Tom Cole, the chair of the NRCC, just lost an R+5 district formerly held by none other than Dennis Hastert, aka Denny the Hutt, aka the immediate past Speaker of the House – a district that the Hutt himself helped re-draw after the 2000 census as part of an incumbent protection plan. Tom Cole spent over a million bucks on this race from his shrinking kitty. Tom Cole is now one seat further from retaking a majority that is so, so far out of reach.
And, I suspect, there’s a good chance that Tom Cole will be out on his ass before long.
Brownsox recently took note of rumors that an Oberweis loss here would lead to Cole getting sacked. And the signs are all there. Remember this?
Apparently, House Minority Leader John “Small Price” Boehner is upset with NRCC Chair Tom Cole’s stewardship of the organization, and is heavily pressuring Cole to make some significant personnel changes. Cole has said privately that he would rather resign than bow to such demands.
And just a ten days ago, there was this:
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) is clearly not content to sit this one out, as he exhorted his colleagues to get off their “dead asses” and pony up for the party.
However unhappy Boehner was last week, he is a lot more pissed off tonight. Pissed enough to can Cole’s sorry ass? He may just be.
So, cast your predictions in this thread and vote in the poll below the fold. Will Cole get fired? If so, when? The deathwatch begins!
P.S. The GOP is stuck with Oberweis for November, too! Hahaha suckers!!!
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Give a name of someone you would think would be replacing Cole. That would spice this up a little.
I don’t think any of the Republicans want to take the blame for the bloodbath which will happen this fall.
Incidentally, I think this would the perfect time to be thankful that the Republicans were so stupid that they put Ensign as the head of the NRSC and Cole as the head of the NRCC.
If former Rep. John Sweeney of New York were still serving in the House, I bet Boehner would get a thug like him to head up the NRCC. That man certainly was, and is, a character.
So where is Sweeney these days? Oh yeah, that’s right, back in NY, where Kirsten Gillibrand sent him in Nov. 2006’s elections. If you’re interested, Sweeney got busted for failing to pay a cab driver back on New Year’s Eve after said driver picked him up from a seedy strip club in the Albany, NY area.
just based on the fact that he was (I think, I’m working from memory here) a pollster and also a chief-of-staff, and maybe a professor, but anyway, some kind of professional politics operative. I identify with that career choice (and admire the hell out of being able to nab a seat in Congress with it). Compare to the typical House member, who I generally assume is the smarmy asshole that got elected class president of the state university (gosh, I am outing my personality here), or perhaps some kind of local thug well-connected to the business community, like John Sweeney or Fred Thompson.
Anyway, to do it Tom Cole’s way, you have to not be a moron, which puts me automatically in his corner if he’s having a fight with a Boehner or a Blunt.
And given that set of assumptions, his unwillingness to take personnel dictation from Boehner comes across to me as admirable principle, rather than stupidity or stubbornness (which it could very well be, I don’t know).
Anyway, thought I’d throw that out there to see if anyone has reason to set me straight.
then Cole can’t possibly keep his job if Cazayoux beats Jenkins.
Phil English (PA) and Pete Sessions (TX) ran against Cole for NRCC chair.
no one in their right mind would want to take that job and become the new defacto scapegoat for the upcoming November GOP bloodbath in Congress.
Plus, Cole can simply point to Fat Denny and blame him for tapping that asshole Oberweis to run to replace him.
(BTW, I think I’ve read that Fat Denny has lost something like 100 pounds?? Is that true?
If so, I guess that would make him the Not-Quite-So-Fat-As-Before Denny.)
My money is on someone from Texas or the deep south. It’s probably the only part of the country where the GOP is probably going to hold its own in November (I do hope we make gains there, but I just don’t see very many opportunities relative to the rest of the country). It would also indicate they’re being honest with themselves about what we’ve all known for years: that they’re increasingly becoming a regional party.
Not that I really expect the Republicans to be honest with themselves, but I’m thinking someone from the areas where they are still reasonably strong would be the only one interested in taking the job just now. S/he could then at least say they did okay in his/her region.
PS – One thing I do know about Tom Cole is that he went to my alma mater, Grinnell College. If you know anything about Grinnell, you know it’s very liberal. I was considered something of a conservative there because I was a loyal Democrat. I will say one thing about all the Republicans I knew there – they weren’t stupid. They’d have been eaten alive if they had been. I suspect Tom Cole is a genuinely smart guy too, who’s been put in charge of a sinking ship.
If so, I don’t recall it. The GOP lost two seats in 2004, did they replace the chair then?
You have to remember that to replace Cole is to admit weakness. Also, it’s pretty late in the game. Couldn’t Boehner just keep Cole ‘on the letterhead’ while putting someone else in ‘effective’ charge?
whether Cole keeps his job or not, is the fallout of Illinois-14. For awhile, we haven’t had many retirements at all. Will this bring a small wave of new retirements with it?
then the Republicans could choose a replacement candidate. Of course, this hinges on the idea that Oberweis isn’t a complete egomaniac.
http://www.politico.com/news/s…
I also like this bit from earlier in the article:
Firing Cole would be a huge mistake at this point in the election cycle. It would mean chaos for the party at a time they can least afford it.
That said, I think there is a real chance Cole will be fired or resign. In fact, I put that chance in the high to mid 40% range. Basically a coin toss.
The republicans don’t replace people or get rid of people. They just keep going along pretending that the sky isn’t crumbling down around them. Let Cole stay, let the republicans duke it out and fight among themselves. Will be better for democrats come November.
This is a nice Rohrshach test for a likely replacement. They could go for a lobbyist in waiting like Jeb Barton from Texas. That way, he’ll get some on the job training. They could go for somebody with inherited money. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin comes to mind. Smart guy, rich. Abrasive at times. Then there are the self made money guys. Mr. Car Alarm, himself, Dana Rohrabacher comes to mind. He’s always funding inititatives, recalls, etc. Finally, there are the straight out, stolid jerks. People like Linder of Georgia, Pence of Indiana.