The NRCC offers a memo, one week out.

What jumped out at me:

• “Republican turnout in early voting is nearly universally above registration levels, proving that the intensity gap that Democrats fear is in fact real.” Of course, many key states and districts have more registered Democrats than registered Republicans, so the GOP had better turn out better than their registration level.
• The memo specifically mentions, “New Jersey’s Third District, New Mexico’s First District, North Carolina’s Seventh District, and Colorado’s Third District.” Hard to believe they would mention the districts of John Adler, Martin Heinrich, Mike McIntyre, and John Salazar if they didn’t think they had a real good shot at knocking off those incumbents.
• The memo also refers to “unprepared vulnerable incumbents like Charlie Wilson in eastern Ohio, Tim Walz in southern Minnesota, and Gene Taylor in southern Mississippi.”
• “The financial advantage that Democrats long believed would allow them to retain their majority has disappeared.”

The full memo:

#MORE#

TO: INTERESTED PARTIES

FROM: NRCC CHAIRMAN PETE SESSIONS

DATE: OCTOBER 26, 2010

SUBJECT: CLOSING THE DEAL: PUTTING THE PIECES IN PLACE FOR A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY

With only a week to go until Election Day, Democrats have found themselves in a position they hoped to avoid from day one. As Republicans continue to expand the playing field and put races away early, Democrats are constantly plugging holes in the dam while resources grow scarce. After a natural post-Labor Day tightening in races across the country, developments at both the national and district-by-district levels confirm that Republicans are finishing strong. A few weeks ago, we found ourselves on the precipice of victory. Now we are closing the deal, moving toward accomplishing our ultimate goal of retiring Nancy Pelosi and capturing a new Republican majority.

While Democrats are still attempting to claim momentum, reality is far different. The Democrats’ ‘triage’ strategy is cutting off outgoing incumbents at a rapid pace, all but conceding losses in key races. The Rothenberg Political Report already rates 22 Democrat-held seats as either ‘Lean Republican’ or ‘Republican Favored’ with another 14 Democrat-held seats rated as ‘Toss Up/Tilt Republican.’ Public and private polling shows that Republicans are already on their way to winning in nearly 40 races. With a week to go, competitive races are moving quickly away from the Democrats and we have captured critical momentum that will play a large role in breaking the 39-seat barrier.

Early results are promising. Republican turnout in early voting is nearly universally above registration levels, proving that the intensity gap that Democrats fear is in fact real. In toss-up races like New Jersey’s Third District, New Mexico’s First District, North Carolina’s Seventh District, and Colorado’s Third District, early Republican enthusiasm foretells a painful election night for Democrats who thought they were immune to the coming wave.

We need look no farther than the Democrats’ spending strategy to see the extent of their problems. As Republicans continue to push the borders of the playing field, the DCCC and its allies are forced to spend money in races they expected would be locked up weeks ago. Even more troubling for Democrats is the fact that many of these races are even competitive in the first place. With the NRCC on offense against unprepared vulnerable incumbents like Charlie Wilson in eastern Ohio, Tim Walz in southern Minnesota, and Gene Taylor in southern Mississippi, DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen has described his party’s challenge as playing a game of ‘Whac-a-Mole.’ The DCCC has scrambled to follow the NRCC into many of these districts to play defense in an unsuccessful effort to stop the bleeding.

The national environment has presented the extraordinary opportunity for Republicans to capture the majority, but the NRCC’s record-setting fundraising has allowed us to capitalize and remain on offense. The NRCC raised $11.2 million in September 2010 alone — its best fundraising month since 2006. We followed that effort by outraising the DCCC once again in the first half of October. While the NRCC is successfully executing a plan to spend $54 million in approximately 90 races, Republican candidates are turning in stellar fundraising performances as well. The Hotline calculates that 34 of the most vulnerable incumbent Democrats were outraised by their Republican challengers last quarter. The financial advantage that Democrats long believed would allow them to retain their majority has disappeared.

Democrats are message-less. There is no longer enough time for them to coalesce behind a message that resonates with middle class voters. Instead, they have desperately turned to attacking outside organizations who dare oppose their anti-business views. Democrats had no complaints when their liberal allies were spending hundreds of millions of dollars on their behalf in the 2006 and 2008 elections. They also conveniently neglect to mention the fact that labor unions continue to outspend conservative groups as well. With their hypocritical attempts to distract voters with scare tactics and side topics, Democrats are only reinforcing voters’ perception that they have absolutely no plan to create jobs. Their message should be taken for what it is: Democrats are laying the groundwork for a massive Election Night loss and they are in need of scapegoat. Unfortunately, reality doesn’t match their rhetoric.

With the playing field much more balanced over the closing weeks of the campaign, Democrats are forced to defend their unpopular agenda in Washington — a fight they know they can’t win. The final unemployment numbers before election day that were announced earlier this month confirmed that Democrats will be held accountable by voters for their reckless job-killing policies. Last week’s state-by-state unemployment numbers reinforced that reality from coast to coast. As Americans are desperately seeking leadership in Washington that is willing to address a struggling economy, Democrats pushed forward with a radical big-government spending agenda that stood in the way of economic recovery and only made matters worse. Though many vulnerable Democrats are running away from this record on the campaign trail, the American people will not soon forget about this binge of unprecedented spending at the expense of a healthy economy.

Make no mistake: Nancy Pelosi’s days as Speaker of the House are numbered. Thanks to nearly two years of hard work on the campaign front and a renewed commitment to listening to the American people, Republicans are poised for a significant victory on November 2. With just days to go until Election Day, we are faced with a historic opportunity to take control of Congress away from Nancy Pelosi and put a stop to the Democrats’ reckless job-killing agenda. Republicans intend to seize this opportunity.

I’m glad to see the NRCC jumping into Ohio’s 6th district, but considering the recent revelations about the incumbent, this strikes me as almost beside the point:

Come on, NRCC. Charlie Wilson is the kind of rubber stamp that grabs his wife by the neck, throws her against the refrigerator, and kicks and punches her, leaving her in bruises.

UPDATE: Hmmm. From Cook Political Report:

OH-06

Charlie Wilson (D)

Toss Up. GOP Air Force veteran Bill Johnson is wisely avoiding Wilson’s two decade-old divorce file, and Wilson’s ex-wife’s detailed accusations of domestic violence are receiving little play back home in the district. Still, this race was extremely tight well before several conservative DC websites decided to air Wilson’s political dirty laundry. New GOP polling shows Wilson behind, and even Democratic polling shows the two-term incumbent in dismal shape, which explains the DCCC’s decision to buy ad time here for the first time last week.

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer wrote about the Charlie Wilson–Bill Johnson congressional race today. The big story? The DCCC buying ads.

No mention of Wilson’s divorce papers describing him grabbing his ex-wife by the neck, throwing her against a refrigerator, and leaving her covered in bruises.

There’s a sidebar to a column in the Youngstown Vindicator that discusses the race. No mention of the description of physical abuse.

National Journal’s Reid Wilson mentions the Wilson divorce papers, for a sentence as the third item in an article about races getting personal.

Again:

“Charles admits that early in the marriage he kicked and struck Plaintiff and accused her of adultery. Clara shall confirm the beatings, slappings, and kicking at the early stage of her marriage to the point where she was afraid to anger the Defendant and instead yielded to his demands . . .

He jumped out of his chair and grabbed her about the neck as he slammed her into the refrigerator. He then grabbed her about both arms, shaking her as they both went over to the kitchen counter which Mrs. Wilson struck with enough force to take the breath out of her. She then fell to the floor, hitting the bottom door to the sink. As she lay there stunned, she couldn’t move her head or pick up her arm.

Charles admits grabbing Plaintiff [his then-wife, Clara] by the arms and shaking her. He admits grabbing her around the neck with one hand. He admits bruising Plaintiff’s arms and neck.”

“Clara was taken to the East Ohio Regional Hospital by her son. She initially lied to the emergency room physician that she had fallen down stairs. The physician’s observation of a bruise on the back of the right shoulder was inconsistent with a fall down the stairs. He questioned her further and learned of her husband’s assault.”

How is this not news? How is this not something that the voters in this district should know about their congressman?

As far as I can tell, not one news entity in Ohio has picked up the story about revelations of spousal abuse by Rep. Charlie Wilson in his divorce papers.

Not a one.

In fact, the only news groups that have even mentioned the story are Townhall.com, our old friend David Freddoso in the Washington Examiner, and here and a few other blogs. Compare this to the Mark Foley scandal, which broke in late September 2006 and dominated the final month of the campaign.

We don’t have a news business. We have a narrative-reinforcement business, and they do a strikingly effective job of collectively averting their eyes from information that hurts their preferred cause. For Pete’s sake, this is wife-beating we’re talking about, and it is admitted in a public record. How is this not news? How is this not something that the voters in Ohio’s 6th congressional district ought to know about before they cast their vote?

A reader wondered yesterday whether there was something unseemly about citing Wilson’s divorce records, thinking back to the end of Jack Ryan’s campaign in the Illinois Senate race in 2004. I noted two distinct differences.

Jack Ryan’s divorce records were sealed, and the Chicago newspapers went to court to get them unsealed, a standard rarely if ever deployed by the media ever before or since. Jeri Ryan, an actress in the Star Trek series and elsewhere, divorced her husband relatively amicably; she wanted the records to remain sealed for the sake of their 9-year-old son.

This portion of Charlie Wilson’s divorce records is unsealed; they’ve been sitting in an Ohio courthouse for two decades. It’s rather striking that this is the first time anyone thought to look at them.

Secondly, I never quite understood what made Jack Ryan’s behavior so scandalous and made him unfit for the Senate. He took his wife to some kinky sex clubs, and she didn’t want to participate. They ended up not participating. Some might find his tastes in the bedroom unusual, weird, or even repugnant, but there was nothing non-consensual, forced, or criminal about this matter. If wanting to do that sort of thing to Jeri Ryan is a crime, I suspect you’ll have to lock up about two-thirds of Trekkies.

There is no disputing that grabbing your wife by the neck and throwing her against the refrigerator, punching and kicking her, and leaving her covered in bruises is a violent crime and a felony. The only reason Charlie Wilson never wore handcuffs was because his wife didn’t file charges.

This, in part, is what this election is about. The double standard is now so large you can’t get your head around it. We cannot have a healthy democracy where those whose job is to inform the public see their first duty as protecting the reputations of their preferred incumbents.

Earlier today, we urged you to help beat Charlie Wilson.

Here’s some new motivation, something you probably didn’t know about Congressman Charlie Wilson of Ohio:

“Charles admits that early in the marriage he kicked and struck Plaintiff and accused her of adultery. Clara shall confirm the beatings, slappings, and kicking at the early stage of her marriage to the point where she was afraid to anger the Defendant and instead yielded to his demands . . .

He jumped out of his chair and grabbed her about the neck as he slammed her into the refrigerator. He then grabbed her about both arms, shaking her as they both went over to the kitchen counter which Mrs. Wilson struck with enough force to take the breath out of her. She then fell to the floor, hitting the bottom door to the sink. As she lay there stunned, she couldn’t move her head or pick up her arm.

Charles admits grabbing Plaintiff [his then-wife, Clara] by the arms and shaking her. He admits grabbing her around the neck with one hand. He admits bruising Plaintiff’s arms and neck.”

“Clara was taken to the East Ohio Regional Hospital by her son. She initially lied to the emergency room physician that she had fallen down stairs. The physician’s observation of a bruise on the back of the right shoulder was inconsistent with a fall down the stairs. He questioned her further and learned of her husband’s assault.”

This is from a trial brief filed by Congressman Wilson’s former wife, Clara Wilson, prior to the formal divorce proceedings. The brief was filed November 9th, 1990.

There is no statute of limitations on public opinion.

Help Bill Johnson out.

UPDATE: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, yesterday: “House Republicans have recruited, endorsed and donated hefty sums of money to candidates with disturbing backgrounds, legal problems, and extreme views. What else don’t Republican Leaders know about their candidates?”

When you hear the name “Charlie Wilson,” you probably think of Tom Hanks drinking, carousing, and trying to fund the Afghans between hangovers.

But there’s another Charlie Wilson in Congress, a two-term Democratic incumbent who we wish had the charm and tough-on-communism instincts of the legendary Texas lawmaker. No, this Charlie Wilson, representing a district that runs along Ohio’s southeastern border, has a lifetime ACU rating of 12.67 and voted for the stimulus, card check, and Obamacare. And he’s done this in an R+2 district, no less.

This can be fixed. Bill Johnson is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and successful entrepreneur who has founded two companies.

He’s been endorsed by all the right folks — National Right to Life PAC, SarahPAC, and the now-infamous U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Help him out. And together, we can keep the name Charlie Wilson associated with proud, hard-drinking communist-haters.

UPDATE: Well, it turned out to be quite the bad day for Wilson. Read this.