HUH?  NOW HERE'S AN INTRIGUING BIT OF POLITICAL STRATEGIC THINKING – AT 9:15 A.M.  From Jon Ward at The Daily Caller:

Turns out, not all Republicans are rooting for their own to win the House.

“I want Republicans to make massive gains but I want them to fall one vote short of taking the House,” said Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary to President George W. Bush. “I want to see more evidence that Republicans are ready to govern. I want to see more substance, particularly on what spending they will cut.”

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who has been tasked with recruiting candidates by House Minority Leader John Boehner, confirmed that this view is held by numerous party operatives and leaders, though none in Congress.

“There are some Republicans out there that I respect, that are very, very bright, that root against us getting the majority,” McCarthy said at a recent lunch with reporters. “They believe it’s a two-cycle election. They believe they may get the White House. They think if we got the majority somehow it protects Obama.”

“My belief is, you grab it when it’s there,” he said.

I'll side with Kevin McCarthy on this one.  You take victories when you can get them in politics.  Then, through innovative, popular action, you prove that you deserve to win again.

The political concern among some conservatives about a Republican takeover is two-fold: that it would produce a backlash by Tea Partiers against the GOP and that it might make it easier for President Obama to win a second term in office.

If the GOP came to power and was unable or unwilling to make the reforms on spending and reducing the deficit and debt demanded by an increasingly restless constituency, it could create a backlash in 2012.

The strongest negative reaction would likely come from the Tea Party. Leaders in that movement are ambivalent about whether or not Republicans regain the House back or not.

No, no, no.  Republicans understand that they must do the job if they gain control.  They understand that the public turned against the GOP in 2006 and 2008 in part because the party wasn't living up to its principles.  The lesson has, in my view, been learned by the leadership. 

If the GOP does gain control, it can confront Obama directly.  There'll be some real dust-ups.  Obama has proved far less formidable in governing than in running, and pressure from a new GOP majority can rattle him.  I suspect that Republicans can increase the president's vulnerability in 2012, not decrease it.

June 14, 2010