At his website, Newt Gingrich sends out an appeal to his party to change its strategy or face defeat in November. He has some startling numbers and analysis to back him up:
This past weekend Louisiana held a special Congressional election in its 6th district. It's a district George W. Bush won by 19 points in 2004 and Republicans have controlled since 1975.
They lost it this weekend.
There was another special election earlier for former Speaker Denny Hastert's old seat in Illinois. That seat had been held by a Republican for 76 years with the single exception of the 1974 Watergate election when the Democrats held it for one term. That same seat had been carried by President Bush 55-44% in 2004.
The Democrats took it.
With these elections and Bush's approval rating at historic lows (no president has ever been under 40% this long), Gingrich argues Republicans need to adopt (or co-opt) a the message of change, or get blown out of Congress.
Polls show that Americans now trust Democrats more than Republicans to handle the deficit (52- 31), taxes (48- 40) and terrorism (44-37).
Gingrich notes that McCain's strong polling numbers suggest that his support exists independent of Congressional Republicans, and Republican candidates won't be able to count on a McCain bump come the fall.
To combat these bad Republican trends, Gingrich gives 9 issues for "Real Change" Republicans can use. Some aren't new (English as the official language), but others are interesting (slashing the Census budget, establish an earmark moratorium).
Check the above link for the full article.No Republicans should kid themselves. It's time to face up to a stark choice.
Without change we could face a catastrophic election this fall.
Without change the Republican Party in the House could revert to the permanent minority status it had from 1930 to 1994.
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