One of the jobs of the head of the NRSC, the GOP’s campaign committee in the Senate, is to constantly wear a brave face and reassure the troops that everything is going OK on the electoral battlefield.
In a jaw-dropping interview with the Savannah Morning News, NRSC chair John Ensign defined the new ‘OK:’ not losing so many seats that the Democrats obtain a filibuster-proof majority.
The chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee predicts U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss will be part of the firewall the party wants to build against Democratic control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.
U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., set a minimum on the number of seats the party must control, 41. “The number that we get to is really, really important in the U.S. Senate,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons Saxby absolutely must hold his seat.”
In other words: the goal is to lose no more than eight seats (as they currently hold 49). And the GOP firewall contains Saxby Chambliss: a senator whose seat is universally defined as ‘safe’ by all major prognosticators.
In a move further calculated to disspirit Republican senators, Ensign also confessed the NRSC’s huge financial disadvantage:
“The Democratic Senatorial (Campaign) Committee will be able to take more risks. They’ll be able to take more shots in more places,” he said. “So we’ll have to target our money very carefully. What we won’t do is we won’t spend money in races that are going to win on their own, and we won’t spend money on races that can’t win.”
Hold on a second, Jim Gilmore and Steve Pearce… you don’t have to dig your own grave (and save!) yet, though. Ensign has some more helpful up-by-the-bootstraps advice:
He noted that he won his own Senate seat with less money than the incumbent he upset.
Now just because some of you might be saying, “Wait… the 2000 Senate race in Nevada was an open seat…” that doesn’t mean that imaginary lightning can’t strike twice. After all:
“It’s kind of like a sporting event. You play the game because the outcome is not assured,” he said.
Am I the only one that wants to donate money to the Democrat running in Georgia now? lol
Might move it from safe to likely R.
That’s pretty bad if that’s the firewall. I would begin drinking now if I was Ensign, he might beat Dole for worst NRSC chair of all time. That’s not even one of those motivating get your asses in gear or we are gonna die kind of speeches. Its more like get the bottle of whiskey we are finished kind of speeches.
It’s getting crowded at the top and in some cases tough to really decide between NH and CO which is more likely, but here is my best shot. Seven through nine were very tough to rank. These are for Republican seats only.
1. Virginia
2. New Mexico
3. Colorado
4. New Hampshire
5. Alaska
6. Mississippi
7. Oregon
8. North Carolina
9. Minnesota
10. Kentucky
1. It’s over in VA and NM (unless Mark Warner runs for VP). The DSCC will not even have to bother.
2. The Republican in Colorado is such a doofus that the seat may join NM and VA.
3. The DSCC will need to pay a lot of attention to NH, especially with McCain on the ballot, but we clealr yhave an advantage.
4. Ted Stevens appears to be on his way to becoming the next Conrad Burns and Alaska may take Colorado’s place in the “will be close but will probably flip” catagory.
5. I’m beginning to think the DSCC/NRSC battleground will be deep into the GOP’s turf in the South: Mississppi and North Carolina.
6. Bruce Lunsford has enough money that he doesn’t need anyone’s help.
7. I’m not feeling so good about Minnesota these days.
8. Oregon is a question mark for me. Let’s wait and see.
9. I forsee the DSCC focusing its fire on North Carolina, Mississippi B, New Hampshire and Oregon.
Someone should really start this, seriously.
Anyway, Ensign's defeatist attitude certainly is a new low compared to the feistiness of his predecessor. Check out this video of her holding her own on this panel, even though all she said were complete lies and falsehoods.
I think even Tom Reynolds had his head down going, “shut the hell up…..”
Has McCain even raised $100 Mill during his ENTIRE campaign so far?
But I saw a lot of “if”s. Let’s wait and see.
Gave my first donation the night it was over, and then I bought a t-shirt as a second one.