DR. NOVEMBER, OR HOW THE HOUSE GOP COULD LEARN TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE McCAIN
A congressional insider took a sober look at House races this week and concluded that if the GOP candidate doesn’t tank in the presidential race, Republicans could expect to hold their current six-vote margin, or in the worst case, lose just three or four seats. The potential for the top of the ticket to tip this delicate balance is uppermost in the minds of senior House members as they warily watch the high-stakes showdown in South Carolina. Since George Bush’s inevitability has taken a beating, his congressional supporters’ fallback argument has been that the Governor is more electable in the fall than John McCain. They predict that the media will turn on their favorite Republican as soon as he captures the nomination, and warn their colleagues that a nominee McCain would run against his own party’s incumbents in the general election. House members are inclined to believe, still, that Bush is their best bet for keeping their majority, but all bets are off if he is unable to beat back McCain’s challenge in the next few primaries. You can then expect House members to change their tune toward McCain to "Embraceable You."