57:17 PM)

Namely, that the Republican Party is the party of open borders and has a terrible record on immigration.

Immigration is a red hering issue (demdiva - 11/13/2007 10:44:12 AM)

Don't buy it DEMs! The GOPs will never beleive it from us and they won't vote for us -- meanwhile it will cost us big time in terms of getting the Latino vote and also for basic fairness. All the immigration talk I hear from both parties is full of misplaced anger and scapegoating. Immigrants are not a threat to the the US -- the world at war, lack of health care, rising fuel prices, mortgage crisis, shrinking middle class, reduced opportunities for higher education -- all of these are a far greater threat to the US than any immmigrant will ever be.

Immigrants are the new Americans -- they will help us -- not hurt us.

Dec. 11, 2007 is not Nov. 2008 (vadem2008 - 11/11/2007 9:12:06 PM)

I don't think that the Dec. 11th race will say anything about 2008. The presidential election will have such a big influence on the 1st district race and that's when we need to run a strong candidate in Ted Hontz.

Race is still Winnable (bluestafford - 11/11/2007 9:24:02 PM)

Listen the fact is Ted lost and was gracious in defeat. The December 11th race is winnable, but it will take a united 1st District. The ball is in Forgit's court. I would suggest that Forgit, himself not a representative, visit the Northern Committees in the District to mend fences and talk about his positions on issues that matter to these constituents (myself being one of them). The clock is ticking and time is of the essence.

Sure -- but let's downplay the effect of CD-1 on 2008 (demdiva - 11/13/2007 10:50:01 AM)

I'm waiting for Phil to call me an apologize for dissing me and all my fellow DEMs up here. I'll vote for the guy -- will I do much more than that? Eh. Maybe I'll be inclined to let him test his assertion that the southern end will win it for him .

Regardless -- it would be a big mistake to ratchet up the meaning of the outcome of this contest to the 2008 level. Too many weird factors coming into play -- like the timing of the special election itself. So let's not go there until it's over, capeche?

Honestly, I don't see how the CD-1 special (Lowell - 11/13/2007 10:52:28 AM)

will tell us ANYTHING about 2008. This is a solid red district, the only way it becomes significant is if Forgit pulls a huge upset victory. If not, it's a total yawner...