Traditionally, chairpersons of the National Republican Congressional Committee get to serve two terms. Current NRCC Chair Tom Cole had a pretty painful cycle, losing three special elections this year and at least another 23 seats this week (while taking back four deep red seats), so it’s no surprise that he wants another bite at the apple — he would love desperately to redeem himself in 2010, when the GOP has a chance to take a few of these seats back.
The only problem? House Minority Leader John Boehner is saying: “Nuh-uh!” From Roll Call:
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has endorsed Rep. Pete Sessions (Texas) for chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee over NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.), who is seeking another term at the head of the committee.
Boehner’s public support of Sessions comes one day after Cole appealed to the House Republican Conference for a second term helming the committee, and the Minority Leader’s support could prove crucial to Sessions’ chances of winning the post in the upcoming leadership elections.
“Tom Cole has guided the NRCC through a difficult time for our party, and I’m sincerely grateful for his service to our team. But I believe having Pete Sessions at the helm of the NRCC in the next cycle will give House Republicans our best shot at rebuilding a majority coalition,” Boehner said in a statement. “Pete has the skills needed to recruit top-tier candidates and give them the support they need to challenge a Democratic Congress that has been bought and paid for by liberal special interests. We need Pete Sessions at the leadership table as the next chairman of the NRCC.”
Tom Cole finally dead? Stay tuned…
According to the Washington Post, Republicans are blaming moderation for their electoral problems and intend to replace the older and clueless leadership with the younger and even more clueless.
Boehner will stay despite his extremely heavy hand (which didn’t work) on a number of cases (Rick Renzi and Vito Fossella come to mind). Why a Republican House member would contribute to the national fund when he can easily be kicked to the curb and left cash-less is beyond me.
Eric Cantor here we come. can Patrick McHenry be far behind?
PS- With Jindal as a governor, Republicans are both very whitebread and very male. I can’t think of one black, only four Hispanics unless Devin Nunes qualifies (Devin?) and three of those House members are FL Cubans. The number of women dropped by two (net) to 18 and I wouldn’t be bragging on Jean Schmidt.
Vanderjagt (MI) held the job for eight straight Congresses without ever coming close to having the Republicans take control. If he had not lost a primary to Peter Hoekstra in 1992, maybe he would have kept the job in the 103rd Congress also and the 1994 takeover would have been averted.
requires a reference to Dracula not being quite dead. Well, either that, or being dead and loving it.
Give him another shot in 2010. It’s only fair to give him a shot at redeeming himself. Same goes for Ensign who should hire Liddy Dole to help him out.
Putting aside the specific local reasons why you guys lost four House seats, Tom Cole actually did better than Tom Reynolds, who in 2006 lost over 30 seats and won from the Democrats….absolutely zero in return!
The irony? His own party doesn’t seem to notice.