Matt Ortega

New York Times columnist David Brooks, fresh off the Applebee’s fiasco, actually got one right for a change.

McCain’s problem is that his party is unfit to govern. As research from the Republican pollster David Winston has shown, any policy becomes less popular when people learn that Republicans are supporting it. If the G.O.P. sponsored the sunrise, voters would prefer gloom. Many Republicans are under the illusion that they are in trouble because they’ve betrayed their core principles. The sad truth is that if they’d been more conservative, they’d be even further behind. [emphasis added]

In the special election run-off for Senator Roger Wicker’s (R-Mississippi) former House seat, Democrat Travis Childers was declared the victor. This makes three seats in deeply Republican districts flipping to Democrats and we are not even into the summer yet.

President Bush carried the First Congressional District of Mississippi with 62 percent of the vote. Childers won the seat by eight points, 54-46.

It is important to note that the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) dropped roughly $1.3 million of their $7 million cash on hand in an eight point drubbing in an R+10 district. NRCC Chair Rep. Tom Cole (R-Moore, Okla.) did not even try to spin the crushing defeat. It is simply stunning and goes to show the Everest that Republican candidates face in November.

The defeat leaves Republicans with less than 200 seats in the House — 199.

Swing State Project asked readers to draft the NRCC press release and outlined just how big of a victory the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and Rep.-elect Childers secured for Democrats.

A number of conservative bloggers are avoiding the Mississippi special election run-off altogether but a few chimed in with their takes.

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The Republican loss in the special election for Louisiana’s Sixth Congressional District last Saturday should be a sharp wake up call for Republicans: Either Congressional Republicans are going to chart a bold course of real change or they are going to suffer decisive losses this November.

–Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia)
Gingrich Newsletter, 05/06/08