**update below
Eunuch's Panic
by digby
"While I don't dispute the fact that we have challenges in the current environment politically, I also believe 2006 as a choice election offers Republicans an opportunity if we make sure the election is framed in a way that will keep our majorities in the House and the Senate," said Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Stung by criticism, senior officials at the White House and the RNC are reminding GOP members of Congress that Bush's approval ratings may be low, but theirs is lower and have declined at the same pace as Bush's. The message to GOP lawmakers is that criticizing the president weakens him -- and them -- politically.
"When issue like the internal Republican debate over the ports dominates the news it puts us another day away from all of us figuring out what policies we need to win," said Terry Nelson, a Republican consultant and political director for Bush's re-election campaign in 2004.
What's a rubber stamp congress to do? Should they run against their man and take the chance that weakening him weakens them as Kenny Boy Mehlman warns? Or should they go down with the ship? Tough choices.
The problem, of course, is that they can run but they can't hide. They have gone along with every corrupt, inept, absurd and outrageous thing that the failed Bush administration has put out there. They have failed in their duty as a separate branch of government by pledging fealty to George W. Bush instead of the constitution. They are George W. Bush. There is no light between them.
This is the iconic image of the Republican Congress:
While New Orleans Drowned
Update: Tweety is down at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference (where they are selling those adorable bumper stickers that say "Happiness is Hillary's face on a milk carton") pretending like he's not running and asking all those who are tempted to write his name on the ballot to write in "George W. Bush" instead. He's tying Frist and the others up in knots.
The press loves the flyboy, never forget it. It's going to take a long determined effort to degrade his favorability if the Democrats hope to win.
Update II: Roger Birnbaum and Howie Fineman are both saying that all the candidates should back putting the name George W. Bush on the ballot because this thing doesn't really matter anyway and it's a nice gesture. Frist has been working feverishly to line up the votes. He wanted to win. McCain just got first blood, and he did it with a smooth slide of the shiv. He's good.
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