9 of 10 "Most Vulnerable House Incumbents" are GOP

[MrBenchley]

Here's the ranking...It will be worth watching to se how many of these Republicans run away from Chimpy....

1. Bob Ney (R-OH)
2. Tom DeLay (R-TX)
3. John Hostettler (R-IN)
4. Jim Gerlach (R-PA)
5. Rob Simmons (R-CT)
6. Heather Wilson (R-NM)
7. Christopher Shays (R-CT)
8. Mike Sodrel (R-IN)
9. Clay Shaw (R-FL)
10. Melissa Bean (D-IL)

http://rothenbergpoliticalreport.blogspot.com/2006/02/rothenbergs-10-most-endangered-house.html

[ClassWarrior]

1. Remember, we need only 16 House seats and five Senate seats...

...(six if you count Joementum) to take back Congress.

16-5.

NGU.

[MrBenchley]

3. Can't imagine Chimpy selling the ports to Bin Laden's pals

is doing the GOP a speck of good.....

[FloridaPat]

2. Gag - I might still be stuck with Genny Waite-Brown! Ugh

[MrBenchley]

4. Keep working....

The fight isn't over until the bell rings...

[skipos]

5. What dems are running against these republicans?

Just because people have soured on these republicans, it doesn't necessarily mean they will flock to their democratic opponents. Hopefully we have some strong dems running against them. Does anyone know the situation in any of these races?

[TexasLawyer]

6. I actually hope that DeLay wins the primary...

since he will be toast in the November election against Nick Lampson. (Assuming, of course, no election fraud).

A Republican candidate for House Dist. 22 without the DeLay baggage, however, might be able to pull off a November win.

[MrBenchley]

8. It will be tough for Delay to get past the primary

without getting eviscerated by his Republican opponents for the general election, I suspect.

[wiggs]

7. Help....I would like to be an optimist again

I read your post and see opportunity. But I look at the lessons of the last five years and wonder how 2006 will be different. I'm not seeing enough change from 2000, 2002, and 2004 in terms of election reform, dem strategy, ruthless GOP strategy, administration dishonesty, pork/corruption, lobbying to make a difference.

Not suggesting we give up...I'm wondering what we need to start doing differently over the next 8 months to counteract smears, fabricated news, corruption, corporate control of politicians and media, flawed election systems, some complicit dems. We cannot approach Nov 2006, even in the races where incumbents are vulnerable, with normal political strategies.

[MrBenchley]

9. Get involved, then....

There's not a Democratic campaign anywhere in the country that couldn't use some more help....

[Warpy]

10. Only disenfranchising 17,000 New Mexicans got that cow

Heather Wilson another term in Congress. People around here generally can't stand her. Her head is so far up Stupid's asshole she hasn't seen anything else for years. The second she got her first term, she shook the dust of NM off her shoes and hasn't looked back.

The folks back home are the LAST thing she would ever consider when voting for some piece of asinine neocon legislation.

Vulnerable? Even slight cheating on the part of the GOP would humiliate her at the polls. Only the massive cheating of 2004 has kept her in office.

[MrBenchley]

11. Let's get her out in 2006!

[senseandsensibility]

12. Isn't Heather Wilson the one who is conducting some kind

of "investigation" into chimpy? I'm sure that it will be very hard hitting.:sarcasm:

[MrBenchley]

13. Don't know for sure....

Wonder how many of the others will turn on the corrupt drunk before November rolls around.

"FALSTAFF
My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart!

KING HENRY IV
I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers;
How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!
I have long dream'd of such a kind of man,
So surfeit-swell'd, so old and so profane;
But, being awaked, I do despise my dream.
Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;
Leave gormandizing; know the grave doth gape
For thee thrice wider than for other men.
Reply not to me with a fool-born jest:
Presume not that I am the thing I was;
For God doth know, so shall the world perceive,
That I have turn'd away my former self..."

--Shakespeare, Henry IV, part 2, Act 5, scene 5

[senseandsensibility]

14. Yes , they will turn away from their former selves

Thanks for the quote. There's something eery about reading the beauty of Shakespeare in connection with the most illiterate, inarticulate "president" ever and his cronies. It's actually amusing in a kind of sick way. So thanks for cheering me up!

[MrBenchley]

15. Any time....

Actually, it's hard not to look at the Republican party and not think of the sweaty, shaky Nathan Thurm character Martin Short did on Saturday Night Live....

"Mike Wallace: Pardon me for saying this, but you seem defensive.
Nathan Thurm: I'm not being defensive! You're the one who's being defensive! Why is always the other person who's being defensive? Have you ever asked yourself that? Why don't you ask yourself that?
Mike Wallace: < holds out paper > This is an affadavit..
Nathan Thurm: I know that!
Mike Wallace: Well, let me finish. This is an affidavit from a woman who has severe nerve damage, on her upper thigh, from sitting on one of your defective whoopie cushions. Here, read it.
Nathan Thurm: You read it!
Mike Wallace: Well, I have read it.
Nathan Thurm: So, why do I have to read it?
Mike Wallace: Well, it does pertain to your company.
Nathan Thurm: I know that! Why wouldn't I know that? It's my company, I'm quite aware of that! < looks at the camera > Is it me? It's him, right?"

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/84/84f60minutes.phtml

[senseandsensibility]

20. You're right

I'll never look at Nathan Thurm in the same way again. He's intertwined with chimpy in my mind forever now.:) God, that's some funny stuff.

[MrBenchley]

21. I knew that...why wouldn't I know that?

[mopinko]

16. they are wrong about bean

i think she has a cake walk.

[calimary]

17. What I love most is that tom delay is now on that list - most vulnerable!

What a hoot! About time! No one could be more deserving of being considered "most vulnerable." I hope he STAYS that way - well, until he's forcibly retired, that is.

[MrBenchley]

19. Agreed....

[MrBenchley]

18. Hope so....

I notice the Republicans are busy attacking each other for the primary....


"Meanwhile, the northwest suburban 8th Congressional District race for the GOP nomination took a negative turn when investment banker David McSweeney launched radio ads attacking rival Kathy Salvi, a personal injury lawyer, for opposing federal caps on pain and suffering awards in lawsuits.
Salvi has said she believes the issue of caps should be a decision for the states, not the federal government. Jason Heffley, Salvi's campaign manager, said Salvi had expected McSweeney to go negative as the primary neared."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/nearwest/chi-0602240326feb24,1,3937873.story?coll=chi-newslocalnearwest-hed

Seen any polls?

[tritsofme]

22. I highly doubt that.

The IL-8 voted 60% for Bush in 2004, its a conservative district.

And she has done a lot to piss off unions and other elements of the base in short tenure in Washington.

The national parties are going to throw a lot of money into this race because they know it will be highly competitive.

Its too close for me to make any call on who will win this one.

[mopinko]

35. just me opinion

based on nothing. but i think people are waking up, and the bushbots will at least stay home. these suburban districts are the smarter end of the middle class base. they are not so much the fundies, and understand things like embezzling, fraud, etc. and they really, really care about their schools, and are starting to get sick of nclb.

[tritsofme]

36. I think Topinka is the kind of Republican

that most of these suburban voters are naturally attracted to, and if she sits at the top of the ticket it might help the GOP in these areas down ticket.

[mopinko]

37. who is the thug?

you may be right about topinka. i used to kind of like her. she is a bushbot now, tho.

[tritsofme]

38. Dave McSweeney looks like the likely GOP nominee

He's a Bush ass-kisser, but has distanced himself from the port-gate fiasco.

He has tons of money to throw at the race, not to mention help from national organizations that both candidates surely will be getting.

Its going to be a nailbiter, and Bean is probably the only incumbent the GOP has any chance of unseating.

[BrotherBuzz]

23. Here's hoping Doolittle (CA4) and Pombo (CA11) can be added to that list

So much dirt is coming down the pike on these two dirtbags, yet it appears their districts will continue to support them even if they were sitting in jail! :shrug:

[MrBenchley]

24. Hope so....

In the "Democrats" folder there's a thread about a Republican pollster who sees signs of a Democratic landslide....

[BrotherBuzz]

26. LOL, point me in the right direction

I'm not good with directions. ;)

[MrBenchley]

27. Here you go....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=296x5877

[SteppingRazor]

25. If Clay Shaw is so vulnerable -- and I agree he is --

Why the hell is the Florida Democratic Party not running a better campaign against him? Ron Klein should be a freaking household name in South Florida by now. Why the hell isn't he? I wholeheartedly believe that Shaw could be unseated after more than a decade of his asinine leadership here in District 22, so it just breaks my heart to see a strong candidate like Ron Klein running such a poor campaign.

[MrBenchley]

28. Hope you'll pitch in to help...

[SteppingRazor]

29. I always do what I can, of course n/t

[MrBenchley]

30. Even if you only stuff envelopes, it helps.

I hope everybody on the site gets involved.

[SteppingRazor]

31. Well, as a reporter, I'll probably be doing a lot of political coverage...

this November, so direct participation will probably be a no-no. But I'll make donations, of course and -- as I'm a flaming liberal working for a flaming liberal publication -- I'll cover the candidates that need to be covered. So, I help in my own way.

[MrBenchley]

32. I understand...

Good job....

[Capn Sunshine]

33. Wouldn't you say Ney, Delay, and Hostettler are toast?

Via Abramoff? Maybe even Shays?

If they don't use Abramoff as a BIG club, along with the UAE ports deal they are just foolish.

[MrBenchley]

34. Hope so...Hostetter is a puddle of pus

who got busted trying to sneak a handgun aboard a commerical flight....

[pstans]

39. Shays?

Shays just might be my favorite Republican out there. He seems pretty moderate and he fought hard against the Schiavo mess.