"Nationalize" Is a Dirty Word

Two items of interest from Politico. First one:

“The fate of Congress’s Democratic members and Obama are inextricably tied; there’s no question about that,” said Neil Newhouse, a GOP strategist. “And for those Democratic members who want to put distance between themselves and President Obama in an effort to save their own hides, they just need to look back to how successful that was for Republicans in 2006 and 2008. Which is to say: Good luck with that.”

Then there’s this report from Virginia:

Conservative leaders gathering in Virginia Wednesday will sign on to a broad statement of principle aimed at giving a coherent framework to the grassroots energy roiling the right.

[Snip]

The statement’s drafters, who will sign it near George Washington’s Mount Vernon home Wednesday afternoon, include figures from differing wings of the movement: former Attorney General Ed Meese, Heritage Foundation President Edwin Feulner, Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, Media Research Center leader Brent Bozell, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, direct mail guru Richard Viguerie, and David Keene, the head of the American Conservative Union, sponsor of this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference, with which the signing of the “Mount Vernon Statement” is meant to coincide.

Here’s what’s interesting. First, Evan Bayh’s retirement puts the Senate in play. It’s still long odds for the GOP to net ten seats, but it’s not impossible. After Scott Brown’s Senate win in Massachusetts last month, “impossible” doesn’t mean what it used to mean. Second, the GOP is — very smartly, I think — trying both to nationalize 2010 much like Newt Gingrich did with the Contract for America in 1994.

But look at the signatures, and look at the goals. Those are all GOP stalwarts and insiders and power brokers — co-opting the Tea Party agenda. That’s wise, but also dangerous. The Tea Party folks rose up in protest against stalwarts and insiders and power brokers. If the Republicans burn them like the Democrats did, then you can spell GOP with a W, H, I and G.

Buh-bye now.