Depending on who you talk to, it sure sounds like John Boehner and crew want to send Tom Cole’s sorry ass packing — and fast. From The Hill:
Speculation continued to swirl that some members of the leadership team want to remove Cole and install Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), a former NRCC chairman, as his replacement. One former senior GOP leadership aide close to the leadership team said there have been “quiet conversations” with Davis about taking the NRCC chairmanship, and that GOP leaders believe he will do so if asked.
Finding an appropriate way to get rid of Cole, though, remains the primary obstacle, the source said.
“Leadership can’t fire Tom Cole,” the former staffer said. “If they could, yes, they would. It doesn’t appear that the conference wants to self-initiate, but people at the leadership table think he needs to step down and he needs to step down soon.”
Thursday afternoon, the source said, leaders were trying to find a way to pressure Cole to make several changes at the party committee that he may not be able to stomach, such as firing staff and accepting new hires of the leaders’ choosing. Leaders want the change at the top to occur before the Memorial Day recess, sources said.
You may recall that, last September, Cole threatened to resign after Boehner attempted to force some personnel changes at the NRCC. So this would be a roundabout way of showing Cole the door.
How long do you give Cole? Two weeks? Or another six months?
He’ll stick it out until the bitter end. Either way, I’m having fun with the Republican drama so let it continue.
Davis is one of the very few political minds I respect among congressional Republicans and he would be a strong improvement over Cole. That being said, the head of the NRCC really is going to have minimal impact here besides fundraising. The GOP is going down because of years of empty, corrupt “leadership” in Congress and the worst President in modern history around its neck.
I find it amusing that members of the House GOP caucus think that a small band-aid fix in the way of a new slogan or two will erase their record and President Bush’s presence. Davis would assuredly try to hammer these points home, but I don’t think he could do that much. Still, I would prefer Tommy Cole to stick around.
I love the idea of an NRCC chair (Davis) who can’t even keep his own seat in the R column come November.
I fully expect Cole to be history as soon as they can persuade Davis (or anybody else) to take his place. But why would Davis bother at this point, I wonder? I can’t imagine wanting such a thankless job under any circumstances, but especially not if I were retiring anyway. And then there’s the reason why Davis is retiring instead of running for the Senate – the screwing he got from the VA GOP on the primary. If he has any self-respect, he shouldn’t care what happens to the Republicans in general at this point.
Then again, I’ve been following Davis’ career since 1991 and I’ve never had any reason to believe he had any self respect.
I’m with RamblinDave. I too have read all the speculation that Davis would take the job but remain mystified why he would want to do so. Having been knee-capped by the wing-nut VA GOP, Davis strikes me as unlikely to bust his ass in a thankless job–and probably not be able to achieve much–in his remaining months in office. I think the ONLY reason me might consider it might be if he planned to return at some point to run for gov. Based on his dog-food comment, it seems to me he wouldn’t be too keen now on doing any favors for Repub yahoos.
He did fantastic in both LA-6 and MS-1!
So I hope he will stick it out…
How can you expect Davis to save the House Republicans when he couldn’t save his own wife?
. . . as to why Davis would do it is . . . he’s got nothing left to lose!
Not exactly a compelling argument, CC. I don’t think he’s channeling Janis Joplin. His dogfood comment suggests that he would enjoy seeing Repubs get as screwed by the electorate as he was by his own party.
The terrible optics of the process, combined with the inevitable issues with revamping a bureaucracy a few months before the election, should be incredibly demoralizing to the rank and file GOP and members of Congress alike. That’s why I wouldn’t bet on Cole being sacked…
firing the captain of the Titanic and appointing a new one after it had already hit the iceberg. (Although I suppose Davis might do a better job of getting people to the lifeboats.)