After the losses come the long knives. GOP losers in the Senate are blame-gaming Sen. Elizabeth Dole for her failure of leadership as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. And campaign insiders are now telling reporters that party leaders lost confidence in Liddy’s leadership early on:
In recent interviews, officials said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., as well as Ken Mehlman, the party chairman, set up outside checks on the committee at critical points in the campaign.
As early as last summer, Mehlman signaled he lacked full confidence in Dole’s committee. In an unprecedented move, he set up an independent entity to control more than $12 million that the Republican National Committee spent for television advertising in Ohio, Tennessee and Missouri…
Frist also wanted an outside check. In an unusual move, he hired a polling firm, The Winston Group, shortly before Labor Day to conduct surveys in six important races.
Based on the results, officials said Frist stepped in to help overhaul Bob Corker’s struggling campaign in his home state of Tennessee. Corker ended up beating Democrat Harold Ford Jr. Frist also pushed for a resumption of party-paid advertising in Montana and questioned plans for a multimillion-dollar investment in New Jersey.
And:
Two more weeks of ads in Montana might have made a difference, said one of many Republicans who expressed anger that Dole’s committee aired no television advertisements in Burns’ behalf for between Labor Day and Halloween.
In Virginia, Allen and the Senate campaign committee combined were outspent on television advertising in each of the last five weeks by challenger Jim Webb and the Democratic campaign committee, according to internal GOP figures. The gap exceeded $700,000 in the final seven days.
Two more weeks of ads, huh? Yeah, that probably would have done it for Conrad Burns.
If I were sympathetic to Dole I would point out that she wouldn’t have had to do the impossible in Montana and Virginia if the incumbent candidates hadn’t performed so poorly. It’s a miracle that the races were even close when you factor in Allen’s macaca moment and Burns’ constant and inane spoutings-off.
Republicans lost because of George Bush’s war-on-a-whim in Iraq but if they want to blame their poor showing on each other, far be it from me to stand in the line of fire.
