“We got them just where we want them.”

That was my initial sardonic reaction to the fact that Republicans lost a not very close race in the 12^th District of Pennsylvania.

It is hard to spin this loss as anything more than a set-back for the GOP.

The only thing I can really come up with is that it may make the Democrats over-confident about their prospects in November.  And there is some evidence that the Majority Party is letting their guard down a bit.

For Republican Congressional leaders, this election was a wake-up call.  Something is not right in the way the GOP is contesting special elections.  I say that because Republicans haven’t won a special election in a long time.  And special elections usually give you a pretty good sense of how things are going to go in the general election.

Perhaps the message was all wrong in a district that is overwhelmingly Democratic.  Instead of making fun of Nancy Pelosi, a close friend of John Murtha, an older woman of Italian descent, and a Catholic, maybe the Republicans should have made this election a referendum on Barack Obama.  After all, Obama got beat pretty soundly in this district by both Hillary Clinton and by John McCain.  Read more...