Is the “R” a scarlet letter?
Yesterday, I had the following exchange with Chris Cillizza, the Washington Post political blogger.
Rochester, N.Y.: As promised when I met you, another geeky Western New York-centric political question: do you see vulnerable Blue state Republicans — like those in N.Y.-25 (Walsh), NY-29 (Kuhl), and NY-26 (Reynolds) — abandoning the surge come September? Will the recent news that Petraeus’s and Crocker’s reports will be written by the White House — reported by the LA Times today — give them less political cover for continuing to support the White House on Iraq?
Chris Cillizza: I LOVE House questions.
I think that people like Randy Kuhl, Tom Reynolds and James Walsh all know that they are prime targets in 2008. They also all know that the perception of continuing to support President Bush’s Iraq policy could be lethal to their re-election chances.
Given that, I think it is very likely that they as well as any other House GOPers holding narrowly divided districts seek to place some distance between themselves and the president come September.
Will it work? Or is the “R” after their name a black mark that they can’t erase?
More. We want more of the conversation. As for the “R”, as far as I’m concerned it’s been a black mark for years, already. Those guys are going to have a tough time of it in the fall.
Fortunately, Randy does not have the intellectual ability (I was going to say he’s too dumb but that’s not nice) to realize that he has to distance himself from the Prez come September. The other two probably understand the lay of the land and will figure out a way to do it.